A few years ago in the USA, on the excerable daytime TV program, The View, regular guest and actor Whoopi Goldberg, found herself in a very unenviable position.
She was trying to defend famous movie director Roman Polanski against the long-standing charges of rape that have seen him exiled from the USA since 1978. The rape charges are solid, based on him drugging and raping a 13 year old girl – to which he pled guilty, but only to having sex with a minor. Polanski has other charges against him and multiple accusations of teenage rape by other woman. Incidently he was married to actress Sharon Tate who was murdered by the infamous Manson family in 1969, along with others. She was pregnant at the time.
But Goldberg had a different take on Polanski’s crime:
“I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and and when they let him out he was like, ‘You know what, this guy’s going to give me a hundred years in jail. I’m not staying.’ So that’s why he left.”
I thought of this the other day when Princeton university decided to dive into the orgy of guilt known as systemic racism, led by their Woke President, Christopher Eisgruber, in a letter to the staff and students who admitted that the university suffers from “systemic racism” and “embedded racism”, and detailing all sorts of fluffy actions to supposedly address this.
All well and good and designed to innoculate the Princeton Precious from attacks by Burn Loot Murder. Unfortunately it also meant that Eisgruber was effectively admitting to violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Those who attend a “systemically racist” college are, by definition, subjected to racial discrimination by the college. And since Eisgruber’s led the place for seven years the next question was why he hadn’t done anything about it until now. And this turned not to just be fun for bloggers. The US government also noticed and responded with a letter of their own, which did the following:
- Reminded Eisgruber that Princeton has received more than $75 million in federal aid during his tenure as president (Why? They’re as rich as fuck).
- That the University has repeatedly certified that it complies with Title VI’s non-discrimination requirement.
- That its public stance is also that it does not discriminate on the basis of race.
- Noted the contradiction between these claims and Eisgruber’s confession that the institution is systemically racist.
- Pointed out that Princeton’s claims may have been false and “perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made.”
- That as a consequence an investigation is being opened which may result in the money being returned and fines levied.
- Demanded that they turn over huge amounts of documentation identifying all these students who’d been screwed by this systemic racism.
- Requested Eisgruber himself turn up for an oral interview, under oath, within 28 days, also reminding him of the penalties of perjury in such a situation.
How incredibly delicious.
Princeton was in a box. They had to formally admit to engaging in unlawful racial discrimination, with the penalties that would entail, or admit that they were blowing smoke up peoples’ backsides when they copped to systemic racism, which would of course piss off all the little comrades they’re trying to appease.
My bet was that they’d try and talk their way through this particular needle-threading exercise, probably by throwing their best post-modernist English graduates at the problem, along with some actual lawyers.
Sure enough, that’s pretty much how they responded, with an initial statement claiming that:
- The school does not actively discriminate against minority students and faculty.
- But also that systemic, embedded racism still exists on campus.
As well as having a little whine and a moan (H/T Lily Allen) at the mean old Federal Department of Education chasing up on this. Poor old Princeton. They’re trapped in a systemically racist country and if they do nothing to combat this problem at Princeton, students will suffer. But if they have the courage to face up to the problem, the Education Department will harass them (🎻).
I don’t think this is a promising start but have stocked up on more popcorn.
Meantime there was a superb article in the WSJ, The ‘Systemic Racism’ Dodge, by a Professor Harvey Mansfield, that dealt to this bullshit:
Systemic racism, also known as institutional or structural racism, is a new phrase for a new situation. We live in a society where racism is not, and cannot be, openly professed. To do so not only is frowned upon but will get you into serious trouble, if not yet jail, in America. Yet even though this is impossible to miss and known to all, “systemic racism” supposedly persists.
Basically the Leftist demand for racists has exceeded the supply. It’s rather like Junk Bonds or crap mortgages upon which CDO’s can be built; a new formula is needed to create more racism that must then be “fought”, which leads to a description that fits perfectly with Princeton’s response above:
The phrase describes a society that is so little racist that no one can respectably advocate racism, yet so much racist that every part of it is soaked with racism. We live with the paradox of a racist society without racists.
Which has led to the insanities of Critical Race Theory and the derivations of it that basically say that every White person is a racist, whether they know it or not. A sort of Original Sin which can be tempered – but not expiated – mainly by White people screaming at other White people about how they’re racist and need to get with the programming. It’s like being the last one to stop clapping at the Party Conference.
And finally here’s Lily Allen again with an appropriate song for Eisgruber:
When you look with your eyes
Everything seems nice
But if you look twice
you can see it’s all lies
No Minister 
Spot on Tom, I remember when Crump addressed this very point years ago when he was invited to Canterbury university as a guest lecturer on Logical positivism. As kid I was really impressed by his grasp of the subject. Just as aside I sometimes saw him studing at the Occidental pouring over his books.
On a similar topic, Waikato University was recently cleared of racism-racism by an investigation into claims by some of its Maori staff, but apparently it’s guilty of systemic racism because it is a Western institution. Of course, no details were supplied
Reminiscent of the elderly Roman senator who, when Caligula was close to death early in his reign, publicly announced in a gratuitous First Century display of virtue signalling that he was praying to the gods to spare the young emperor’s life and take his instead.
And next thing ya know Caligula recovered, but was loopy in the head with the megalomania that makes his name a byword today for the condition
…and he made sure that the senator followed through on his promise by committing suicide in the finest of Roman traditions. 😳😂
I think I remember that from I Claudius.
One of John Hurt’s best roles.