I have been both disgusted and heartened by the response to David
Nemeth's awful post. The comments and posts on the blog have
been shocking:
"It is not state law that the University has to dredge the harbors to find students--you misunderstand. Yes, UT must admit students with high school diplomas. But this does not mean that we should forego recruiting good students and focus resources on them."
and
"And now the A&S Council has heard the president of the Student Body excoriate a fine professor for racist ideas. Her inability to tell the Council what she found so offensive in Prof. Nemeth's blog post made it seem as if his words were full-blown scatology!"
Attacking students. Classy.
But perhaps the most damning comment that was posted was in response to Ashley Pryor's wonderfully brave response seeking more input from Nemeth. (Watch out Ashley, you'll soon be accused of being a Benedict Arnold and administrative puppet. Courage is not something admired by those who post on the A & S blog.)
The comment is from someone who claims to be a student who refers to the UT Guarantee as "21 URBAN cities sounds very much like we are trolling for underprivileged students to give handouts to. Not only that, the expanded version was announced on Martin Luther King day, like it's some sort of handout for African American students."
Now Brian Patrick and those who run this blog find value and choose to publish a comment from someone EMPHASIZING that urban does mean minority, the very thing they'd spent several posts trying to deny! And before they claim, "it's just free speech and others can post what they want... FALSE. I regularly post comments to the blog that are never approved because Brian Patrick and his cronies believe they don't have value or add to the conversation. Brian Patrick thinks I post just to attack his blog. (Which I do, it deserves to be attacked.) But what this proves is that Brian Patrick sees value in a comment that backs up my original claim that Nemeth's e-mail is code for attacking those students who attend urban school, which, by the by, happen to generally be majority-minority schools. The fact that this ignorant student is approved to post on Brian Patrick's blog means that Brian Patrick and his cronies see value in the comment just as they saw value in Nemeth's original racist post.
But, for the sake of argument, (which I don't believe for one second in light of the blog's history of racism by Nemeth and Dr. Tinkle) let's assume Nemeth didn't mean to address race at all. If that is the case, (as your echo-chamber vote implies) then Pryor's response to Nemeth is just as damning at the absolute lack of respect the Arts and Sciences "leadership" is showing to students. Whether that be references to "dredging the harbor" for students, insulting them outright as Nemeth was eager to do, or laughing and heckling the student body president when she call you out your refusal not just to act like leaders,but to act like adults, the blatant disrespect for those students you claim to be fighting for is running rampant.
Brian Patrick is leading an effort that is destroying the college because he hates the president and the provost and the dean so much he is willing to tear down his college to make them look bad. Then, in his mind, when everything is in ruins, the board gets rid of the administration and we faculty will remain to rebuild our paradise lost.
I am so proud of Ashley Prior and I know there are many faculty out there who feel the same way she does and are going increasingly uncomfortable with the gleeful hostility casually flung about by "leaders" in the college.
I cannot believe a professor who expertise is supposedly in propaganda would be so stupid as to publish a comment from someone confirming all the stereotypeshe and his cronies had just spent three days trying to rebut.
I again call on David Nemeth to retract his hateful words. I again call on Lawrence Burns and Kevin West to address the growing racial hostility of this blog, as exemplified by the comment posted Dec. 9 at 6:10 PM to Ashley Pryor's blog and I again call for more in the College to stand up and publicly denounce this filth billowing from this blog.
I'm not trying to shut you down Patrick, but I want everyone to know the sort of filth you publish. You have every right to portray yourselves as racist bigots increasingly so angry at the world you'll attack anyone who questions your tactics.
Krystal Weaver, you are fighting the good fight. That's why these faculty "leaders" attack you.
_____YOU ARE NOW LEAVING CRAZY ZONE________________
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6 comments:
I love how this wack job seems to think that UT professors are the only ones who comment on here. the claim of attacking students seems much worse under that assumption. But unfortunately the internet is a weird thing that can be accessed the world over, therefore it was just someone voicing their disapproval of a woman throwing the race card with no evidence to support it. If you are going to make such serious accusations, especially in a professional meeting, to go in without evidence to support your claims is just plain silly, and to expect the university to be able to censor the internet is simply ridiculous.
Recipe for crazy:
1. Label those with opposing views with a juicy hate noun. (racist)
2. Make your writing as parenthetical as possible. (like so.)
3. Insert your personal views when crazy (Which I do CUZ I'M crazy!)
I guess my frustration about this whole thing, which has been expressed by others, is the way this has sidetracked all conversations.
I certainly understand the comments above, but this person now diverts us twice: the first time with the e-mails themselves, and now as we push back against this person to defend ourselves, this person is still diverting us from the conversations that need to take place.
I understand the desire of Bloggie to provide an accurate account of what has happened these last weeks, but at some point, if these e-mails keep coming, I frankly don't see value in drawing attention to them because we end up doubly distracted.
Bloggie, I know you weighed these pros and cons and there is no right answer either way, but those are my vires.
Bloggie thinks you are dead right. We are moving on! Time to talk about this Roundtable that is being railroaded by this egoistic dean at the behest of her buddies in power. And other matters.
I am a current student, and I have seen how the incoming class is generally less likely to attend class, less likely to be prepared for college-level work, and less likely to be a good citizen in the class. I do not know whether or not this is due to the new admission policy, and I certainly do not see it dividing along racial lines. But something certainly has changed in the atmosphere in the classroom that seems tied somehow to admissions policy. For a teacher to identify this and say something about it seems to me to be merely an exercise in observation. Other upperclassman students have remarked upon it, and, I might add, other upperclassman students of various ethnicities.
I hate to see the geography professor demonized the way he has been. It is terribly unfair.
The Evil Emailer writes:
"I'm not trying to shut you down Patrick, but I want everyone to know the sort of filth you publish."
This blog is not Patrick's blog. I own it. It is a free speech board qua suggestion box. I suggest it is high time for you, Evil One, to take a long hike off a short pier.
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