Prof Who Urged Public Harassment of Politicians Granted Tenure

Prof Who Urged Public Harassment of Politicians Granted Tenure

You may remember this guy from a few months back. He called for others to mess with the food of people he doesn’t like. Now he has tenure.

The College Fix reports:

Professor who called for public harassment of politicians granted tenure

A professor who previously called for aggressive public harassment of politicians, including stealing their food in restaurants, was granted tenure at his university recently, though in a rare move the governing board debated his tenure at length due to his inflammatory comments on social media.

James Thomas, a sociologist professor at the University of Mississippi, generated controversy in the fall when he called on Americans to confront and harass “senators” when they ate out at restaurants. Thomas’s remarks came during the acrimonious battle to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. At the time, numerous Republicans were being publicly harassed by activists who believed that Kavanaugh was guilty of sexual assault.

At that time, Thomas, whose Twitter handle is “insurgent_prof,” urged his followers: “Don’t just interrupt a Senator’s meal, ya’ll. Put your whole damn fingers in their salads. Take their apps and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes, and take their food home with you on the way out. They don’t deserve your civility.”

Thomas’s call for harassing politicians generated significant negative media attention. And this month, as Inside Higher Ed reports, the University of Mississippi’s governing board apparently considered not granting him tenure due to “recent concerns regarding certain statements by [Thomas] on social media.”…

In the end, though, the university’s endorsement of Thomas’s tenure “carried the greatest weight in the majority of the board’s decision” to grant him tenure, the trustees said.

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