Infinite MonkeysThe horrors of racism in America, if not well known, are at least documented well enough for there to be no excuse for not knowing.
We've come a long way since 1900. We've come a long way since 1965, for that matter. Anyone who says otherwise should take a good, long look at those images. Then she should look at them again.
But would Kerri Dunn understand what she sees? I don't know. As she said at the anti-hate rally at Claremont McKenna College last week,
I read about the cross burning, and I read about the... uh, word "nigger" being written on calendars and I was appalled. I just couldn’t believe in 2004 this was happening. As a psychologist I teach on a regular basis about the nature of prejudice. And we talk about how prejudice nowadays is supposed to be modern, and covert, and based on ignorance, and stereotyping. And I thought these acts aren’t ignorant. This isn’t the result of some covert thought. This was a well planned out act of terrorism.
It suits her, and people who think like her, to believe that a virulent racism lurks just below the surface of American society, that we're one short step away from once again hanging black people from trees. There really are two Americas: one thought this was a horrendous crime, and that the perpetrators got what they deserved; the other thought it would make for a good political ad.
Of course, Dunn is hardly alone in thinking this way, nor is she the first person to fabricate a "hate crime" in order to advance an agenda. (John Rosenberg at Discriminations compares the Dunn incident with a similar case at the University of Virginia involving an undergrad running for student body president. One small correction to his otherwise solid account of the Claremont story: CMC's president is named Gann, not "Gunn." I made a similar mistake [caught and corrected!] in an article I edited earlier today. See also: Erin O'Connor, who has several excellent links to other hate-crime faking items.)
Perhaps worse than the ideological blindness of Dunn and her ilk is the cynicism of college administrators who will use recent events as a pretext for ridding the colleges of politically correct undesirables.
I think Scott "Big Trunk" Johnson's assessment of the colleges' response will prove terrifyingly accurate:
All in all, a graphic illustration of the "verdict first, trial later" atmosphere that pervades the intellectual life of elite college campuses today. While it is difficult to assess the situation from a distance, we somehow doubt that all students at the Claremont Colleges feel free to express their viewpoints, thoughts, and ideas, particularly if they partake of any cynicism about the morality tales that constitute their daily mental diet.
The Los Angeles Times reports today that "Administrators...will offer extra counseling and campus discussions" when students return from spring break on Monday. Right. Anger management, anyone? As for Professor Dunn's future teaching at CMC, college president Pamela Gann says, "We're left in a very ambiguous situation . . . People always want closure. This may be a decision where it's very difficult to get to closure." Don't be surprised if her contract isn't renewed in June. Not that it will matter. In the perverse hothouse of academic politics, Kerri Dunn will be remembered as a martyr to a noble cause, the victim of another kind of "high-tech lynching." About this I have no doubt.
Posted by Ben at March 19, 2004 06:07 PM | TrackBack