Selective Moral Panics in Higher Education

Christopher Kernich: Kent State student Murdered by Blacks

James Edwards and his crew from The Political Cesspool have done a great job of bringing to our attention the alarming disparity in how minor non-violent acts against Blacks in university-related settings are treated by the American press versus how murder of Whites by Blacks in the same setting is treated. For instance, he told the story of John White, who survived Iraq, but not Diversity:

John White was a young white man who had served in Iraq, and was working on a second master’s degree at Kent State University, in small town Kent, Ohio. Unfortunately, Kent isn’t far from Akron, or as many folks call it, Crackron, and Akron blacks like to drive over to Kent and beat white college students for fun. In January, John White’s number came up. He was savagely beaten on January 23rd, and finally died from his injuries a few days ago. John White is the second white KSU student beaten to death by Akron blacks in the past few months. Two Crackron thugs beat Christopher Kernich to death back in November.

John White and Christopher Kernich, RIP.

And if you want an eye-opening revelation, do a search on Google to see how KSU is responding to this crisis of black on white violence. In the last three months, four KSU students have been attacked by blacks, and two of them have died from their beatings. But you’d never have a clue that there’s any problem by the lack of the university’s response. Good luck finding anything. Compare that with the university in San Diego that went into full fledged crisis mode last week after a few white students held a ghetto-themed party, which was all over the national news. The administration issued several press releases denouncing the kids, held emergency meetings with black students, and caved in to one demand after another from the blacks on campus wailing about how they don’t feel safe on campus. They even promised the blacks that private parties that they don’t approve of will no longer be tolerated. But four white students attacked in three months by blacks, and two of them dying, and the university and media are completely silent.

Two things are happening here. First, the disproportionate attention given to alleged anti-Black racist behavior (many turn out to be hoaxes, as we’ll see below) is a deliberate propaganda technique known as creating a “moral panic.”Kevin MacDonald has already described this at our site: “Right now, the media ignores brutal Black on White crimes while fomenting moral panics when some college students at UC-San Diego failed to express officially sanctioned attitudes on Black History Month. (The LA Times has had 13 articles on this crisis, with no end in sight.) This demonization of Whites is the first step in large scale murderous revenge.”

The chilling last sentence describes the second part of the process: plans for White Americans.

While Blacks are indiscriminately killing White college students across the country, the media bombards us with stories such as this:

2 Wisconsin Colleges Investigate Racist Flyers

Two Wisconsin colleges are trying to determine who distributed racist flyers on their campuses.

“White pride” flyers turned up at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Monday and last Thursday at St. Norbert College in De Pere.

St. Norbert says as many as 150 flyers were distributed on vehicles in two parking lots. The college captured video of the incident. The video and flyers were turned over to police. Jim Skorczewski, director of campus safety, says the suspect is not believed to be a student or school employee.

Both UW-Oshkosh and St. Norbert sent campus-wide e-mails Tuesday.

The UW-Oshkosh chancellor made a public appeal for anyone with information to contact university police.

Around the same time, California educators were obsessing over statewide allegations of White “racism.”

Pledge to students: strategies to combat intolerance

SACRAMENTO — President Mark Yudof and UC Regents Chairman Russell Gould met face to face Monday (March 1) with students concerned about recent incidents of intolerance at University of California campuses and pledged to focus attention system wide on strategies to prevent such acts in the future.

“These are the worst incidents of racism I have seen on campuses in 20 years,” Yudof told about 100 students who were staging a sit-in on the sidewalk in front of the UC Center Sacramento building on K Street. “I understand that students don’t feel safe, they don’t feel comfortable on their campuses.” . . .

In a wide-ranging discussion, Yudof and the students also talked about UC Davis, where a swastika was carved on a Jewish student’s door, and where anti-gay graffiti was sprayed in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center.

“The university is in danger of losing the trust of its students” given the spate of incidents, said Jesse Cheng, student regent-designate.

Students asked UC leaders to endorse a request they delivered to 120 legislative offices Monday for legislation that would declare across California’s three systems of public higher education “there is ZERO tolerance policy for acts of hate with intent to terrorize.” The students’ proposal would require students who commit such acts to be expelled and have their actions included in their permanent academic records.

There is now a university-sponsored site here which beseeches students to “Join the Battle Against Hate.” A moral panic in full swing.

Meanwhile, we leave it to James Edwards to unravel the story:

Who hung the noose at UC-San Diego?

