“the great liberal freakout of 2017”
“I’d also like to point out that this whole thing happened because the author of the Bell Curve came to campus on the invitation of the school’s Republican student society and that rather than laugh at the thought of having a debunked scholar speak anywhere near their campus, Middlebury assigned him a moderator and gave him an auditorium. That, I would imagine, is closer than most people have to get to hearing racist pseudo-science in their own lives. Imagine what would have happened if someone at the New York Times had invited Charles Murray to address the newsroom. It would have never happened.
But if Charles Murray did come to the New York Times to give a talk about race and IQ, I sincerely doubt the reporters there would huddle together and do what Bruni suggests in his column and “hone the most eloquent, irrefutable retort to him.” They wouldn’t do this because they, for the most part, are thinking adults who understand that Bruni’s grand theater of debate is better left to anxious high school kids at a Model UN convention…
Free speech does not have to take the form of polite debates between massively privileged media people, politicians and academics. If you really think the biggest assault to free speech is taking place at Middlebury and NOT IN THE 18 STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY THAT ARE TAKING MEASURES TO SHUT DOWN PEACEFUL FORMS OF PROTEST, than I honestly don’t know what to tell you.”
You are never going to logically convince someone not to be racist.
It’s basically the definition of racism that they aren’t going to be capable of respecting you enough to learn from you. Either due to subconscious beliefs or avowed principles that have become completely tied to their identities.
I’m so tired of people not realizing this.
(Also, that Bell Curve guy came to Princeton once my sophomore year and a resident grad student sent an email to my dorm to make sure that everyone knew and to see if anyone wanted to go as a group. I still remember being really shaken by that)
Related: “Research shows prejudice, not principle, often underpins ‘free-speech defense’ of racist language”; “Your Calls For Unity Are Divisive As F*ck”; “Empathy Won’t Save Us In the Fight Against Oppression. Here’s Why.”
