Wildly Racist Opinion Article Says White Boys Shouldn't Be Allowed To Talk
I am not so naive to think racism does not exist in 2019.
Telling someone to sit down and shut up because their skin color renders their opinion irrelevant is some extremely racist stuff. It’s the very antithesis of the progress that the left purports to love.
If someone were writing these types of opinions and publishing them, the left-wing media would throw a fit and hurl well-deserved accusations of racism at the originator.
Only, that’s not the case with a particular piece in the Dickinson College newspaper. I wonder why?
In an opinion piece penned by Leda Fisher for The Dickinsonian, the school newspaper for the Pennsylvania-based college, Fisher went on a racially-charged tirade that essentially tells white men to sit down and shut up.
“Should White Boys Still Be Allowed To Talk?” is the title of the article. Spoiler alert: It’s not a nuanced argument about the role race relations can play in public discourse. Rather, the entirety of the article is made of blanket accusations of racism against white men.
“When you ask a question at a lecture, is it secretly just your opinion ending with the phrase ‘do you agree?’ If so, your name is something like Jake, or Chad, or Alex, and you were taught that your voice is the most important in every room. Somewhere along your academic journey, you decided your search for intellectual validation was more important than the actual exchange of information. Now how do you expect to actually learn anything?” Fisher began.
“American society tells men, but especially white men, that their opinions have merit and that their voice is valuable, but after four years of listening to white boys in college, I am not so convinced,” Fisher continued. “In my time at Dickinson I have listened to probably hundreds of white boys talk. It feels incessant.”
Here’s a fun thought experiment. Replace “white” with “black” and think about how those comments would be received.
“I am so g****mned tired of listening to white boys. I cannot describe to you how frustrating it is to be forced to listen to a white boy explain his take on the Black experience in the Obama-era,” Fisher wrote, seemingly forgetting that it’s 2019 and Obama’s last day as president was two years ago. “Hey Brian, I’m an actual Black woman alive right now with a brain. In what world would your understanding of my life carry more weight than my understanding?”
Cheap shots at people with the name Brian (or Bryan) aside, is Fisher really advocating that nobody should be allowed to opine on anything unless they’ve had the exact same experiences as someone else? Look, a doctor doesn’t know the trials and tribulations I experienced in college, but I’ll take their health advice, regardless of the doctor’s skin color. A mechanic doesn’t know the memories I had in my old minivan, but if he says it’s time to get rid of the car, it’s probably time to get rid of the car.
“So, should white boys still be allowed to share their ‘opinions’? Should we be forced to listen? In honor of Black History Month, I’m gonna go with a hell no,” Fisher concluded.
There’s something particularly tone-deaf about this article in the wake of the controversy surrounding the Covington Catholic students. The media and the left were all too willing to accept the viral video without a shred of context because the students were white and wore MAGA-hats, only to later find out the boys did nothing wrong and weren’t the racist ones in the situation.
It’s no secret that leftists will always do what they can to stoke racism and peddle their divisive identity politics. Sadly, reading the above opinion piece shows that it’s working — and we need to fight back against it.
Fortunately, there does seem to be some backlash to this type of thinking.
A student at Dickinson College sent me an article in the student newspaper with the title “Should White Boys Be Allowed To Talk?” It’s just one long and racist rant against “white boys,” concluding at the end that they shouldn’t have the right to speak. https://t.co/H0dwlYhYXN pic.twitter.com/xo9D3DpeYW
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 8, 2019
Many of the comments on the opinion piece itself also reflect on the inherent racism of the type of thinking that Fisher is pushing and The Dickinsonian is publishing.
Co-editors-in-chief of The Dickinsonian, Rachael Franchini and Jules Struck, however, told The Western Journal that they don’t regret publishing the piece.
“The editorial page is a place for students to express their personal views on issues of concern to them,” they said. “Our editorial policy is to ensure that pieces are not based in factually incorrect information, do not aim to incite violence, and are relevant to the Dickinson community. This piece reflects the author’s personal experience. The Dickinsonian neither agrees nor disagrees with it, or with any of our editorial columnists.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
