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Protests over professor not complying with "no-whites day"
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Protests over professor not complying with "no-whites day"Posted:
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- Evergreen State College's event, Day of Absence, asked white faculty and students to leave campus this year
- Biology professor Bret Weinstein, who is white, said he would not participate
- Students confronted him, accusing him of racism and calling for him to resign
- Demonstrators then took over the campus on Tuesday and Wednesday
- Police told Weinstein he was not safe on the Olympia, Washington, campus
Students are calling for a professor to resign after he criticized an event where white people were invited to leave campus for a day.
Bret Weinstein, a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, criticized the way the college's Day of Absence event would be structured this year in an email to other faculty.
In response, a group of students confronted Weinstein outside his classroom on Tuesday morning, accusing him of racism and demanding an apology and his resignation.
As many as 200 students then demonstrated across the campus in protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, taking over classrooms and barricading the college president's office and the library.
The encounter between the students and Weinstein was posted in a Facebook video, where the professor can be seen speaking to a large group of students.
'There's a difference between debate and dialectic. Debate means you are trying to win, dialectic means you are using disagreement to discover what is true,' the professor told the students gathered outside his classroom.
'I am not interested in debate. I am only interested in dialectic, which does mean I listen to you, and you listen to me.'
One student responded: 'We dont care what terms you want to speak on. This is not about you. We are not speaking on termson terms of white privilege. This is not a discussion. You have lost that one.'
Some of the students in the video defended their professor, but others can be heard shouting at him before they walk out.
In the past, Day of Absence has meant students and faculty of color leave campus to show how much they contribute to the college while white people attend anti-racism workshops, according to Heat Street.
But this year, the event organizers are asking white students and faculty to leave campus, which Weinstein, a professor at Evergreen State for 15 years, responded to in an email, saying he would not participate in Day of Absence and would remain on campus.
'There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles... and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away.
'The first is a forceful call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force, and an act of oppression in and of itself,' he wrote in the email.
He added: 'On a college campus, one's right to speak or to be must never be based on skin color.'
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- Evergreen State College's event, Day of Absence, asked white faculty and students to leave campus this year
- Biology professor Bret Weinstein, who is white, said he would not participate
- Students confronted him, accusing him of racism and calling for him to resign
- Demonstrators then took over the campus on Tuesday and Wednesday
- Police told Weinstein he was not safe on the Olympia, Washington, campus
Students are calling for a professor to resign after he criticized an event where white people were invited to leave campus for a day.
Bret Weinstein, a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, criticized the way the college's Day of Absence event would be structured this year in an email to other faculty.
In response, a group of students confronted Weinstein outside his classroom on Tuesday morning, accusing him of racism and demanding an apology and his resignation.
As many as 200 students then demonstrated across the campus in protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, taking over classrooms and barricading the college president's office and the library.
The encounter between the students and Weinstein was posted in a Facebook video, where the professor can be seen speaking to a large group of students.
'There's a difference between debate and dialectic. Debate means you are trying to win, dialectic means you are using disagreement to discover what is true,' the professor told the students gathered outside his classroom.
'I am not interested in debate. I am only interested in dialectic, which does mean I listen to you, and you listen to me.'
One student responded: 'We dont care what terms you want to speak on. This is not about you. We are not speaking on termson terms of white privilege. This is not a discussion. You have lost that one.'
Some of the students in the video defended their professor, but others can be heard shouting at him before they walk out.
In the past, Day of Absence has meant students and faculty of color leave campus to show how much they contribute to the college while white people attend anti-racism workshops, according to Heat Street.
But this year, the event organizers are asking white students and faculty to leave campus, which Weinstein, a professor at Evergreen State for 15 years, responded to in an email, saying he would not participate in Day of Absence and would remain on campus.
'There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles... and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away.
'The first is a forceful call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force, and an act of oppression in and of itself,' he wrote in the email.
He added: 'On a college campus, one's right to speak or to be must never be based on skin color.'
#2. Posted:
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Status: Offline
Joined: Nov 07, 201212Year Member
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Reputation Power: 362
The hypocrisy of these people is absolutely astounding.
