Last year, we discussed the controversy over the acting Northwestern Law Dean declaring publicly to “I am James Speta and I am a racist.” He was followed by Emily Mullin, executive director of major gifts, who announced, “I am a racist and a gatekeeper of white supremacy. I will work to be better.” The public confessions reflect the view that all white people are racist due to their race and privilege — a view contested by some as itself a form of racial intolerance or bias. Now one of Brandeis’ Assistant Deans, Kate Slater, has triggered a similar controversy after declaring “all white people are racists.” Slater is the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Slater defines her role as helping “White people conceptualize what sustained anti-racism can look like with the ultimate goal in mind: liberation from oppression for Black people and people of color.” Ironically, this is an effort to get “white folx” not to fear critical race theory which clearly did not work with a number of conservative sites:
I have a different take on this controversy from some who have denounced Slater as engaging in simply another form of “race baiting.” I agree with Slater that we should be debating this issue. This is a view among many academics and should be respected as a good-faith understanding of the source of racism.
The problem is that critical race theorists and advocates often insist that we must have a dialogue on race but it tends to be more of a diatribe. For an academic to voice opposing views on such issues is to risk investigation, re-training, or even termination, as we have discussed in past cases. The only dialogue allowed in these sessions tends to be the willingness to accept the underlying premises rather than alternative viewpoints. Indeed, most sessions are treated as “trainings” to address “whiteness:” and “white privilege” rather than debating if this view is itself racially intolerant. The same is true at corporations like Lockheed where top executives were sent into mandatory training to address “white male culture” and “white male privilege.”
Slater says that she seeks “an understanding of race and racism through honest and frank conversations” but it is clearly a discussion premised on the assumption of all white people being racist and “whiteness” being hateful. It is designed to be more therapeutic and transformative for white people than a real debate of the assumptions and stereotypes underlying this aspect of critical race theory.
It is a loss in my view and inhibits true evolution of viewpoints and assumptions. I accept that I many be blind or insensitive to racial bias or privilege, but I have serious concerns over the bias shown in some of these lectures and supporting material.
Colleges and universities were once places where controversial subjects could be debated in a passionate but civil exchange. Assumptions were challenged and data reviewed. That is not happening on many of the issues that face us today. Certain subjects are treated as off-limits. We have been discussing the targeting of professors who voice dissenting opinions about the Black Lives Matter movement, police shootings, or aspects of the protests around the country from the University of Chicago to Cornell to Harvard to other schools. Students have also been sanctioned for criticism BLM and anti-police views at various colleges. Even a high school principal was fired for stating that “all lives matter.”
I obviously follow a robust view of free speech that is out of vogue today. I have no problem with extreme views being voiced on campus so long as schools allow countervailing views also to be voiced. For that reason, I have defended faculty who have made similarly disturbing comments “detonating white people,” denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer, strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements. We previously wrote about academic freedom issues at University of Rhode Island due to its Director of Graduate Studies of History Erik Loomis, who has defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence.
We cannot make true progress unless we are able to speak openly and freely on such subjects. Many disagree with the views of academics like Slater but few faculty members are willing to raise such disagreements openly on campus. To do so is to risk being labeled as an example of reactionary white privilege and hostility. Without such freedom to challenge underlying assumptions or viewpoints, these sessions will be viewed as indoctrinations rather than real discussions of race in society. That will serve to silence many but convince few.
The only systemic racism in the United States is that which exists at certain institutions of higher indoctrination.
My answer to CRT is MLK’s quote and defy anyone to tell me where MLK went wrong.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
It is very clear that the Dean of Brandeis is a “racist.” Only a racist would say such a thing, and yes, I think the Dean should be fired for these comments. This is divisive and dangerous and fans the flames of hatred. Not acceptable for anyone who is involved in “educating” our children. Indoctrination, posing as education is too dangerous to be allowed on campuses and schools in America.
