College melts down over plan for white people-free day on campus
After protesters at a Washington state college called for a day without white people, a biology professor says he no longer feels safe on campus — and student activists complain they’re being vilified by conservative media.
Evergreen State College students said racial tensions have been simmering in recent weeks, but reached a boiling point when a faculty member disagreed with their plans to protest what they say is institutional racism at the Olympia campus, according to The Olympian.
Students were particularly incensed by an email that surfaced on Twitter on May 25 between Professor Bret Weinstein and Rashida Love, director of First Peoples Multicultural Advising Services. Weinstein, who is white, allegedly condemned the “Day of Absence” event that asked white people to leave campus for the day.
He called the day “an act of oppression in and of itself” and said he would visit campus in spite of the demonstration, according to USA Today.
“If there was interest in a public presentation and discussion of race through a scientific/revolutionary lens, I would be quite willing to organize such an event,” Weinstein wrote.
In a YouTube video posted on May 27, a group of students is heard calling for Weinstein to be fired. Demonstrations have involved as many as 200 students pouring into classrooms and the school president’s office.
“Hey-hey, ho-ho, these racist teachers have got to go,” the students chanted in the video.
Weinstein told news station KING that he was advised last week not to go to campus for safety reasons.
“I have been told by the Chief of Police it’s not safe for me to be on campus,” Weinstein told KING. The station notes that Weinstein has spoken out in this year against increasing the role race plays in the admissions process.
Multiple protest videos have been picked up by conservative media outlets, but the students disagree with the coverage, calling the footage “edited.”
“We demand that the video created for Day of Absence and Day of Presence that was stolen by white supremacists and edited to expose and ridicule the students and staff be taken down by the administration by this Friday,” students said in a statement to the College Fix.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/31/college-melts-down-over-plan-for-white-people-free-day-on-campus/
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