"Rot at Duke--and Beyond" Is Merely Part of America's Deadly Political Correctness Rot
It's nice to know those details about Professor Farred, but it's vital that Americans know the truth about the relationships between ACORN and Obama and the Obama presidential campaign and, if they did, then Duke might respect due process and Cornell might not have recruited and promoted Farred.
In Hamlet, Marcellus observed, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
Now something is rotten in America.
National Journal's Stuart Taylor Jr.'s latest article is titled "The Rot At Duke -- And Beyond." Ijn it Taylor observed that something is rotten at Duke University in particular and academia in general. His theme is that "[m]uch of academia appears to have a disregard of due process and a bias against white males."
Taylor's concise staff biography at National Journal: "Stuart Taylor Jr., a weekly opinion columnist for National Journal, is a widely respected, nonpartisan commentator on legal affairs and political and policy issues of national importance. He has appeared frequently on all of the major broadcast and cable networks and on foreign networks including BBC and Canadian Broadcasting. Taylor was legal affairs reporter from 1980-1985 and Supreme Court reporter from 1985-1988 in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Before that he was a lawyer with Washington's Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He graduated from Princeton University in 1970 and, after a three-year stint as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun newspapers, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1977. His academic honors included graduating with the highest academic average in his law school class. His journalism honors include a share of a National Magazine Award."
It's not reasonably disputable that Taylor's credentials are stellar.
Nor is it reasonable disputable that Taylor did not ingratiate himself with the political correctness crowd by scrutinizing the scurrilous charges by Crystal Gail Mangum and now disbarred former Durham County, North Carolina District Attorney Michael Nifong against members of the 2005-2006 Duke Men's Lacrosse Team and subtitling his book on the Duke case (co-authored with KC Johnson) "Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case."
But the rot at Duke and in academia is not the core problem. It is but a part of the rot that is political correctness out to replace American exceptionalism with American mediocrity, American freedom with American regimentation and American capitalism with European socialism.
The political correctness loathe being linked to injustice, notwithstanding reality, and thus it's hardly shocking that the book, Until Proven Innocent, did not win a Pulitzer Prize. But Taylor and Johnson can take consolation for exposing a series of shameless lies. (The subtitle IS misleading: there was no rape and the political correctness scoundrels proved to be shameless, not shameful.)
Taylor essentially acknowledged that shameless in opening his article:
"You might think that a university whose students were victims of the most notorious fraudulent rape claim in recent history, and whose professors -- 88 of them -- signed an ad implicitly presuming guilt, and whose president came close to doing the same would have learned some lessons.
"The facts are otherwise. They also suggest that Duke University's ugly abuse in 2006 and 2007 of its now-exonerated lacrosse players -- white males accused by a black stripper and hounded by a mob hewing to political correctness -- reflects a disregard of due process and a bias against white males that infect much of academia."
Note: Both Taylor, a white male, and First Lady Michelle Obama, a black female, graduated from Princeton College and Harvard Law School. But Taylor never wrote a white male equivalent of these declarations by the First Lady-to-be in her thesis as a Princeton student: "Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost" and her "realization" that "the path [she had] chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to [her] further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never become a full participant....made [her] goal[] to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community more desirable."
Taylor is standing up for due process for all, even white males, and subject Duke to withering scrutiny.
Taylor:
"In September, far from taking pains to protect its students from false rape charges, Duke adopted a revised 'sexual misconduct' policy that makes a mockery of due process and may well foster more false rape charges by rigging the disciplinary rules against the accused.
"Meanwhile, none of the 88 guilt-presuming professors has publicly apologized. (Duke's president, Richard Brodhead, did -- but too little and too late.) Many of the faculty signers -- a majority of whom are white -- have expressed pride in their rush to judgment. None was dismissed, demoted, or publicly rebuked. Two were glorified this month in Duke's in-house organ as pioneers of 'diversity,' with no reference to their roles in signing the ad. Three others have won prestigious positions at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago."
Are you surprised?
You shouldn't be.
Taylor:
"The two stated reasons for the revised sexual-misconduct rules, as reported in the student newspaper, The Chronicle, almost advertise that they were driven by politically correct ideology more than by any surge in sexual assaults.
"'The first was... fear of litigation, as expressed by Duke General Counsel Pamela Bernard,' ....'Yet the policy Duke has developed seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. The second factor was a development that those in the reality-based community might consider to be a good thing: Over a three-year period, reported cases of sexual misconduct on college campuses as a whole and at Duke specifically (slightly) declined."
"But for many in academia, Johnson explains, 'these figures must mean something else -- that a plethora of rapes are going unreported.' Indeed, Sheila Broderick, a Duke Women's Center staff member, told The Chronicle without evidence that Duke had a 'rape culture.' And Ada Gregory, director of the Duke Women's Center, said that 'higher IQ' males, such as those at Duke, could be 'highly manipulative and coercive.'"
It's called projection.
Wikipedia:
"Psychological projection or projection bias (including Freudian Projection) is the unconscious act of denial of a person's own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to the weather, the government, a tool, or to other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have the same feelings or motives, rather than what they really think.
"Projection is considered one of the most profound and subtle of human psychological processes, and extremely difficult to work with, because by its nature it is hidden. It is the fundamental mechanism by which we keep ourselves uninformed about ourselves...."
