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Oberlin College Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2016 16 Comments
Oberlin College certainly is an "exciting" place to be these days. Oberlin just fired a professor after antisemitic Facebook posts, students are petitioning to become a sanctuary campus, and the President of Oberlin just circulated an email about antisemitic vandalism at an unnamed professor's house. That come just after calls from Black Lives Matters supporters on campus to boycott Gibson's Bakery, near the Oberlin College campus. The spark was the arrest of a black student for shoplifting and assault, and two other students for assault on the shop owner. In response, Oberlin College appears to have ceased purchasing baked goods from Gibson's, in apparent sympathy with the boycott call:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2016 30 Comments
You may remember Joy Karega, the Oberlin College "Social Justice Writing" Professor who put numerous anti-Semitic posts and graphics on Facebook. Karega was a supporter of the anti-Israel boycott movement, and hosted an event promoting BDS right around the time the controversy over her Facebook posts erupted. But she wasn't questioned and didn't get in trouble for her anti-Israel views. Those views, unfortunately, are all the rage at Oberlin and other liberal campuses. Rather, her Facebook posting clearly veered into rank antisemitism. Like this one alleging a conspiracy by the Rothschilds to rule the world:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 13, 2016 35 Comments
Gibson's Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio, has been in business since 1885. It sells a variety of baked goods along with wine and other foods. On November 9, 2016, Gibson's employees noticed what they thought was a person shoplifting two bottles of wine hidden in his jacket. That alleged shoplifter was a black Oberlin College student. When they attempted to stop and photograph him, they were attacked by several other people accompanying the student. The police were called. The Oberlin town police department has posted the Incident Report online, reflecting the arrest of the alleged shoplifter and two others involved in the scuffle. Here is the first paragraph of the police report:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2016 32 Comments
You may remember Joy Karega, the Oberlin College Social Justice Writing professor (yes, there is such a position) who, when not helping organize anti-Israel BDS events with Students for a Free Palestine, posted bizarre Jewish conspiracy theories on Facebook. Like this image of how the Rothschild family controls the world: Karega Rotshchild Image Karega also pushed other conspiracy theories, such as that the attacks on a Paris theater and Charlie Hebdo were Israeli false flag operations to distract attention from the Palestinian demands, and that Israel was behind ISIS:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 20, 2016 10 Comments
We have followed the problems at Oberlin College for years. Rather than revisiting everything, please scroll through our Oberlin Tag. The most recent incident involved Professor Joy Karega, who posted blatantly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Facebook, including linking the Rothschild family to a global conspiracy. Karega Rotshchild Image Karega also accused Israel of attacking Charlie Hebdo as part of a false flag operation and being the equivalent of ISIS.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 14, 2016 6 Comments
At one level, you could put this post in the "tell me something I don't already know" category. For several years I have been documenting anti-Israel activity on campus, typically part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and carried out by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). At the same time, I've pointed out many instances where such anti-Israel activity crossed-over into overt anti-Semitism, including at places like Oberlin and Vassar. (And that's putting aside whether the radical extremist anti-Israelism itself is anti-Semitic.) So the correlation between anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism seems obvious. When the only Jewish-majority nation in the world is demonized and dehumanized based on factual falsehoods and distortions under standards applied to no one else, it is no surprise that the hate manifests itself in hatred not just of Israel, but of Jews.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2016 12 Comments
Joy Karega is the "social justice writing" assistant professor at Oberlin College who posted blatantly anti-Semitic conspiracy claims on her Facebook page. Those posts included claims that the Jewish Rothschild family controls the media and politicians, that Israel is behind ISIS/ISIL, and that the 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks were Mossad false-flag operations. https://www.facebook.com/jakare01/posts/644193039018145 Equally important, and something overlooked by the media except us, Karega is a big supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and helped organize a BDS event at Oberlin just as few days ago at Oberlin at the request of the Oberlin Students for Justice in Palestine.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2016 4 Comments
Last week The Tower magazine broke the story of a "social justice writing" professor at Oberlin, Joy Karega, who engaged in some bizarre anti-Semitic and anti-Israel commentary on Facebook. The short version is that Karega, at least based on what she posts on Facbeook, sees Zionist and Jewish conspiracies almost everywhere, including claiming Israel was behind 9/11, and that the Charlie Hebdo attack and downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 were Mossad false flag operations. She also circulated and posted about the Rothschild family controlling the media and seeking global domination, so no mere anti-Zionist loon here. Karega Oberlin Netanyahu ISIS

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 20, 2016 16 Comments
On December 15, 2015, Legal Insurrection broke the story of the 14-page demand list prepared on behalf of the Black Student Union at Oberlin College. The list was a pity party of racial and class gripes, some of which were comical, some of which were quite nasty (like the demand to boycott Israel). The 14-page demand list was separate and apart from the much-mocked dining hall petition complaining about the lack of fried chicken on Friday nights and cultural appropriation of dishes such as General Tso's chicken. But the nastiest part was that the students demanded the firing of various professors and staff, and the promotion to tenure or tenure track of others. Seriously. Oberlin's President Marvin Krislov has just posted his response to the Demands, which now are on the Oberlin website . I think it would be fair to characterized the response as a complete rejection of the notion of unilateral Demands and attempts to interfere in the employment of faculty and staff.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 17, 2016 8 Comments
Oberlin College is an institution in turmoil over the past several years, and anti-Israel activism is part of the problem. Now, over 200 alumni are claiming the anti-Israel activism has created a hostile environment for Jews, and the alumni are demanding the college take action to address the problem. The issue of when anti-Israelism crosses into anti-Semitism is a hot topic on campuses recently because of the very aggressive tactics of anti-Israel campus groups, and the intense demonization of Israel. "Intersectionality" analysis is used by anti-Israel activists to try to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar movements:
Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel.
