This week when a group of liberal anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-capitalism students raised a ruckus at Dartmouth College, the mighty Ivy League institution caved like a house of cards and cancelled classes.
Former assistant editor for The College Fix, Robby Soave, reports for The Daily Caller:
Dartmouth College cancelled classes on Wednesday in order to hold a public forum addressing some students’ concerns that the esteemed member of the Ivy League supports social ills such as sexism, racism and capitalism.
The aggrieved students are part of a group called Real Talk Dartmouth that crashed a college recruiting event last week to protest what they believe is a toxic climate on campus. Dartmouth responded by giving in to the group’s demands. School officials canceled classes on Wednesday and encouraging students to attend a series of community building sessions.
In a promotional video, members of Real Talk held signs bearing messages that accuse the university of actively supporting evil causes.
“Dartmouth supports violence against queer students,” asserted one sign.
“Dartmouth supports sexism,” charged another.
“Dartmouth supports capitalism,” declared another.
The students did little to explain their complaint against capitalism, or what is wrong with supporting it, particularly when undergraduate tuition, room, board and fees at the august institution are just under $58,000 per year. The school’s endowment is about $3.5 billion.
Student protesters also did not list what actions the college had taken to support sexism or anti-gay violence…
Apparently, all this grievance was prompted by a few offensive comments posted on a non-university affiliated website, calling sexual assault protestor on campus “terrorists” and threatening to “execute” them. But there’s no indication that the police or anyone else took these as serious threats, or anything more than another couple of kids talking trash on the internet. Yet these words were enough to prompt the violent backlash of the campus’ self-styled radical left-wing contingent. Dartmouth liberals are fighting violent words with violent actions, I guess you could say.
To clarify, what happened next is this: The protested protestors organized a protest. Got that?
Well, never mind if it’s confusing. And never mind if the claims of these “protestors” have any basis in reality. Elite liberal academics are so terrified of being labeled “insensitive” to the ills of racism, or sexism, or any other “ism” that they will do anything to appease the liberal activists on campus.
Furthermore, these so-called “protestors” disrupted other students, interrupted classes, and even allegedly assaulted other students. Yet, the administration has rewarded these interlopers by treating their claims as if they were serious and by giving no indication that they plan to hold them accountable for their illegal and arrogant behavior.
Nicholas S. Duva & J.P. Harrington of the Dartmouth Review explain further:
When an illegal, disruptive and widely unpopular protest leads to the administration cancelling classes for the first time since 1986, it sends the message that violence is a justifiable means of instigating discussion. If halting classes truly makes students safer or ceases the harassment, then that’s good, but it cannot change the morality or legality of the protest. The administration ought to pursue justice and the rule of law by punishing those who committed or threatened violence in the past week, no matter their viewpoint…
Reality Check
If you were to search the entire country, it would be very hard to find many environments that are more thoroughly riddled with political correctness than an Ivy League university. So why, therefore, would anyone lend credence to the idea that such a place was a hot-bed of racism? (Unless one were referring to reverse discrimination against Asian applicants for example–something we can be assured that these left-wing protestors have NO problem with. Or else discrimination against conservatives when it comes to hiring faculty–another thing I’m sure they have no complaints about.)
What I wonder is this: if these students are so outraged and aggrieved, and feel so victimized, even while they reside in the liberal bubble of an elite university, then how are they ever going to cope with the realities of the real world? You see, unlike an Ivy League university, the real world won’t shut itself down in order to host a series of “community building sessions” every time a group complains about the racism, sexism, etc. that they perceive all around them. And shame on the Dartmouth administration for kowtowing to them.
To all those young Dartmouth liberals who fancy themselves warriors for left-wing causes: There’s such a thing as crying wolf, you know.
But this is what I want to know: Are Dartmouth officials going to reimburse all the rest of Dartmouth’s students whose classes were cancelled for no good reason?
Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix and author of the book SEX & GOD AT YALE: Porn, political correctness, and a good education gone bad (St. Martins, 2012)
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