Tag: universities

Campus Protests: The Kids May Not Be Alright, But They Are (Mostly) Right

I’m too young to remember the campus convulsions of the 1960s, but older friends who were there tell me that the growing campus protest movement against US support for Israel’s war in Palestine bears a striking resemblance to those days.

I happen to support that movement’s goals, at least to the extent of wanting to see the US government butt out of other people’s arguments.

I’m told by some “pro-Israel” friends that the student protesters are all “anti-semites” and “supporters of Hamas,” and that if I support them I must also hate a particular ethnic group and support terrorism as a tactic.

But I don’t hate any ethnic groups, nor do I support Hamas any more than I support the Israeli Defense Forces.

I don’t doubt that SOME of the student protesters fall into the “hater” category, simply because the protests are a convenient bandwagon for “haters” to ride on. The next large political event I attend that doesn’t have a least a few weirdos hanging around, trying to grab a little unearned credibility by association, will be the first.

I just want a government that claims it works for me to stop handing out weapons and cash to other governments. Especially, though not only, to crybully regimes that constantly play the victim while also occupying territory outside their borders for decades on end, imposing apartheid regimes on the inhabitants of those occupied territories, murdering anyone who resists (along with many who don’t), etc.

To the extent that the kids on campus are seeking the same thing, they’re doing God’s work and have my full support.

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Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming…

Student action on university campuses against US involvement in Israel’s slaughter of Gaza has exploded across the country. Suddenly there is the distinct feel in the air of the anti-Vietnam war protests once they finally caught on in 1968 and soon thereafter changed the course of US history.

Both protest movements were fully demonized by the same forces of the mainstream Left/Right regime and what libertarian writer Jacob Hornberger rightly calls the “National Security State.” I would add the mainstream media from Fox to MSNBC. But these days there is relatively more freedom of expression available to Americans via some of the social media outlets. The US government war on one of these outlets – TikTok – may also be fueling protests, as this outlet is particularly popular among younger Americans and has become the platform for them to hear more objective and independent views on what is happening in Gaza. It should not be considered a coincidence that not long after Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblat was caught on tape panicking over the shift in opinion away from fealty to Israel among the younger generation, a big PR operation about “Chinese infiltration” of the platform emerged as did calls to ban the popular application.

“We have a major, major, major generational (TikTok) problem,” Greenblat said. This past week both Houses of Congress voted to ban TikTok. Problem solved? Not exactly.

So back to the protests.

Tens of thousands of students from New York’s Columbia University to the University of Southern California have risen up to demand an end to US support for Israel’s 200 day – and counting – total demolition of Gaza in retribution for the October 7th Hamas bloody incursion into Israeli territory.

To date, more than 35,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been killed including an estimated 15,000 children. Hamas, by contrast, is reportedly not significantly degraded and its massive tunnel system remains intact. Former Israeli Defense Forces General Yitzhak Brick told Israeli newspaper Maariv that Israel has already lost the war against Hamas and must admit it.

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Crackdowns on Protests Are Exposing Higher Ed’s Complicity in Israel’s Genocide

As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza and the West Bank mounts daily, campus protests against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continue to spread across the U.S., where students and faculty often face police crackdowns. Student activists from Pomona Divest from Apartheid in southern California, The Coalition for Mutual Liberation at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Resist WashU in St. Louis, Missouri, told Truthout the blows landing hardest are the ones from their own chancellors and deans. The activists say university administrators are waging an asymmetrical campaign of enforcement against students demanding an end to their schools’ complicity in the slaughter of Palestinians.

“We see Pomona for what it is: serving capital and empire. And we know the way to win our demands is to disrupt their flow of cash, disrupt their reputation,” said Amanda Dym, a 21-year-old humanities student at Scripps College, one of the five colleges in the Pomona consortium. “We won’t allow our administrators who facilitate and defend investments in an apartheid state to go about their work undisturbed.”

Dym was among 20 students arrested by cops in riot gear during a sit-in outside Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr’s office on April 5.

