I was recently on the campus of Cornell University to speak about national security issues on the 21st century battlefield, especially the Middle East. It was humbling to be on that historic Ivy League campus.
Of course I’d heard all the chatter about the possibility of interruptions, but guess what? It was a respectful and great session. But I’m scratching my head right now after reading about a certain Cornell University Professor named Russell Rickford.
As reported by the Daily Caller, “Russell Rickford, an assistant history professor at Cornell University, urged white students to commit “race suicide” on Wednesday night in response to the death of Michael Brown and the recent riots in Ferguson, Mo.”
“The event at which Rickford spoke was called “Ferguson: The Next Steps,” according to Campus Reform. A staffer for The Cornell Review, the Ivy League school’s conservative student rag, recorded the event. The Ivy League professor suggested that “treason to whiteness” is a necessary step to salvage humanity.
“There’s still a slender minority of white folks, a very slender, but a slender minority of white folks, that are ready to commit race suicide,” Rickford told the audience, near the end of his remarks. “Which is to say, they are ready to reject corrupt skin privileges. They’re ready to perform treason to whiteness, as an expression of their loyalty to humanity.”
I recently penned a piece entitled “The Redefinition of America” and I alluded to a far away room where some folks meet to redefine language in our country. So in light of that piece, I just have to ask — what in the heck is “perform treason to whiteness?”
This is why some parents get concerned about the college to which their children are sent. Here we have a university professor who has no explanation for the consequences of the actions of Michael Brown, but rather suggests that white people commit race suicide — ‘splain that one to me please?
Instead of teaching and preparing our young people to be successful productive citizens — the good professor wishes students — and I guess some whites, to do what? Reject themselves for the sake of some “loyalty to humanity?” And just how is that defined?
Herein lies the problem with higher education today. We are sending our children to these schools for an education — not indoctrination. And furthermore, thousands of dollars in student financial aid is being provided for what? This is what they “learn” — only to graduate and return to Mom and Dad’s and work at Starbucks?
And as if the previous words of Professor Rickford were confusing enough, these words truly prove incendiary and promote a false narrative. The Daily Caller says “Rickford, who grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., also suggested that the police are “mercenaries for the corporations and the rich” and go out of their way to kill black people.”
These collective statements do not serve to engender an atmosphere of respect for our law enforcement officers – as a matter of fact, it puts an even greater target on them. I know many police officers, my own older brother was an Atlanta police officer and detective. None that I know are “mercenaries” for anyone. They are servants to the public who risk their lives to provide safety and security to the populace.
The words of Professor Rickford remind me of another time when the liberal progressive leftists verbally — and sometimes physically — attacked our men and women in uniform returning from Vietnam, referring to them as “baby killers.” It seems the Sixties radicals have been resurrected and the echoes of “kill the pigs” are returning.
So does Professor Rickford believe the police live to serve only George Soros, Tom Steyer, the cultural and entertainment elites like Gwyneth Paltrow — or just how does he define rich and corporate?
And if this misguided professor seems to believe that police officers go out of their way to kill black people — then what explanation does he have for the black people that actually ARE killing black people at alarming rates — far more than police are shooting blacks, which are down.
Professor Rickford asserts, “We attempt to negotiate with a system that has demonstrated time and time again its utter disdain for the sanctity of black lives,” he pontificates at the 8:32 mark of the video. “Not only its disdain, but its deep commitment to the slaughtering of black and brown people.”
He alleges that black Americans are suffering from “genocide” and many black Americans are complicit in the act — I concur, and their names are Jackson, Sharpton, Morial among others. “The petite bourgeoisie, including black and brown folks stands [sic] on the sidelines mumbling, asking white supremacy to please crack fewer hits,” he bloviates. And even more interesting Dr. Rickford, who earned his graduate degree from Columbia University, once claimed, “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was a tool of the far-right imperialists to appease people.”
Well, one thing is for certain, Rahm Emanuel was correct — “never let a good crisis go to waste” — and the progressive socialist left is going to milk this for what it is worth.
So much for that “post-racial” America after the election and reelection of the first black president. Black lives do matter –but apparently only those who support a specified political agenda.
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