“White masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges,” opined the professor, a person who also believes undergraduate white males are a “problem population.” These weren’t the only anti-white comments sent in tweets by new Boston University hire Saida Grundy, an assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies. Despite this, the school’s initial response was that Grundy was merely exercising “free speech.”
As the Washington Times reported, “The tweets were first discovered by University of Massachusetts Amherst student Nick Pappas, who compiled them on his website ‘SoCawlege.com’” in order to “show the rest of America how nasty people on the far left can get at colleges.” Pappas also questions Grundy’s fitness to teach a diverse student body, writing, reports Fox News, “You have to teach college aged white males eventually, no?… This seems like you are unqualified to grade their work as you clearly demonstrate some kind of special bias against them.”
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As to this bias, Grundy’s full “problem” tweet reads, “why [sic] is white America so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?”
Whether or not the professor has proposed a “Final Solution” to this problem has not been reported.
Grundy also doesn’t seem to have explained what the “problem” is. It’s certainly not crime — at least relatively speaking. After all, as Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason L. Riley, a black intellectual, wrote in his book Please Stop Helping Us, “Blacks are about 13 percent of the population and [young black males, mostly] continue to be responsible for an inordinate amount of crime. Between 1976 and 2005 blacks committed more than half of all murders in the United States.”
One white problem Grundy apparently believes exists — slavery — was expressed in a tweet reading, “Deal with your white s**t, white people. slavery [sic] is a *YALL* thing.” Many find this sentiment shocking, expecting an educator to be educated.
Slavery is one of the world’s oldest institutions, once practiced virtually everywhere. The ancient Egyptians — who Afrocentrists such as Grundy often claim were black — used slaves to build the pyramids, and slavery is still found today in Africa and elsewhere. Another fact of history is that while whites may not have been the first to practice slavery, they certainly were the first to end it. In 1537 already, Pope Paul III forbade the enslavement of American Indians or any other newly discovered population, and European governments and the United States would later outlaw slavery completely.
Grundy is also seemingly angry that her efforts to vote with her wallet have been frustrated, as another tweet of hers reads, “Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year I find it nearly impossible.” The professor no doubt attributes this dearth of black-owned businesses to “racism,” but other factors explain the problem. As to one, Professor Walter Williams recently wrote in “Black Lives Matter,” “[Black] criminals have turned many black communities into economic wastelands where there is a lack of services that most Americans take for granted, such as supermarkets, other shops and even home delivery. Black residents must bear the expense of having to go out of their neighborhoods to shop or shop at high-cost mom and pop stores.”
Thus, rather than sending bitter, bigoted tweets, Grundy would be better served trying to combat criminality (including rioting) in the black community and appreciating the business owners — white and otherwise — who create jobs and provide her the goods and services she needs.
For Boston University’s part, it initially dealt with the Grundy scandal by hiding behind the First Amendment. As school spokesman Colin Riley stated, “Professor Grundy is exercising her right to free speech and we respect her right to do so.” After Grundy’s tweets went viral and alumni vowed to discontinue donations, however, B.U. did damage control. In a rather tepid letter issued Tuesday, President Robert A. Brown said he was “disappointed” by Grundy’s remarks and that “Boston University does not condone racism or bigotry in any form” (only accepts it, apparently, in certain forms). But he reiterated that Grundy has a “right to hold and express her opinions” — even as, it seems, a member of B.U. faculty.
The professor also reacted to the backlash, sending a statement to B.U. stating, “I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately. I deprived them of the nuance and complexity that such subjects always deserve.” Note that Grundy neither apologized for nor retracted her comments; she simply regrets not expressing her bigotry more eloquently. Her Twitter account is now private, and critics might say she certainly is sorry — that she got caught.
One of these critics is social commentator and author of Reforming Our Universities David Horowitz. He characterized Grundy as a “racist” and told Fox News he was “not surprised” B.U. would hire such a person. And his characterization is likely apt. One of the (few) benefits of social media such as Twitter is that it allows a spontaneity that often reveals our true feelings. For when we react without time to think, to paraphrase philosopher C.S. Lewis, is when we show our hearts — unobscured by “nuance and complexity.”
And what truly reveals prejudice? When even a modicum of rational thought would disabuse a person of a negative opinion he holds about a group, that opinion has to be a product of something other than the intellect. A good example is believing a group that ended slavery has a monopoly on its practice.
Horowitz also pointed out that Black Studies programs are generally “anti-white” vehicles for leftist “indoctrination,” and he accused B.U. of exhibiting a double standard. As he told Fox, “If she [Grundy] were a white racist rather than an anti-white racist, she would never be hired.”
For sure, critics might wonder, if a new professor said that “black masculinity” was a problem, black males are a “problem population,” and painted all blacks with the same negative brush, would he find work at any American university?
We don’t have to wonder. White 12-year adjunct professor Allen Zaruba was fired by Towson University in 2010 for using a “racially insensitive term” while discussing provocative art in class, and that he made a heartfelt apology didn’t matter. Earlier this year, Marquette University stripped white professor John McAdams of tenure merely for writing a politically incorrect blog post (not primarily about race). And in neither case did the universities say anything about “free speech.”
Meanwhile, Saida Grundy is still scheduled to assume her B.U. professorship July 1. This means that for $62,956 — the school’s tuition and fees — your child can hear bigotry delicately stated with “nuance and complexity.” And with such political correctness rampant in academia, some may lament: “Why is America so reluctant to identify college professors as a problem population?”
