I'm getting a little sick of all the finger-wagging the media and people in this thread are doing to college students and minority folks who chose to speak out.
All that I've read so far indicates that this professor is opposed to measures that create equity. This letter is another example of that. So, for all intents and purposes, this professor is as progressive as the majority of people in this very thread; as in, not very progressive at all, especially if THIS is what's got you all riled up. Because he isn't asking for reason, logic and proper justice. What he's asking for is
order, and for his boat to not be rocked. He mentions that it was a voluntary move to have White students leave campus for a day, so clearly the student body doesn't have an issue with it. The fact that he chose to go public with it and do interviews with Joe "Tolerant Left" Rogan to make himself into some sort of a victim probably put this shit over the top. He's actively speaking out against his own students for something they agreed to do, and gaining publicity for it.
The problem with the left isn't this protest, or anything like it; the problem with the left is being antagonistic towards any ideas of equity, and being hostile towards the wants and needs of people of color in general, even though Black women are the biggest supporters for the Democratic Party. The problem with the left is being done in by pettiness... but not pettiness over things like equity and social justice... but pettiness over emails and purity tests. The problem with the left is the moderates calling themselves progressive, while not actually embracing progressivism and writing anyone that speaks out against the order as crazy people with no understanding of the real world.
By the way, as a Black man and a former college student myself, let me show you what the real world is at the moment:
- White supremacists, Russian mobsters & corporate cronies currently run the federal government, in nearly all areas.
- The Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court because apparently America isn't racist anymore... and as a result, voting ID laws have become a bit more commonplace as of recent.
- We have an entire political party that wants to remove people from getting health care, remove any focus on climate change, and wants to gut every entitlement and cut education funding in the name of tax cuts.
- Segregation is still a thing.
- Policemen are still killing Black people in cold blood and getting away with it.
- Immigrants are still being written off as leeches on society's tit (even though they are typically some of the hardest working Americans you can find) while the 1% makes the most money, but contributes less than anyone else.
- Prisons still profit from removing Black & Brown men from their families and into the cycle of incarceration.
- Even though all of us are set to be fucked by globalization & automation, you'll be fucked even harder, and with a bigger dick, if you're a person of color.
- Women are still treated as second-class citizens whose bodies aren't even respected by some state governments, let alone their rights.
- Right-wing groups are selling themselves out to foreign entities the world over, just so they can say whatever they want without consequence, kill niggas without reprecussion, and keep female characters in video games in revealing clothing without feeling guilty about it.
- People of color don't get to have better, cleaner, safer neighborhoods and still afford to actually live in them.
- We still got crack and guns in our inner cities, creating a cycle of dependency and violence that will never end, and no one is gonna do anything about it. All we get is an admission from former Reagan cabinet members as to why they put the guns & crack there in the first place.
There. Did I paint a pretty picture of today's world? I think I have a better understanding of the world than most of the finger-waggers in this thread, tbh.
And no, this won't hurt Evergreen College in the future. This college is still gonna exist, and professors will still work there, and students will still mortgage their futures for a piece of paper that will help them secure their future barista career at Starbucks so they can pay off their loans for the next 20 years. Nothing will change. I know exactly how this fucking world and all of its institutions work. These students want to change that; or at the very least, make it a little better for themselves and the people around them, so that they can find some kind of peace before they die as broke as they were they day they were born.
So, sincerely, fuck you from the bottom of my heart if you're in here chastising these students for calling this professor out for his frankly weak-ass beliefs and so-called "progressive" stances. And fuck you even more for suggesting that compromising with people that literally want to see me and people like me hanging from trees, is somehow the way that the real world should work.