Fernando Garcia, a 1988 Arizona State University grad, publicly took on a professor at the college after the educator wrote the op-ed: “In Trayvon Martin’s wake, ‘colorblind’ is an insult.”
“The outpouring of indignation about the killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman is justified and desperately needed,” wrote Matthew Whitaker, an ASU history professor and founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, in his column published recently.
Whitaker went on to argue that:
Our leaders, religious, activist, and elected, should be compelled to play significant and visible roles in efforts to confront and eliminate racial stereotyping and violence, before another young person of color is gunned down for being young, dark and “suspicious.” This is crucial because the “colorblind” rhetoric they often use belies reality and endangers the lives of black and brown children in particular.
We all have biases and prejudices, and racial stereotypes are as embedded in our culture as hot dogs and Coca-Cola. More often than not, they prowl the recesses of our minds and affect our behavior and choices; where we live, shop and dine, who we associate with, and who we would like our children to marry.
… to acknowledge racism is to take the first step toward divesting oneself of White privilege.
In response, Garcia wrote that racism has diminished – except for academics such as Whitaker, who live and breathe racism:
His world is consumed by racism in this country. Every nuanced behavior from Whites could have a racist intent. There is no giving any benefit of the doubt to his fellow Americans.
The question is not whether racism … exists but whether it is what it was 60 years ago. My assertion is that it is not.
Garcia cited the election and re-election of Obama as one example. He went on to note:
Have you forgotten that George Zimmerman is Hispanic? Is Whitaker suggesting that our president is a White Black just as Zimmerman was labeled a “White Hispanic”?
For the media, a Hispanic-on-Black crime does not fit the narrative, so voila, the New York Times invents White Hispanic as a racial label.
They peddled a similar message with Tawana Brawley, the Jena Six and the Duke lacrosse team in 2006. Accused Whites were immediately deemed guilty by the very same academics, media and the racial-grievance industrial complex. I have yet to hear an apology from any of these groups for having been so embarrassingly wrong.
What is at stake for the professor, and many others like him, is only their entire raison d’etre. If America is not the racist country the professor professes it to be, what is his purpose at the university?
Click here to read Garcia’s entire column.
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