Gonzaga University School of Law Visiting Law Professor Jeffrey Omari has written a column in the ABA Journal that demonstrates the increasingly shrill environment faced by conservative students. Omari took to the pages of the Journal to recount his almost breathless encounter with a student wearing a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat. Most of us are used to students wearing political hats and teeshirts. I am always happy to see students with such clothing because it shows that they are engaged and passionate regardless of their views. For Omari, the incident was chilling since he declares the MAGA hats worn by many conservatives to be per se racist symbols.
Omari insisted that anyone wearing the hats are advancing “racial antagonism” since they are an “undeniable symbol of white supremacy”:
“From my (progressive) perspective as a black man living in the increasingly polarized political climate that is America, MAGA is an undeniable symbol of white supremacy and hatred toward certain nonwhite groups.”
The hats are the campaign symbol of Donald Trump and many support his policies. Yet, Omari insists “For its supporters, MAGA indexes an effort to return to a time in American history when this country was “great” for some—particularly, propertied white men—but brutally exclusionary for others, most notably women and people of color.” So Trump supporters want to return to a time of brutal suppression of women and people of color?
Omari goes on to describe how he responded, as if a live cougar was thrown into a closed space:
As my blood boiled inwardly, outwardly I remained calm. In an effort to assuage the perceived tension, I jokingly told the student, “I like your hat,” when he raised his hand to participate in class discussion. Without missing a beat, the student mockingly grinned from ear to ear and said, “Thank you.”
. . .
With this scholarship in mind, I understood why no one else in this particular class—in which whites outnumbered students of color 20 to three (with me, the instructor, being the lone African American)—seemed as vexed as I was. Indeed, in a class with such racial uniformity, it appeared frivolous to rely on students to speak up on my behalf, as one of my associates suggested. An informal survey of my colleagues revealed that no other law faculty had experienced any students wearing such propaganda in their classes, which furthered my contention that this student was indeed trying to intimidate and/or racially antagonize me.
It is interesting how Omari’s statement about “liking your hat” was not mocking but the student’s response of “thank you” was mocking. It was also insulting to say that, because the fact that the other students were white, it was “frivolous to rely on students to speak up on [his] behalf.” It was frivolous not because of race but because his point was frivolous. The mere fact that some kid wears a MAGA hat does not mean that he is a racist or that he is trying to racially intimidate an African-American professor.
Omari simply concludes that the hat was by definition improper and inciting but that he would receive no support given his position and race:
But when students fail to live up to such professional expectations, what are the professors’ options? Although my position is at a private university, I understood that my lack of tenure, precarious status as a VAP and the hue of my skin meant that I would be fighting an uphill battle should I have asked the student to remove his distracting red hat during class. Surely, there must be protocol when African-American professors—whose presence is scarce in most law schools—find their authority defiantly undermined by an insensitive student.
Of course, it would have been an “uphill battle” to ask for the removal of the hat unless he was asking for the removal of all hats and clothing of all political viewpoints from Antifa hats to pro-choice hats to NRA hats. Omari assumed that the interpretation of the hat (which is not shared by many) was manifestly true. This is part of the trend that we have discussed on campuses where speech is being curtailed as racist or microaggressive based on how it is perceived by others as opposed to how it is intended. In this case, the hat has different meaning to different people. Yet, Omari believes that it should have been barred from the classroom.
Nevertheless, The ABA Journal thought that this harrowing encounter with a MAGA hat in a class warranted publication. Why?
Omari has a dirty mind. He can’t appreciate that MAGA means Make America Great Again and has to dirty things up by placing his own bigoted beliefs onto benign clothing.
I wonder if every night Omari checks for a MAGA hat under his bed.
MAGA
The so called left has jumped the shark.
No one was more racist than Hillary and she has the body count to prove it.
And they wonder why Trump won
Sanders would have won and easily.Cant have that.
Natacha, You keep presenting the same tired false arguments. Here’s just one refuted.
Former President Barack Obama’s secretary of homeland security said the practice of putting migrants in cages after being detained by authorities did not start when Donald Trump became president.
“Chain link barriers, partitions, fences, cages, whatever you want to call them, were not invented on January 20, 2017, okay?” Jeh Johnson said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last Friday.
