Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech, Politics

“Fraught And Functionally Racist”: Professor Declares “Legal Vote” A Racist Term Like “Handouts,” “Personal Responsibility” And “Postracial”

We previously discussed the views of Boston University professor and head of the school’s Center for Antiracist Research Ibfram X. Kendi after his infamous description of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a “white colonizer” for adopting two Haitian children. Despite such extreme views, Kendi remains a popular speaker at universities like Harvard. Now, Kendi is warning that the use of “legal vote” in the current election is itself racist.

Kendi declared on Twitter that “The term ‘legal vote’ is as fictionally fraught and functionally racist as the terms ‘illegal alien’ and ‘race neutral’ and ‘welfare queen” and ‘handouts’ and ‘super predator’ and ‘crackbaby’ and ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘post racial.’”

Many academic have used terms like “postracial” but the list of newly declared racist or “microaggressive” terms have been expanding at universities to combat racism, classism, fatphobia, sexism, transphobia, “othering” and other problems. As I have previously written, there are real issues and valid concerns with language and the need for greater sensitivity. I have tailored my own language after reading some of those concerns. However, the list of suspect or prohibited terms seems to be expanding exponentially. There are also issues of free speech raised by these lists and the chilling effect on discourse. Terms ranging from “melting pot” to phrases like “pulling oneself up by your own bootstraps” have been declared racist.  While professors have made overtly racist statements about whites (including colleagues of Kendi at Boston University), the line of what is acceptable speech for faculty is getting more and more difficult to ascertain. Indeed, Kendi followed his declaration with “There are so many more terms like this. What did I leave out?”

Under Kendi’s new additions, it is not clear if a professor would be summarily dismissed for passing around a “handout” on the “personal responsibility” to cast your “legal vote.”

Professor Kendi explained “The misinformation of widespread voter fraud—or ‘illegal voting’—in Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix where Black and Brown voters predominate is baked into the term ‘legal vote.” No matter what GOP propaganda says, there’s nothing wrong with those voters and votes.”

I have no problem with Kendi striking out at what he sees as misinformation. As I have repeatedly said, there is still no evidence of systemic voting fraud. There is evidence (in the form of sworn affidavits of localized voting fraud and officials in states like Georgia have stated that they expect to find more such evidence (though they questioned whether it will be enough to make any real difference).  However, illegal voting is still a crime.  Cities like Detroit and Philadelphia have had prior histories of voting irregularities and fraud.  So has my home town Chicago where one were guaranteed under the Daley machine a type of electoral immorality.  If any inquiry into illegal voting is racist, it is not clear what we are supposed to do with our election laws.  Illegal voting is a simple descriptive term on the status of a vote as improperly cast.

The doctrine of “one man, one vote” is actually a civil rights mantra found not only in constitutional law but political movements (like this Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee button). It is the doctrine embraced in a long series of court cases. See Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368 (1963); Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964); Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964); and Avery v. Midland County, 390 U.S. 474 (1968).

The declaration of illegal votes as racist is clearly meant to paint anyone considering the current challenges as themselves racist, even before these claims are fully addressed in the courts. Yet, such challenges often are filed to protect minority votes. In the 2004 election, I was working for CBS and raised whether there should be challenges in Ohio over voter suppression and irregularities targeting minority areas in the Bush/Kerry race.  The very heart of our civil rights and voting rights laws is found in our political system and the integrity of our elections. Illegal voting diminishes the voice of all Americans, including minority voters.

I remain unclear why there is such a wholesale effort to shutdown these challenges. Within 24 hours of the election, legal analysts and the media were declaring no evidence of fraud before we even saw a single court challenge. Now even the reference to “legal votes” or “illegal votes” is being declared racist. I have no reason to doubt that Biden is our president-elect. However, we have the time to address these challenges and assure all Americans that the election was legitimate. Almost half of this country voted for Trump. Those roughly 71 millions voters should feel that these challenges were given a fair hearing. It is the same assurance that Democrats have demanded in prior elections. Indeed, Democratic leaders declared before this election that Trump could not win by stealing votes and Hillary Clinton told Biden not to concede under any circumstances.

So let’s count the votes and conclude this election.

153 thoughts on ““Fraught And Functionally Racist”: Professor Declares “Legal Vote” A Racist Term Like “Handouts,” “Personal Responsibility” And “Postracial””

    1. I deal with them at the university….in academic and clinical medicine. Its our new normal..

      1. Estovir: “I deal with them at the university….in academic and clinical medicine.”

        Years ago, when those toxic ideas spread throughout the liberal arts and social sciences, we were told that they would never infect the sciences — that science has an inbuilt immunity: fidelity to the truth. What they did not grasp — and, unfortunately, what you are experiencing — is that bad ideas drive out good.

