We recently discussed the impeachment of students for espousing support for police or opposing views on police abuse or racial reforms. Now University of North Carolina law student Sagar Sharma, who is a student of color, has faced a recall election as the first-year class co-president for simply stating that he did not consider an argument between two fellow students to be racist. This follows another incident triggered by a converation touching on race. Two Georgetown professors were recently forced out of the faculty over a conversation on the performance of African American students in their class including one professor who faced termination for “failing to correct” Professor Sandra Sellers when she expressed regret that her black students tended to end up at the bottom of her class curve. Law School Dean Bill Treanor fired Sellers for expressing that view to her co-teacher in the course. Even the failure to object to a statement from another colleague was deemed grounds for a formal inquiry and possible termination. We previously discussed the student senate at Georgetown sanctioning a student for simply publishing opposing views of police abuse in a journal.
The conversation in UNC incident occurred between two students in a Zoom chat on January 14th. According to transcripts from a Call to Action document, law students debated colonization in the U.S. An argument ensued over who was privileged. When one student said that there were still parts of the world still being colonized like Cameroon, the other student pushed back: “You are an American attending an elite law school in the 21st century. If you are looking for a good cause, you can always travel to Cameroon and fight the colonizers there.” The first student immediately objected and asked “Did you just tell me to go back to Africa?”
That led to other student to clarify that he was simply responding to the point that there are still fights going on against colonization: “What? Dude what are you saying? I’m saying that people talk about colonization like it we’re [sic] all culpable for great evil. My point is that if you want to fight colonization, there are actual civil wars occurring now between natives and colonizers (like in Cameroon).”
The first student refused to accept that interpretation and declared ”Your point is racist.” That led to a complaint to the law school in a letter and accompanying petition demanding action from the law school.
Now enters Sharma who took exception to the claim that the conversation was clearly racist. He said that he saw the statement as a response to the first student citing the struggle in other countries. He was then promptly targeted himself in a campaign to recall him. It failed but Sharm told The College Fix that “The fact that there has been this attempt to recall me, it was just a little bit disappointing, because as law students, there’s a requirement to learn and have open discourse with people who have opposing views to you and I was being vilified for something that personally, I was not even involved in.”
The effort to recall Sharma shows the growing intolerance of opposing views on our campuses. The fact that law students would engage in such an attack on free speech is particularly chilling.
There are many who have called for a national dialogue on race issues. However, the Georgetown and UNC incidents show that such discussions can come at great risk. In the UNC case, even disagreeing with the racist meaning of a conversation was enough to launch a campaign for a recall.
24 years ago or so, Matt Hale, a notorious white racist, passed law school and the illinois bar.
He was denied admission to as a lawyer. He sued under First Amendment argument and lost.
Here was are two decades later and now EVERY WHITE STUDENT IS UNDER THE SAME PERIL–
NO MATTER IF RACIST OR NOT… see footnote 34
https://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Bullying-at-UNC-Law28017.pdf
So let me ask you this.
what will you face if you are a white student, 24 years from now? Will we just all be officially barred as a group?
Will we have to put our foot on an icon of George Washington, and burn incense to a little idol of MLK?
Or will it all be gone and washed away by then?
White people better grow some spines and stand up to this kind of bullying. Sal Sar
PS Don’t forget who really benefits from this. It’s not really the black students or the mercenary politicians nor even the weak-kneed Deans. It’s the billionaires who make it all happen, to keep us divided, off balance, and busy with anything besides planning to cancel THEM.
PHANTOM GUILT IS A TERRIBLE THING TO HOST
Freedom of speech, thought, religion, belief, press, publicity, assembly, segregation and every other conceivable, natural and God-given right and freedom per the 9th Amendment are those of Americans.
Please cite the Constitution wherein opinion on ancestry or “racism” is precluded.
Please cite the Constitution wherein citizens are mandated and required to accept, reject, approve, deny, marry, divorce, love or hate any or all other persons or groups.
Violence is maliciously and insidiously conflated with “racism,” or the holding of opinion on race, by communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FREEDOM
People must adapt to the outcomes of freedom.
Freedom does not adapt to people, dictatorship does.
This is totalitarianism. This isn’t about truth. We’ve all seen how many times accusations of racism are thrown about without any racist comments or intentions made at all. It’s weaponized to shut down dissent. And if you disagree, you’ll be punished, routed, just like Sagar Sharma.
