Day: May 27, 2015

Boston University FINALLY got around to condemning a Professors Racist Misandric tweets.

I’m about to talk about that which dare not be spoken of.

NO! Not kinky sex, hell I’ll talk about that!

In this context I’m speaking about Racism & Sexism.

Close your eyes and think “RACIST” What do you visualize? Now repeat the exercise and think “SEXIST”, do yo see the same person?

We’ve all been trained to think of racism and sexism in terms of the racist is ALWAYS WHITE and a Sexist Bastard is ALWAYS a MALE and usually White.

But there has been a growing sexist / racist element in our society which is not always white, and which is almost never male that gets a pass to say things I haven’t’ heard since the ‘60s.

Consider this phrase:

Why is black America so reluctant to identify black college males as a problem population?

You read that and think, “OMG that’s SOOO Racist! The man that said that should be punished!” And you’d be right according to the unwritten rules of our society today.

You’d expect a comment like that from Rush Limbaugh, or Donald Sterling, or David Duke.

What was actually said:

“why is white america so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?”

It’s just as racist.

The “Man” that said this is actually a Sociology and African American Studies Professor named Saida Grundy, who happens to be a black woman.

While Donald Sterling was forced to sell his interest in his basketball franchise, publicly humiliated, and denied his freedom of speech and opinion, this professor enjoys protection of her free speech rights. Frankly I don’t see the difference between the two people.

Boston University is asserting that her first amendment right to free speech while disagreeable, is protected.

Fundamentally I agree. Freedom of speech applies equally to all of us.  So does the public shaming, the loss of career, and all the punishment commonplace in our society today.

We’ll force a millionaire owner to divest himself of a franchise because he used the “N” word (Exercising his right to free speech), but we’ll give this professor a pass to say something equally offensive? Does anyone else see a problem with this?

We’ll force a TV personality like Paula Dean loose pretty much everything because she said the “N” word 25 years ago.

But we’ll tolerate an Asian lady in a well known financial organization tweeting that she hates white people.

In her case there was no penalty. Even when other twitter followers demanded a response from Kickstarter there was no apology, & no consequences for this sweet racist.

A person of color is not automatically immune to being a racist anymore than a woman is immune to being a sexist.  Our society continues to choose to look the other way when a non-white person or woman behaves or speaks in a racist or sexist way.

Plain and simple if it’s wrong for one group, it’s wrong for all groups, regardless of the groups protected status or historical injustices committed against them.

We must all be treated with respect, dignity and equality or none of us will ever know equality. That means calling out a woman if she’s sexist. And calling out a person of color, if they’re racist.

It’s well past time for equality to be applied equally.