  3. If the comments here indicate Turley’s audience he won’t even be on Fox much longer. The dead-enders prefer youtube and wherever Alex Jones is these days.

  4. What Professor Irwin Corey…er, I mean Professor Kendi is saying is just a word salad of the type that keeps “professors” that have no skills employed in todays universities. These Gender Studies or Black Studies or Woman’s Studies or Latino Studies folks are teaching NOTHING. Guys like Kendi are making a ton of cash by preaching to the woke choir of guilty liberals and minorities sitting in class looking for affirmation.

  5. It’s very difficult to believe that some of you guys are still clinging to your fantasy that Biden won. At what age did you finally accept that Santa Claus isn’t real??

    1. Anonymous, well…where is the evidence that the fraud that is being claimed was committed. To date not a single allegation has turned out to be true. It seems you’re the one clinging to a fantasy.

      1. Svelaz, these are the same people who refuse to read any reputable news sources and so fully expected and predicted a big Trump win, here and elsewhere. If you get all your news from Facebook, youtube, and The Daily Caller, you don’t know WTF is going on, but you sure think it’s what you want to hear.

        This is just a continuation of the many predictions here of a Trump win, almost always done with supreme confidence, and as if that was a winning point in a whatever the argument was. Most of those people disappeared for a week – see mespo, and art deco – until they could face the world again – others changed their name – Kurtz is hiding out as some Kmer jerk and posting disordered rants – and who knows who else with new names they can hide out with. At least this time, when they are completely embarrassed again, we won’t remember their names as they disappear.

        But hey, since they may never come back when this over over, bye Art Deco and mespo. It’s been fun teeing off on you. Next time, make it harder, no matter what name you choose.

        1. Joe Friday, I agree. It seems the need to desperately hang on to rotted out conspiracy theories is having a poor effect on their mental health.

          It’s just one conspiracy theory being concocted after another when the latter doesn’t pan out. This is a sickness in itself. One can’t grapple with reality and instead chooses to create new ones in order to avoid facing an uncomfortable truth.

        2. Svelaz, these are the same people who refuse to read any reputable news sources

          Your problem here is your illusion that what the Sulzbergers have made of The Times since 1986 allows it to be classified as ‘reputable’.

      2. LOLOL Assuming that you simply refuse to use your common sense and basic math skills, here is a video by an MIT professor…by the way, these videos are popping up daily, and they all illustrate the absurdity of the final numbers…which shows that fraud clearly took place.
        If you close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears, it might be easier. Your choice…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztu5Y5obWPk

        At some point in time, reality will set in…

        Biden lost, and he lost huge.

        1. Ah, youtube! Must be true!

          Indeed, videos are “popping up daily”. Can’t wait for your retraction later, loser.

          OK, well we both know that won’t happen. I promise, if you are right, I will come back here and post “I was wrong” but I won’t hold my breath for any of you losers, or we’d have seen it. Besides you admire the king of losers, Donald Trump, and his ball less hiding under the bed.

          1. “Ah, youtube! Must be true!”

            It’s an MIT professor doing mathematical analysis. It’s posted on numerous forums, including MIT’s own. If you choose to dismiss it because it is on youtube, that is your choice, and I respect your right to choose.

            :o)

              1. Thanks Commit. Here is more evidence that there was in fact voter fraud at the Detroit Vote Counting Center TCF

                Republican Lawyer KICKED OUT of Detroit Vote Counting Center TCF/Cobo Hall

                2. By the way fake Svelaz. Getting kicked out of the center is not voter fraud. It’s just getting kicked out. You forgot to mention that there were already GOP observers. The lawyer was not authorized to be there, hence the removal.

                3. Someone being escorted out isn’t evidence of voter fraud, and the video doesn’t actually have enough information for us to know why the person was asked to leave and whether it was legal.

                  1. “. . . the video doesn’t actually have enough information . . .”

                    You mean a snippet from a video might not provide the entire story? Too bad more people don’t believe that. Mass destruction could have been avoided.

  6. Again, Kendi is a clown of no intrinsic consequence. What he is is an indicator of faculty corruption. From the three characters who signed his dissertation to the department, instructional dean, and provost who approved his most recent hire, we have academics pretending he’s a scholar, even though the junk he produces is something to which they wouldn’t give a second look were it to come out of the pen of a white man peddling white chauvinism. You have lived and worked among such people for over 30 years, Prof. Turley. Try getting an honest explanation out of any one of them. You will not succeed.