This is what conservatives have been talking about these past few years. The Left’s totalitarianism, misuse of terms like racist and xenophobe, the push against free speech, the propaganda that conservatives are all racist evil people.
Democrats dismissed these concerns and typically called those voicing them evil capitalist xenophobe racists.
Well, because moderates wouldn’t check their party, we’re at the point now where you’ll be forced at work to take mandatory critical race theory classes, in which you’ll be told you’re born an evil oppressor if you’re too pale, and everything you worked for is just privilege. You’ll be judged harshly if you’re a white cis gendered male, and heaven forbid if you’re straight, too. Identity politics are racist. If you disagree with the biological male running 2 seconds ahead of all the biological girls in their own sports division, then you’ll be targeted.
If a parent expresses concern that the school is teaching their child that white kids are bad, and black kids are helpless underprivileged victims, then other teachers and parents will seek to destroy him. They’ll try to ensure he gets fired, loses his business, and/or never works again.
Oh, and you must also support the racial discrimination against Asians in college and job applications, because their strong work ethic produced too much success, while also supporting the idea that blacks can’t possibly make it without the constant support of white Liberals, reparations by whites, and never, be expected to follow the proven steps for success, such as having a nuclear family. This all defies critical reasoning and basic common sense. The bigotry of low expectations of the black community is rampant, and an insult to the many black successful businessmen, doctors, and academics. Perhaps one of the reasons why black immigrants fare better financially and academically is that they do not suffer from a sub culture that disdains behaviors statistically likely to lead to a middle class lifestyle or good grades in school. Most of the successful black people I have known grew up in a family that valued education and were very strict about marriage before children, basically a middle class culture like any other that is now labeled “whiteness”. There is a national, state, community, sports, hobby, and family culture, and perhaps that last specific culture is the one most apt to either help or hinder a child’s chances.
If you’re an actor in Hollywood, expressing conservative views, or even being a hard Leftist who disagrees with any Progressive policy, and you’ll be black listed in the new McCarthyism.
Are you moderates going to keep voting Democrat, now matter how much this bothers you? Because the only thing that will shift the party back to the center is the threat of losing votes.
Remember when “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” made sense to Democrats? Remember when Clinton and Obama said that illegal immigration was bad for the country? Those were the days when Democrats and Republicans shared a lot of common ground.
Politicians will only lose votes if votes are accurately counted. Are they?
“Two Georgetown professors were recently forced out of the faculty over a conversation on the performance of African American students in their class including one professor who faced termination for “failing to correct” Professor Sandra Sellers when she expressed regret that her black students tended to end up at the bottom of her class curve. Law School Dean Bill Treanor fired Sellers for expressing that view to her co-teacher in the course. Even the failure to object to a statement from another colleague was deemed grounds for a formal inquiry and possible termination.”
Hate to break it to all of you sweet, tolerant leftists but destroying these professors careers isn’t going to raise one test score or marginally performing students class rank.
antonio
The crazy thing is that she was forced out for remarking on the facts. What she is saying is true. Even back when I was at university, one of my professors complained that he had to teach two groups of people in the same class – those of any race who got there on merit, and those who are only there because of Affirmative Action, and were going to flunk out. They were taking seats that should have belonged to people who could do the work.
Simply lowering the bar does not convey some magical ability to do the academic work. All it does is set them up for failure. This is one of the reasons for the proliferation of fluff degrees like women’s studies in black porn (which actually exists), or degrees in activism.
“Simply lowering the bar does not convey some magical ability to do the academic work. All it does is set them up for failure.”
No it doesn’t confer some magical ability to actually do the work and yes it does set them up for failure.
This is a today’s version of a cargo cult.
antonio
The goal should have been improving the academic performance of ALL poor students, regardless of race. Provide tutoring, a safe place to study…improve performance and learning in myriad ways so that they don’t NEED the bar to be lowered. They could compete on their own merits.
That professor said that because of Affirmative Action, professors were beginning to view such students as below average. They assumed they lacked the academic background to gain admission to the school, and were unequal to the work. AA therefore actually caused negative stereotypes. Without AA, it would have been assumed that any student was at any university because he or she had the academic record to get in…well either that or an athletic scholarship.
Aren’t professors supposed to sound an alarm if one group consistently performs below the others? The answer should be addressing academic gaps not ignoring they exist. That did these students a disservice.
“. . . those who are only there because of Affirmative Action, and were going to flunk out.”
Here’s just one of the wicked contradictions of the AA activists:
If you cite those facts, you’re a “racist.”
