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March 5, 2005
Ward Churchill and the "New McCarthyism"
Boston.com reports the following:
University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman said a professor who compared Sept. 11 victims to Nazis will not be fired if a review turns up only inflammatory comments, not misconduct."If we find it is just about speech, there will be no action," Hoffman told the school's faculty assembly Thursday, adding that she feared a "new McCarthyism" was responsible for the uproar over Ward Churchill's essay.
While Churchill's essay and many of his public remarks are offensive to all but a callus few on the very fringes of our democratic discourse, they are not grounds for termination. As I said in an earlier post, Michael Faughnan got it right.
Mr. Churchill, what I want you to see is the human face behind the rhetoric. Human beings are not symbols, and your essay's dehumanization of the victims of 9/11 reduces them to mere symbols — drones in a capitalist machine. In this way, you are guilty of what you claim to condemn, that is the dehumanization of individuals. It is the inability to see the human face of "the other" that allows the horrible violence in this world to continue.
It is good to see that the University President is able to stand up for academic freedom when it would have been easy to cave in. For a fairly comprehensive review of the issues, check out the post at Leiter Reports, "Campos, Churchill, and Academic Freedom: A Final Comment," and the various links Brian Leiter offers there.
Via The Raw Story.
Update: March 7, 2005
You can read it anywhere. The University of Colorado President resigned today. I choose to quote Sports Illustrated's announcement.
The resignation of President Elizabeth "Betsy" Hoffman on Monday was the culmination of a series of scandals at the University of Colorado that included accusations of rape, a grand jury inquiry, questionable recruiting practices and an outspoken professor.
No way of knowing how much this was influenced by her comments regarding Ward Churchill and the "New McCarthyism." I hope it was little and the all the problems with the football program the cause of her leaving. We'll have to see how it plays out.
I think Instapundit got it right. This had little top do with Churchill.
Posted by Duane Smith at March 5, 2005 1:46 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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