“A televised genocide live-streamed on our phones is obviously unlike anything that’s happened in our lifetimes,” she said. That’s why Dym and others were moved to demonstrate, but she says when Starr called in the riot police, the president put them in a whole other category of risk.

“Obviously, it was a scary day, to watch 30-plus riot cops from three cities come in and start bringing my comrades out, one by one,” Dym told Truthout. “The cops were in full gear with automatic weapons, bigger guns than some of us had ever seen. They were yanking students up off the ground, zip-tying their hands so tightly they were losing circulation.”

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College Activists Postpone Anti-Israel Encampment Because Students Are Too White

Students at the University of Washington postponed an anti-Israel demonstration planned for Thursday because too many of the students who signed up are white.

According to MyNorthwest, a Washington-based radio station, the University of Washington’s Progressive Student Union (UWPSU) opted to delay an encampment in solidarity with Palestinian terrorists “to make sure this encampment is a better reflection of the UW community, and having even greater unity with Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students.”

“We want to be part of a much larger coalition of groups and make no mistake, WE WILL HAVE A UW ENCAMPMENT! We want to make sure everyone’s voice is included and this action is as safe, secure, and strong as possible,” read a statement from the far-left student union published by MyNorthwest.

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UCLA Med School Launches Review Of ‘Health Equity’ Course But Warns That Whistleblowers Could Be Disciplined

The University of California, Los Angeles medical school is launching a probe of its controversial “health equity” class—and warning whistleblowers they could be punished if any more information leaks about it.

The dean of the medical school, Steven Dubinett, announced Friday that his office had formed a task force to review all first-year courses, including “Structural Racism and Health Equity,” after the Washington Free Beacon published materials from the mandatory class. But the school isn’t happy about having its hand forced.

In an email to students and faculty, Dubinett implied that the leaks were an “attempt to intimidate” the medical school and hinted that future leakers could face discipline—especially if they record lectures. 

“Recording class sessions is not permitted without express consent from the instructor and class participants,” Dubinett wrote. That warning appears to be a reference to an earlier incident in which a guest lecturer, Lisa Gray Garcia, led the required course in chants of “Free, Free Palestine” as well as a prayer to “Mamma Earth,” part of which was caught on tape and thrust the course into the national spotlight.  

“Doxxing or publishing, posting or identifying private information of faculty, staff, trainees or students in any public forum, including social media, is contrary to UCLA policy and our core values of mutual respect and inclusion,” Dubinett continued. “Guidelines for overseeing invited guest speakers are being developed that will address adherence to our policies.”

The veiled threats come days after the full syllabus for the course went viral online and sparked outrage from prominent doctors—including former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey Flier—who said it was filled with unscientific claptrap and called for an investigation. Leaked readings claimed that weight loss is a “hopeless endeavor,” described “anti-capitalist politics” as a tenet of “disability justice,” and advocated for abolishing the police. 

The syllabus was designed with input from Shamsher Samra, a professor of emergency medicine who has endorsed “Palestinians’ right to return” and published research on the “health of border abolition.” Though the course initially included an exercise that separated students by race, that lesson was canceled in January after it became the subject of a local civil rights complaint.

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Bipartisan bill would create “antisemitism monitors” at colleges

A pro-Israel House Democrat and Republican plan to introduce legislation creating federally sanctioned “antisemitism monitors” for select college campuses.

Why it matters: It’s the first bill introduced in Congress as a direct response to the pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked Columbia University and other colleges in recent days.

Driving the news: Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) are introducing the College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability Act – or COLUMBIA Act.

  • The bill would allow the Department of Education to send a “third-party antisemitism monitor” to any college that receives federal funding — and to revoke that funding for colleges that don’t comply.
  • The monitor, paid for by the school, would be charged with releasing a public, quarterly report evaluating “the progress that a college or university has made toward combating antisemitism.”
  • The bill was first reported by Jewish Insider.

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Universities Of Hate: Columbia Activist Previously Called For Killing “Zionists” And “White Supremacists”

One of the radical activists leading the protests at Columbia University, Khymani James, has been exposed by Andy Ngo for making a livestream recording where he says that “zionists, along with all white supremacists,” all need to be killed.

