A professor of sociology who last April tweeted “whiteness is terrorism” is in the news again, defending that comment and other racially charged language he chooses to use. Johnny Eric Williams of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, has penned a new op-ed for the Hartford Courant entitled “I tweeted ‘whiteness is terrorism’ and was condemned for it. Here’s why I’m right.”
Williams, a black man, not only defended his own racism, but played the victim in the process, suggesting he was targeted for his comments.
Williams wrote: “For years now, I have been derided for inciting violence by those who think of themselves as white because I dare to name and write about the sources of racially oppressed people’s suffering — whites and their system of white racism. I was even investigated by my own institution, Trinity College, out of fear that the truth about whites and their systemic oppressive machinations may impact the thinking and actions of students, the public, and the institution’s financial bottom line.”
That “investigation” came to nothing of course, as the college chose to support the controversial professor. “Trinity College supports academic freedom and free expression and inquiry, which are the hallmarks of academia and democratic society,” said Trinity College president Joanne Berger-Sweeny. “When speech proves controversial, our responsibility as educators is to promote debate and discussion, not less. Twitter is a challenging place for a thoughtful discourse, which is clear from this example.”
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The college’s defense of Williams has cost them, with 16 students from the class of 2021 withdrawing their acceptance over the controversy caused by the professor. Alumni have withheld over $200,000 in donations over the college’s refusal to sanction Williams in any way.
Williams doesn’t believe that his opinions are controversial at all, at least in academia, and suggests that “white” is not really a race at all, but rather a social construct. “Whiteness is a shared conglomeration of fabricated meanings and ideas about biologically insignificant human differences. Whiteness only exists in relation or opposition to blackness and other fictitious racial categories created by whiteness adherents for the purpose of cementing a higher status and material advantage over other people that are excluded from being white.”
If Williams was simply saying that we should look beyond race to the individual underneath, that’s a position that might have some merit. But that’s not what he’s saying at all. In fact, in Williams’ eyes, individualism is a part of the problem.
“White supremacy is not merely confined to openly bigoted whites but also people who see themselves as individuals, rather than a member of a socially constructed racial group and system. Individualism denies the very existence of systemic white racism by reducing it to individual hate and discrimination.”
So, in Williams’ view, white people are all racist, whether we know it or not. We simply cannot help it. The only thing white people can do, in Williams’ view, is to accept their own innate racism and suffer the implied consequences of their whiteness in a coming new societal hierarchy.
“It is essential that self-identified whites and their whiteness collaborators among the racially oppressed confront their white problem head-on, unencumbered by racial comfort. Such comfortableness enables folks immersed in whiteness to disregard their complicity in systemic white racism, forestalling the destruction of white supremacy.”
The upshot of all of Williams’ high-minded drivel is that he’s an anti-white racist.
To illustrate, Williams used some extremely inflammatory language in the wake of the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a congressional baseball game in 2017, suggesting that first responders should have allowed the white congressman to die.
“It is past time for the racially oppressed to do what people who believe themselves to be ‘white’ will not do, put end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system. #LetThemF***ingDie,” Williams wrote on Facebook.
Williams also shared a blog post by an anonymous author referring to all white people, which read, “If you see them drowning. If you see them in a burning building. If they are bleeding out in an emergency room. If the ground is crumbling beneath them. If they are in a park and they turn their weapons on each other: do nothing.”
So, in Williams’ view, the ultimate solution to racism is allow white people — all of them — to die.
One thing that is not happening to Williams, despite his folly, is a concerted effort to have him removed from his position. A few students have withdrawn from the school and some alumni have withheld funds, but you do not see a massive social-media campaign to have the racist Williams removed from his post. That’s because conservatives actually believe in free speech; even the stunning idiocy of Williams should be protected.
Image: YiorgosGR via iStock / Getty Images Plus
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
