I'm Sorry I'll Miss Michael Eric Dyson at Pitzer With Update

UPDATE: Apparently Professor Dyson decided to stand up Pitzer to go on Anderson Cooper's show, according to sources within Pitzer's "Dining with Democracy." In any event, here's what I've written on him. (He came to speak at the Athenaeum several years back.)

I'm disappointed that I shall be missing Professor Michael Eric Dyson's talk before Pitzer's "Dining with Democracy" this Thursday evening. I shall be away in Kansas City, MO for work and will be back sometime this weekend.

All and all, I have found the more recent Dining with Democracy events to be quite the intellectual treat. Christopher Hitchens was masterful, loquacious, and provocative and Pitzer deserves credit for bringing the very best to its campus. (Hear that, Pomona Student Union?)

Dear readers, read very carefully the words I am about to post for I mean every word of what I say.

Dyson has been hoping to stir up a race war for quite some time. He has attacked Bill Cosby's serious remarks to the black community from his prism -- or is it prison? -- as a Marxist critic. He's an apologist for Communist Cuba and has caled American policy toward Cuba as "simply obscene" and "white supremacy in its reckless, destructive mode."

He's even authored a book that basically goes after those of us who believe that the high crime rate and illegitimacy rate among black Americans isn't the fault of structural racism, but of individuals failing to act at their best. Pat Buchanan really lays into Dyson. Watch the video and their response to Eric Holder's odd statement about America being "A Nation of Cowards."

In this video, around 8:10 or so, Dyson calls for the "pain" of the current economic crunch to be "redistributed" to white people.

Hmmm... where have I heard that before? Might it have been from this man? At least, he's going to hurt all Americans.

A Response to the Forum's Request for Civility

Dear Patrick,

You betray yourself as a rare reader of the Claremont Conservative. I seldom mention the Karl Rove vandalism -- I reject that it was a protest -- and when I do it is always in the context of another event. But I take your general point: that civility is needed on campus.

I started The Claremont Conservative to have that dialogue many claim they want -- only I have discovered something rather sad about a lot of progressives on campus: they don't want to talk. They need to yell. Some need to demonize. Why is it that it is always progressives that want to shout down speakers at Pomona or Scripps? Other than yours truly (and occasionally Dan O'Toole), can you name a conservative that even asks pointed questions at the Ath? Of course not. We're respectful and wouldn't dare censor anyone.

I have never thought less of progressives on campus because of their misguided views, but some certainly think less of conservatives. A recent examples include the boycott of Fox News by Claremont Political Union.

Now it is certainly true that liberals outnumber conservatives on this campus, but why should bipartisan events only show one channel? Can't we at least flip between the channels?
Given the awful track record of CNN, can't we balance it out between the networks? I'm not saying Fox is great or bad, but I'd just like to occassionally hear another side.

I asked one time why we only watched CNN and was told that that's because "all of the liberals will leave if we change the channel." What more fitting metaphor for "dialogue" on campus!

I have always taken the view that disagreement -- or as some call it, "intellectual diversity," -- is the only difference worth preserving. Life is boring if we all get along and oftentimes that means arguing. But it would seem lately that anytime a pointed argument is made it is an "attack" or an "assault" on that person. I reject that and fear something much more insiduous -- the Pomonaization of our campus -- where controversial speakers aren't invited because they might "offend" someone and where debates become "conversations" as "debate" is too "harsh" a word. (One can only imagine what the Lincoln and Douglas "chats" would look like.)

On the road to that would be dialogue through this blog, I have found my email hacked; I have had scurrilously attacks launched against me and those I cared about by anonymous commenters; and I was told that I was unwelcome at a college because of my views -- really shouldn't all views be welcome at a college? and so you'll forgive me if I doubt the sincerity of people to have a real dialogue. What does it say about a campus where something like Claremont Confessions, an anonymous gossip, website takes off?

Ross Boomer, the not so august editor of The Forum has said it himself -- that we're a campus that obsesses about sex in government seminars and stalking people on Facebook. Never you mind that there are a great many of us who have come to this college to debate and contemplate ideas. Claremont McKenna isn't just another liberal arts college. Don't believe what you've been told. It's a place of exceptionalism and tragically, we've turned away from that.

It's clear that the Forum, too, has failed to provide, well, a forum for views that differ from those of its editor, the censor-in-chief, Ross Boomer whose emotional response to my comment forced him to delete it rather than engage me. He should have been removed for failure to perform his duty, instead he whines about all the "haters" out there.

But let's try something new. Here's an open invitation to any progressive on campus to debate me in front of the entire school. We'll agree on the topic and the time. It's an offer I extended to the Claremont Port Side, only to be rebuffed -- they don't really like to have dialogues -- but let's make it school wide. You know where to find me. As someone who isn't really a great public speaker, I'm taking a risk that I might lose.

Contrary to what has been argued before, I'm not a Rush Limbaugh or a Sean Hannity of America conservatism on this campus. I didn't know who the later was until I Googled him long after I arrived. (It was rough not having cable as a child.)

I'm trying really hard to be a Bill Buckley Jr.'s whose program, Firing Line, did liberals and conservatives both a favor by encouraging them to sharpen their arguments.

A Quick Thought on the Roberts Environmental Center's New Report

CitiGroup is among the companies that received a low ranking in the Roberts Environmental Center's latest environmental report.

You'll have to forgive CitiGroup from being concerned with its environmental "sustainability." Currently, with a nationalization plan in the offing, it's worried about its financial sustainability -- you know, the one companies are supposed to worry about...