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The Dis-Grace of Harvard
Townhall.com ^ | June 18, 2019 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 06/19/2019 5:08:56 AM PDT by Kaslin

This week, Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv announced that Harvard University has withdrawn his acceptance to the college. In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the then-high school junior became a prominent voice for school safety, meeting with politicians across the political spectrum. He was also a prominent defender of Second Amendment rights. After scoring 1550 on his SATs and graduating second in his class, Kashuv was admitted to Harvard, turning down scholarship money at other schools to do so.

Then came the tsunami.

Former classmates who oppose Kashuv's politics revealed on social media that when he was 16, months before the Parkland shooting, he typed egregious racist slurs, including the N-word, in a private Google doc. This revelation led Kashuv to immediately apologize publicly for his use of the language, which he insisted was not a reflection of racist belief but a juvenile attempt to shock his peers. He pointed to his record of public-facing accomplishment and pledged to learn from his mistakes. He issued an apology to Harvard, taking full responsibility for his comments; he reached out to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to see what steps he could take to assure them that he had changed.

No matter. Harvard's admissions committee decided to withdraw his acceptance.

There are several lessons here -- all of them bad for the country.

First, grace is no longer an aspect of American life -- at least for one side of the aisle. Kashuv has been in the public eye for a year and a half. In that time, he has acted with remarkable poise, as have many others in his class. The fact that he participated in an idiotic and disgusting private group chat months before the Parkland shooting has had apparently no effect on his public behavior. If the new standard is that past private statements, once surfaced, override all public behavior since -- including apologies, evidence of decency and willingness to evidence repentance -- we are entering a dangerous new era. Is Harvard prepared for dredging up every incoming first year's Twitter direct messages for scrutiny?

But that won't be the standard, obviously. The commentariat calling for Kashuv's expulsion was loudly decrying Harvard for having barred Michelle Jones, who killed her own 4-year-old, just two years ago. The problem for Kashuv is that he is conservative; the old racist slurs were merely a means of damaging him. There is little question that were pro-gun control David Hogg the Parkland survivor at issue rather than Kashuv, a little more grace might have been applied here.

Second, public life comes with inherent risks and thus should be avoided by rational actors. Kashuv would have been admitted to Harvard if he had never engaged in activism: He scored a 1550 on his SAT and graduated second in his class. No one on the radical left or alt-right would have tried to destroy his academic career; no one would have bothered. Kashuv dared to speak up politically and thus became a target. Rational actors will take note and stay away from the public square, leaving that square to the most shameless and the most enigmatic.

Third, Harvard has become an institution not for education but for capitulation to the mob. Forget Kashuv for a second. Focus instead on Harvard Law School professor Ronald Sullivan, a political liberal who was tossed as dean of a residential house for the grave sin of acting as a defense attorney on Harvey Weinstein's team. Cross Harvard's most radical students or the wokescolds on social media and the administration will capitulate in short order.

Kashuv will be fine. He'll move on, go to another school, mature and grow. But Harvard won't be a part of that process. The social media mob was motivated not by a desire to purify by our politics -- after all, Ralph Northam is still governor of Virginia -- but by a desire to damage the Parkland student they just didn't like.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: harvard; kashuv; parkland
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1 posted on 06/19/2019 5:08:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Typing the dreaded “N”-word on a social media platform is enough to get anyone dis-invited to college.


2 posted on 06/19/2019 5:16:42 AM PDT by airborne (I don't always scream at the TV but when I do it's hockey season!)
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To: Kaslin

Jealousy and spite on the part of his ‘friends.’ Just terrible. I’d like to meet the Harvard admissions officers who didn’t do anything stupid at age 16.


3 posted on 06/19/2019 5:19:00 AM PDT by EDINVA
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To: Kaslin

Take the author’s advice seriously: avoid the public eye at all costs. Sometimes you can’t even help it because stuff happens. But don’t seek it in today’s world.


