Deplorable and Bizzare Protest at Evergreen State College

[OHMomof2]

What strikes me as especially deplorable, is what is actually keeping the school closed:

The Olympian obtained a copy of the threat, which was made to law enforcement. The threat: “Yes, I’m on my way to Evergreen University now with a .44 Magnum. I am gonna execute as many people on that campus as I can get a hold of. You have that? What’s going on there? You communist, scumbag town. I’m going to murder as many people on that campus as I can. Just keep your eyes open, you scumbag.”

[ucbalumnus]

Re: #120

Strange that this terrorist threat seems to be getting little attention.

[HarvestMoon1]

Wasn’t clear to me who that threat was directed toward – the protestors or Professor Weinstein and those who might support him? Or both?

[OHMomof2]

Seems to me it’s directed to the protesters, or the town that he thinks harbors them. “You communist, scumbag town”

[shortnuke]

I agree that the lack of media coverage or clarification as to why classes were cancelled is a problem. It seems some outlets are content with people getting the impression that classes are cancelled due to actions by the protesters rather than some nut-job from outside the school.

Regarding the nature of the invitation to leave campus, I guess it comes down to how the invitation was received. From what I can tell, students and faculty received an email requesting that they RSVP to attend the off-campus event. I suspect that Weinstein and others viewed that RSVP as a veiled way of saying that if they didn’t attend the group would know it.

[HarvestMoon1]

Professor Weinstein addressed the confusion about the nature of the"invitation" in his email. He referenced the clarification that he received and then wrote that he disagreed with it. That response is what enraged some students. However from what I can tell from viewing additional interviews with Professor Weinstein these students were fueled by some faculty members. There is a lot more to this story than what the mainstream media is reporting.

Weinstein is doing interviews with low budget media outlets in oder to get his side of the story out there. Apparently his wife who also teaches at Evergreen was also harassed – in writing in an email signed by a faulty member-- and so was the chief of police. In one interview there was a screenshot of the email and the poster of the police chief, Stacey Brown, clad in scanty clothing with a KKK hat on.

[simba9]

Sounds like Weinstein wants equal rights while the protestors want special rights, and anyone who doesn’t agree with the latter are automatically tagged as racists. I’m not sure being called a racist even means anything anymore, since that accusation is so overused.

[Zinhead]

Seems like Prof. Weinstein has a history with campus scandals.

http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Professor-Who-Roiled/240267?cid=trend_right_a

Bret Weinstein wrote an email in March that angered a lot of people at Evergreen State College. In that email, Mr. Weinstein, a professor of biology, objected to a proposed “Day of Absence” that encouraged white students, staff, and faculty members to leave campus in order to “explore issues of race, equity, allyship, inclusion and privilege.” He wrote that “on a college campus, one’s right to speak — or to be — must never be based on skin color.” The request, he argued, was “an act of oppression in and of itself.” Since then Mr. Weinstein, who considers himself “deeply progressive,” has been called a racist, and a group of Evergreen students have demanded that the professor be “suspended immediately without pay.” What’s more, dozens of his fellow professors signed a letter last week calling for the university to investigate him, complaining that his speaking out had turned the campus into a target of white supremacists.

Curiously, it’s not the first time. Nearly three decades ago, when he was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, Bret Weinstein almost single-handedly caused a stir that polarized the campus, led to his being repeatedly harassed and threatened, and eventually shamed the university’s leadership into taking action. That story, buried in the archives of The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, is enlightening both as a reminder of the longstanding fissures around race on campuses, and also, perhaps, as a reflection on the character and convictions of Mr. Weinstein.

[HarvestMoon1]

What that article does not reveal but Weinstein disclosed in an interview is that standing up for those women of color and exposing the frat cost him his degree from Penn. While he returned for his sophomore year the harassment from the frats was so intense he was forced to transfer.

[Zinhead]

^^^ Prof. Weinstein seems to be the poster child for revolutions eating their own.

[HarvestMoon1]

Honestly I am not sure this guy considers himself part of any revolution. I think he marches to the beat of his own drum. He appears willing to stand by his principles even when that means he is personally going to suffer for it. I can’t criticize him for that and wonder how many of us would be willing to do the same.

[Ohiodad51]

Well said @HarvestMoon1. I think the point though is that he does not appear to be someone who would be a rational target for this week’s two minutes hate.