UC-San Diego has been in an uproar the past couple weeks because some white students held an off campus party whose theme was ridiculing ghetto behavior. Never mind that it was off campus. Never mind about free speech. Never mind that one of the organizers was “Jiggaboo Jones”, who calls himself The #1 Nigger In America. Never mind that ghetto behavior is ridiculous, and should be ridiculed. None of that matters if colored people are offended, so university authorities denounced the private party, repeatedly, and are looking for excuses to punish the students involved. Blacks have been up in arms, holding protests, and making demands, and the school has been giving into almost all of them. They even promised blacks that parties they don’t approve of will no longer be tolerated.

Then things got even more out of hand, after someone hung a noose in the campus library Thursday night. In response, hundreds of blacks stormed and occupied the office of university Chancellor Mary Anne Foxe, who’s been doing nothing but groveling and pandering to them all week. This caused a new frenzy of media coverage, and almost every article mentioned that in California, hanging or displaying a noose “with intent to terrorize” is a hate crime punishable by a year in prison. Then, suddenly, the university announced that a female student had admitted to hanging the noose. She has been suspended, but apparently she hasn’t been arrested. Both the university and the cops are refusing to release her name or any other details.

Which means one thing, of course. The female student who hung the noose isn’t white. If a white person had confessed, the cops would’ve arrested him, and his bail would be ridiculously high, and his name and face would be all over the internet, newspapers, and cable TV. Everyone knows it’s true, and yet the media will never, ever report this fact.

Another thing the media refuse to discuss is that these noose incidents (and many other “hate crimes”) almost always turn out to be “self-inflicted”, and the perpetrator rarely gets anything but a slap on the wrist, while a white person would’ve faced years in prison for doing the exact same thing in many jurisdictions. But when a black or other non-white confesses, they’re portrayed as someone who meant well, but just went a bit too far in an attempt to “raise awareness” of racism. They’re misguided and confused, good people at heart, who “made a mistake” and shouldn’t be punished. They may pay a fine, do a little community service, and have to get counseling. While a white man who would do such a thing is seen as the very incarnation of evil, and would have to be locked up for years in prison.

There’s two sets of laws in this country — one for white people, and one for non-whites.

Naturally, some uppity white folks have noticed the curious situation, and are wondering why the school and the cops won’t release her name. Actually, they have a pretty good idea why, and they’re saying so. (See the comments.) And what do liberals do when white people point out this utter hypocrisy, and are curious about who confessed to a crime that’s been all over the news for the past few days, and why it’s now being hushed up? What else? They denounce the white people, and accuse them of being on a witch hunt.

You can’t win if you’re white. If you commit a “hate crime”, you face years in prison, while a black or other non-white faces, at worst, a slap on the wrist. Then if you point out this double standard, you’re accused of “injecting race” into the discussion, and being on some kind of “witch hunt”, etc.

(See also C-San Diego noose culprit is non-white.)

To make his point about the vast disparity between how minorities and Whites are treated in this sensitive area of “hate crimes,” consider this:

Are Q-tips a hate crime?

Q-tips a hate crime? Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But in a few years, I’m sure some black or insane white liberal will be insisting that Q-tips are racist. Look at what’s going on in Missouri, where police are “investigating” a bunch of cotton balls left on the ground:

University of Missouri police are investigating what appears to have been a racially motivated incident Friday morning at the campus’ Gaines/Oldham Black Cultural Center.

Cotton balls were strewn across the center’s lawn, walkway and bushes between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. Police said two people were seen running from the center grounds.

Whoever is responsible could be charged with littering or tampering, said MU Police Capt. Brian Weimer. State statutes contain no hate crime law, but if racial motivation were found, “it would enhance the punishment for the crime,” he said.

Well, such a crime cannot go unsolved let alone unpunished, and fortunately our men in blue were up to the task, as reported on VDARE: Two White Students Prosecuted In Missouri For Felony Littering: “Because authorities suspect the placement of the cotton balls on the center’s lawn, walkway and bushes was racially motivated, the charges against the students were raised to Class D felony status.”

Think about that: a FELONY. The horrifying part of this is that today’s America seemingly finds this appropriate. The reason for such acceptance of official actions was explained in an insightful article posted by George Hocking on TOQ online recently:

Racism now irrevocably taints all whites as much as original sin once tainted their ancestors. Just as those ancestors were once reminded of their sinfulness each Sunday morning, their descendents are reminded of their racism each day by a media cacophony. And its logic is impeccable. Since racial equality is as unquestioned as God once was and evidence of inequality is everywhere in non-white poverty, crime, low achievement, and general misbehavior, the only possible explanation is white racism.

That is why it really doesn’t matter if such incidents are actual hate crimes perpetrated by Whites. Hoaxes committed by minorities, Jews and feminists are rampant and they succeed because the initial message spattered across the headlines is what counts. White males have been accused again—which is almost the same in the media as being convicted.

