Posted on 03/08/2014 8:13:07 AM PST by Bratch
The rejection of Condoleezza Rice as a commencement speaker at Rutgers by its faculty council won’t surprise many Hot Air readers. It doesn’t surprise Fox News commentator and generally liberal Juan Williams, but he’s not shrugging it off, either. Williams, who has written about the shocking treatment of black conservatives by his supposedly enlightened liberal brethren, makes sure to note this episode as yet another marker in a long arc of hatred and bigotry against African-Americans who dare to challenge liberal orthodoxy — even Juan Williams himself:
There is a disgraceful double standard amongst liberals, particularly those in academia, in the hatred they direct at black conservatives.
We saw this last April when the conservative neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was forced to step down as a Commencement Speaker for Johns Hopkins University (where he ably served as the head of pediatric neurosurgery).
Liberals on the Hopkins campus mobilized against Carson because he criticized President Obama’s health care reform law and said that he opposed gay marriage.
I am not a conservative but I have spoken out for years against the staggering amount blind hatred directed at black conservatives by liberals.
Liberals are shockingly quick to demean and dismiss brilliant black people like Rice, Carson, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Professor Walter E. Williams and economist Thomas Sowell because they don’t fit into the role they have carved out for a black person in America.
Black Americans must be obedient liberals on all things or risk being called a race traitor or an Uncle Tom.
In part, this is a power play more than anything else. The faculty at Rutgers don’t want to deal with people who oppose their preferred policies, or more importantly, cause others in their little bubbles to think critically about the only sanctioned ideology in those bubbles, either. In that sense, there is no double standard at work here — Jim DeMint and John Bolton would be just as unwelcome at Rutgers as Condoleezza Rice is and Clarence Thomas would be.
That is in itself a double standard. The same faculty who would protest if pushed out the door of their sinecures over political disagreements as a violation of academic freedom suddenly refuse to offer that same courtesy to the administration in its choice of commencement speakers, or to invited guests of the university. Rather than simply declien to attend or encourage others to do the same, they want heterodoxy silenced. ‘Freedom for me but not for thee’ is hardly a consistent approach to liberty, but it’s at least consistent with the sanctioned ideology they’re protecting.
Still, the vitriol of the reactions to Rice, Thomas, Scott, and the rest goes beyond even that double standard. The attacks on them as Uncle Toms and house slaves (and worse) show the place that politics and identity hold in the progressive mindset. It’s inexplicable to progressives that a black man growing up in the South might value individual liberty over group identity and be suspicious of government power, and so the only explanation for Clarence Thomas is that he’s insufficiently black. It’s not just on ethnicity, either, but also on gender. Take a look at the unhinged and ignorant rant by Jamie Stiehm attacking Sonia Sotomayor for her insufficient woman-ness by issuing a temporary stay in the Little Sisters of the Poor case against the HHS mandate. Steihm couldn’t be bothered to do even minimal research before branding Sotomayor a gender traitor over a meaningless pause in enforcement.
What is it called when someone assumes that people have to act and believe in a certain way based on the color of their skin or the composition of their genitals? The word is on the tip of my tongue …
“What Juan Williams believes is of little interest to me and most here, I suspect. We’re here to collect info and occasionally comment.”
I see that FR has a new policy statement and a new spokesman.
It’s called Political Correctness and it’s infected many facets of public life, especially the ‘Rat Party.
Juan, as a dedicated leftist you need to get with the program.
The fact of the matter is Rutgers is full of racist faculty members.
And they ARE members.
I sometimes wonder if he is a dedicated leftist or just plays one on TV. Don’t forget he is black and like Elijah Cummings a racist at heart.
Someone p*ss in your grits today?
Yes he's a liberal and yes he totes the Democrat party line, but every once in awhile, Juan Williams gets one right as he does here.
These are not occasions to bash our ideological opponents and hurl names, rather an occasion such as this should be used to encourage our ideological opponents to look deeper and wider into why liberalism is the real hatred and bigotry in America.
Williams whether he realizes it or not just found common ground with Conservatives. Better to encourage his journey and welcome him to the fold than bolster his oft misinformed views of Conservatives as a whole.
Just my .02 worth.
They should get Colin Powell as a replacement. He’s sufficiently brain damaged to make the liberals happy.
I believe its called Stockholm Syndrome. If/when Williams ever gets past it, Liberals may find themselves in a shitstorm of blowback. That is exactly why Williams should be ENCOURAGED when he gets one right, as he does here.
If all Williams sees are Conservatives bashing him whether he's right or wrong, he'll never change his world view of us.
Why do y'all think Roger Ailes hired him at Fox News anyway? Anyone besides me remember the profound thanks that Williams gave Ailes for hiring him and as a result being one of the factors that began changing his mind about Conservatives?
I sure do.
I think it was a mistake for FOX to pick Juan off the curb when NPR kicked him there.
Especially when so many FReepers produce material that puts the "professionals" to shame.
Very probably an accurate assessment. It is certainly part of the picture.
Nah. They just wanted to give Krauthammer something to play with.
Krauthammer vs. Williams: talk about an unfair match.
I watch the panel every night. The liberals all seem to float around. I can safely say that Juan has had 10 different jobs he is billed as having. Other libs seem to float around from one publication to another also.
A funny thing happened very recently. Kirsten Powers, billed as a columnist for the Daily Beast complained vociferously about losing her insurance and being forced to go through the agony of Obamacare sign up. That means either the Daily Beast doesn’t provide employees health insurance or she was only a part timer not qualified as a real employee.
Recently, in February, Kirsten is billed as working for USA today. That means she needed health insurance and had to get a real job with a real employer to get it.
I think she is 42 and dares not risk not having insurance. Obamacare apparently was not real insurance
Nope, not at all, but it does raise eyebrows when someone tries to speak for the entire group, using the Royal “we’ as in, We come here to get information.
As for me, I often come here expecting to find a bunch of know it all typists and am seldom disappointed. Fortunately, there are still serious people posting here on most days.
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