“But during that 72-hour period, when you have something that is a multiple — like four times — of what you’re accustomed to in the existing infrastructure, you’ve got to find places quickly to put kids. You can’t just dump 7-year-old kids on the streets of McAllen or El Paso,” he continued. “And so these facilities were erected … they put those chain link partitions up so you could segregate young women from young men, kids from adults, until they were either released or transferred to HHS.”
Johnson also said that whatever the need Congress provided it. They sure hasn’t happened for the current Administration with epic numbers of people arriving. It would be nice if you could tell the truth now that you have seen the facts like Jeh Johnson did.
they only care because Trump did it.
You cant expect consistency from people who have no ethics and even fewer principles.
Barack’s ICE chief: Cages were Obama’s idea
“I’ve been to that facility, where they talk about cages. That facility was built under President Obama under (Homeland Security) Secretary Jeh Johnson. I was there because I was there when it was built,” said Thomas Homan, who was Obama’s executive associate director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly four years.
Homan, at the conference hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “I would answer the question, ‘The kids are being house in the same facility built under the Obama administration.’ If you want to call them cages, call them cages. But if the left wants to call them cages and the Democrats want to call them cages then they have to accept the fact that they were built and funded in FY 2015.”
He said that the Border Patrol facilities where all illegals are initially kept “were not built to take care of children.” In fact, the recent surge of younger illegal immigrants is a new trend.
He said that there are no cages but chain-link fencing that separates kids from adults, done for safety. “It’s chain link dividers that keeps children separate from unrelated adults. It’s about protecting children,” he said.
What’s more, he said that it is only a holding facility until another agency that is part of Health and Human Services can collect them. But, he said, Congress hasn’t adequately funded HHS.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/baracks-ice-chief-cages-were-obamas-idea
Because they care….
If Omari is o’righty, then Omari claims also that every person of color who wears such hat is a self-hater.
Did you REALIZE that HAT + E = HATE? DID YOU REALIZE THAT?
Because….RAYcis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
, When did the Lefties start to feel so indignant? Was that BEFORE or AFTER they all wore T-shirts with Mao(one of the world’s WORST MASS MURDERERS, or the Che T-Shirts, as they were praising Communists? What a bunch of Hypocrites, whose motto is Always: “DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO”……….Sorry That’s just NOT good enough as WE feel proud of This Republic and Our POTUS, as we ALL try to make America Great and KNOW Trump Kept HIS PROMISES. Not you Commies and Socialists who Hate America. Get a Life, and don’t let some Hat Melt down your Two Brain Cells, like Omar, with that rag on her head!
A MAGA hat isn’t just a symbol of White Supremacy–it is a symbol of every bad thing Trump stands for, which includes misogyny, bragging about assaulting women, caging young children to punish their parents for seeking asylum, which is a human rights violation, xenophobia and also racism. it is intended as an “in-your-face” statement of support for the deeply flawed occupant of the White House.
As I’ve said before, the issues with Trump aren’t political–it is his intellectual, moral and emotional unfitness for office, so a MAGA hat is not a political statement, and isn’t intended to be one by the wearers. We all know that. It is the moral equivalent to wearing a swastika, which, of course, anyone has the right to do, but they also know it is likely to start trouble.
Caged children’s photos was taken in 2014 FACKT
Exactly!
Obama built those cages and deported more illegal than any other president.
Obama and Hillary even helped create the crisis in S America with free trade deals Hillary pushed……that Obama ran against ,Sanctions that murdered 40,000 people in Venezuela and death squads in Honduras to overthrow a democratically elected president because he wanted to raise the wages by 15 cents.
Democrats ignored all of that.
But thats not racism ?
Natacha,
The best thing about the groups you & others support is you all drive most Americans away from you with your Racist, American hating Commie/Fascist Totalitarian crap
I doing so this piece crap , Omari, will likely do the same as other like minded nut jobs & drive away students, businesses, customers & future employers away.
Basically cutting your own throats, like the NFL business down 40% after Peckerhead, or like the jackasses at Hampshire College pulling down the US flag.
Hampshire’s actions cause a near complete collapse in incoming freshman coming in, down to just 15!!!!
