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Nov. 10, 2015 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
36:32
The Terror of Racism in Higher Education (#NationalOffendACollegeStudentDay)
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So in the last week it's become very apparent that in American universities there are clearly very deep-seated issues with race.
At the University of California in Berkeley, a thousand students protested a racist email message that was left on one of the computers.
The message read, fuck all the niggers in the world.
KKK forever public lynching, December 9th, 2015.
And the comment from the black student union here, this happened at our school.
When will we as black students feel safe?
How anyone could actually think this is a legitimate literal threat is beyond me.
It is ridiculous, and I can't believe people are taking it more seriously than the juvenile edgelordism that it is.
But Berkeley did, and the student who allegedly left the racist rant on the computer has confessed to it.
Which I'm sure will mollify the thousand angry students who marched out of their classes and through the city in order to protest someone's ability to leave a message on a computer that they don't like.
Don't get me wrong, I don't condone this message at all.
In fact, I directly oppose it.
And I am sure that any cynics watching are just rolling their eyes and saying, this is just an excuse for lazy students to get out of class.
But I really don't think it is.
So apparently, after a technological forensic analysis was done on the computer, the accused students confessed.
The principal said, I think the student is really aware of what this caused on our campus today and how much fear it caused and how much chaos it caused on our campus.
The image that people have taken offense to was a mock-up made to look like a webpage.
It was not an electronic document at all and it hadn't been sent anywhere.
I think it's reasonable to infer from the situation in the principal statements that they are aware that the person who did this isn't actually threatening a KKK lynching.
This was clearly some kind of prank designed to piss people off.
And piss them off it did.
So the Black Student Union at Berkeley High called for a rally and a thousand students went to the University of California in Berkeley to protest it.
And these are the kind of stupid things that they said.
I just took it as a sign, like a message, like it was delivered by God.
Like, racism isn't over.
People think like Obama got elected, but racism is not over.
In a lot of ways, it's like a hate crime or a terrorist attack.
Sure, don't overblow this at all.
It's a message that was left on a computer screen in the computer labs.
But it's equivalent of a terrorist attack.
At least the kerfuffle of Berkeley kind of played itself out and nobody got strung up by a lynch mob.
So let's have a look at what happened at the University of Missouri.
Now, I understand that Missouri is probably a different kettle of fish.
It was a slave state and there are doubtless still deep racial divides between the people living there.
And I have never been there, so I don't know.
I'm just going on the information that I have and the way things look from the outside.
So black students protesting about racial discrimination at Missouri University isn't anything new.
This protest of 100 students in September this year was not particularly unusual.
Neither were the banners Racism Lives Here or Missouri is racist or I am more than my skin colour, which is something that I would really like them to explain to social justice warriors.
So this crowd chanted things like, It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other and we have nothing to lose but our chains.
Now, I have no fucking idea what they're talking about.
As far as I can tell, these student activists appear to have received the benefits entirely of living in a Western liberal civilization.
to the point where now they are at the university and taking part in student protests.
You know, the least important kind of protest.
Basically, if I had to use a word to describe them, that word would be privileged.
If I were to describe it in, say, four words, those words would be privileged, entitled, and fucking stupid.
And in no small part influenced by this particular student, who has gone on a hunger strike after a swastika was drawn with human feces.
So the swastika appeared overnight, drawn with human feces on a college dorm's brand new white wall.
That's gross.
That's gross and it's stupid.
And as it says just below, it's going to incite racial tensions, and I don't want to see racial tensions incited.
I don't support white nationalist groups.
I don't support judging people based on their race, and I don't think other people should either.
But we do not know who did this.
It could be a white nationalist who decided that he would use his own shit to draw a swastika, which seems more disrespectful to the idea of the swastika than anything the swastika stands for.
Or it could be some juvenile edgelord looking to get a rise out of people.
As far as I am aware, we do not know.
And apparently this is just one of a flurry of racist incidents in recent months.
And that's terrible.
But the rational response is not for a student to go on a hunger strike unless the school's president steps down.
Unless you think the school's president is the person doing this or actively advocating for it.
