Posted on 06/23/2019 4:54:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week Kyle Kashuv, a survivor of the February 2018 Parkland school shooting in Florida, announced that Harvard had rescinded his admission. The reason—past racist comments he had allegedly made in private texts leaked to the media.
Predictably, the Right reacted with shock and outrage. Many lamented the fact that a 19-year-old and the survivor of a mass shooting wasn’t shown a shred of mercy by the Harvard bigwigs for benign comments he made when he was 16 years of age.
It’s worth explaining why someone who’s committed one of the most egregious sins of our era—bigotry should be shown some scrupulousness in the examination of his case as well as forgiveness.
In pursuing this question it would be wise to first examine similar cases of retribution.
There is precedent for this kind of behavior on the part of universities: in June 2017, Harvard rescinded the admission of several students over leaked messages exchanged in a group chat. The offending content included “racist” and sexually-explicit memes.
Across the pond, British students at Warwick University faced expulsion when sexually-charged messages about various female students were also leaked.
In both cases the conversations were entirely private, and none of the students were documented to have engaged in the behavior which they discussed or acted on the sentiments which they expressed.
Likewise, no one has shown Kashuv to be a rabid racist, much less a danger to anyone (including his potential peers). It’s also not clear how racist words or opinions exchanged in private, without malice, on a virtual medium, are academically disqualifying.
But the distinction between private speech and public action appears to have been utterly lost on the intelligentsia staffing Harvard and the liberal media more generally. To them, nuance is a privilege they cannot afford anyone guilty of bigotry, and most especially racism.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northup, recently accused of dressing in blackface in a yearbook photo, faced an avalanche of calls for his resignation from his own party. Although he weathered the storm and retained his office despite the wishes of his political superiors, it is telling that he too was denied the privilege of nuance.
Northup had, by his own (initial) admission, committed the unforgivable offense of dressing in blackface; that enough is grounds for his un-personing. Extenuating circumstances—such as the fact that his dressing in blackface at the time was likely college-aged humor in poor taste—don’t matter when the accusation in question deals with racism.
The contentious cases of Kashuv and Northup ultimately beg the question: Why is racism the modern heresy of the 21st Century? Why is the mere appearance of racism, or the form of racism regardless of context, an immediately damnable offense, not warranting forgiveness?
The same people who unequivocally demand the firing or expulsion or de-platforming of people like Steven Crowder for perceived bigotry are the same people who go to great lengths to elaborate all the reasons women might seek abortions, and why abortion is distinct from infanticide outside the womb. Nuance—and empathy—aren’t lacking there.
The most telling aspect of a society are its sacred cows—those things which it most vehemently defends, and whose offenders it most vehemently prosecutes. In the Middle Ages, during the time of the Inquisition, the one inviolable dogma was that of the Christian (Catholic) Church. Those who denied any integral part of the faith by word or deed faced not only social ostracism, but an investigation by ecclesiastical authorities and punishment by the state.
But the most overlooked aspects of the Inquisition are both its nuance and empathy. Rather than face a trial by secular authorities without theological training (a rather common method of passing judgment on heretics in Europe at the time), the accused under an Inquisitorial investigation would at the very least have a right to competent trial. Though he (or she) was often tortured and therefore induced into giving a confession, the Catholic Church always allowed the condemned access to the sacrament of confession and very often urged clemency on the part of the secular authorities.
In short, even the medieval Inquisition, with all its fabled cruelties and abuses, offered more nuance and empathy than our modern-day liberal overlords. Though the stakes are not nearly as high—Kashuv has not been executed, only denied admission to an Ivy League university—the heretics of our day are treated more harshly than the heretics of yore.
In order for anti-racism to avoid becoming a kind of Christianity without forgiveness—the religious zeal with which the Left crusades against all forms of bigotry cannot help but spur one on to such a comparison—Harvard and the mainstream media ought to treat real and possible cases of racism with a more compassionate hand.
Kashuv deserves a means to an appeal, and maybe, just maybe, the forgiveness of all those who were offended by his actions. Anyone in his position would surely desire the same.
Harvard did not even have the balls to meet with him after he requested a face to face meeting.
There’s a peculiar inconsistency in Mr. Kashuv’s wanting to attend Harvard in the first place. His public statements and articles indicate an awareness of the intellectual vacuity of the elite-university milieu. However, it appears this awareness was irrelevant when he had a chance at the Big Name.
Maybe he is learning that fortuitous teen celebrity is not all it’s cracked up to be.
Nonsense.
Most "selective" and "highly selective" university degrees are not coin of the realm, but the red "H" with "Ve•Ri•Tas" is most definitely worth it, in terms of cashing in.
If you get in (improbable, for almost all) - you should go.
Yes, you restated my point.
Would be humorous if someone now produced old logs showing Hoggy boy had used the N-word 4-5 years ago and watch how Harvard would twist and turn to explain it away.
Kashuv will likely be better off in the long run elsewhere. He would likely have been mired in controversy and graded down by lib profs throughout his Harvard experience.
Give me a damned break!
Murder, rape, robbery, assault, sexual predation, sexual assault, etc, etc...just fell to the wayside, huh?
Stoopid, stoopid liberal mindset.
Murder, rape, robbery, assault, sexual predation, sexual assault, etc, etc...just fell to the wayside, huh?
But you are missing the point. The label of “racist” or “racism” is the cattle prod in which the left is using to herd conservatives out of the main stream of our culture.
And best of all (for them) they get to define what is and what is not racist. Once a person is labeled as “racist” the entire weight of the left goes into action to destroy that person.
So it is important that these types of stores are not about “racism” it is about control.
Yea, but they caught him at a bad time with admissions decisions already closed, he cannot retreat to a “safe” school. And who is to say that any school would accept him? Depends on how bad the comments were. Even if Liberty U or Hillsdale College took a chance with him, his sins might really tarnish their image.
Meanwhile (camera) Hogg gets into Harvard well below the academic standards just because he’s a blooming liberal punk.
Meanwhile, David Hogg gets into Harvard; I’m sure it wasn’t because of his grades. In a more sensible era, Hogg would have needed to take his senior year in high school over again, because he did not attend classes after the shooting.
Personally, I don’t know why anyone would want to go to Harvard. It’s the place affirmative action kids go to be given a diploma. Harvard’s reputation is in the toilet. He needs to go to school somewhere else. JMO.
I can’t even remember the name of the book I read it in but it was about the Cultural Revolution in China. The behavior is reminiscent of the Chinese youth at the time who would call out anyone even on the suspicion of having thoughts or ideas incompatible with the Glorious Revolution and the will of the people. Many older communist elites were taken down in the cleansing. The Democrats seem to be going through their own cleansing atm along with trying to take down the rest of the country
A decade, more or less, later, he will say thank you to Harvard for not allowing him into their elitist and racist fake higher education bs.
Allegedly he made comments? Prove it, Harvard.
It is unfortunate that Mr Kashuv's actions do not clearly show to all that not all animals in the rendering chutes of Harvard are equal to each other.
"In short, even the medieval Inquisition, with all its fabled cruelties and abuses, offered more nuance and empathy than our modern-day liberal overlords.It should be a considerable comfort to know that when you are destined to be publicly impaled as an example for the others, that the stakes are not nearly as high.
Though the stakes are not nearly as high—Kashuv has not been executed, only denied admission to an Ivy League university—the heretics of our day are treated more harshly than the heretics of yore."
Don't go there then.
A Harvard degree is worth many multiples of what it costs to get it.
That was a lot of text for a single pun, Bob!
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