Another great thing about Hampshire, one of the alumni, Ken Burns, has exposed his Commie/Fascist beliefs to many more people, which inturn calls in to question all his works as propaganda trash mixed in with part of his biased slant on history.
Ken Burns could have been great, but sold out, I noticed years ago.
Translation: “I’m still butt hurt my deep state gal Hitlery lost. And there’s still no treatment works for my TDS…” There, FIFY.
The US promised to let Ghadaffi live, in exchange for millions of dollars in restitution for shooting down a civilian jet. Then Hitlery’s CIA paid and armed so-called “moderate” Islamics to behead and anal rape Ghadaffi (and you wonder why NK and Iran need nuclear weapons?). Since then, downtown Tripoli has open human slave trade markets.
Are you in the human slave trade market yourself? Is that why you bought stock in Hitlery?
I can always tell Hannity viewers because they always respond to valid Trump criticism the same way: “you’re just pissed off because Hillary lost”. Well, Hillary actually won the popular vote. She was the choice of most Americans, and Trump has never come close to 50% approval rating and never will. It doesn’t matter that Obama temporarily detained migrants or deported them. He never held them for months and separated children from their parents, even children who have legal relatives in the US. Nothing Obama did or didn’t do excuses Trump. He wasn’t a fundamentally immoral man who bragged about assaulting women, either, and didn’t hang out with perverts like Epstein.
No, Obama was far worse — he hung out with domestic terrorists and America haters.
Said by?
My guess would be Allan, Estovir or Mr Kurtz.
Bill Clinton was a rapist and worse.
Obama put kids into cages and started more wars then Bush and genocide in Yemen
Obama pushed the TPP with Republicans that allowed corporation to sue the US government over labor and environmental laws and brought Slavery back
Ironically it was Obama and Hillary who supported NAZIS in the Ukraine to over throw a democratically elected president and used death squads to do the same to Honduras.
Obama and Hillary decimated the black Community more than any republicans ever….Clinton pushed the crime bill that put more people into prison than Russia or China and called Black kids super predators….
Obama allowed the criminal banks to steal Homes and equity in the black community
You want REAL racism?Take a good look at your self.
And you whine about a HAT!
“A MAGA hat isn’t just a symbol of White Supremacy…”
A MAGA hat is a symbol that rejects stupidity
If true, you’d be hatless.
So far no one has accused you of saying anything on this blog that was intelligent. You sound like an anti-American school drop out.
The only reason for asking him to remove his hat is because it is generally considered bad manners for a man to wear a hat inside, whatever is on it–at least it used to be when they were allowed to have manners without worrying whether someone might be offended. But just MAGA hats–NO. Even if it meant what the professor seems to think, and I certainly don’t think it does, it would still be free speech.
Law professor Jeffrey Omari,
Hand over your law degree & get the phk out!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/were-not-womens-soccer-were-not-the-nfl-hockey-coach-tells-player-if-they-disrespect-the-anthem-get-the-fck-out/
the funny think is how many white partners in big law throw a few dimes at race hustlin frauds like Omari to run their mouths and create the appearance of divershity.
it’s a fraud on the suckers who buy it. students, mostly.
the only diversity at the top is diverse locations for their mansions.
all big money opprortunities in law are divided into 2 categories
a) patronage
b) workhorses
among the patronage, only those will prosper who show sufficient workhorse capabilities in their own right, and sufficent sucking up to the existing higher ups
among the workhorses, it’s all about the long hours and super sucking up. there’s a lot of competetion in that department but they’ve usually got the ability to suck a golfball through a garden hose once they’ve made it through law school
i was just a nobody, never on the radar screen…. not much of a hard worker unless I liked the cause or until the cash is on the barrel. then i can do my thing. i dont go in for vain promises however and that’s what the best slots require you to believe in.
for the average law student, the hope of big money slots is about like a kid in the ghetto hoping for the NBA one day. sure, it happens, however rarely
used to be lawyers in federal court a lot would subscribe to the aba for the legal content in spite of the garbage
those days are over. aba is barely solvent. soaking the remaining members for dues. its days are numbered.
soros picking up the tab now?
more stinking dreck from the aba rag
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/can-racist-algorithms-be-fixed
I never paid the ABA one red cent. Any lawyer who does is a fool.