That means the political correctness folks are delusional.
Taylor reported distressing details:
"The revised policy requires involving the Women's Center in the disciplinary process for all known allegations of sexual misconduct and empowers the Office of Student Conduct to investigate even if the accuser does not want to proceed.
"Duke's rules define sexual misconduct so broadly and vaguely as to include any sexual activity without explicit 'verbal or nonverbal' consent, which must be so 'clear' as to dispel 'real or perceived power differentials between individuals [that] may create an unintentional atmosphere of coercion' (emphasis added).
"The disciplinary rules deny the accused any right to have an attorney at the hearing panel or to confront his accuser. The rules also give her -- but not him -- the right to be treated with "sensitivity"; to make opening and closing statements; and to receive copies of investigative documents."
Taylor's take:
"The revised policy, among other things, shows that Duke is still in the grip of the same biases, indifference to evidence, and de facto presumption of guilt that led so many professors and administrators to smear innocent lacrosse players as rapists (and as racists) for many months in 2006 and 2007. The centerpiece was the full-page ad taken out by the 'Group of 88' professors, as critics call them, in The Chronicle on April 6, 2006, about three weeks after the woman claimed rape.
"This ad stopped just short of explicitly branding the lacrosse players as rapists. But it treated almost as a given the truth of the stripper's claims of a brutal gang rape by three team members amid a hail of racist slurs. It praised protesters who had put lacrosse players' photos on 'wanted' posters. It associated 'what happened to this young woman' with 'racism and sexism.' It suggested that the lacrosse players were getting privileged treatment because they are white -- which was the opposite of the truth.
"And in January 2007, after the fraudulence of the stripper's rape claim and of rogue Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's indictments of three players had become increasingly evident, most of the 88 also signed a letter rejecting calls for apologies while denying that their April 2006 ad had meant what it seemed to say."
Political correctness in action!
But Americans believe that even more important than change is that the God-given and inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness be respected and the fundamental rights to due process and equal protection NOT change.
Taylor is displeased that political correctness scoundrels are no more repentant that Obama friends Pentagon bomber (and now professor) William Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah A. "God damn America" Wright.
Taylor:
"Among the most prominent signers of both the ad and the letter were Karla Holloway, an English professor, and Paula McClain, a political science professor. They also slimed the lacrosse players in opaquely worded, academic-jargon-filled individual statements full of innuendo.
"This disgraceful behavior apparently did not trouble Duke's Academic Council, which in February 2007 made McClain its next chairwoman -- the highest elected position for a faculty member.
"And just this month, the university's in-house organ, Duke Today, heaped special attention and praise on Holloway and McClain and featured their photos in a gushing five-part series titled 'Diversity & Excellence,' focusing on Duke's efforts to hire more black faculty members."
It is a disgrace, perhaps explained, but hardly justified, by "[a]cademia's] demand for more 'diversity'... interact[ing] with the small supply of aspiring black professors who are well credentialed in traditional disciplines."
Taylor lamented: "None of the five articles mentioned the roles of Holloway, McClain, and most of the African and African-American studies faculty (the vast majority of whom signed both the ad and the subsequent letter) in smearing innocent Duke students -- not only the lacrosse players but also the many others whom the letter fatuously accused of fostering an 'atmosphere that allows sexism, racism, and sexual violence to be so prevalent on campus.'"
Ignoring pertinent information about thesepolitical correctness-championed professors surely is lamentable, but it pales before The New York Times killing an Obama/ACORN expose before Election Day 2008 and the liberal media establishment generally ignoring ACORN's subversive nature, corruption of the political process and status as an unofficial arm of the Democrat Party.
Taylor reported:
"In 2007, Cornell proudly lured another of the 88, Grant Farred, with a joint appointment in African studies and English.
"This, after the following events: In September 2006 and before, Farred produced such faux scholarship as a nonsensical monograph portraying Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets' Chinese center, as representing 'the most profound threat to American empire.' In October 2006, Farred accused hundreds of Duke students of 'secret racism' for registering to vote against Nifong, who was subsequently disbarred for railroading the indicted lacrosse players. In April 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the players innocent. Then Farred smeared them again, as racists and perjurers.
"Cornell elevated Farred this year to director of graduate studies in the African-American studies department."
It's nice to know those details about Professor Farred, but it's vital that Americans know the truth about the relationships between ACORN and Obama and the Obama presidential campaign and, if they did, then Duke might respect due process and Cornell might not have recruited and promoted Farred.
Taylor:
"The fact that these five people of questionable judgment have subsequently won glorification by Duke or advancement to other prestigious positions may reflect the interaction of academia's demand for more 'diversity' with the small supply of aspiring black professors who are well credentialed in traditional disciplines. These factors, amplified by politically correct ideology, have advanced many academics who -- unlike most African-Americans -- are obsessed with grievances rooted more in our history of slavery and racial oppression than in contemporary reality.
"Try imagining a white male professor who had smeared innocent black students enjoying a similar path of advancement in academia today."
Better yet: study the career "path" of President Obama and how the liberal media establishment and "politically correct ideology" "advanced" Obama into the White House and has permitted him to proceed as effectively as politically possible in still center-right America with a radical agenda masked as "reform" and "fundamental change" because so many people remain ignorant of reality.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
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