'You have to leave this campus today because you are white. You can't be here because you are white. Your skin colour means that you aren't welcome here today. You won't go? You must be a racist then.'
There is a big difference between saying that people of a certain skin colour can volunteer to leave campus for a day and saying that people of a certain skin colour must leave campus for a day.
And for those of you who support the police force and think they do great work, someone called the police here because they were concerned about the safety of this professor.
The police tried to enter the building but the protesters blocked them and did not allow them to enter. The police were forced to circle around the building and find another way in.
To me, blocking the police from completing their duties should be illegal - and it might be, i'm not sure - and all of those protesters blocking the door should have been arrested on the spot.
At a point in the video he is trying to answer the questions being 'posed' to him by these students, but they won't let him get a word in and he asks, "Would you like to hear the answer or not?"
They respond by shouting "No" at him.
A student defending Bret says, "You're useless then, you're not learning anything."
Of course the students twist this and say, "Stop telling people of colour that they're useless, you're useless."
You cannot say anything to these people without them twisting it into an attack on their skin colour.
Apparently they have told the head of the University that if he doesn't give into their demands, one of which was this day of white exclusion, then there will be violence.
Another one of their demands was that campus police not interfere with anything that happens, and campus police must adhere to the campus administration.
This is insane and people are so afraid of being called a racist that they won't stand up to it.
'You have to leave this campus today because you are white. You can't be here because you are white. Your skin colour means that you aren't welcome here today. You won't go? You must be a racist then.'
There is a big difference between saying that people of a certain skin colour can volunteer to leave campus for a day and saying that people of a certain skin colour must leave campus for a day.
And for those of you who support the police force and think they do great work, someone called the police here because they were concerned about the safety of this professor.
The police tried to enter the building but the protesters blocked them and did not allow them to enter. The police were forced to circle around the building and find another way in.
To me, blocking the police from completing their duties should be illegal - and it might be, i'm not sure - and all of those protesters blocking the door should have been arrested on the spot.
At a point in the video he is trying to answer the questions being 'posed' to him by these students, but they won't let him get a word in and he asks, "Would you like to hear the answer or not?"
They respond by shouting "No" at him.
A student defending Bret says, "You're useless then, you're not learning anything."
Of course the students twist this and say, "Stop telling people of colour that they're useless, you're useless."
You cannot say anything to these people without them twisting it into an attack on their skin colour.
Apparently they have told the head of the University that if he doesn't give into their demands, one of which was this day of white exclusion, then there will be violence.
Another one of their demands was that campus police not interfere with anything that happens, and campus police must adhere to the campus administration.
This is insane and people are so afraid of being called a racist that they won't stand up to it.
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#3. Posted:
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I seen this on the news but did not think about it too much. I agree with eejit completely.
Every one of the students who stopped the police from doing their jobs, should have been arrested and charged with obstruction or something along those lines.
One of the students made a point about how in the past the "Day of absence" had been for non-white students, and how that was racist. I agree, but that does not mean that the non-white students should now target the white students. They should just get rid of the "Day of absence". And I hope that all of the white people who went to that college did not have to attend "anti-racism workshops".
I really do not understand how the professor was called racist for not wanting to leave. He was standing up to racism.
They should have just continued on with school, and got rid of this school "tradition".
Every one of the students who stopped the police from doing their jobs, should have been arrested and charged with obstruction or something along those lines.
One of the students made a point about how in the past the "Day of absence" had been for non-white students, and how that was racist. I agree, but that does not mean that the non-white students should now target the white students. They should just get rid of the "Day of absence". And I hope that all of the white people who went to that college did not have to attend "anti-racism workshops".
I really do not understand how the professor was called racist for not wanting to leave. He was standing up to racism.
They should have just continued on with school, and got rid of this school "tradition".
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#4. Posted:
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Just like the students are in their right to participate in that "day of absence", the professor has his right to not participate too. I don't see what's so difficult to comprehend.
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#5. Posted:
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Jane wrote Just like the students are in their right to participate in that "day of absence", the professor has his right to not participate too. I don't see what's so difficult to comprehend.
Yup, this. Equality should go both ways.
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