James, who is all for “decolonization, liberation, and justice” has denounced Ngo as a “far right agitator” after Ngo exposed the inflammatory video. Then James tried to downplay his original call for violence by saying he had been “feeling unusually upset after an online mob” allegedly targeted him for being “visibly queer and Black.”

James’ apology note claims that this isn’t the first time that he’s been “targeted by online trolls” who aimed to intimidate him. He further explains that “Zionism is an ideology that necessitates the genocide of the Palestinian people” and says that “Palestinians have been subjected to decades of brutal violence and now genocide by Israel.”

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California Bill Would Let State Colleges Hire Illegal Immigrant Students

California lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow state universities and colleges to hire students who are illegal immigrants to work on campus.

Assembly Bill 2586, introduced by Assemblyman David Alvarez, came after the University of California’s (UC) regent board decided to table a similar policy for the UC system in January, citing possible legal troubles.

Since then, several immigration law groups have advocated for a bill that allows state colleges and universities to hire illegal immigrant students.

The groups argue that state universities and colleges are exempt from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which bans the hiring of illegal immigrants.

One of those groups is the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.

“This bill will put an end to the separate-but-equal educational system that still operates in California’s university systems,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, center co-director, in a press release. “As [Assembly Bill] 2586 recognizes, the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges have the legal authority to hire any of their students, regardless of immigration status.”

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Law College ‘Anti-Racism’ Fellow Caught on Camera Piling Vicious Hatred on ‘Ugly…Little Jewish People’

At some point in the last five years, we stopped merely studying history’s darkest moments and began experiencing them.

For instance, in an 11-second viral clip posted Wednesday to the social media platform X, a woman identified as Loyola Marymount University graduate student Grace Obi-Azuike effectively re-enacted a scene from Nazi Germany when she spewed venomous anti-Jewish hatred and, significantly, incurred no apparent rebuke from the younger people around her who attended an event featuring Israel Defense Forces members.

“Get the f*** out of here, all you ugly-a** little Jewish people in this b****,” the California law student appeared to say in a clip shared by the StopAntisemitism X account.

Obi-Azuike made the comment while seated and signaling in the direction of people who did not appear on camera.

Her insidious remark drew a look of astonishment but also an open-mouthed smile from an androgynous-looking person seated to her left. The male-looking person to her right wore the cloth mask of the COVID cult. His reaction, therefore — perhaps thankfully — remains a mystery.

But some attendees clapped or otherwise voiced approval.

“Oooooh, hooooo, yeah,” an unidentified female voice said.

At that point, an older, suit-wearing man walked over to Obi-Azuike and stood to her left. The camera did not capture what happened next, but he did not appear pleased as he rubbed his chin.

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‘Transgender Archeology’ PhDs And Degrees In ‘Magic’ Being Funded With Taxpayer Money

A Conservative MP in the UK has called for a thorough review of government higher education funding after it was revealed that taxpayer money is being spent on ridiculous university courses, including a PhD researcher who has chose to explore “Transphobic Invocations of Archaeology.”

The Telegraph reports that the student at the University of York is being given more than £18,000 a year by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to do detailed research and present papers, including one titled Bones Don’t Care About Your Feelings: Challenging Transphobic Invocations of Archaeology in (Social) Media.

The student in question also gave a presentation that noted “What if I told you that when an archaeologist finds human remains, it is a fact that there [sic] only two choices for gender identification.”

The ‘research’ was also partially funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental government body that distributes funds for research, which claims that “research projects we support are made via a rigorous peer review process.”

Maybe make it a bit more rigorous then?

Commenting on the finding, biologist Dr Emma Hilton, co-founder of Sex Matters, noted “Human remains cannot tell us anything about the unembodied ‘gender identity’ of a person.”

Providing an example, Hilton urged that “A female Viking warrior buried with male-typical war possessions tells us only that some women successfully broke through early glass ceilings.”

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