Student Activists at Emerson College Demand Defunding of Student Newspaper for Racism and Ableism
“demanded that the paper publicly apologize”
We are witnessing a form of hysteria not unlike the Salem Witch Trials. Accusations are being used against people to gain power over them.
The College Fix reports:
Emerson College activists demand student paper be defunded due to ‘racism, ableism’
Student activists at Massachusetts’ pricey Emerson College recently demanded the school’s student paper be totally defunded, claiming it is “racist,” “ableist” and that its employees engage in discrimination.
The activists’ so-called “An Act of Acknowledgement for The Berkeley Beacon” demanded that the paper publicly apologize to “every marginalized reporter who The Beacon has hurt,” and also “educate prospective students about its ‘racist and ableist past.’”
The Beacon reports the Act followed a “semester of upheaval” over an article which allegedly “uplifted a white student’s experience with Black Lives Matter protests,” but failed to offer a student of color’s perspective.
Fifteen Beacon staffers resigned over the article, and the campus group Protesting Oppression With Educational Reform, or POWER, said the story “undermined the BLM movement.”
A former Beacon staffer claimed the paper doesn’t care “about amplifying marginalized voices or creating an inclusive and safe environment,” and added it “upholds [a] toxic news boys club environment.”
Other demands from the Act included:
— [A] new publication should be created from the ashes of The Beacon—the “new” Beacon should be approved by SGA and a working group composed of marginalized students from POWER, ACCESS, and other intercultural organizations.
— Th[e] new publication will have mandatory anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-sexist, anti-objectivity, and all anti-forms of oppression resources such as self-help books, Tuesda Roberts’ guidance, and mandatory attendance for open cultural events.
— In this new publication, any editor—be either the EIC, managing, staff, or assistant—any reporter that is racist, ableist, or reinforces any type of oppression—in an article or through a verbal/online conversation— is put on probation. If the reporter does not make an effort to reeducate themselves during their probationary period, they are removed from The Beacon and can only rejoin in a year’s time.
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Comments
I demand disenrollment and expulsion of activists and malcontents. May the college obtain protective orders against the miscreants such that actual students may have a safe space.
It reminds me of a comic strip I saw once:
A man confronts his boss and says, “Mr. Dithers, someone said that you called me a dumbhead. I demand an apology!”
Mr. Dithers replies, “I’m sorry that you’re a dumbhead and I apologize.”
The student newspaper’s editors could follow suit: “We’re sorry that our critics lack ability, and we apologize.”
It looks like the Red Guard wants total topical and editorial control of what everyone at their school reads and thinks. I hope the administrators have the backbone to tell the malcontents to move to Oberlin or Evergreen State, but I suspect they won’t.
What really scares me is there might be places where some of these people might get jobs which doesn’t involve serving coffee. Dean Wermer is starting to look like a better administrator each day.