Authoritarians on Campus

Posted: May 9, 2012 in Culture
Tags: Academic mob, black studies, Chronicle of Higher Education, Liberal Authoritarians, Naomi Schaefer Riley

The “higher education community,” as they like to be known, worships at the altar of diversity – unless, of course, we’re talking about diversity of opinion. Then these supposedly smart academics show us how dumb they can be.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, which publishes articles for that community, just fired a woman named Naomi Schaefer Riley. Why? Because she expressed an opinion many of those scholars in the “higher education community” didn’t like.

Really!

Academics, liberals who brag about being open-minded, read something they disagreed with and then, like a mob, hunted down the offender and made her pay. Ms. Riley was hired to provide conservative commentary and then was canned because she provided it.

Here’s what happened:

The Chronicle published a cover story recently called “Black Studies: Swaggering Into the Future” which said in part that “young black studies scholars … are less consumed than their predecessors with the need to validate the field or explain why they are pursuing doctorates in their discipline.” There was also a companion piece about five Ph.D. candidates who, we’re told, “are rewriting the history of race.” Nowhere in the articles is anyone quoted who is skeptical of black studies as an academic discipline.

Enter Naomi Schaefer Riley, who wrote a piece for the Chronicle’s Web site – (that was her job) — that said that the dissertation topics the graduate students mentioned were obscure at best and “a collection of left-wing victimization claptrap” at worst.

What happened next, sadly, is no surprise. After those oh so tolerant academics read what she wrote they bombarded her messages calling her – wait for it – a racist.

Ok, I’m not shocked, either. But that was only the beginning. Then 6,500 academics signed an on line petition demanding that she be fired.

For a few days, the Chronicle sort of stood its ground saying, Ms. Riley’s blog was an “invitation to debate.” But after about 72 hours, the pressure had become too much for the Chronicle’s editor, Liz McMillen. She issued a statement that Ms. Riley says reads like “a confession at a re-education camp.”

“We’ve heard you,” Ms. McMillen wrote to the mob. “And we have taken to heart what you said. We now agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles.”

This, of course, was nonsense. Naomi Schaefer Riley – a white woman who, if it matters is married to a black man – was fired because she said things about race that are unacceptable in liberal academic circles. She was fired because she had an unpopular opinion, which is a crime against humanity on many college campuses. And she was smeared with the word “racist” because that’s the word liberals use to describe anybody with views on race they don’t agree with.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the mob that got her fired, Ms. Riley tells us that “If you want to know why almost all of the responses to my original post consist of personal attack on me, along with irrelevant mentions of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and George Zimmerman, it is because black studies is a cause, not a course of study. By doubting the academic worthiness of black studies, my critics conclude, I am opposed to racial justice – and therefore a racist.”

Liberals like to howl about the chilling effect when supposed enemies of free speech try to get them fired for something they said. In academia, these enemies, of course, are always conservatives. Liberals are always the victims of the mob. All of this proves a point: They’re not only dumb, these academic authoritarians – they’re also breathtakingly clueless.

Berryraymond

Ah the University of North Carolina, a school that provoked an attempted ” speaker ban” bill in the 60′s aimed at keeping communist speakers from giving talks on a state supported campus. The outrage was heard across the nation. College campuses should be where everyone has the freedom to speak. Bill defeated. Jessie Helms said the communist had the right to speak anyway, they were the professors. UNC’s struggling football program has recently been burdened with fraud all around one class that most all of the football players were suppose to be enrolled in and attending class. What class you ask, got it, Black Studies. I would love to see some real investigative reporting into the problem. Not just another cover-up with politically correct speak.
Fox

To accuse a white woman who is married to black man of being racist is an irony indeed. This simply boils down to, if “we” don’t like what you have to say we will call it racism, terrorism or any other word that denotes a derogatory tone itself. Which in itself is predjudice. This country was founded on FREE SPEECH but, we are quickly becoming a police state where one best watch what they say, OR ELSE. Politically correctness is a thinly veiled phrase for the new word. The new world where things are a facade; just as our privacy and freedom are. This country has gotten so far away from the founding documents of this country that we are truly hypocrites as a whole. By the time enough people figure out that we are the frog in the pot of water that is being brought to a boil it will be too late to demand (peacefully) a change. I certainly (admittedly and somewhat selfishly) hope my time is on planet has passed before I see a full out unveiling of what those in power have in store for us tiny ants at the bottom of their power pyramid.
Carmen