When City University of New York Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, tried to turn the Million Student March into an anti-Israel event and blamed high tuition on Zionists, the CUNY Vice Chancellor called it “thinly-veiled bigotry, prejudice, anti-Semitism.” At Vassar College, SJP circulated a Nazi cartoon after weeks of anti-Israel activism that included picketing a course which involved travel to Israel. Prof. Miriam Elman laid out the history and analysis in Fighting The Hate: When Does Anti-Israel Become Anti-Semitic? As described below, it appears Oberlin may need to go through a similar self-evaluation.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2015 6 Comments
Scrolling through our Oberlin College tag presents a very sorry recent history of the campus. The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013 was not used an opportunity to examine the campus grievance culture, but rather, as an excuse to to advance “even more extreme policies”. A student wrote to me at the time:
I’d like to personally thank you for your coverage of the Oberlin hate hoax. Many students… have been following your site and are glad that somebody is helping to get the word out about the Oberlin administration’s response. The Daily Caller story just grazes the surface of what really happened. The administration didn’t just allow students to live in fear, they actually used that fear to get students to push for even more extreme policies on campus. Many students formed into “working groups” to propose solutions for “institutional change”, nearly all of which have been approved by the administration and are being enacted.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2015 35 Comments
Many college campuses are seeing sets of “Demands” issued by students to administrations, often seeking to suppress speech the students deem offensive and to increase faculty and student affirmative action policies and programs. Hamilton College students using the name "The Movement" recently set what was believed to be a record 83 Demands. At least one of the Demands, for a "President of Color," was promptly ignored by the college when it named its new President recently. Oberlin College students, however, may be about to set a new record for length if not number of Demands. Oberlin, a self-proclaimed progressive institution, has seen racial strife on campus in recent years, including The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013 perpetrated primarily by a progressive white student trying to get the campus talking about race. Even after the hoax was exposed, the resulting campus conflict was exploited to advance “even more extreme policies.” (You can listen to my explanation of the hoax and result here.) More recent strife on campus involved protests by the Black Student Union over the quality of food in the Afrikan Heritage House. Oberlin also is known for non-racial activism, such at the "trigger warning" protests against the appearance of Christina Hoff Sommers. A student tipped us off that starting last night students began circulating and signing a 14-page list of 50 separate demands, in the name of the Black Students Union (BSU).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 25, 2015 16 Comments
Some of you may remember my August 22, 2013 post,The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013:
A massive racism hoax took place at Oberlin College in February 2013 in which two students made seemingly racist, anti-Semitic and other such posters, graffiti and emails for the purpose of getting a reaction on campus, not because they believed the hostile messages. At least one of the two was an Obama supporter with strong progressive, anti-racist politics. School officials and local police knew the identity of the culprits, who were responsible for most if not all of such incidents on campus, yet remained silent as the campus reacted as if the incidents were real. National media attention focused on campus racism at Oberlin for weeks without knowing it was a hoax. The hoax was confirmed when Chuck Ross of The Daily Caller recently obtained police records. Now it’s out in the open. Here is the history of how the hoax developed, played out in the media, and was covered up by the Oberlin administration.
Things would get much worse after that at Oberlin, even after the hoax was fully revealed, as we described in Oberlin racism hoax exploited to advance “even more extreme policies”. I explained the Oberlin situation in a radio interview:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 10, 2015 6 Comments
We previously reported on how Oberlin Radical Feminists Freak Out at Christina Hoff Sommers:
In the Oberlin Review radical feminists responded to Sommers’ upcoming speech with an OpEd, “A Love Letter to Themselves.” In this love letter, they accuse Sommers of being a “rape denialist” and proceeded to list her “offenses” to feminism. The letter concluded:
So let’s engage in some radical, beautiful community care, support and love. Let’s make space for everyone to engage at whichever level they want/need. Let’s come through for each other, both now and in the future. Trauma is an experience that threatens a person’s bodily, spiritual and emotional integrity. The psychological, emotional and somatic impacts extend beyond the experience of trauma. Healing is a process that looks different for each person. Let’s make space to care for all experiences of trauma and to respect those we care for. Let’s focus our energy on taking care of each other and ourselves. Let’s make her talk irrelevant in the face of our love, passion and power.
Hoff Sommers was greeted with "Trigger Warning" signs and of course, the obligatory "Jazz Hands." Some enterprising person has put the controversy to music, including on-screen lyrics as the names of the people signing the Oberlin Review letter passed by in the background: Oberlin College Video Feelz before Reelz Choir Christina Hoff Sommers screenshot keep me from the real world

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2015 40 Comments
As Aleister wrote previously, Christina Hoff Summers received an... interesting response when she spoke at Georgetown Thursday night. Ms. Sommers is the Factual Feminist at the American Enterprise Institute. In the Oberlin Review radical feminists responded to Sommers' upcoming speech with an OpEd, "A Love Letter to Themselves." In this love letter, they accuse Sommers of being a "rape denialist" and proceeded to list her "offenses" to feminism. The letter concluded:
So let’s engage in some radical, beautiful community care, support and love. Let’s make space for everyone to engage at whichever level they want/need. Let’s come through for each other, both now and in the future. Trauma is an experience that threatens a person’s bodily, spiritual and emotional integrity. The psychological, emotional and somatic impacts extend beyond the experience of trauma. Healing is a process that looks different for each person. Let’s make space to care for all experiences of trauma and to respect those we care for. Let’s focus our energy on taking care of each other and ourselves. Let’s make her talk irrelevant in the face of our love, passion and power.
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