  7. Ibfram X. Kendi , with all due respect , is a complete and utter nutcase, as they say in the UK. Unfortunately our Professor even is willing to give him some credence. A “spade should be called a spade”. I should be allowed to use the English language in any way I see fit. The only exception being calls for violent actions.

    1. He’s either quite self-aware and playing an amusing game with his public or he’s so disoriented by unearned praise that he has no clue. I think the latter is more likely than the former.

      You see this again and again – either rank-and-file academics trying to make it at an institution where they’re a bad fit (because they don’t have it in them to produce research in sufficient quantity for that particular institution) – or people who have been passed through graduate school and hired by institutions but have no clue of what professional and academic research looks like. The grossest example I’ve encountered was an education professor billed as a ‘curriculum theorist’. She actually wrote nothing which could be called ‘theory’ nor did she write anything about curriculum. She’d stand up in front of an audience or write articles for student publications in which it would occur to you that her understanding of what professors do was to assemble strings of jargon. Her previous occupation was as a TV newscaster. She contended she wasn’t getting enough air time because of ‘racism’. You heard a lecture by her and one thing you realized was that her elocution stinks and when her voice is stewed through amplifying devices it takes some effort to make out one word from another. Did anyone tell her this, and would she have listened had they done so. She was granted tenure by the teacher training faculty at Miami University in Ohio, supposedly Ohio’s most selective public institution.

  8. “So let’s count the votes and conclude this election.”

    Agreed.

    And let’s also agree that just because one side lost (in an ever growing count) doesn’t constitute potential fraud. Let’s count votes, all of them. Let’s be thankful for mail in voting, it provides a paper trail — a positive step going forward. Let;s agree that though you may like him, the orange man is indeed bad, awful in fact. He’s the single biggest obstacle to this nation getting control of Covid. He was impeached before clearly losing this election in both popular vote and the EC. Time to realize the Kobach commission was correct when it disbanded to lack of evidence of systemic voter fraud. And let’s put Spanky in the rear view and let him get his defense together for his upcoming trials in NY state.

    1. Bug, there is so much wrong in your comment that it is hard to know where to begin:

      Mail in voting leaves a paper trail? What if that trail is corrupted?

      “Orange Man” is the biggest obstacle to getting control of covid? Really? I guess the states that are obligated to “police” issues like this are now absolved of any duty? I guess Europe is now under Trump’s domain? I guess Cuomo did a fine job? Silly, just silly.

      He was impeached? Another plainly moronic comment given the insanity of the House.

      1. Yes, Hullbobby, Donald Trump was impeached. Hate to break it to you.

        And yes, Trump is the single biggest obstacle to containing Covid. Again, repetition of your wrongness doesn’t make it so. Cuomo has done an infinitely better job than Trump at navigating Covid.

        And the mail in paper trail being “corrupted”??? Let’s start with actual proof of that, shall we?

  9. Oh geez, Turley is getting more obtuse by the day. He’s a lawyer, supposedly a good one, but his articles don’t lend credibility to that fanciful notion.

    Every single allegation of voter fraud by Trump’s campaign has been tossed out by the courts. The latest, the “whistleblower” from the USPS recanted his claim of witnessing voter fraud. Turns out he’s had multiple disciplinary problems in the past.

    Turley’s “lawyerly” instinct should be telling him these claims are fruitless endeavors. He’s one stupid comment away from being just another Rudy Giuliani. Turley bend over backwards talking about proof when it came to the Russia investigations, but he never went out of his way to say congress had every right to investigate. He derided the effort instead. This is why his defense of Trump’s pathetic attempts to hold on to power look ridiculous.

    1. Oh geez, Turley is getting more obtuse by the day.

      Waal, you know, Peter. We often don’t see ourselves as others do.

      1. Peter doesn’t write that well. More likely CTHD / Anon / Bythebook using Svelaz because its part of their shell game

        1. Yeah, it can’t possibly be that we’re all different people, and that’s Svelaz, not being “used” by anyone else. /s

        2. Estovir, I am more than happy to stick with one name and I guess the same is true for Peter. Unlike our rightwing commentators, we are constantly dodging getting thrown off the board by our supposedly “internet originalist” board authorities.

      2. Art Deco x3,

        When Turley says, “ I remain unclear why there is such a wholesale effort to shutdown these challenges. Within 24 hours of the election, legal analysts and the media were declaring no evidence of fraud before we even saw a single court challenge.”

