McWhorter fucks up re student protests re Gaza

Discomfort From Speech

Must Be Tolerated—

Except About Israel 

 

New York Times columnist John

McWhorter (4/23/24), who teaches at

Columbia University, deemed pro

Palestine protests there “a form of

abuse” of Jewish students (never mind

that many protesters were them

selves Jewish) through the “relentless

assault” of protesters’ Israel-critical

speech: 

 

Why do so many people think that

weeklong campus protests against

not just the war in Gaza but Israel’s

very existence are nevertheless per

missible?…. The idea is that Jewish

students and faculty should be able

to tolerate all of this because they

are white. 

 

Yet McWhorter (New York Times,

10/3/24) offered a full-throated

defense of Amy Wax, a University

of Pennsylvania law professor who

has been sanctioned by a panel

of colleagues for “flagrant unpro

fessional conduct.” An advocate

of racist pseudo-science, Wax had

publicly—and apparently inaccurate

ly—derided her Black students for

their supposedly low marks in her

classes.  

 

McWhorter wrote: “Upholding the

ideals of free speech means living

with the discomfort—or even anger

and injury—that offensive ideas can

cause.” Apparently that doesn’t apply

if your “discomfort” comes from

hearing criticism of a government you

support. 

Extra! 

The Newsletter of FAIR—The Media Watch Group November 2024