So the student said that he's just drinking water until the university president steps down.
Butler and other black students blame Wolf for what they say is the school's failure to address the rising tide of racism on campus.
The student then goes on to talk about his feelings.
I already feel like the campus is an unlivable space, so it's worth sacrificing something of this grave amount, because I'm already not wanted here.
I'm already not treated like I'm human.
Personally, I don't know why he thinks that.
As far as I can tell, the swastika carved in shit on someone's wall wasn't carved on his wall.
And it's not like the president of the university is in any way opposed to this student's protest.
He says that his heart is heavy and he joins with the other members of the Mizzou family in sharing concern for the health and well-being of one of us, Jonathan Butler, the student in question.
He's a person of principle who's dedicated to raising awareness and finding solutions for the pernicious problems of racism, discrimination and bias.
While I cannot encourage him to put his health at risk, I support his right to peaceful protest and his efforts to raise awareness of the injustice that he and other people of colour face in their everyday lives and at the university.
Racism has deep roots at our university.
Racism shapes the current climate for and educational experience of all our students.
We must create a better future.
I, together with our students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters, commit to working each day to find solutions, to define new pathways for culture change and to strive to make our university an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.
So the president of the university is completely on board with what this student wants.
He wants exactly the same thing.
So why the hell is this student protesting the president?
He hasn't got the power to turn around and force students not to be racist.
He can't do that.
All he can do is what he has done.
Attempt to foster an environment that does not incentivize people to be racist.
And the thing is, like I said, I don't live there, so I don't know that there isn't a large section of the student body who are rather racist.
It might well be the case that there is.
I mean, they have plenty of examples to point to to imply that there are a lot of racist students on campus.
For example, this one.
Last night I was walking through campus and some guys riding on the back of a pickup truck decided it would be okay to continuously scream nigger at me.
Assuming that's true, why would they do that?
That's fucking vile.
What could they possibly hope to gain?
Apparently a group called the Legion of Black Collegians were in a campus plaza rehearsing for a play the following night when an inebriated white male called them niggers.
Okay, if that's true, why the fuck would he do this?
It certainly didn't do him any good, as the university immediately condemned him and supported the students and identified the student who had shouted nigger at them and removed him from campus.
I'm not sure what better response they were expecting, but apparently hate and racism were alive and well at Mizzou according to these black students.
Well, what do you think the authorities should do?
They are clearly on the side of the students, and it just turns out that the university authorities do not have the ability to identify pre-crime in their students.
They don't know who is going to act in a racist manner.
So there has to be a certain level of tolerance for things you don't like.
Hell may find extremely offensive.
And to any reasonable person, I'm sure they would think that, but the problem appears to be with the students.
The culture on campus has been deteriorating really fast.
It just gotten to the point on campus where it's really not safe for black students or really all marginalized students.
Me personally, I won't feel safe on campus until there is an urgency that things need to change and be taken seriously.
What a ridiculous statement.
How is this not being taken seriously?
How are they not trying to change it?
They're doing everything that they can.
It just appears that the students are being carried away by their feelings because someone said something they don't like.
Nobody appears to be in any actual danger unless it's self-imposed via a hunger strike.
But that simply doesn't matter and the university's black sportsmen have decided that they will not play again until the university president resigns.
Despite the fact he's doing everything humanly possible and he's totally on their side.
The athletes of colour on the University of Missouri football team truly believe injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We will no longer participate in any football activities until President Tim Wolf resigns or is removed due to his negligence towards marginalized students' experiences.
What a fucking ridiculous demand.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Well, I'm having a hard time thinking of something more stupid to come out of the mouth of a human being.
Do you think you can possibly eradicate injustice?
How the fuck do you expect that to work?
What are you never going to play football again because you're never going to eradicate injustice?
Or shall we just demand that this guy is fired even though he's done nothing wrong?
The answer of course is fire the guy who has done nothing wrong and is in fact totally in support of their position.
And instead of being angry that these activists have decided to target the wrong person who is not responsible for this racism and has done everything in his fucking power to end it.
So unjustly getting this guy dismissed from his job.
