A Yale Law school student who is a Native American and a conservative, was recently accused of racism and called out by diversity administrators over a friendly email.
That is not an exaggeration. The student, who is a member of the Federalist Society, sent out an email invitation to fellow students, and some ignorant members of the student body who received it, claimed it was racist and triggering.
Aaron Sibarium writes at the Washington Free Becaon:
A Yale Law Student Sent a Lighthearted Email Inviting Classmates to His ‘Trap House.’ The School Is Now Calling Him To Account.Administrators at Yale Law School spent weeks pressuring a student to apologize for a “triggering” email in which he referred to his apartment as a “trap house,” a slang term for a place where people buy drugs. Part of what made the email “triggering,” the administrators told the student, was his membership in a conservative organization.The second-year law student, a member of both the Native American Law Students Association and the conservative Federalist Society, had invited classmates to an event cohosted by the two groups. “We will be christening our very own (soon to be) world-renowned NALSA Trap House … by throwing a Constitution Day Bash in collaboration with FedSoc,” he wrote in a Sept. 15 email to the Native American listserv. In keeping with the theme, he said, the mixer would serve “American-themed snacks” like “Popeye’s chicken” and “apple pie.”The student, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, is part Cherokee, the Indian tribe that was forcibly displaced during the infamous Trail of Tears.Within minutes, the lighthearted invite had been screenshotted and shared to an online forum for all second-year law students, several of whom alleged that the term “trap house” indicated a blackface party.
The term “trap house” has been integrated into pop culture, so objections to the term are moot, as Sibarium points out:
“Trap house” has been a term used in progressive pop culture since at least 2016, when the socialist podcast “Chapo Trap House” burst onto the scene. Hosted by three white men, the podcast has received sympathetic profiles in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Guardian, none of which suggest that there is anything racial about its name. Once associated with inner city crack dens, “trap house” has also become generic slang for any place where young people can score beer.
Less than a day after the email was sent, this student was called to a meeting with the associate dean and the school diversity director, where he was told that his membership in the Federalist Society triggered some students, and this is key.
The student recorded the meeting, which you can listen to here.
This excerpt from Sibarium’s report says it all. I want to have this framed and hang it on a wall:
The episode also offers a peek into the culture of campus diversity offices that claim to be a resource for all students. Behind closed doors, the leaked audio suggests, these bureaucracies are less ecumenical than their public messaging lets on: Their goal isn’t to make universities more inclusive, but rather to wield the threat of exclusion against disfavored groups.
Lawyer turned writer David Lat posted a long thread about this on Twitter. Here are a few of his tweets:
This entire affair was an exercise in misinformation, false accusations, and ignorant people using power just because they can.
If leftists at Yale want to fight racism, they should start with their school’s namesake, who was actively involved in the slave trade industry.
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