I did used to post on their comments site; but they took it down. Too many complaints from lawyers!
They’re a self promoting fraud of an organization.
Evidence……evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence!
I wonder how Professor Amari would feel if someone claimed that a BLM hat was undeniably black supremacy?
He wouldn’t………and would whine and cry about it.
We have a guy at a nearby college who teaches art. He is a muslim and quite white looking guy about 35 years old who grew up in Cairo Egypt. He is now an American citizen. He calls himself an African American. Folks ask how is that? He says that Egypt is part of the continent of Africa. I looked on the globe and he is correct. He gets yelled at for adopting that name tag.
All 4 of my grandparents grew up in Russia. I tell people I am Asian-American. It confuses the heck out of the Chinese
I had a hottie working for me like that. She was part French, part Greek, and part Egyptian. Gorgeous black curls and a figure like Salome.
Had to kick her to the curb however, since she was a weak earner. The preferred color here for workers is GREEN
I have a friend from South Africa, (white) who feels the same. In his case, his countrymen transplanted here who are descendants of blacks can call themselves African Americans, but he cannot. Absurd!
If the guy said “South African American” then I would understand. Blazzing Saddles will be on TV soon. Watch it. It has a good catch phrase. Where da…
Another six-figure paid faux victim, playing victim to appeal to even more faux victims by validating their supposed victimhood. See a verbal trend here? Note to Professor Jeffrey Omari: nobody owes you anything especially deference to your views on fashion or politics.Who needs an anthropologist at a law school? Short answer: no one.
“UnMake Dumb America” is the name I am putting on a hat. And wearing it on my visit to Gonzaga. America is dumb if it concludes that making America great again is some racial slogan of some sort. The nut who objects needs to be sent to Afghanistan as a marine.
The VAP is racist in views if he takes exception to valid political rhetoric.
This Nation was founded on numerous political debates held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Where would our Nation be if we had quashed those debates in 1775 and 1776…..? Was the three-cornered hat back then the forerunner of the MAGA hat today.?
One other point …. I am an Army veteran of 24 years.
The word or phrase I ABSOLUTELY HATE and ABSOLUTELY DETEST is when Blacks or African Americans start “segregating” themselves from American society by calling themselves “people of color” …. White (or Caucasian) is a color.. Funny, I never hear blacks or African Americans refer to American Indians ( formerly called “the Red Man”) as a person of color … nor do African Americans call Japanese or Chinese people of color because their skin is somewhat yellower.
Every time I hear a black or African American state they are a person of color I CRINGE.
I said I served 24 years in the Army. I did not wake up every morning and say before I started my daily physical fitness regimen… I’m only going to protect white people today, no protection for those “of color”. Had I done that especially if I had enunciated it verbally to my military peers, I would have been driven out of the Army rapidly.
I served and protected everyone in the USA … heck even those here illegally.
We, as a Nation, need to start calling ourselves ONE THING … We are AMERICANS … not white Americans, not black Americans etc etc.
DROP THE BLEEPIN ADJECTIVES and our Nation would be 1000% BETTER OFF.
You are not a victim get over yourself.
Young conservatives are so underrepresented and silenced by the censorship machine the far left has become. If their words don’t scare you off campus then they resort to violence, milkshake throwing as it were has become a normalized practice in Britain. It is a dangerous time to come out of the closet as a conservative-leaning individual.
amanda,
I’ll give you the same advice the Godfather Marlon Brando gave James Caan, Sonny, after meeting with the Turk
Never tell them what you’re thinking!
Why, you ask Mr. Turley. Well the answer is quite obvious in that the ABA, and journalists in general, are insufferable liberal fools. But they do have some redeeming value in the entertainment they provide in their efforts to prove my point.
Went to Gonzaga more than 40 years ago when it was a third rate Jesuit liberal arts school with modest pretentions.
Little has changed except that that the Pinkos have taken over and the pretentions have grown.
They hired that Fascist from the University of Missouri (the one calling for muscle to throw out reporters).
Sounds like Prof. Omari is in the right place.
Reached a point in life where I can afford to give; Gonzaga is not on the list.