Over the past couple of weeks, students created illegal encampments on a number of college campuses. The protesters are opposed to Israel's actions after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas.
But these radicals aren't interested in reasoned debate or even peaceful protests. They set up illegal encampments. These aren't examples of First Amendment-protected speech, but violations of the law and/or university policies. Students wanted university officials to negotiate over – read: capitulate to – their whims. A common demand was that institutions divest funds from Israeli companies.
These students spewed genocidal slogans, like "globalize the Intifada." They hurled anti-Semitic insults at Jewish students. At the University of California, Los Angeles, protesters physically prevented a Jewish student from accessing the campus. At Columbia University and Portland State University, protesters took over college buildings. Many professors came out in support of the protesters, despite the students' terrible cause and inappropriate manner of protest. At Columbia, faculty created a human chain around an encampment in an attempt to disrupt a dispersal order.
These protesters and criminals don't just oppose Israel. They hate America. Around the country, they took down the American flag and raised the Palestinian flag. A group of fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became internet famous for defending their campus's American flag. Protesters at George Washington University defaced a statue of the first president and draped it in a Palestinian flag.
Anti-Semitism has exploded at the very places most vocal about their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Columbia says it strives to "foster a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment" in which all students can thrive. It has DEI initiatives in 20 areas across the university. UCLA's Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion claims it wants to protect civil rights and uphold "dignity for all in our community."
Opposing anti-Semitism should be a layup. Instead, administrators at once-elite institutions coddled the criminals and rule breakers. They negotiated with them. At some places, like Northwestern, Brown and Rutgers, administrators gave into their demands.
Cowardice played a role, but there's a deeper problem. These students are acting on the critical race theory ideals these universities promote. DEI is the practical application of this worldview. CRT divides people into arbitrary racial groups. Some groups are oppressed. Others are the oppressors. The oppressors obtained success by creating systems of power to advantage themselves at the expense of those in the other group. Because oppressors hold this power unjustly, the oppressed group are justified in doing anything to fight back.
So, CRT holds that Jews are the oppressors while those in the Gaza Strip are the oppressed. Excluding Jews from college campuses increases inclusion by creating more opportunities for the supposedly marginalized. The horrible atrocities Hamas committed last year, including mass murder and rape, are only a natural response to Israel's systemic oppression. It's equity in action. This worldview also explains why the Left wants to overthrow America's institutions and founding principles.
Only a fool could believe all of this, which is why it's gained so many followers on college campuses. Bolstered by billions in government funding, many universities function as de facto indoctrination factors for leftist activists, not centers of higher learning.
Take Johannah King-Slutzky, a Ph.D. student at Columbia. She demanded the university feed those who broke into and took over Hamilton Hall.
"Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill even if they disagree with you?" she said. Indignantly, she added, "Could people please have a glass of water?"
If these schools taught history, she'd see the irony in Marxists running out of basic supplies. But they're too busy pushing CRT and placating antisemites.
Subsidizing people who want to undermine America isn't wise. Defund DEI universities.
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