Recently, while watching Joe Rogan’s podcast featuring Dr. Bret Weinstein, I became interested in his story in regard to an incident that occurred in 2017.
The narrative begins with the sudden change of heart the organizing committee of a yearly custom in Evergreen State University called ‘Day of Absence’ had. Normally during the ‘Day of Absence’ minorities of both alumni and professors, individually, would stay off campus as protest and call for appreciation of their intellectual and other vital contributions to society. The organizers suggested that in 2017 white people (alumni, faculty and staff) should not attend to college that day.
Dr. Weinstein opposed himself to that announcement by posting the following: “There is a huge difference between a group of coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and underappreciated roles and a group encouraging another group to go away. The first is a forceful 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.”
The professor’s email resulted in him being protested by a substantial amount of students accusing him of racism, hate speech and being politically invested in the alt-right. Those students would not allow him to teach his class interrupting the lectures with microphones, shouts, screams, excessive cursing (one of protest/activist favorites) and by blocking the entrance to his classroom for him and his students*. Those practices escalated quickly and upon receiving a call from the police chief suggesting him to stay off campus due to death threats, Dr. Weinstein hosted his lectures in nearby park in agreement with the college administration, since leave was not granted neither to him nor his wife (also a teacher at Evergreen).
The incident got a lot of attention quickly and became national news in America, while the president of Evergreen University, G. Bridges who engaged in conversation with the protesting students did not take action to protect his colleague. Outrageously he encouraged for more insanity with his silent stance. That was until the occurrence of said threats above where he would close down the whole campus for three days altogether.
Although some conversations have happened between Dr.Weinstein and some, reasonable, alumni consensus was not met, and the professor filed a lawsuit against Evergreen. Consensus was reached when a settlement of half a million dollars was agreed upon by both parties, and as part of the settlement Dr. Weinstein and his wife resigned from their faculty positions.
What is to be drawn from all this?
Well to begin with it must be noted that it takes a lot of courage to stand up for yourself when you know that your job and well being is on the line. But it is of more importance to talk about the extreme sensitivity of the younger generation that is swarming through colleges’ mainly in America but also universally nonetheless. What this professor did was to stand up to what he believed to be an act of oppression. It was suggested, though subtly demanded, that white people be excluded from campus for that particular day. That may be fair considering the well known oppressive history especially towards minorities, but what is also fair is for everyone to be able to speak their mind.
Who authorized 18 and 22 year old adults to be those who decide whether someone is able to speak up or not? And more importantly why is a group of people able to interrupt university lectures and mess with ones’ right to work and other’s right to attend to a class they have paid for, with loaned or hard worked money. Why is it possible that just because someone is offended, careers must be put to an end , comedian’s gigs must be censored and canceled, or even that everyone must feel sorry because they were born the race they were born?
I do not empathize with said groups, their protests are a pathetic cry for moral recompense. The ideology ridden youth should be made stronger, more competent in order to be able to think and create a solid opinion on whatever matter they want to address.
Such incidents have happened with an increasing frequency in the USA (Charles Murray, Heather Mac Donald) and it is my belief that the whole world will see more of them.
Stay aware!
*Student quote as seen in video: ‘’This is not about you. We are not speaking on terms of white privilege.”This is not a discussion, you have lost that one.’’
Sources:
1)https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bonfire-of-the-academies-two-professors-on-how-leftist-intolerance-is-killing-higher-education
2)https://quillette.com/2017/12/18/activists-took-control-university-case-study-evergreen-state/
3)https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/opinion/when-the-left-turns-on-its-own.html