The Chancellor of the University said, I want to acknowledge his extraordinary courage and leadership.
Talking about Butler, the student who's starving himself because someone painted a shit swastika on his, well, not even on his wall, just on a wall.
A very tough, tough young man, a very focused young man, a very intelligent and forward-looking young man.
We owe him a lot.
The fuck do you owe this guy?
This guy owes your president a fucking apology for forcing him to step down under public pressure despite the fact he'd done nothing fucking wrong.
What the fuck is going on?
This is crazy!
But Tim Wolf, the now ex-president, says he takes full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred.
What inaction?
You have done everything that can be reasonably expected.
And Wolf asked that the university community listen to each other's problems and stop intimidating each other.
Well, maybe if you weren't being such a fucking pussy about dealing with the way they treat each other, this wouldn't have happened.
He says, this is not, I repeat, not the way that change should come about.
You're fucking right it's not.
And yet you've capitulated to it.
Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation.
Use my resignation to heal and starts talking again.
Why should you resign?
But either way, nothing is going to be good enough.
His decision, he said, came out of love and not hate.
And he urged the university to focus on what we can change in the future and not what's happened in the past.
Are you trying to become the social justice messiah?
Fucking hell.
I've never heard a man talk as if he deserved his injust punishment so much.
But this for me is the craziest bit.
Students, faculty and staff converged on the quad following Wolf's announcement.
There they linked arms and swayed side to side, singing, We Shall Overcome.
Fucking loopy.
Fucking divorced from reality.
Someone draws a swastika made of shit on a wall and this is the fucking result.
Acting as if they are actually being oppressed by the institution of the university that is completely on their side and that they have just pressured into firing someone who is not fucking responsible for what has happened.
You know, the person who decided to implement mandatory diversity training for all students in January 2016.
But hey, you know, he's not doing enough.
So now we come to Yale University and an encounter that happened over Halloween.
In the build-up to Halloween, Yale's Intercultural Affairs Council decided to send out a mass email to teachers and students asking them not to dress in a way that might be somehow offensive to someone somewhere.
They were asking students and teachers not to commit the heinous crime of cultural appropriation.
The associate master of Silliman College, Erika Christakis, responded to this mass email with an email of her own which essentially questioned whether this was entirely necessary and whether the college itself should have so much control over its own students.
Around 750 students and faculty then signed an open letter to Erika Christakis, essentially accusing her of permitting racism and marginalizing people of colour.
They said that her email equates old traditions of using harmful stereotypes and tropes to further degrade marginalized people to preschoolers playing make-believe.
And apparently she fails to distinguish between cosplaying fictional characters and misrepresenting actual groups of people.
But most importantly, they say giving room for students to be obnoxious or offensive, as you suggest, is only inviting ridicule and violence onto ourselves and our communities, and ultimately comes at the expense of room in which marginalized students can feel safe.
And so, as I understand it, this was effectively the talk of the campus, with open forums going on and various discussions happening, until around 100 protesters managed to corner the dean of Yale University, a black guy.
Now, normally, I wouldn't think that was a very relevant distinction to make, but these people are operating entirely on identity politics.
So, you might think that a black dean may well be able to turn around and tell the students, no, you're being hypersensitive.
No one has been hurt.
No one has been harmed in any way.
And the few fringe people who are doing these things probably to wind you up because you will let yourselves be wound up do not have the support of the establishment.
You might think he would do something like that, as it would probably go some way to defusing the situation.
Except he decided to do the exact opposite.
As the students surrounded him, one said, as a black man, you know where we come from.
You need to act.
Whether it's with Yale or without Yale, we need you.
Staring back at the student, Holloway said softly, I will.
And then a link to Yale's president tells minority students, we failed you.
Give me a fucking break.
Is this not the most melodramatic bullshit you've ever heard?
Talk about feeding into their paranoid fantasies.
No one has been hurt.
No one is going to be hurt.
And everybody condemns the racist actions of what is probably a few real-life trolls.
This is absolutely unbelievable.
So the next day, presumably the same roughly 100 students went to the courtyard of Silliman College to protest the associate master Erika Christakis' email.
