Fired Princeton Prof Joshua Katz Finds Freedom in Cancelation
“Over the past two years I have gained more friends than I lost — and these are real friends”
Good for him. This story should give inspiration to anyone who has experienced cancel culture.
The College Fix reports:
Fired Princeton professor finds community, freedom in cancelation
“The canceled are blessed with knowledge of who their friends are,” wrote classicist Joshua Katz in the Autumn issue of the intellectual journal Sapir. Katz (pictured) was a tenured classics professor fired by Princeton in May following outspoken criticism of “anti-racist” initiatives and activists on campus, The College Fix reported.
Katz was ostensibly let go for not cooperating with a probe into his sexual relationship with an undergrad 15 years ago, the New York Times reported in May.
“However, he already served out a punishment — a suspension — for the relationship,” The Fix stated.
“Katz and [his attorney, Samantha] Harris have maintained in previous interviews that he was targeted for criticizing anti-racist initiatives on campus and rebuking a group of black students activists for employing highly aggressive tactics,” The Fix continued.
Katz wrote in his essay that that he has built a new network of generous fellow travelers with whom he can freely speak his mind.
“Over the past two years I have gained more friends than I lost — and these are real friends,” Katz wrote. “We do all the things together that friends do, including lifting one another’s spirits when there are setbacks and, like normal people, revealing our disagreements and disappointments openly rather than knifing each other in the back.”
“It’s not only that my new friends are numerous. They are also racially, ethnically, religiously, politically, socioeconomically, and ideologically diverse…And, thank God, they are not all academics.”
In a July 2020 Quillette article, “A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor,” Katz critically evaluated the demands advanced by his fellow faculty members following George Floyd’s death. He took issue in particular with proposals that faculty of color should be rewarded for “invisible work” with “course relief and summer salary,” arguing that it would “lead to civil war on campus and erode even further public confidence in how elite institutions of higher education operate.”
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Comments
Just by writing the nine trenchant words, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” Kris Kristofferson earned entry into the ranks of top American philosophers.
Excellent analogy…and as we approach the final week prior to the mid-terms there seems to be many center Democrats who see the accumulative outcomes of having majority Democrats in all three branches in D.C. and ditto for many of the states and are adopting the ‘nothing left to lose’ and standing up for a change…casting their vote to Republican candidates.
His attorney is mentioned in the article. Is there a lawsuit pending?
Academia is just not worth it. At best, you are embattled on every little issue from whether you state a preference for salt and pepper vs. hot sauce on your eggs versus less weighty questions like pedagogic philosophy and engaging students in controversial discussions like telling them they flunked a test. I look askance at any younger person looking at an academic career and wonder just how much antipsychotic they need!