With such an explosive payoff for perpetrating hoaxes that seek to frame Whites for racism, it is no wonder that such instances are widespread. A classic account in this field is Laird Wilcox’s spiral-bound study Crying Wolf: Hate Crimes Hoaxes in America. A detailed report of a more recent incident can be found inUntil Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case.

Let’s close with some (dark) humor dealing with these cases. We turn again to James Edwards, who reports on how at least a few university leaders are immune to these moral panics (or are they?):

UC-Santa Cruz noose graffiti horror!

Another day, another phony “hate crime” on a college campus. Another noose, but this time it’s only a picture of one, scribbled on the inside of a restroom door. For once, though, a college administration reacted rationally. Chancellor George Blumenthal responded to a reporter’s inquiry about the incident:

“You have got to be kidding me! You’re actually writing a story on restroom graffiti?! What the hell is wrong with you? And you wonder why newspapers are going out of business?! Whatever… Yes, I was informed of this noose scribbling earlier this morning, by one of the university vice presidents. After listening to his breathless tale, I asked him if he knew the difference between a university chancellor and a janitor. He said he did. So I told him to call the freakin’ janitorial department and have it cleaned up, and that if he ever wasted any more of my time on nonsense like this he would be fired on the spot. And that’s the end of the “story.” Racism and hate on campus? You’re a reporter, and you fall for this crap?! Almost every incident of this kind turns out to have been perpetrated by a member of the alleged “target” group. Everybody knows that. Except you, apparently. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot more important things to do than waste my time on this kind of garbage. So if you want to write it up in your paper, go ahead. Then I suggest you get a freakin’ life.”

Nah, I’m just pullin’ your leg, man! He didn’t really say that. Instead, he went through the usual motions. Chancellor Blumenthal knows the drill:

Chancellor George Blumenthal posted this statement on the UCSC website on Monday. “This incident is deeply disturbing. I want to be clear: There is no place on this campus for racial intolerance or hate of any kind. To students and others who were subjected to this threatening message before it was removed, I want to apologize and offer my deepest assurance that I am committed to a zero-tolerance policy regarding racism at UCSC.”

No place on campus for racial intolerance or hate? Zero tolerance policy for this kind of stuff? What a bunch of bull. What Blumenthal means is that there’s zero tolerance for white people who draw nooses on doors, or hang real ones in libraries. But if a non-white does it, there’s plenty of tolerance for that, as we just saw with UC-San Diego.

Somehow I feel I am not properly emphasizing the vast difference that exists between emphasis on White racial missteps on campus vs. that of non-Whites, particularly Blacks. Here, let me explain it this way.

Just prior to Christmas Break 2006, healthy Eastern Michigan University coedLaura Dickinson passed away unexpectedly in her dorm room. There was no foul play, the school said. Well, they lied. In fact, officials had reason to be suspicious of a black student, Orange Amir Taylor III, 20. Eventually he was arrested for raping and killing Miss Dickinson.

Laura’s father was devastated that the school had lied to them. “They let us bury her thinking that a healthy 22-year-old girl died by some freak accident.”

Again, contrast such active lying about a Black-on-White RAPE/MURDER with discoveries of graffiti or cotton balls. There is no sane way to explain it. Academia may be further left than the nation as a whole, but the nation always manages to catch up.

That’s why I discouraged one of my nephews from going into the humanities to earn a Ph.D. Based on my own experiences, I knew that the odds were stacked heavily against him at every turn—scholarships, grades, the right to enjoy a non-hostile environment in the classroom, etc.

Now that he has a fresh Ph.D. and is in the job market, race reality in academia is getting too real, beginning with the application process.

Though many schools only send an e-mail letter of rejection (or no response at all), he has immediately gotten mail to his house from EVERY academic job he has applied for. What is that correspondence? It’s a form asking for demographic, i.e., racial, information. Again, based on my own experience in academia (fudging grades for affirmative action candidates, etc.) I have no doubt whatsoever that such forms are used to weed out White males and promote the privileged groups of multiculturalism.

Let’s finish by returning to the topic of disparate emphasis put on (alleged) White hate crimes vs. all-too-real murders of White students. George Hocking’s account explains why it is so crucial to constantly repeat these stories of condemnation of White racism: It is the prelude to our elimination. “Just as the only route to the eternal bliss of heaven in the old story [Christianity] was death, the only path to a blissful utopian future of racial equality in the new story is death of the white race.”

The creation and propagation of this race-killing story can only be called wickedly brilliant. Unfortunately, it is working all too well as a critical mass of Whites has internalized it and therefore accepts these race crime reports uncritically. Worse, they demand punishment through race suicide.

Edmund Connelly (email him) is a freelance writer, academic, and expert on the cinema arts. He has previously written for The Occidental Quarterly.