Think of all the wonderful careers available to you if you had a degree in Black Studies, Literature, Art, and other utter crap degrees. What a massive con operation.
Brendan Horn

A lot of these liberal mobs are some of the worst debaters you will ever see. They usually resort to the cheapest slanders against anyone who does not mindlessly embrace their precious ideas. They are allowed to call any critic a racist without any real evidence other than dissension from mindless drivel, but if anyone ever calls one of them a communist or a socialist, even after they espouse ideas that are very similar to the ideas in Marx’s communist manifesto, they are considered to have crossed a line no one should ever cross. These liberal mobs are caricatures. Their minds do not seem to work logically at all. They do not want fairness for conservatives.
annien

The democrats prey on the weak and the uneducated. They promise the people anything and everything, but using minority status to get ahead is just disgusting. Elizabeth Warren should donate 75% of her income to Native Americans.
soundnfury

We live in a strange Lewis Carroll type fantasy-land in which being 1/32 Native American makes you a celebrated minority, but straying from the prescribed orthodoxy by 1/32 of a degree makes you a hated bigot. That’s some diversity we got here… yessiree.
Annien

Liberals should just walk around with that label stuck to their foreheads, since they feel they are the good people and conservatives are mean, vile, evil people. The truth is listen to a passionate liberal and all you hear is whining, nasty, foul mouthed viciousness. I had my fill of 8 years listening to liberals say the most disgusting things about George Bush. I finally said enough I’m going to give them as good as they, but my way is not their way. I’ll do it in the voting booth, but let me just say, I’M JUST SICK TO DEATH OF LIBERALS’.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DGT5LFXDWHPKRWLSI2WPBXIGXE Wil

Jon Lovitz said during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan.”My father told
me, after he paid for my college education, I was on my own!”
“T”

” . . . Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles.”

Liz McMillan hoists herself by her own petard. Opinion articles are NOT reportage and since when does an opinion need to be “fair?” I have my opinion, you have yours; it’s really that simple. Essentially, Ms. McMillan wrote that Ms. Riley was fired for having an opinion in an opinion piece. And they insist on being taken seriously??!!
Wiley Jones

These students that has a degree in black studies can aply for a job .picking cooting.or just make out holding a cup on a street coner.
- soundnfury
  
  Just curious, but is English your first language?
http://shawmut.blogspot.com/ Dave O’Connor

Your first sentence provides the caveat, Bernie. ”The “higher education community,” “.
In rating half a century of wholesale and retail ‘schooling’ (whether it’s been education or conditioning), I ask simply; Higher than what?
Drew Page

What would liberals have to talk about if it weren’t for “victims”?   If they can’t find any, they will manufacture them and then immediately create a cause to support these “victims”. They will then villify anyone who disagrees with them by calling them nasty names (usually something with an “ist” suffix attached).   This, they believe, gives them the moral highground from which launch their attacks on anyone that has the gall to disagree with them.   Bernie, I agree with your assertion that these folks who preach the acceptance of diversity, can’t accept diversity of opinion when it is different from their own.

If a conservative feels that a person or group of people need his help of support, he will VOLUNTEER his time and/or financial support and may encourage others to do the same. When a liberal feels this way, he wants the government to pass a law FORCING everyone else to financially support such a group.   If a conservative doesn’t like a particular TV or radio program, he will change channels.   When a liberal doesn’t like a particular TV or radio program, he wants the station to take the program off the air and if the station doesn’t comply, he wants the government to take away the station’s license to broadcast, so that no one can access the program. And they do these kinds of things in the name of “fairness”.

The problem we all have is reaching a concensus on what the term “fair” means. What’s fair to me may not be considered fair by you and vice-versa. The same thing applies to the terms “rich” and fair share”.   In my experience, many people think that anyone who makes more than twice as much as they do are “rich” and this applies whether you make $30,000 a year or $300,000 a year. Mr. Obama and his supporters talk a lot these days about increasing the tax rates on those making a million or more annually, but when he submitted his proposed tax policy, it called for higher taxes on those individuals making $200,000 a year or more.    There is a 500% difference between $200,000 and $1 million; that’s more than a rounding error.    Perhaps the overused term of “fair share” needs to be defined a little more explicitly.   What exactly does “fair share” mean in terms of a percentage of income? Perhaps mine is an unworthy suspicion, but I think “fair share” has deliberately been left undefined.    While most people can accept the general concept of “fairness” , when it comes down to who has to pay and how many more dollars they have to pay, the term “fairness” may be debated by those who get tagged to do the paying those higher taxes.
Pekstrom

