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The "uncomfortable truth" in this "civil discourse" is unfortunately unspoken; the trend to stifle and erase the freedom of expression from the pursuit of an education. Yes, rightists, Zionist racists, and their reactionary ilk in the "academy" seek to prevent opponents of Israel from being a part of that discourse all the while defending their right to lie, obscure, and prevent students in universities and colleges from a complete appraisal of history, politics, science, or the arts never mind the preparation of new educators. But that is only a part of this trend. I submit that Steven Salaita's case would have been solved much more quickly had their been a stronger, more active element of academic freedom among professors and civil libertarians with a much more astute--that is less prone to knee-jerk reaction--defense of academic discourse. University administrators have latched on to the issue of civil discourse as a means to oppose academic freedom EVEN AS they appear to support it (witness the Duke administrations "disagreement" with Hough's statements)! Meanwhile, liberal, leftist, and Marxists "react" to this assault (yes, the Duke administrations "distancing" itself from Hough is a part of that assault) by employing some apparent notion of working class morality that seems to imply that "well, the racists and rightists are defending their own, we should defend ours". Instead of discussing this issue forthrightly, "we" (well, apparently, I) get a reprint of an article from a bourgeois higher education journal showing how the racist White professor is "gonna be ok" while professors of color are not, all with an apparent underlying message, "see, the 'real' problem is the repression of thought on Black and Brown people, Whites are only applying 'academic freedom' when it comes to defending racist Whites and 'nobody' is defending the oppressed, so, it's better if we 'revolutionaries' stick to defending the oppressed and observe how selectively academic freedom is employed by the oppressors". I suppose that ends the discussion, we can go about our business "defending the interests of the working class" by ignoring the broader assault on democracy that is literally thrown up not by some nefarious scheme on the part of the media, government, and university administrations but by the behavioral momentum of White privilege and capitalist social thought as reflected in the academy. In the last several weeks, we have gone (again, almost literally) from solidarity with Black rebellion in Baltimore to the observation of racism endemic to society. In this "civil discourse", we have observed racist machinations of police tweets and some subsequent firiings of racist police for their behavior, the exposure of a White principal's racist-tinged comments in Georgia during high school commencement and her firing, and the apparent actions taken on a racist White professor (although it is not entirely clear what those actions are given this latest article by IHE) and all sorts of "positive actions" against clearly racist thought. Did it occur to anyone here that this kind of activity, while probably not a coordinated effort on the part of those "exposing" these events are, in fact, having the consequence to inoculate society with the grand idea that it is ok to stifle "extreme thought"? Wouldn't such a practice squarely support the aims of administrators and the anti-democratic movement of Democrats and Republicans to dismantle freedom of expression? How is this problem not as important as the consequent problems that are supported by it; racism and the ability to fight it, academic freedom and the ability to defend it, austerity and the ability to organize against it? Why are "we" so reluctant to recognize that in defending a racist White professor to speak his polluted mind that we are in fact defending the right of the oppressed to rise up against our oppression? "We" have a dismal record in defense of democratic rights when those rights are assaulted upon those who believe they are privileged to have them. It weakens our defense of the rights of the oppressed when we fall silent or, in this case, let others speak for us. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
