Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, April 04, 2008

John Streamas - Village Idiot

I hope you all got to read John Steamas's response to Edward Weber's guest editorial earlier this week. In it he defends the thuggish tactics of the academic left because "justice trumps diversity."


Suggesting that WSU swarms with "liberals" who dictate the campus agenda, Edward Weber proposes true "intellectual diversity." Yet he acknowledges that the institute he directs has "considerable programming resources" for achieving "diversity," resources that "liberals" lack.

Since he refuses to name his adversaries, let me suggest that many of us are people of color, and we reject his "liberal" label. We seek commonsense justice. When I moved here I was told this region is extremely conservative, with very little true diversity – that is, the views of students and teachers of color are seldom heard and almost never honored. Diversity is defined for us by bureaucrats who refuse to punish crimes of racial harassment and hatred, and when a public display of violent xenophobia leads to shouted racial slurs, it is we, the victims, who are labeled troublemakers. Many people of color here feel unwelcome and unsafe.

James Baldwin wrote that people of color have an obligation to overcome lingering inequalities. Weber's "diversity" refuses to recognize these inequalities as it seeks an even tradeoff of "liberals" and "conservatives." I suggest that Weber get to know students and teachers of color before changing policies to force his ill-informed "diversity" on us.


John Streamas
Assistant Professor, Comparative Ethnic Studies, WSU


We now have it on paper. WSU's academic left opposes debate and advocates intolerance.

By the way, I reject the term liberal as well when applied to people like Streamas. Totalitarian is so much more accurate.

3 comments:

Jim H said...

"Diversity is defined for us by bureaucrats who refuse to punish crimes of racial harassment and hatred, and when a public display of violent xenophobia leads to shouted racial slurs , it is we, the victims, who are labeled troublemakers." - John Streamas

"white s***bag" - John Streamas

What?

Pullmanite said...

I think he mistyped part of his letter. It should read: "When a public, peaceful display of something I objected to led me to shout a racial slur, I, the victim (in my mind) was labeled a troublemaker."

Is he trying to justify his shouting white s'bag?

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Streamas: "When I moved here I was told this region is extremely conservative, with very little true diversity – that is, the views of students and teachers of color are seldom heard and almost never honored."

Proof positive that Streamas and his ilk operate 100% on stereotypes received second hand.

Dwelling on the WSU campus as he does... seriously? You have got to be kidding me!

If John really believes this, we can excuse him for being stupid, otherwise we have to identify him as a liar. I can find some room in my heart for a natural idiot, because it wouldn't be his fault for being so dumb and blind to what the WSU campus is really like intellectually, but none for a liar.

John is making plenty of money pushing this crap, of course, so I have to assume that he's not an idiot, but motivated by profit. Hey... didn't they accuse Dinesh of coming to the campus only for that reason? Pot, meet kettle. Kettle is scared of its market share being taken by a better product, by the way.