Until the racial double standard is eliminated, or at least openly criticized, there will be NO racial harmony in this country. It is impossible to reach an equilibrium with regards to race unless there can be an open and frank discussion surrounding the matter of race conflict within our society. You would think that educated people would reason with this, and become more accepting of civil discourse without the name calling, ‘race baiting’, and the firing of journalists that openly express their views. Unfortunately the power players behind the civil rights movement in America, including liberal college professors, have established a precedent for finding race conflict in EVERYTHING, and they are smothering the open dialogue we sorely need to resolve our racial conflict once and for all.
FloridaJim

The OWS people complain of graduating and not having a job. What jobs are there for “Black Studies”, Homosexual advancement, Diversity Manager[Michelle Obama's job making $317,000/year at a chicago bank she was not replaced upon leaving], African Studies, Community Organizer [Obama and Antony Jones], Sociologists, History of Homosexuals, …The problem with Education today is there are no questions from students when they begin their quest for one of these foolish studies-”what jobs are there for me and may I talk to a successsful graduate”. College education is all about professors and their tenure which prevents them from being fired just like New York city Teachers for any reason. High costs are driven by tenured professors at salaries of over $400,000 at Harvard, working 17 hours per week,with ever increasing costs to the students. Cost cutting is as unknown in college as it is in the Obama administration, a former professor, oddly.
- Kathie Ampela
  
  I agree with you. Colleges are not teaching real world skills (part of the reason graduates have a difficult time finding a job after graudation) and tenure makes it impossible to hold professors accountable. You want to learn about African studies…I did a search on Amazon, 66,572 books are available on the subject. Homosexual History? I got 1,382 hits on that subject. Spend a $100, get a wealth of knowledge, save the $150,000 tuition for Harvard and my son won’t be brainwashed by overpaid tenured college professors abusing their positions to indoctrinate our youth. This website is great for conservative readers: http://www.encounterbooks.com/
  - FloridaJim
    
    Thank you for the information.
- Kfbesq
  
  Good points all. With the one exception of “Sociologists”. Sociology is a legitimate discipline. It focuses on ALL groups, not merely the flavor of the day. That being said, like many other perfectly legitimate academic disciplines, anyone who doesn’t plan to earn an MA or Ph.D. then compete in an incredibly tight market of teaching and/or writing should begin saying “do you want fries with that” because you’re going to be doing it a lot. I waltzed out of a state school with a BA in Sociology in 1980 and got a job within a couple weeks with no problem…as an assistant manager at Burger King. I expected nothing more.
Matthew Gose

Bernie, you are undoubtedly aware that in academia there has recently been a radical re-definition of the term “racism”. I have PhD friends who insist that racism can only be committed by people who are…you guessed it, white. When people of color commit discrimination based on race (formerly also known as racism) it is passed off as understandable prejudice which is the direct result of years of white racism. My jaw hit the floor when I heard it for the first time. Sadly, they actually believe this stuff and teach it in the classroom.

Thanks for always telling it like it really is. I don’t understand why there’s not a colossal demand for honest reporting! Evidently, honesty was sacrificed on the altar of political correctness many years ago.
- Drew Page
  
  Right on, Matt.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Koffer/1020263329 Dave Koffer

very interesting article!
Brhurdle

I have concluded that the “racism accusation phenomena” has become a contrivance to be used to claim/exhibit elitist status. First, you place yourself in a position that no one would dare oppose regardless of the validity. Second, you’re assuring you will be lauded for courage, sensitivity and ideology correctness. A combination that assures your star will rise within the academic community. Only a masochist would oppose even blatant misuse of racism accusation and it becomes self prpogating.
robin in fl

I think there is a VERY contagious virus going around these days in academia land ..It’s called stupidity..it’s followed by nasty bouts of ignorance and causes the persons infected with it to have severe projectile rhetorical comments shoot out of their pie holes AKA mouths at a rapid pace. All one can do to avoid such a virus is to shake their head and walk away swiftly and be sure to role eyes as they do.

