Elite educators often use the phrase “words matter.” In this case, the word was “yes.” And three high ranking leaders choked on it.

During a hearing on antisemitism, in front of Congress and TV cameras, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania were asked by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik on Tuesday whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ rules on bullying and harassment.

This should not be a hard question. Calling for the murder of any race or religious group should be a non-starter at a college. Would screaming for the genocide of Blacks, Latinos, gay or transgender people be tolerated for a second in the Ivy League? Never. Nor should it be. To deny that would get you fired before you could finish your sentence.

But faced with that same simple question regarding the genocide of Jews, the presidents struggled with their answers.

(In)sincere apologies for posting this opinion piece here in c/detroit@midwest.social; normally I can take them or leave them, giornalist Mitch Albom’s articles—usually leaning towards the latter—but the piece is a good wrap-up of the recent hemming and hawing and general cowardice of some of our top university presidents. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt that neither Dr Magill (Penn) nor Dr Gay (Harvard) are actually antisemites or Nazis (who knows?), but there are certain questions in life that have hopefully obvious, one-word answers that you just can’t skirt around.

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  • LandsharkgunEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    The reason for this is that, for example, saying that Palestine should rule the area instead of Israel is now federally recognized as calling for genocide. Which is a pants-on-head situation that I’m sure these university heads are aware of. When politicians are defining ‘genocide’ as ‘critizing a government’, then whether or not ‘genocide’ breaks somebody’s rules is much harder to say.

    If course, the Republican asking them knew all of that, and was doing this so they could get a soundbite for the news. So good job falling for the propaganda.

    • raoulraoul@lemmy.worldOP
      13·
      1 year ago

      And yet another Nazi reveals himself with their blathering.

      Mob mentality rarely calls for reading skills beyond slogans but the question was simply “does calling for the genocide of Jews violate their schools’ code of conduct against bullying and harassment.” It’s a no-brainer.

      From the linked USA Today article…

      All three [Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of MIT] testified Tuesday during a hearing before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce, where they faced tough questions as their campuses have become hotbeds for protests, anti-Jewish graffiti and harassment of students.

      You can hide behind your rote hatred of Party X all you want. Republican, Democrat, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, poTAYto poTAHto.

      By the way, the answer is “yes.”