        Clearly he’s being stupidly obtuse. Every challenge has been thrown out of court because they have not been able to show any evidence. None. Turley is supposedly a smart lawyer. By now he should know that the overall premise of these challenges are baseless attempts at sowing doubt. This is why you have incompetent lawyers trying to push these “challenges”. The competent ones know better than to try these stupid evidenceless allegations.

  10. Not only is it obvious that rampant voter fraud did in fact take place, and that Donald Trump easily won this election…but it is slowly becoming apparent that the Democrat Party is in the process of burning itself to the ground. This was a massively coordinated effort across multiple states to steal a national election, and it will not be possible for prominent democrats to distance themselves from this criminality.

    1. Anonymous says, “ Not only is it obvious that rampant voter fraud did in fact take place, and that Donald Trump easily won this election…”

      If it’s so obvious…where’s the evidence? Trump and his supporters keep saying there’s evidence, but they can’t seem to show us this evidence they speak of. They have even admitted in court that they don’t have any and just yesterday a “witness” to fraud recanted his claim.

      Allegations are not evidence. Remember, the Russia investigations were based on the same level of allegations, right? Republicans and the president said there was no proof, but now you can say with a straight face that these “allegations “ are…evidence? What a laughable load of BS.

    2. It isn’t “obvious that rampant voter fraud did in fact take place,” and it likely isn’t true.

      Trump has so far been unable to present any evidence of fraud in any of his multiple lawsuits. The judge in the PA case yesterday asked Trump’s lawyer point-blank whether he was “claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots,” and the lawyer said “To my knowledge at present, no.” (see page 11 of the court transcript: https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/Transcript.pdf )

      Just what evidence of fraud do you have? You need to prove it with evidence.

      1. “Just what evidence of fraud do you have? You need to prove it with evidence.”

        No, I don’t need to prove anything, because believing in Santa Clause is your choice. I honestly don’t care, in fact, I support your right to choose. Ho Ho Ho!

        However, I’ll say this. Hillary Clinton’s numbers from 2016 were better than Joe Biden’s numbers across the board EXCEPT in a handful of blue counties in a handful of swing states. In these handful of blue counties, Biden’s numbers dwarfed Clinton numbers. And you guys don’t find this suspicious??? Amazing…truly amazing.

        For me, it is simply not believable. In fact, it’s laughably absurd. And I’m just a regular guy, with a high school education. Therefore I know there are people much smarter than me who see right through this fraud.

        Like this guy…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkVzdVoWe4

        It’s going to suck when you discover that Santa isn’t real.

        1. Evidence, Smevidence! Ignore the man behind the curtain!!!

          “Reports Of Election Fraud Keep Piling Up In Michigan. What’s Going On?”

          It appears that Democrats in Detroit, a city with a long history of election fraud, are tampering with absentee ballots and breaking state law.

          As absentee ballot counting continues in a handful of key states across the country, reports of voter fraud, ballot tampering, and the illegal removal of Republican election observers are cropping up in Michigan, especially in Detroit, a Democratic stronghold which has a long history of voter fraud.

          On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced it was filing a lawsuit in Michigan over what it claims are systematic efforts to prevent Republican election observers from monitoring the ballot counting process as allowed under state law.

          The lawsuit comes as video clips continue to surface on social media showing election officials denying access to authorized GOP poll watchers.

          Washington Post

          1. “It appears that Democrats in Detroit, a city with a long history of election fraud, are tampering with absentee ballots and breaking state law.”

            Yep. It does.

          2. You’re lying that that’s from the Washington Post. It’s from the Federalist:
            thefederalist.com/2020/11/05/reports-of-election-fraud-keep-piling-up-in-michigan-whats-going-on/

            It’s from Nov. 5, and the Wednesday lawsuit it refers to has already been rejected by the court. The Trump Campaign filed another lawsuit in MI yesterday, but I doubt they’ll be any more successful.

        2. If you don’t have evidence, there’s no reason to take your claims seriously.

        3. Anonymous, Biden’s numbers were better than Hillary’s across most of the country, save a few outliers.

          Additionally, as elsewhere, Biden’s numbers in Pennsylvania were in most counties, red and blue, 3-4% better than hers, including Pittsburgh, but not Philadelphia where he was down 3.5%. Since that is supposedly where the hanky panky was that Trumpsters allege, how did that work? You get that isn’t how ballot stuffing would work, right?