Great article as always Bernie.
Homer

Those 72 hours were over the weekend
David R. Zukerman

For what kind of career will a degree in black studies, women’s studies, gay studies prepare the college graduate?
- Homer
  
  An academic one
  - Drew Page
    
    Let’s not leave out Community Organizing and Politics.
- Terry Walbert
  
  Answer: Teaching black studies, women’s studies, gay studies to students who major in black studies, women’s studies, gay studies who will in turn…etc. etc., ad naseum.
Brad G

I think diversity equals mindless compliance to our progressive gods. Almost all progressive abolutes fade into utter nonsense decades or so after they have become the mantra of everyone who wants to appear fair and just. Just look at what an utter ass Al Gore is now? 8 years ago he was only one or two feet away from being on the same level as God!
https://me.yahoo.com/a/mWIyeTh7tNn4E6x9ywgLUoxSLJL5zrbrLAxDT.Yo#4067b libsRdumb

OMFG our Academics are freaking NAZI’s… How do we purge ourselves of this cancer?
- Brucee A.
  
  While in college I started to take more night courses after I noticed the faculty was a lot of part- time faculty with real jobs in the field which they were teaching. I noticed more common sense in this faculty than the academic pinhead tenured full-time professors. This also enabled me to work a real job in the day time.
  - Kathie Ampela
    
    I’m with you. Taking courses online gives you a real world advantge as well.
http://www.facebook.com/ted.wight Ted Wight

All of you need be clear: Democrat Progressives are not “liberal” or “liberals”, they are the conservatives in that they want to retain the status quo of union boss monopolies where money can be extracted from clueless union members, to finance the Democratic Party. Ditto the trial lawyers, who are a product of Democratic Party legislation.

The Progressives (sic) want only to stay in power not to have any diversity of anything. Ditto the President of the Democrats.
- brushfour
  
  You hit it right on the head…Ted. I live right in the heart of liberal Madison Wisconsin; home of the Liberal ” victim.” My city is full of the vacant eyed left leaning David Koresh cult-like true believers. They’re not the brightest amongst us, but they are the most irritating for sure. Your posts, like Bernie’s articles, are a breath of fresh air.
- Ben Hendricks
  
  I am with you 100% re. your “President of the Democrats” comment, ’cause that sums up what the wannabe B Hussein Obama really is.
http://www.facebook.com/ted.wight Ted Wight

Get real, Bernie, it’s not about diversity, it’s not about nose color, it’s about power, raw power over us. That’s the beginning and the end.
waterlylies84

I attended a supposed conservative seminary and in my course of studies I was required to take a cultural diversity class. I knew this class would be a “you are racist if you’re White, you are a persons non grata if you are a White male.” I wasn’t disappointed. Well, I was because I am an eternal, if slightly jaded, optimist. The prof, a White male, tripped all over himself apologizing in various ways for ever being born. When I questioned statistics that he was throwing out, when I had the audacity to be a White, Jewish woman, and question the sources of the statistics, I was made to feel like I was the biggest bigot in the school. (And by the way, you were only a bigot if you were White, and you were only an ethnic person if you were Black. The class gave a nod to other ethnicity’s but it was clear that the only ethnicity that mattered was Black…and Latino if it suited the political agenda at the moment).

The fact that 2/3′s of the school is White, half of the non-White students are Asian and less than 1/2 of the remainder are Black, makes me believe this school is racist. Numbers don’t lie. Why doesn’t the school reach more people of color, if they are so sorry for being White? Seriously? Why? I’ll tell you why, because they want to preach a message that they don’t want to live! That is true of most “culturally sensitive” areas of academia. Look who screams the loudest about racism; wealthy, White, professors or “learned” men.

Of the Black students in my classes (remember less than 1/3 of the student population is Black), one of them voted for our current president, all of them think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are an embarrassment to Black Americans, and none of them believed the pseudo-apologies of the professor. (Yes the school is small enough I have talked with all of the Black students).