[LakeWashington]

The latest from a Tacoma News Tribune writer who has closely followed this matter.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/matt-driscoll/article154524694.html

[Ohiodad51]

^ I do love an opportunity to quote Shakespeare. That article is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Obviously the guy likes the school. Obviously he is trying to help the protestors shift the narrative. I would think he would need more facts though then ominous and vague assertions that Weinstein is not all that and that the poor opressed students have been complaining about general things for a year without getting anyone to give into them until they started really getting after it.

[OHMomof2]

students have been complaining about general things for a year without getting anyone to give into them until they started really getting after it.

That you can get from the school paper. As the author of that article did.

http://www.cooperpointjournal.com/2017/05/31/a-year-of-events-a-time-line-of-protests/ - or look at the archives where these issues have been published as they happened: http://www.cooperpointjournal.com/category/news/ - pages going back years there.

[bhs1978]

Quoted from the linked article:

“All of this, of course, provides plenty of fodder for rational, respectful, and even impassioned debate. That’s one of the things the college experience is supposed to be about.”

And this is the problem. I’ve watched the videos, read the email and read the “demands” of the students. Nothing in the videos in my opinion was rational or respectful nor would I call it debate. In one video Professir Weinstein was trying to rationally discuss issues. At one point, when questioned,he asked “would you like to hear me answer?” To which students shouted NO and continued to be disrespectful.

In one video the students tell the president to put his hands down. When the president continues to talk with his hands (non-threatening) they continue to yell and even mockingly stand beside him and “show” him how he must stand. The fact that the president acquiesced to this behavior is an entire new discussion.

Blocking entrances, not letting faculty leave (hostage), not “allowing” someone to use the restroom, offering food and drink only to POC. None of these things promote rational discussion. None of these things are respectful. And none of thes things can be considered debate.

[Ohiodad51]

Yes. That’s my point. Other than generally sympathetic noises about the protestors, I don’t see how this latest article moves the ball forward at all. Certainly it is not a ringing endorsement for a professional journalist to say you need to read the student newspaper to get an idea what point he is trying to make.

Not surprisingly, he doesn’t say a word about the Clockwork Orange style droogs roaming around campus with bats breaking things.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/06/05/evergreen-state-college-reopens-after-violent-threat-and-property-damage-on-campus/?utm_term=.2bc335619b1e

[Gator88NE]

A recent editorial in the Seattle Times hits on how these protest can do lasting damage to ESC.

THE next few days are critical for the future of The Evergreen State College.
…
But Evergreen faces a deeper, and more long-term threat. It is the only state four-year higher education institution to see enrollment drop steeply since 2011 despite wide-open admission standards. At about 4,080 students, it is about 300 students short of the Legislature’s funded enrollment target.

The two problems are now entwined. Evergreen President George Bridges and his administration need to assure future students and their parents that academics come first — and not acquiesce to the 200-or-so student protesters at the expense of the 4,000-student campus. Without safety, there’s no learning, and without learning, Evergreen will wither into irrelevance.

http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/the-evergreen-state-college-no-safety-no-learning-no-future/

[Zinhead]

This is getting more bizarre and deplorable:

https://heatst.com/culture-wars/evergreen-state-college-is-having-issues-with-roaming-bands-of-bat-wielding-vigilantes/?mod=sm_tw_post

On Sunday, an official at Evergreen sent a letter (obtained by College Fix) to students, urging them not to carry bats while they roam the campus.

Dear RAD Students,

We are aware of a small group of students coordinating a community patrol of housing and campus. We acknowledge and understand the fear and concerns that are motivating these actions. We also understand that these students are seeking to provide an alternative source of safety from external entities as well as those community members who they distrust.

Community patrols can be a useful tool for helping people to feel safe, however the use of bats or similar instruments is not productive. Some members of this group have been observed carrying batons and/or bats. Carrying bats is causing many to feel unsafe and intimidated. The bats must be put away immediately in order to protect all involved. Non-students participating in this activity are advised to leave campus.

One of the demands made by protesters is to abolish the campus police and replace it with student-led community policing. This kind of bat-wielding vigilantism is the warped extension of this idea.

[OHMomof2]

You’re right @zinhead. If they’re to have any chance against the threat against them that closed the school they’d do better to carry guns. He said he had a .44. They should top that with, what, machine guns?