On Martin Luther King Day, Americans remembered the man who said people should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. But on American college campuses nationwide, both the conversation and the curriculum is driven by the question of race.
In only the last few weeks:
- College Republicans at the University of California Berkeley were “doxxed” by self-styled “anti-fascists” from a group calling itself “Northern California Anti-Racist Action,” who exposed the students’ names, addresses and conservative political posts. The College Republicans were smeared as “white supremacists and fascist students using the guise of free speech.”
- Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson called for white people to maintain “individual reparations accounts” to make payments to black people as retribution for racism.
- A petition was circulated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the conservative college group Young Americans for Freedom to be labeled a “hate group” and all its members subjected to “intensive diversity training.”
- Students at the University of London called for study of the philosophers Plato, Descartes, Kant and other white men to be supplanted by philosophers from Africa and Asia as part of an effort to “decolonize” higher education.
- Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was prevented from speaking at the University of California Davis by violent protests from radical leftists who accused him of being racist.
Historian David Barton, author of “The Jefferson Lies,” mourns Americans have forgotten the colorblind message of Martin Luther King Day.
“No longer do we judge individuals by the worthiness of the contributions they made and whether they lifted and helped mankind but rather by whether or not they represent diversity, regardless of whether they have done anything significant,” he told WND. “George Washington, in his Farewell Address, talked about the importance of unity and begin a unified people – that even though we had some ‘shades of differences’ in ‘religion, manners, habits, and political principles,’ we still were a unified nation. Barack Obama just delivered his Farewell Address, and it was filled with identity politics as he singled out group after group – LGBT, black, white, brown, the top one percent, the refugee, Muslims, the poor, the immigrant, transgender, and women. No longer are we E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) but just the opposite: E Unum Pluribus (out of one, many). And as Jesus reminded us (and Abraham Lincoln repeated): a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Barton argued even the Founding Fathers have essentially been banned from American campuses. He argues there is a political agenda driving this hate campaign against the American past.
“If you want to get rid of their beliefs of limited government, a moral and religious people, constitutional restraints, individual inalienable rights, and so forth, you must cause people to reject those who advocated those beliefs,” Barton said. “So those who want larger government, no moral standards, and so forth, then call the Founders racists, bigots, wealthy, sexist, theocrats, land-grabbers, or any other available pejorative; and of course, it matters little that in nearly every case, the truth is just the opposite. I wrote ‘The Jefferson Lies’ to oppose this kind of anti-American campaign.”
However, Scott Greer, Deputy Editor of the Daily Caller and author of the upcoming book “No Campus For White Men,” said it’s not just a political agenda, but a racially driven anti-white agenda which is driving campus radicalism.
“It is ‘no campus for white men’ in the sense that white males are put at the bottom of the moral hierarchy in college education,” Greer told WND. “The greats of Western culture – Plato, Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, etc. – are now lowly regarded due to their racial identity. Pretty much any non-white writer or philosopher is put above these great men because of their identity as an oppressed minority. It doesn’t matter who is more influential or of higher quality – it’s all boiled down to identity politics and who better conforms to contemporary progressive orthodoxy.”
Greer said the “decolonize the campus” movement, which is now active at universities around the world, is nothing less than attempt to undermine Western civilization itself.
“It is all about attacking Western civilization and making it appear inferior to other cultures,” he said. “That is why they want philosophy courses to lean heavily towards non-western thinkers and ditch Plato and Aristotle. It’s only a matter of time until the focus changes from reducing the presence of ‘dead white men’ in curriculum to lowering the number of live white men on campus. South African campuses are already flaring up over ‘unequal’ demographics, so it’s possible to start seeing that kind of behavior in the states.”
The higher university climate in South Africa has been roiled by violent protests as students in the majority black nation demand more funding and curriculum changes. As a result, rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas are now not uncommon sights at universities as radicalized students battle authorities.
Barton warns America faces a Third World future if the status quo in academia is reversed.
“Much of academia is hates America as we have known it,” the historian told WND. “Want to get a fight started with a professor? Just suggest that America is or has been a unique or exceptional nation. Wow! The violent reactions that statement generates!
“I am appointed in many states by state boards of education to help craft the history and social studies standards in those states. I was recently working on the standards in one of the reddest states in America, and when I mentioned that we should teach students that America was a special nation, and tell them what made us exceptional and how to preserve that uniqueness, I was openly attacked and berated by teachers for even suggesting that. And this was in one of the most conservative states in the Union! A quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln says, ‘The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.’ If we continue with what we are teaching students today about America, expect us to become a Third World nation in a few generations.”
And Greer predicts the left’s embrace of anti-white identity politics on campus promises a Balkanized future of permanent conflict for the United States.
“The political consequences of campus politics are enormous,” he warns. “Campuses foster the minds of our future leaders, and inculcating destructive identity politics and victimhood culture is ultimately poisonous for our society. Conservatives must care about this if they hope to live in a healthy democracy. Otherwise, we’ll just descend into violent tribal politics where different groups see each other as mortal enemies in a Darwinian struggle for power.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/mlks-content-of-their-character-a-nonstarter-on-campuses/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/mlks-content-of-their-character-a-nonstarter-on-campuses/
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