UC Riverside Professors Support UC-Irvine Disruptors

Hat tip to Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism










Not surprisingly, a group of 31 faculty and grad students from UC-Riverside's Ethnic Studies Department has issued a statement in support of the 11 students who disrupted Israeli Amabassador Michael Oren's speech at UCI on February 8. (Three of the students were from UC Riverside.) Here it is:




“We believe that this is a cynical and opportunistic attempt at political repression that reflects the racial criminalization of young Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim men and women as actual or potential ‘terrorists.’ By way of contrast, Ethnic Studies faculty have taught courses in Ethnic Studies in which classroom proceedings were disrupted by students with opposing views, and the university administration did not pursue any disciplinary or punitive measures against them. In fact, we have sometimes been told that such disruptions are an expression of academic free speech”

"Political repression and racial criminalization"?

Absurd.


As you can see, the letter is loaded with the same old victimhood language that ethnic studies departments on college campuses are famous for. In my view, this letter, crafted by departmental chair Dylan Rodriguez, is a textbook example of how these ethnic studies departments do little more than widen divisions and promote a sense of outrage and victimhood. If the UC system (and other universities) want to really save money, they should consider eliminating these departments and reducing them to individual courses.

It would be nice to see a group of UCI professors issue a letter defending the rights of speakers like the ambassador to give their speeches without disruptions and attempts to "shut it down", to use a quote.