Yesterday, a student contacted me with a concern that is common among
those taking courses in the social sciences and humanities. This
particular student is enrolled in an online criminology class taught by a
leftist professor. During a discussion of the Black Lives Matter
movement, one of the more conservative students in her class used the
phrase “all lives matter.” Predictably, the leftist professor objected.
But he went even further by repeatedly accusing the student of racism.
To make matters worse, the ad hominem attacks were made in front of all
the students enrolled in the course. It was part of an online class
“discussion.”
Although the student who contacted me was not the one attacked, she
wanted to know how to confront the professor who was so clearly out of
line. She was understandably reticent to express her own views after
seeing a fellow student attacked in the middle of class discussion.
Given the importance of the issue, I am printing my response to the
student to help other students who are similarly attacked or intimidated
in the classroom:
Dear Amber: The first thing to remember about responding to a false accuser is what not
to do. Above all, you must resist the temptation to accuse the
professor of harassment or of breaking the campus speech code. That is
what leftists do and it is wrong. The best way to respond to bad speech
is with better speech, not censorship.
Furthermore, you need to respond to accusations of racism with
questions rather than assertions. Here are the three questions you need
to ask. William Wilbanks, author of The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System, inspired the first two questions. Greg Koukl, author of the book Tactics, inspired the third:
1. What do you mean by racism?
First of all, you
need to realize that academic leftists rarely understand the terms they
are using when they attack conservatives. Racism is a specific belief
that races can be ranked according to genetically inherited
characteristics. For example, when a white supremacist takes a racist
view of blacks he is really saying that they are genetically inferior.
This genetic inferiority allegedly manifests itself in lower
intelligence, which, in turn, translates into other undesirable
characteristics such as sloth and a propensity toward crime.
If the professor cannot supply the correct definition of racism after
he has used the term then he makes a complete fool of himself. If he
can supply the correct definition, this leads to an even bigger problem,
which we will explore with the second question.
2. How does racism apply to the situation at hand?
If
the professor does happen to know the real definition of racism then
he’s in quite a pickle here. You can ask the professor “How exactly does
the assertion that ’all lives matter’ (read: all lives have equal
value) translate into the notion that certain categories of people are
genetically inferior to other categories of people?”
3. Have you ever considered the following?
After
showing that the professor doesn’t know the meaning of the words he is
using and has no evidence to support his position his credibility is
decimated. Now it is time to move in for the kill.
There are a lot of options here. For example, one could simply ask,
“Have you ever considered that the statement ‘all lives matter’ is
fundamentally anti-racist?” Asking, “Are you at all concerned that by
opposing an anti-racist statement you align yourself with the true
racists” would be a good follow-up question from which the prof
essor
could never recover.
In academia today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
distinguish the mentors from the protégés. Fortunately, exposing these
incompetent professors is never more than a few well-placed questions
away.
by : Mike Adam
He was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964.
While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won
the state 5A soccer championship. Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983
with a 1.8 GPA. He was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a
result of flunking English all four years of high school.