4 posted on 06/19/2019 5:22:51 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: airborne
Sorry this reflects very bad judgment. He is old enough to know the N-word is the third rail these days, at least for white people.
5 posted on 06/19/2019 5:24:06 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard (Power is more often surrendered than seized.)
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To: Kaslin

You’re White, and you use the word as an illustration, and not in reference to anyone - ruined for life

Write “black lives matter” 100 times, get free college, lifelong victim status.


6 posted on 06/19/2019 5:28:27 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: Kaslin
Funny. Who calls blacks the N-word the most????? Remember, you only get one choice. So choose between the following:

a. blacks

b. blacks

c. blacks

d. all of the above

When I was in the army, blacks lost their minds if a white or any other race called them the dreaded N-word. HOWEVER, blacks called blacks that word over and over and over again. All the time, they called each other that word. Even in civilian life I have heard them call each other that word. Must be okay to talk down to your fellow like kind with a derogatory term, but no one else can.

7 posted on 06/19/2019 5:34:51 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (Russia and Putin didn't make me vote for Trump, HILLARY DID!!!)
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To: hinckley buzzard
Sorry this reflects very bad judgment. He is old enough to know the N-word is the third rail these days, at least for white people.

I think you're "spot on." Where were his parents? I knew about the "third rail," (from my father) long before I was 16.

8 posted on 06/19/2019 5:39:42 AM PDT by Ace's Dad (Trump in 2020!)
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To: Kaslin

9 posted on 06/19/2019 5:50:42 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: RetiredArmy

The military should make it illegal for ANYONE to use that word


10 posted on 06/19/2019 6:34:28 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself.)
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To: gaijin

IMO, Harvard is NOT the top tier education platform it once was...

It seems now, it is an elite “slogan” school...

“I went to Havahd...”


11 posted on 06/19/2019 6:42:05 AM PDT by JBW1949
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To: hinckley buzzard

“Sorry this reflects very bad judgment. He is old enough to know the N-word is the third rail these days, at least for white people.”

Wow, have you heard of the term “Stockholm syndrome”? Just being 16 year old boy is the very definition of reckless and for people to advocate punishment of a young man for a “thought crime” committed as a child is beyond pathetic. How “Mittens” of you.


12 posted on 06/19/2019 6:43:09 AM PDT by wildcard_redneck
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To: miss marmelstein

Then the Left wins. That is one of their goals is to shut down debate and dialogue by forcing those that disagree with them to sit down and shut up as the Senator from Hawaii so famously told white men. If you leave the field of battle that doesn’t end the war it just gives the enemy another victory and allows them to advance further towards their goal of total victory with less resistance. We may run and hide, but they press ever forward.


13 posted on 06/19/2019 6:45:21 AM PDT by redangus
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To: JBW1949
“I went to Havahd...”


14 posted on 06/19/2019 6:51:24 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Orchides Forum Trahite - Cordes Et Mentes Veniant)
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To: RetiredArmy

a. blacks

b. blacks

c. blacks

d. Quentin Tarantino

Fortunately, d. has been chastened and banished from the public square, not!


15 posted on 06/19/2019 7:08:13 AM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: Kaslin

How far back do they go to research your virtue?


16 posted on 06/19/2019 7:29:36 AM PDT by mom.mom (...our flag was still there.)
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To: Kaslin
But, Yamamoto was "good enough" for Harvard....


17 posted on 06/19/2019 7:33:16 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kaslin

Would Harvard reject him if he could hit threes with Stef Curry?


18 posted on 06/19/2019 7:35:21 AM PDT by stan_sipple
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To: wildcard_redneck

He should have included in his letter to Harvard that he identifies as black, so the use of the N-word is culturally appropriate.


19 posted on 06/19/2019 7:36:51 AM PDT by catman67 (14 gauge?)
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To: catman67

20 posted on 06/19/2019 7:38:07 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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