They were met by the master of Silliman College, her husband, Nicholas Christakis.
Since we have the footage of their interaction, I'd like to go through it with you and point out a few things that I find interesting.
So the beginning of the recording is a woman asking him why he can't remember her name and accusing him of being a racist.
But now I've learned Gerald and I've learned Malaika and I've learned this.
I have 500 names on the other guy.
I have 500 names to learn.
And if you'd like to see this person, I could help you learning names.
You can't.
I do see a lot of things.
But Nicholas, you have to understand, listen, it has nothing to do with your race, my people can learn.
Well, that's how it seems, because I'm not sure.
I know, but can you see, can you see, for example, can you play music?
Yes.
Okay, I cannot play music.
So when people try to talk to me about musical things, I don't understand.
I'm making an idea.
I'm expressing that one of my limitations as a person, which I always had, was I wasn't very good with memorizing names, and it's got nothing to do with race with them.
I think this conversation in its intensity will really seal it.
And I hope in my prior interaction with you, I've never treated you with any disrespect.
And you haven't.
I was just about to say it.
So immediately this is a bizarre situation.
Why is the master of the college on the defensive from students who literally have just said you've never treated me with any kind of disrespect?
By what moral authority do they come to him and expect him to apologize?
Because I feel that in your role as master and associate master after sending that email and after not having an appropriate response, that our opinion has been dismissed.
If you guys have not said, I hear you, I hear that you are hurting, and I am sorry that I have caused you to feel pain.
I have not heard that from you and I've not heard that from your wife.
And that is what I want to hear.
I don't want to hear any more defense in her because it's not, it's not fair to ask you.
Yes, that was the students clicking their fingers instead of applauding.
I suppose an applause might have been triggering.
But either way, he is not responsible for her pain.
She is responsible for her pain.
He has done nothing wrong.
His wife has done nothing wrong.
All they have done is air opinions this student doesn't like.
I'm doing my best, everyone.
I'm doing my best.
I'm doing my best, okay?
So I'm trying to address her directly and as a human being face to face.
But look at this.
He looks like he's plea bargaining with them.
You haven't done anything wrong, Nicholas.
Why are you allowing them to call the shots?
You haven't broken any rules.
There is no reason they should be offended.
Having a difference of opinion is not a crime.
I don't want to turn my back to her.
I don't want to yell at her on this car if I raise my voice so you can hear me.
So please stop misjudging anything I do, okay?
So as I was telling her, I'll speak up a little if I won't, but I won't yell at her.
Is that fair?
That's fair.
All right.
Okay.
All right.
So what I wanted to tell you, Kayla, is that you have spent time with me.
You've been in class with me.
You've had all those experiences that you described.
And what's amazing to me is despite all of that, you weren't able to form an opinion of me as a human being and what my beliefs are.
And to see the extent to which they're in agreement with your beliefs.
That you seem to think that somehow I don't agree with the content of your beliefs.
And that's not what's happening from my perspective.
From my perspective.
Okay, can I say something?
Can I just interject really quickly?
The moral of Michaela's comment is now the moral of the story is that she wants an apology.
Yet you respond not with authority.
That's my point.
I'm just saying, are you gonna, are you gonna, can I let him finish?
Are you going to address the heart of her comment?
That's all I want.
Are you gonna give an apology?
Are you gonna say that you're hearing us?
Are you gonna then go to the lengths that she wants you to go to, which to me don't seem very far, but still seem, we're not making a judgment on Master Priscilla is inherently good.
Like, we just want an acknowledgement of hurt, and we have yet to get that, which we can all send.
So, my question is, are you going to say that or not?
So, along with more faggy finger clicking in agreement, was a demand.
Are you going to apologize to her or not?
They don't think it's very far.
Why don't you just apologize for doing nothing wrong?
Because then, I can just leave if you're not going to say that.
I've heard from I was at the discussion.
I was here, I'm going to be there on Sunday, and I'm going to listen, but like, what I'm listening for, I'm not yet hurt.
So, I'm just asking, are you going to provide that or are you not going to provide that?
think about this idea for a moment.
The idea of apologizing.