In the supposed conservative, race/ethnicity sensitive, seminary, there is not ONE person of color teaching, there are only a couple of non-Whites in leadership, and a small handful of staff are non-White (and they are work-study). What does that tell me about academia? That even the smallest institutions of higher learning are for the most part, living in an ivory tower, still. They wouldn’t know racism if it hit them in the face because they refuse to get their hands dirty or look in the mirror.
- brushfour
  
  It is interesting how many black conservatives you do find when you talk to black people routinely. I’ve often wondered why white liberals have this notion that all or most black people are in the Liberal camp. Most Libs seem to be very inward turned toward their own. White Libs I find only seem to discuss issues with other white Libs. Lots of talk about diversity on the Left, but instead of listening to them, WATCH what they actually do. Very few white liberals date or marry outside their race.
- Kevin
  
  I would add only to one line you wrote. The rest was pitch perfect to the reality I have also seen in academia and lived in the professions in which I toil.
  
  To your line: “Look who screams the loudest about racism; wealthy, White, professors or “learned” men…” I would add only: “…who mostly live in white, upper class, and very exclusive
  
  neighborhoods of like minded whites”.
  
  I have witnessed the left handed racism of these folks first hand, unfortunately family members included, embodied in the sneers I received when suggesting they send their children to inner city schools or open their street up to a few black families. Then they wear their racism on their sleeves and when I point it out I am the heretic for suggesting the ridiculous thought that they could have a racist impulse and I am shunned as the true racist for pitting them thus. They betray their true inner intellect by the mental gymnastics they perform to justify their hypocrisy.
- Homer
  
  People are mixing statistics with racism. Progressive people, that is.
  Take a look at how many people applied, and why did they fail. How the entrance standards are connected to the likelihood to graduate, and so forth.
  Accepting a person based on her/his skin color will fail that person down the road. people would wonder if he/she had made it on her/his own, or maybe got some outside help.
  
  An academic institution should NOT go after this community or another. It should teach and research.
  It’ll be nice if academic institution will spread the desire for knowledge. This, I believe, should come from my home, not from the University.
  - waterlylies84
    
    Institutes of higher learning, aka colleges and universities and seminaries, always have a target group they are after. I’ve worked at three different universities in various capacities, two were liberal arts/secular, one was a bible school. All three had a target group they wanted to reach. It isn’t a matter of whether they should or shouldn’t target specific populations, the fact is all schools do it.
    
    They all claim they want to help the down-trodden and then refuse by action or inaction to really do anything to help. Oh, they send out their little weekend warriors to help physically clean up a neighborhood, or they host group sessions designed to listen to the cares of a given neighborhood, but they don’t do anything lasting. They certainly don’t offer scholarships to enough people in the “down trodden” category to make any real difference to that community.
    But I digress, if they are a Title IV school, and they get any form of financial aid (i.e. student loans), they are required by law to have a certain number of minority students, therefore they must target that population. It is my firm belief that unless it is an historically Black college/university (such as Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO), most other institutions only have the bare minimum in their seats. Hence, those colleges and universities are only giving lip service to their diversity policies.
- Drew Page
  
  Perhaps if these self-loathing white professors would actually walk their talk, I might have some respect for them. These same sanctimonious professors, who seem to have nothing but contempt for their own race, ought to consider taking teaching positions in an inner-city (i.e., nearly all black) high school in cities like NYC, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, East St. Louis, Cleveland, Houston or Oakland. They certainly could relate to the students and their parents and provide a top quality education preparing them for rigors of college and the job market. What do you think?
  - waterlylies84
    
    Drew, I think they would be overwhelmed by reality. It is one thing to teach in theory, it is another to live out the life you teach.
JohnInMA

If you really want a good, clear picture of intellectuals you only need to read Thomas Sowell on the topic. His revised edition of Intellectuals and Society is an excellent start.

Not only does this episode with Ms. Riley show how academia is more governed by politics, especially the liberal arts, but it also shows how powerful the progressives want to make the use of the word, racist. Had Ms. Riley been accused of a “vile” opinion without the racism charge, I suspect the action would have been less vigorous. The petition might have had less participation, also.

Intellectuals, and especially weak ones who hide in academia, are more tribal and therefore intolerant of “diverse” views than the public at large. They have become what they write against – namely a cabal exercising its power in a single-minded fashion with total disregard for its effect (or perhaps with full consciousness of its effect?).
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Borden/1075346246 Paul Borden

Something I have found interesting that sort of relates to this. Leftists often criticize people like Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Herman Cain, Larry Elder, etc. for their non-liberal views and for not supporting things like affirmative action and/or racial quotas and other such issues. The leftists apparently assume that behind every successful minority is affirmative action or something similar and Thomas, Sowell, Cain, Elder et. al. wouldn’t be where they are today without such help. Isn’t that racist in itself?
Vinbick44

Sadly, there is nothing new here. In the mid-sixties, the college professors I encountered were of the same ilk. It was one mind–the liberal faith. Anything conservative was a distraction from reality.
Rbblum

Wonder how many brick and mortar institutes of higher learning would actually exist (or drastically downsized) in a free market place incorporating academic classes available via computer.

