Antisemitism At America’s Colleges Is Rooted In DEI | Bobby Burack
The ongoing anti-Israel protests across so-called "elite" American campuses demonstrate the consequences of seeing the world as split between the oppressed and their oppressors — the vision that modern progressives believe is the answer to our troubles.
Last week, Columbia University announced it would hold classes remotely for the final weeks of the semester as students expressed safety concerns over the pro-Palestinian encampment at the university. Police arrested 170 protesters on Saturday at Northeastern University, Arizona State University, and Indiana University. The protests are ugly. They are meant to intimidate leadership.
What is behind these protests? What's causing students earmarked as our future cultural elites to have such disdain for a particular group of people?
The answer stems from a culture of higher education derived from the Marxian concept that struggle is primarily the result of exploitation. Author Barton Swaim of the Wall Street Journal recently described how "elite" students apply said theory to the conflict in Gaza:
"[Liberal college students] can’t behold Israel’s prosperity without concluding that the Jews have stolen their wealth from their neighbors," explained Swaim. "The entire ‘social justice’ movement is premised on the belief that if one group does well and another doesn’t, the former must have taken advantage of the latter."
Believers of the overly simplistic oppressor/oppressed ideology are uniquely susceptible to the whims of divisive propaganda. In this case, radicalized students attribute the ills of the Middle East to colonialism and imperialism. They blame the Jews.
Political scientist Wilfred Reilly penned an essay observing the fallacies that pro-Palestinian supporters and, specifically, Ivy League college students uphold:
"[Palestine] is literally run by criminals: The elected, and rather popular, governing party is the terrorist group Hamas. What could the cause of such structural failures be? One obvious default is the idea that the blame belongs to oppression. The government of Israel, in the Palestinian case, must surely be blocking humanitarian assistance and business development to Gaza and other Palestinian regions, and preventing the construction of infrastructure there."
That particular belief system caused various Ivy-indoctrinated students to march in protest of Israel last October, essentially in a nod of justification for the brutal savagery Hamas committed on October 7.
Observers are likely to draw parallels between the anti-Israel protests on campuses and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of 2020. They should. The two demonstrations are cut from the same cloth, with believers of the same progressive message.
BLM is an offshoot of the "Free Palestine" movement. A Heritage Foundation article in 2020 profiled how BML co-founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors were previously immersed in the ideology that Israel, another white settler-state like the U.S., is a violent oppressor. They formed BLM years later, in 2013.
Both political movements program their supporters to believe that "marginalized groups" are so beaten down that threatening, unlawful behavior is justified.
In 2020, BLM rioters burned buildings, wrecked cities, smashed windows, destroyed property, and shot people dead. The scenes were horrific. People were afraid to leave their homes. Yet "elite" student bodies along with left-wing politicians, journalists, and activists excused the riots in the name of racial justice.
That summer, progressive local governments locked Americans down for Covid. We could not leave our homes for church, synagogue, work, or even to walk in a public park. However, the same officials who arrested religious leaders for holding services and business owners for opening their doors allowed the violent BLM riots to continue.
Via OutKick's graphic department.
Wilfred Reilly further elaborated on the BLM and "Free Palestine" message below:
"Both communities, black and Palestinian, face significant problems, which are tempting to blame on historical oppression and defeat,' he wrote. "In both [the ‘Free Palestine’ and BLM movements] the idea that oppression is the primary cause of the failure of civil society is forwarded, aggressively and constantly, by persuasive demagogues."
The message is as simple as it was four years ago: support whichever group has a greater claim to oppression and blame their perceived oppressor for all their struggles today.
Tip: if you are white, it’s your fault. All of it.
Who would want to live in a society where such a radicalized worldview has crept past the fringes and into the fibers of our most influential universities and industries?
We presume most honest Americans don't. Unfortunately, specific methods are in place to further normalize an identity-based culture.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is one of those methods. DEI is a construct meant to remove any sense of shame, compunction, or hesitancy of leaning into an outright prejudice against supposedly privileged groups.
DEI is a mind virus. Mainstreamed antisemitism and anti-white racism are its symptoms. And nowhere is DEI more contagious than within academia.
DEI, BLM, and progressive antisemitism are not the right-wing culture war diversions the corporate press insists. Those sentiments are preludes to a perilous society in which your immutable characteristics determine how guilty and entitled you are.
If we learned anything from history, it is that denigrating individuals on the basis of their race and/or religion is wrong. It leads to violent indignation. It doesn't end well.
The current trajectory of our culture won't end well, either. Look at what's happening around us.
College students fear for their safety when walking to class or their dorms. Administrators are afraid to stop acts of intimidation at the risk of the identity police attacking their reputations.
A recent Gallup poll found that race relations between white and black people in America have steadily declined since 2008, when Barack Obama became president, as both groups feel tension toward each other.
The number of American Jews who feel safe in the country declined 22 percent from last year.
People are scared, bitter, and hateful -- just like our leaders want us to be. We are at our most vulnerable when we abhor each other.
What's happening at Columbia and other once-prestigious universities is not a sign that college students seek "peace" or are "anti-war" as the media shamefully suggests.
The protests are a sign that our future politicians, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs are pre-programmed to treat and rule over groups differently based on historical claims of victimization.
Regardless of ideological priors, that thought should frighten you.
Seeing the world through the lens of the oppressed vs. their oppressors is not the answer to our troubles. And neither are the "elite" students who believe it is.