In the next breath, they cite those facts to allege racism.
It is hard to convey to an outsider how militantly tribalist academia has become. Faculty activists are like local gang leaders, with advanced degrees and a vocabulary of six-syllable, incomprehensible words. One of their favorite nihilistic games is called “academic mobbing.” Interestingly, they are like all bullies: They cower in the face of courageous opposition. Tragically, such courage is very rare.
I no longer see racism anywhere, mainly because I no longer of the continual lie that it’s everywhere.
“Two Georgetown professors were recently forced out of the faculty over a conversation on the performance of African American students in their class including one professor who faced termination for “failing to correct” Professor Sandra Sellers when she expressed regret that her black students tended to end up at the bottom of her class curve.”
As someone who has successfully completed law school, I can tell you that law school is highly competitive (and not necessarily in a good way); students tend to be quite aware of how their peers are doing thus it was an open secret that black students tended to be at the bottom of the class (with a few exceptions).
These professors are probably in a better position to know than anyone but of course, the truth is no defense and facts are racist.
Let’s see what else is “racist”?
Math – that means 2 + 2 isn’t really 4. Approximation is ok.
Classical music
Crime statistics
IQ statistics
Please help me out, sweet, tolerant lefties!! What else is racist that I may be missing?
antonio
The fact that law students would engage in such an attack on free speech is particularly chilling.
What’s chilling is they’re just as likely to end up in Congress, where we already have an abundance of lawyers assaulting our rights.
Lincoln understood this all too well: The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
then we better get ready for battle cuz its coming
It’s been here for a very long time. These wii be their successors.
It’s another day, and another example of The United States of America’s dystopian future. Daily we see examples of tyrants trying to exert (employ) thought control in schools, universities, corporations and government. One of the favorite truncheons of these tyrants is Racism; you’re a racist if you disagree with their view, regardless if you hold authority or not, and by any means necessary you will pay for your antithetical believes. My suggestion to those with such thin skin, be careful for what you wish for, or cause to happen to others, as the pendulum does have reciprocating movement. Be mindful of Martin Niemollers famous Poem “First they came for…”.
From colored person (i.e. low information attribute) to people of color, people of white, etc. (i.e. color bloc, identity defined by skin color, racism). Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgments), not limited to racism, breeds adversity. One step forward, two steps backward. That said, throw another baby on the barbie, it’s over.
Actually, I think this is a positive article. One student is looking to be offended and was so. They even took it up the ladder to cause trouble and did. How is this positive? Easy, they failed. More importantly, we are starting to see the backlash against this stupidity. At the same time, third parties are starting to defend against unfounded call of racism. In this case, the class Co-President is targeted for recall all because he does not agree the argument was racist and fails. the fun part is the Co-President is a person of color. Yes it is nerve wracking and upsetting this is going on, but we are starting to see it fail.
Language is the problem. Words cause offense. Language hurts people’s feelings. We need to bag this whole language thing and return to groans and moans.
Wouldn’t that require, in the USA, learning Standard American English instead of PCRap and pop illiteracy?
so punishing imagined racism is more important than helping students do better.
I bet UNC is changing their colors to brown and black from Carolina Blue. Makes a great shirt for them.
The standards are changed to meet “woke” demands in vital fields such as medicine, police, fire, military and air traffic…but hell no, we will not make the NBA “look like America”.
Ugh! This is when I am not so sorry that I am in my golden years.
You’re kids and grandkids aren’t.
The argument was not racist. Therefore fire anyone who says it was.
I guess the Duberstein Moot Court Competition will have to be cancelled. Glad my daughter got to go, and win, before all the censorship.
You circle the point but make a great landing on the issue! What will future debates look like?
The Left has always been a threat to freedom, discourse, and civil society. It uses lies to deceive the population. That was evident throughout the marxist/socialist/communist era of the 20th century when it was clear that the Left was always willing to use violence to gain control and power.
Unfortunately the Democrat party has used these fascist leftists as a cudgel to regain power and now the US has the resulting Leftist fascism that we saw with Mao, Chavez, Castro, Lenin, Maduro, and the Left for the last century. It is truly disgusting and everyone (especially Democrats) that didn’t see the oppression, and didn’t denounce these leftists, abetted it. And they now run the US, propelled to power by 4 years of a Press that literally lied everyday about the Trump Administration.
Amen, sister.
Atlas is starting to shrug
Can’t wait to see the next generation of lawyers!