The left-wing denizens of the Pacific Northwest have outdone themselves again, evidently determined to steal Northern California's crown as the least tolerant region in America. Fresh off of violent threats from "anti-fascists" in Oregon that forced the cancellation of an annual rose festival parade (because local Republicans were planning to participate in the tradition), here we have a college professor being driven away from his classroom in Washington state -- under the recommendation of campus police -- because he objected to a ridiculous left-wing scheme of racial division and segregation. The depressing details, via John Sexton:
Bret Weinstein, a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was surrounded by a group of student protesters Wednesday after he wrote an email objecting to plans for a Day of Absence. In the past, the Day of Absence has been a day where black and Latino students leave campus to highlight their significance on campus. This year students wanted to change the format. Instead of leaving campus themselves, they wanted white students and professors to leave campus, thereby creating a safe space for the students left behind. Professor Weinstein objected to that format and wrote and email saying he would not be leaving campus and encouraged others not to do so...“There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles (the theme of the Douglas Turner Ward play Day of Absence, as well as the recent Woman’s Day walkout), and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away,” Weinstein wrote. He continued, “The first is a call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force and an act of oppression in and of itself.” Weinstein added that he would not participate and added, “On a college campus, one’s right to speak—or to be—must never be based on skin color.” Student protesters decided that email was racist and a firing offense. They gathered at Weinstein’s classroom and began shouting at him and, eventually, demanding he be fired or resign.
Remarkably, Prof. Weinstein's admonition that "one's right to speak -- or to be -- must never be based on skin color" was deemed a problematic sentiment by self-stylized opponents of racism. Click through to read his eminently reasonable letter explaining why he would not participate in the newly-proposed 'Day of Absence' arrangement, then watch his interview with Tucker Carlson -- replete with the lowlights of his fruitless attempts to reason with hysterical Evergreen State College students who confronted him:
Weinstein's brother weighed in, noting that that the professor is left-of-center politically, lamenting that this unhinged witch hunt shows how "the Left eats its own." Following this appalling spectacle, Weinstein was advised by police that he should not lecture on campus for a few days, citing safety concerns. The insanity grows more insane:
As a biology professor for 15 years at Olympia’s The Evergreen State College, Bret Weinstein has seen his share of protests, but he’s never been afraid of being on campus until this week. “I have been told by the Chief of Police it’s not safe for me to be on campus,” said Weinstein, who held his Thursday class in a downtown Olympia park. An administrator confirmed the police department advised Weinstein it “might be best to stay off campus for a day or so.” ... “When one opposes these proposals, what happens is one is stigmatized as ‘anti-equity’ and because I am light-skinned the narrative suggests I'm a person who has benefited from privilege and that I'm trying to preserve that privilege in the face of a legitimate challenge,” said Weinstein...But when an African American student, one of the protesters, heard Weinstein was advised to stay off campus, she responded, “If he feels unsafe or frightened for two days, he can only imagine what black and brown bodies have feared for years."
Step one: Insist that white people leave, in order to facilitate a "safe space" for the remaining students of color. Step two: Berate a white person who refuses to accede to this approach. Step three: Justify threats against this individual's actual safety as a backwards form of racial-historical payback. This is mob rule, wherein university administrators are unable or unwilling to physically protect a member of their own faculty as he's pilloried for not accepting the children's latest ugly campaign of "anti-racism" racism. Because "justice," or whatever. Weinstein also noted on social media that supportive students in his class were being monitored and menaced, too -- also under a truly perverted notion of "safety:"
My students are being singled out for disagreeing with the conventional wisdom. Witch hunt, 2017. @EvergreenStCol is silent on the matter. pic.twitter.com/8LXlV5kRTx
— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) May 25, 2017
And lest you shrug this incident off as the deranged rantings of marginal, left-wing mediocrities (Evergreen State boasts a highly selective...98 percent acceptance rate), this garbage is taking root at alleged 'smart schools,' too: End of Discussion culture is metastasizing. The irony in the final example below is so glaring that perhaps even an enraged Evergreen State College undergraduate might be able to spot it:
Yale just awarded "truthteller" prizes to the petty little fascists who bullied scholar re free speech @jkirchick https://t.co/8NgsarjFjW pic.twitter.com/wWtLvIYmCd
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 26, 2017
Students at @NorthwesternU stop an immigration officer from speaking. His presence claimed to be "hurtful" https://t.co/SHAcOMjQ1r
— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) May 18, 2017
U of Chicago student group demands race-specific dorms, funding cuts for student groups that support discriminationhttps://t.co/wHGCbOUUej
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 25, 2017
Still, as we expose Middlebury College for doing next to nothing to the students responsible for this disgrace, we should also note that there have been more positive developments out of the University of Chicago and Northwestern lately, too. I'll leave you with yet another identity politics inanity out of Portland, which at least provides an occasion to highlight George Will's recent flaying of the hard Left's crusade against "cultural appropriation:"
Should white chefs sell burritos? A Portland restaurant’s revealing controversy. https://t.co/LxP0LdjNWT
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 28, 2017
Join the conversation as a VIP Member