Eekers! Ideas On Campus That Everyone Might Not Totally Agree With!
Jason L. Riley, who writes for the WSJ and speaks on campuses, got disinvited from speaking at Virginia Tech. Peter Wood and Rachelle Peterson write at NRO:
Riley had been asked to deliver the BB&T Distinguished Lecture at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business. But late last week he received an e-mail from the faculty member who arranged the lecture informing him that the head of the Finance Department, the J. Gray Ferguson Professor of Finance, Vijay Singal, had vetoed the invitation. We obtained a copy of this e-mail.Why? Mr. Riley, who is black, has attracted some negative attention since his publication in 2014 of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. Professor Singal feared that whatever controversy Riley had attracted so far would be amplified once he set foot on Virginia Tech's campus. He imagined there would be amplified controversy over Riley's speech because Virginia Tech is still reverberating from the last BB&T Distinguished Lecture, delivered by Charles Murray on March 25.
...What makes Jason Riley's disinvitation notable, though, is how little prompted it. No students threatened to protest his speech or wrote editorials denouncing his views. No one picketed the finance department. Riley's speech hadn't even been announced on campus. Mere fear of potential protest swayed Virginia Tech to cancel Riley's pending event.
Here's a terrific letter from Peter Wood, the president of the National Association of Scholars who wrote the NRO piece.
Within Wood's piece is a link to the letters letters from a professor, Douglas Patterson, first inviting and then disinviting Riley. Patterson didn't want to disinvite him; he was told he had to. I particularly appreciated this bit at the bottom:
When I told the department head that I wanted to invite you he didn't say much one way or the other. Later, he learned that you have written about race issues in the WSJ. He and others in my department are worried about more protests from the looney left if you were to give the lecture. I explained that if we allow ourselves to be intimidated by these people they win, and we lose. It was no use arguing, their minds were made up. Fear of a possible protest is more important than free speech or the values that a university is supposed to stand for.
"Fear of a possible protest is more important than free speech or the values that a university is supposed to stand for."
I can't help but feel America may be screwed as a country.
*I mistakenly typed "Georgia Tech" instead of "Virginia Tech," originally, and I am very sorry about that! Not getting all sloppy on all of you -- just need a little more sleep.
Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for [Poor Urban People] to Succeed.
Fixed it for him.
I'm intrigued, and I may read his book. It's true that certain policies and laws, like the ridiculous War on Drugs, are disablers.
But I still wonder why the urban poor shit where they eat. No-one is forcing them to:
- Litter their streets
- Murder their own people at a disproportionate rate
- Have grossly ineffectual schools
The above are things that people of means don't do.
DaveG at May 4, 2016 11:44 PM
You say Georgia Tech but the article it says Virginia Tech. He got disinvited from two universities?
Sixclaws at May 5, 2016 5:46 AM
Now DaveG don't be blaming the victim, ignoring the pressures of living in an inner city w/free services available to all (education, health, policing, ...), dissing the "familial benefits" of gangs, and the benefits of having their Mothers provided for by society at large.
It's not like they have to work to obtain food, clothing, and housing. The government will pick up (their) slack and provide for all.
Bob in Texas at May 5, 2016 7:18 AM
But I still wonder why the urban poor shit where they eat. No-one is forcing them to: Have grossly ineffectual schools
I'm gonna have to disagree with that one. If you're stuck in a particular section of town that is served by one or more ineffectual schools and you can't afford to move to a better neighborhood and you don't have a voucher program or school choice, you're mostly screwed.
Of course, having multiple children by multiple men don't help.
I R A Darth Aggie at May 5, 2016 7:21 AM
While I don't agree with the decision to dis-invite Riley, I think that the department head could have legitimate fears about protests leading to violence on campus, given the current political environment. Perhaps he's worried about BLM-type groups showing up. Doesn't it seem, at least given the reporting we see, that protests are becoming violent more often? Look at the people protesting Trump rallies. It's gotten very scary and ugly. I don't think that campus protest are likely to lead to broken windows and burning police cars, but who knows? As recent history demonstrates, there is a certain set of people so convinced of the rightness of their own ideas that they're willing to do violence and destroy property.
ahw at May 5, 2016 8:12 AM
Leave a comment