I’d love to sit around and have a cuppa with the Founding Dads as they open Prof. Turley’s blog and read instances of some of the most bizarre–and frightening–moments in the history of freedom of speech in America.
One cannot have a rational conversation with another who is irrational. What is occurring on campuses and in corporate settings is in fact irrational and bizarre!
It is our heritage and our duty to question everting and everyone. True truth does not fear debate.
But it does appear debate is being criminalized successfully.
Bingo.
I have come to the conclusion that probably the majority of these people who engage in this kind of diatribe are self-hating and insecure, who have probably felt ignored all their lives and this where they have determined they have found a niche to find what they think is fulfillment and influence. In order to find their place of respect in their world they have allowed themselves to become the useful idiots of those who want to create chaos. It reminds me of high school where a kid will do and say anything in order to belong to the “in” crowd. If she doesn’t like her “whiteness” maybe she should increase her melanin production and ‘make’ herself black/brown.
… “The public confessions reflect the view that all white people are racist due to their race and privilege …”
Dr Turley’s analysis is adequate but not complete in its statement of what this is. These “public confessions” are symptoms of mentally diminished, brainwashed individuals. Their cultish pronouncements suggest either an inability to critically think or a fear of some form of “torture”, in whatever form they consider that to be. They are truly mentally weak individuals who fear for their “lives.” The rest of us have to call out this absurdity and point to the blatant racism their handlers are propagating.
It’s a truly sick and sad time in American history. Hopefully we can look back on it with the disgust we have for the torturous rule of Mao, Stalin, Chavez, and the other Marxists who took their countries down this very same horrific path. And yes, I will repeat … it is the Democrats/liberals who have allowed this travesty to exist.
I accept that I many be blind or insensitive to racial bias or privilege, but I have serious concerns over the bias shown in some of these lectures and supporting material.
I accept camels like to poke their nose under tents, but I have serious concerns they are going to get inside.
FIFY
Seriously JT, if you accept the former, then your concerns are moot. And that’s how this cancer spreads. To these openly hostile racists, you will never see enough. You will never be sensitive enough. You’re white. Case closed.
CRT is built on a Kafka trap: you stand accused of racism, and denying the accusation only proves you are racist. This is the kind of twisted logic people use when they’ve done no objective research, have no objective proof, and cannot risk the counter-argument. The academy has been co-opted by cowards and bullies.
Liberty2nd,
Yes, I agree, you’re correct , it’s a bunch of itShay!.
The price of admission is nice on this blog,free, but we here trying to have a very happy happy holiday buzz in the air here this Memorial Day Weekend.
Clearly this is Prof Turley’s to post what he wishes, but these Anti-American Racist,Loons he keeps posting about is killing the mood of the crowd going to the holiday weekend.
Just because the people Turley’s posting about are Bat itShay Nuts doesn’t mean we have have to follow their lead.
Now some here must not like Frank Sinatra the post I made the other day on this same type topic, it was canned, fine, I’m thinking maybe they like Dean Martin or this other gal to pull them all back into a good mood today? Who Knows? 😉
( not a clue as to what most of the words mean, but she has a pretty face & it has a pleasant sound to my ear this morning. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_cOP8y6sWs
Libertyy2nd,
Remember what time of year it is?
I do, where did the decades go? lol
I have an off topic question: Could Biden be impeached for not following immigration laws as enacted by congress? For instance, if a law says that a person who enters the country illegally is to be deported and he orders that to be ignored, does that reach the level of an impeachable offense? That may be a bad example but that is the drift of my question.
He could be impeached but, who would do it? Certainly not Pelosi.
I respect Professor Turley, I enjoy his blog every day and I agree with 90% of his opinions regarding freedom of speech but this is a bridge too far. Notice how hard Jonathan works to defend the argument that we need to have “this discussion” about (I guess) whiteness. Notice how far the good professor reaches in order to try to accommodate this kind of lunatic racism due to today’s mores and obligations. Prof Turley will equate someone questioning BLM to someone calling all whites racist or all conservatives nazis in order to pass the conversation along. This allows the enemy to win and it should be stopped.