Yes, because if I ask you to apologize right now for delaying me from all my other obligations to other students.
I'm just saying, you ask for me doesn't mean that the other person, you know, instantly has to say yes.
The person has to think about what it is that you're asking for, what it means.
Except not to these students.
Look at the entitlement by which they are approaching this man.
He is the master of the college, and yet these students are expecting obsequiousness from him.
They're talking to him as if they are superior to him.
Walk away.
Can you even imagine the temerity of this girl?
The entitlement, the superiority complex that she must have to yell at the master of a college at Yale to be quiet because she wants to talk over him.
I mean, can you, I just, I'm staggered.
She asks him a question, he goes to respond, and she just yells at him to be quiet so she can continue to berate him, continue to lecture him.
For all humans, you understand that?
As your position and master, it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students that live in Sillman.
And they are her expectations.
This man is her servant.
It's his job to create this degree of comfort and homely conditions for the students of Sillman.
And now she is going to lecture himself he doesn't understand his own fucking job.
And he is going to stand there and fucking take it for reasons unknown.
Sending that email was perfectly fine.
It's an opinion.
Just like the first email was an opinion.
But the first email she just happened to agree with.
And now he's failing in his duties because of it.
No, I don't agree with that.
Then why the fuck did you accept the position?
Why the fuck hired you?
I have a different view.
You should step down!
If that is what you think about being a fan of you should step down!
Now for me, this is beyond the pale.
This would be where I would discipline the student, assuming I didn't just expel them.
But we haven't actually reached the apex of batshit insanity that's going to come out of this girl's mouth.
So I'm going to slow it down a bit so you can hear it as clearly as possible.
It is not about creating an intellectual speech!
It is not!
Do you understand that?
It's about creating a home here!
It is not about creating an intellectual speech!
It is not!
Do you understand that?
It's about creating a home here!
It is not about creating an intellectual space.
It is about creating a home here.
I am fucking disgusted that this is being tolerated at universities.
This student is acting like a spoiled brat.
Like an absolute child who doesn't realize that they have left home and they are now going to move into the real world and they need to get a real education.
So I'll just play out the rest of her little diatribe so you can enjoy it for yourselves before we get to the really juicy bit.
You are not doing that!
You're supposed to be our advocate!
You should be at Miss Lesse when you hear her francophatement!
She doesn't know how to create a safe pit for her freshman exilan!
How do you explain that?
Is freshman telling them they think this is what Yale is?
You hear that?
They're gonna leave!
They're gonna tramfer because you are a poor student!
You should not sleep at night!
We're out, we're out!
You are disgusting!
So the entitled brat is a very privileged young lady called Gerilyn Luthor.
She is apparently an avid traveller who came from a family home worth more than three quarters of a million dollars.
And when she says, Why the fuck hired you?
There is a deliciously ironic answer.
Nicholas Christakis was appointed to master of Silliman College in February in 2015.
Nicholas was aided in his appointment by the Silliman Search Committee, of which Geralyn Luther was a fucking member.
So when she says, who hired you?
Well, you did, at least in part.
This is the end of the confrontation, with them saying, it's not over and then slowly dispersing, after having drawn on the ground in crayons like a bunch of fucking children.
Now, obviously, this wasn't caused by Halloween costume.
There was clearly a great iceberg of reasons beneath this one reason that's poking above the surface.
As a student wrote in a Medium article, he says, by now you've probably seen the video of a Yale student yelling at a professor or the Facebook post about white girls only party or the email about offensive Halloween costumes.
He says, the protests are not really about Halloween costumes or a frat party.
They're about a mismatch between the Yale we find in admissions brochures and the Yale we experience every day.
They're about real experiences with racism on this campus that have gone unacknowledged for far too long.
The university sells itself as a welcoming and inclusive place for people of all backgrounds.
Unfortunately, it often isn't.
Many people, especially women of colour, said that they feel physically and psychologically unsafe here.
Monday, students were forced to reschedule an open forum about cultural appropriation and the power of language due to threats.
The president remained silent.
Tuesday, Holloway declined to comment on the SAE incident, but the Dean of Student Engagement began an investigation.