One can only imagine receiving a degree by selecting the necessary course offerings with the best of the best instructors . . . . in the world . . . on demand via You-Tube.

Ooooops . . . . there goes the SEC football season.
Kathie Ampela

Will we ever hear about this story anywhere in the MSM? I guess it’s considered a justifiable termination by most in the liberal media establishment. How many times is conservative free speech silenced in academia and we never hear anything about it. I stumbled across the story by accident after I read Bernie’s column here: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/10/the-firing-of-naomi-schaefer-riley-a-disgraceful-witch-hunt/2/ The message that we are being forced fed enmasse is that our kids MUST incur tens if not hundreds of thousands in debt to go to college or they won’t have a future…and this is what is happening all the time and we hear nothing about it? This publication represents the “higher eduction community” which suggests wide spread groupthink…I’m planning for an alternative future for my son now.
EddieD_Boston

They’re so smug none of them get the hypocrisy.

Education at all levels has been taken over by the looney fringe. My students are so brainwashed it just amazes me what they’re convinced is right and how little of the counter argument they’ve been exposed to.
Bruce A.

Maybe the Chroniche should have posted a disclamer stating the views expressed by any opinion writer do not necessarlily reflect the views of the Chronile and stuck by the writer. Sounds like a great wrongful firing lawsuit.
http://twitter.com/BarancyPeloma Barancy Peloma

this is part of liberal progressive thought. talk the good talk about ‘diversity’ but if someone has an opinion they disagree with- just stop them. progressives really do have a tough time with freedom. especially freedom of speech they disagree with.
i see this bullying attitude at my local university in the student paper quite frequently.
GlenFS

Higher education is now expensive indoctrination.
- EddieD_Boston
  
  All levels of education in most states.
http://blog.cyberquill.com/ Cyberquill

Following yet another firestorm of criticism, this time coming from the other side, perhaps Ms. McMillen will “now” agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting met The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles after all, since the Chronicle’s editorial standards appear to be determined ex post facto based on feedback.
Phil

I’m shocked. I’m stunned. Give me a few minutes to pick my jaw up off the floor.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=636882516 Alan L. McKenney

It’s really a sad state of affairs that one can be fired for expressing views contrary to the views of the status quo in academia. And it’s not like you have to be or say anything conservative; you merely need only utter something that goes ever-so-slightly against the “progressive” grain & all hell breaks loose.
As the saying goes, the definition of a racist is anyone who is winning in an argument with a liberal…
- kayakbob
  
  true. but I would expand on that a bit and say – the definition of a racist is anyone that exposes the tortured logic of liberalism. The actual topic of discussion is irrelevant. My first hand example came many years ago in a discussion of the second amendment to the Constitution. This person denounced (their term) the right to own a gun. When I pointed out Constitutional aspect, this person said, “well, I am just expressing my first amendment right of free speech”.
  Hmm. “So let me get this straight. You are using YOUR first amendment
  right to take away EVERYONE ELSE’S second amendment right. Doesn’t that strike you as….ironic, at best?
  
  He didn’t even see the irony in his own position, but his next comment was very telling – “…but you are white.” As if that has anything to do with it. (the best part is that I am actually 1/4 Mexican, 1/4 Chinese and half Irish )
RonKean

I am sooo happy I sent my sons to a small state university in the midwest. They’re doing fine. I pity the parent who helps his kids get a stupid degree or sees his child rack up tens of thousands of dollars of debt in his early 20′s. Universities sucker kids into getting Pell grants and Stafford loans and couldn’t care less about wierdo new age content in exchange for debt. Black studies. Gay & Lesbian studies. Native American… Good luck to the young graduate with a bachelors in those.
- Tim Ned
  
  Ron, you are absolutely correct. The colleges of today are about getting kids federal loans or parents like me who funded their kids. It’s a racket and it’s corrupt.