This woman is a self-hating racist, a grown up version of the 14 year old girl cutting herself in her bedroom due to some mental imbalance. In the 70s we had anorexia, then we progressed to self-mutilation and today we have either gender denial and a “need” to transition to the other gender or the self-hatred of race.
I am all for freedom of speech, but this crosses the line and she should be fired. Not suspended, not reprimanded…FIRED. Do Alan Dershowitz’s “other shoe” test and ask if someone who said she hates blackness would be allowed to continue teaching young people.
If you are currently donating to this school you must stop at once, tell them why and then don’t give again until this kind of activity ends.
Agree, we don’t need an ongoing debate about an asinine subject based on lib whites hating themselves therefore projecting this hate onto other white people – they should seek psychiatric care for their issues, not mentally vomit them all over us. The scarier part is we constantly find these loons in positions of power around young impressionable minds. The documentary on Evergreen State College shows the end results of this lunacy and how quickly it can happen.
Mr. Turley is correct. The classical liberal position would be to accept freedom of speech from everyone. Agree or disagree it’s our constitutional right. That premise is out in the Pacific Ocean along with the Democratic Party. The progressive arm of the party will keep moving the goal post and nobody will be woke enough.
I’m a conservative and Mr. Turley’s take on so many issues is so refreshing, thoughtful, and objective. He’s the anomaly in today’s current culture. We need more JT’s!
If you tell people long enough over and over again they are racist then they believe it…that’s what Hitler did…and what guards do to prisoners…and what drugs do to people…if you beat your pet dog long enough it will cower in a corner because it has learned it hurts to be beaten…at the Geneva convention there were rules of engagement set and no cruel and unusual punishment for POW’s…today we just let academia brainwash us and our kids in school…so YES I am a white racist…a skinhead…a white supremacist…a KKK member…I hate all people who are not like me…now of course none of that is true…but it’s where we are headed I’m afraid…it’s what other people think that worries me…I know I am mostly a good, kind, loving husband, trying to nurse my wife through living hell with stage 4 cancer…live through that and life becomes very clear…LOVE is all that matters…and I see none of that in schools or politics today…it’s all about power and money…PERIOD!
Keep up with nonsense Woke Culture you’ll have a race war before this is over. 600 million guns in the hands of citizens with few in the hands of the “Woke”. No you’re not taking them.
NO APOLOGIES FOR MY RACE OR MY FAITH!
Ms. Slater may be honest and really hate herself, or she may just be disingenuous and see opportunity.
Either way, she engenders contempt.
Can a Caucasian ever become a non-racist? Can a black person ever become a non-victim of racism? If someone never thinks about race, is that person a racist? Why was it racist for Jimmy Fallon to employ blackface for his impersonation of Chris Rock? If not, why did he apologize for it? Is it not ironic that in a country that is among the least racist of all nations, so many people are obsessed with race?
Tis a puzzlement.
Statism – Ideas so good that they are mandatory (with apologies to the author)
Insanity! Well at least he’s not a member of Congress! We have Republicans spouting the same type of insanity on the other end of the spectrum but they are actually in Congress.
We do have members of Congress on the same end of the spectrum spouting similar drivel.
Kinda reminds you of Mao’s red book day’s. So now make them walk around campus wearing dunce caps and then fire them. Then hire people who only have the courage to say I’m not a racist and free speech is honored at this university.
It’s why people should be reading “Life and Death in Shanghai.” But I believe it’s a little late for that. The train has left the station and is barreling toward us at full speed.
A bunch of itShay.
Think of people as dog breeds: whites are golden retrievers, blacks are pit bulls, Latinx are Chihuahuas (including spayed and neutered transgendered), and Chinese are Shih Tzus. K-9s are always German shepherds who should be defunded for equity. What a rainbow caravan of diversity! And cancel the rabid biters!