Wednesday, students shared hours and hours worth of stories about discrimination they've experienced on this campus at the rescheduled open forum.
The president remained silent.
Thursday, hundreds of students gathered in the middle of campus to share their experiences with Holloway, who is eventually moved to tears.
On Friday, we finally received a letter from the administration.
I write too late for too many of you, I freely admit, to make it clear that I heard every word that was spoken, and I watched every tear that was shed, whether on cross-campus or in Woodbridge Hall.
This week's conversations don't affect only some of us, they affect and include us all.
If you talk to one another, listen to one another, and sometimes disagree.
Do this knowing that I will uphold your right to speak and be heard, and that I will enforce the community standards that safeguard you as members of this community.
I do this as I hold us all, including myself, accountable to give what we seek.
Respect.
What the fuck is this issue even about?
What has actually fucking happened?
Why are there hundreds of students crying because of these pitiful, menial problems?
Rich kid problems at Yale University.
Oh my god, someone drew a swastika.
You don't like that?
Quick, have a cry.
Oh my god, you weren't allowed into a party.
You don't like that?
Quick, have a cry.
Go complain to the fucking dean.
Make a big fucking deal about it.
Your emotions, your feelings, are valid, and that is what all of this is stemming from.
All of this, every single last bit, from the initial annoying, fucking whining of the students, to the high-pitched shrieking, to the tears.
It's all about the uncontrolled feelings of these childlike students.
When The Atlantic published their article, The Coddling of the American Mind, in the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas that they don't like.
Here's why that's disastrous for education and mental health.
They were not fucking wrong.
In fact, I wonder if they knew how on the money that they were.
In Missouri, since the resignation of their principal, the police have asked the students to participate in an Orwellian program of reporting each other for hurtful speech, whatever that entails.
Well, I don't know what the punishment for hurtful speech is, but it certainly sounds like dapping into Big Brother anyone whose thoughts you disagree with.
And this is what the students were asking for.
They want this to happen.
They want this to be the case.
They don't want people to say or do things that might harm their precious feelings.
So the final question is, where are they getting all of this bullshit from?
Why are they so focused on race?
Sure, they've been raised as molly-coddled PC fucking brats who are completely unable to control their own emotions.
But why are they constantly talking about race?
Well, in this regard, the universities have helped heap up their own fucking funeral pyres.
If you're at Berkeley, why don't you just take a course in critical race theory?
Go for a conference.
Oh, you're at Yale?
No worries.
They've got dozens of critical race theory conferences.
They've got plenty of courses on it too.
Get in.
That'll really get you thinking about how you can focus your entire career on race.
And don't forget Missouri.
I mean, they've got their selection of racially focused courses too.
How about one that's just focused entirely on race, gender, and ethnicity in higher education?
This course is designed to focus on theoretical, historical, and current issues of race, gender, and ethnicity shaping colleges and universities.
Is it any wonder this shit is coming back to bite them in the ass?
They have been priming these hyper-emotional, overgrown children to focus on nothing but race.
They have indoctrinated them with identity politics.
They can't think in any other manner.
They have been taught that not only is being racist something they can't do, but it is also the only way they fucking think.
They are constantly going on about race, gender, and sexuality.
Things that I'm generally of the opinion that people don't get to choose and can't really change.
These are in fact the complete opposite of the traits that Martin Luther King wanted people judged by.
And this has been done by progressive ideologues who have been given funding and time and authority to produce their crackpot theories on how society should operate and have foisted this bullshit onto vulnerable young people who frankly seem like children.
What these students need is not coddling.
It is not being pandered to.
It is not being given any of the things that they are asking for.
They are in no danger.
No one has been hurt.
They are probably being the unwitting idiot recipients of just trolling.
People taking the piss because they know they're going to take the bait.
What these students actually need to learn about is stoicism.
They need to learn how to manage their own emotions and how to interpret events that happen to them.
If anyone is interested in further reading on Stoicism, I'll leave a link to a short Stoic handbook written by Epictetus in the 2nd century AD.
While I don't agree with everything in it, it's definitely worth your time to read.
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