New University (UC Irvine) Article on Milo Yiannopoulos

"Bigotry has no place anywhere on our campus, right Boys? (Don't forget to fill out the form.)"

New University, the campus paper of UC Irvine, is carrying an article this week on the June 2 appearance of conservative gay pundit Milo Yiannopoulos on campus and the resultant controversy. Since it described the campus wide email sent out by Diversity chief Douglas Haynes, I added my own comment in the reader thread, which is below.

http://www.newuniversity.org/2016/05/news/uci-college-republican-posters-cause-bigotry-controversy/

"Last week, as a part-time teacher at UCI (Ext), I wrote a letter to Dr Haynes asking why he would not show the same concern for Jewish students in the wake of the annual anti-Israel hate week, which this year featured a radical rabbi representing a fringe Jewish group that believes Israel has no right to exist. Indeed, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss aligns himself with those who wish to wipe Israel off the face of the map, specifically Palestinians and the Iranian regime. During his lecture, he even used stereotypical anti-Jewish canards to describe his Jewish opponents calling them “shrewd” and claiming they control the media and politicians. He even referred to Zionism as a “Bernie Madoff scam.”

I asked Dr Haynes if this was not similar to a gay pundit (Yiannopoulos) offending gays.

What I got for an answer was a fill-in-the-blanks-form letter affirming UCI’s commitment to blah blah blah without even addressing my issue or mentioning Jewish students. He suggested I go to some web site and fill in a bias report form (saying the same things I had said in my letter).

What this tells me is that all this stuff about equity, diversity and inclusion depends on who the offended group is and who the offending group is. Certain groups need not apply."