  11. The Daily Distraction from Turley, now counselor to the Loser Nation.

    Meanwhile, Biden is now up by 5 million (and expected to reach 7 million votes) and has lapped Trump’s 2016 margins in the the 3 rust belt battlefields, and did you hear, won Georgia, the 1st Democrat to do so in 28 years?

    His national percentage and vote margin is the largest over an incumbent since FDR beat Hoover in 1932, and that includes Reagan over Carter.

    72% of Americans agree Trump is the Loser, and most of the rest know it too, but just won’t admit it. The deadenders all congregate on Turley’s blog.

    Good times!

    1. LOL Joe, you need to start getting accustomed to the fact that Biden is not going to be president. Not only did he not win, he lost huge.
      For those paying attention, the truth is getting out, the fraud is real and well-documented, and Trump is once again dunking in your face.

      1. For those paying attention, Trump has so far lost all of his election-related court cases. He’s 0 for 12. You call that “dunking”?

  12. It’s being reported there are now some 11,000 allegations, soon to be sworn affidavits, of voter fraud nationwide. At what point do we label it “systemic”?

    If this is allowed to go forward Americans will never again trust another election; worse, they will forfeit the ability to ever again challenge political authority via the ballot box.

    1. We agree, betu, if this Republican loser BS continues, Americans – many of them – will never again trust another election they lose. Why should they when they can claim cheating. Are you also challenging the winning Republicans, many of whom were elected with the same group of ballots?

      Perhaps you missed 2016, but Hillary lost the same 3 upper midwest states that are costing Trump the election and with much closer margins. The next day she conceded and wished Trump well, and in what must have been an excruciating experience, attended the inauguration to show her support for our government. She had balls and principles and Trump has neither.

      Biden welcomed Pence into his home within a few days, Michelle had Melania over for tea, and all necessary transition actions were taken by the Obama administration. Apparently modern Republicans have no morals, are poor losers, and don’t GAF about the country if they can’t run it. Prove I’m wrong!

        1. John, it’s almost beyond belief that democrats actually thought they’d get away with this. As evidence accumulates, the clumsiness of their fraud becomes more apparent.

          I don’t know whether to be more offended that they tried to steal a presidential election, or that they thought I was stupid enough to believe this charade.

          1. He was a Republican candidate who lost in the MA primary. He has previously lied about election fraud:
            https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9472752830

            So why do you trust him?

            I’m not going to take over an hour of my time to watch his video and see whether his claims are accurate or not. If he wants to make an argument, let him write an article about it. If he has a valid point, let him be questioned about it under oath.

            1. Who said anything about trust? I believe I said “…something seems fishy”. I watched the video and thought that he made some interesting points about a specific phenomena he noticed when his team analyzed the Michigan election results. His political orientation and your claim that he lied previously about election fraud have no bearing on whether the claims he made in the video are true or not.

              1. Whether he’s trustworthy has a bearing on whether I’ll spend an hour listening to his argument. His Wikipedia page includes references about other dishonesty and conspiracy peddling on his end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Ayyadurai

                If he has actual evidence, he should turn it in to the authorities and/or sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury.

    2. “If this is allowed to go forward”

      It won’t. Trump anticipated it, a big trap was set, and these fools walked right into it.

      Get a bag of popcorn and enjoy, it’s going to be fun.

    3. Betuadollar, there’s always going to be allegations. All based on hearsay. The big problem? Hard evidence that a court can use to ascertain that the allegations are true. No evidence has been presented. In fact the lack of evidence is more of a confirmation that voter fraud is not as rampant or a major issue as has been noted in the past and by Trump’s own voter fraud commission.

  14. Progress comes slowly, by degrees. Glad to know that JT is making an effort.

  16. Straight out of Orwell’s 1984. We have entered “ The Twilight Zone “ in recent history. If all lines of law and order, right and wrong are blurred it is easier to control and discredit us. Marxist ideology removes freedom of thought or speech. We have slid down a slippery slope. How far do we go until Freedom no longer exists?

    1. You don’t care about freedom Phyllis, you care about Trump.

      Wake up. He lost. He’s not coming back and truth be told, the only freedom he cared about was his to avoid paying his taxes.

  17. This video explains how vote machine fraud takes place and how millions of votes can be manipulated.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ficae6x1Q5A

    Here’s a screenshot from the video that shows 560 votes were switched from the Republican candidate to the Democrat.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZeeSBwPmTwmW-7X8gNI2jzi8RjOuFXj7/view?usp=sharing

    Vote switching is one of a myriad of ways vote machine fraud takes place.

  20. Hello all.

    Please google “cia hammer and scorecard”.

    Quite some implications for the entire world.

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