The College Fix

The College Fix presents a roundup of the top scandals, screw-ups, and stupid decisions involving college campuses. This week, universities across the country played host to professors who see the world through racism-colored glasses. But first …

Actually, there is no “but first” in this installment, because paranoid professors stake claim on all three slots. We thank them for their enthusiasm.

3) Earlier this week, a bunch of Texas college students were guilt-goaded into apologizing for their “fiesta-themed” fraternity and sorority party. Apparently wearing ponchos, fake mustaches and sombreros is akin to racism. Granted, two of the students wore shirts with the words “border patrol” and “illegal,” but while that may be tacky, it’s not necessarily malicious.  Nevertheless, they were called insensitive white kids mocking a culture, according to an article in The Daily Texan.

Too often on today’s hypersensitive, politically correct campuses, students and educators actively look for ways to feel offended. Maybe the student partiers in Austin could get by on the grounds of “artistic expression,” like the current “Piss Christ” exhibit. Apparently it is acceptable to put the symbol of the Latino culture’s dominant religion in urine, but for some reason it’s not OK to wear a sombrero? C’mon, people need to stop looking for a reason to be a victim. The students’ intent was to have fun, not to hurt people.

2) This next one speaks for itself. Sylvia Chan-Malik, assistant professor of American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, takes no prisoners when talking about where she sees racism in society today. In advance of a panel she will moderate Oct. 1 on the campus dubbed: “Asian American Voices in an Age of Terror,” Chan-Malik offers her scorched-Earth approach on racism:

 “We live in a time in which racism, as well as classism, sexism and homophobia, is simultaneously rampant and invisible. On the one hand, racism is everywhere – in the coded language of politicians, law enforcement practices, the violent inequality that determines the uneven distribution of state and social resources (education, housing, transportation, etc.). On the other hand, racism no longer speaks its name; even vitriolic racism espoused by the likes of the Tea Party/birthers is couched in an oftentimes ‘liberal’ language of equality and democracy. The task, then, is to decode and debunk all this disingenuous doublespeak that obscures the persistence of racism and inequality.”

Gee professor, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?

1) Rounding off the list is Professor Linda Gordon of New York University, who told a crowd of students recently that the real reason conservatives don’t like Obama is because he’s black.

“No one predicted the virulence of this hostility to Obama,” Gordon told a crowd of students. “I believe that much of it is racial and that it is compounded by his rational, considered, intellectual style.”

In addition to the fact that that statement is incredibly insulting on its face, has it ever occurred to campus intellectuals such as Gordon that the real reason conservatives don’t like Obama is because his policies run contrary to almost everything they believe?

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