Dr Jamie R. Riley, a Black American university administrator, was hired as the dean of students at the University of Alabama after a nationwide search. UA is a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Deep South. He started work there on February 25th 2019 – but on September 5th he resigned, a day after Breitbart News and other right-wing outlets reported on some of his old tweets:
October 8th 2016:
“Are movies about slavery truly about educating the unaware, or to remind Black people of our place in society? “
September 26th 2017:
“The [US] flag represents a systemic history of racism for my people. Police are part of that system. Is it that hard to see the correlation?”
October 11th 2017:
“I’m baffled about how the 1st thing white people say is, ‘That’s not racist!’ when they can’t even experience racism? You have 0 opinion!”
That last one was hashtagged with #missmewithyourprivilege.
Where is the lie?
Yet by 4:15 pm the next day he had resigned. UA called the decision “mutual”.
Whitespeak: To misunderstand these tweets properly, you need to open your Whitespeak dictionary, the 2015 edition, to the word “racist”:
racist – 1. Someone who uses the N-word or joins the Klan. 2. A Black person who points out White racism.
Dr Riley is clearly the racist here, not the police, not the (Whitewashed) history the US flag stands for, not even Confederate-flag-loving Breitbart (pictured above). Therefore he had to go.
I wish I were joking.
The R-word is to White people what the N-word is to Black people. Just imagine if a White dean of students had used the N-word in some old tweets. He would be gone the next day too (hopefully).
Cancel culture: The right in the US is known for decrying the left’s cancel culture, political correctness, trigger warnings, safe spaces, snowflakes and the lack of free speech at universities. But the right is also known for failing to see in itself what it projects onto others – like snowflakery and intolerance of free speech at universities.
Strictly speaking, Breitbart did not call for his firing. It merely noted:
“Similarly, North Carolina State University Vice Chancellor Mike Mullen was forced to resign last month after he referred to the Republican Party as the party of ‘Neo-Nazis’ and ‘the KKK’ on his Twitter account.”
The party of “very fine people”.
Academic freedom: Dr Riley was not a professor, much less one with tenure that would have protected his academic freedom. He is a Dr of counselling and student personnel services. At the time of the first tweet he was the associate dean of Student Life for Diversity and Inclusion at Johns Hopkins University. At the time of the second two tweets he was the head of Alpha Phi Alpha, a Black fraternity.
Expectations: He should be expected to know a professional thing or two about racism and speak out on it. UA, which is about 10% Black (Alabama is 26%), has its own storied, racist history. What were they expecting, exactly?
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Bret Stephens – another right-wing snowflake
- White fragility
- Whitespeak
- The N-word
- Breitbart news diet
- flags
- Black university life:
- Halloween at Yale – also features a Black dean
- Larycia Hawkins – pushed out of Wheaton
- James Meredith
573
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I saw no lies in Dr. Riley’s social media post. White America refuses to accept their racism. And this is also Breitbart and the Deep South so there’s that.
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An open racist in the Governor’s Mansion in Alabama and an open racist in the White House.
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The Governor Kay Ivey wore black face in college.
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U.S. Constitution Amendment I
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the pres.”
I was under the impression that we all, including Mr. Riley, had the right to speak our mind without fear of repercussions. Oh, my bad, how silly of me, Mr. Riley is a so-called African American. Never mind!
Personally, I never thought that I’d see the day that a personal retort against racism will in turn, be considered just as dreadful as racism itself!
When will collective white Amerikans learn that you cannot sanitize Amerika’s bloody history by denying historical facts, when either seen through the lens or spoken about by a descendant of American slaves, in a shallow attempt to re-write history??
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@Mary
You and me both. I keep rereading his tweets trying to find the lie. There is none.
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@ Sharina
Hey, Sis. ✋🏿
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The American flag represents a racist, white supremacist, militarized police state. As an old white baby boomer, born in Alabama, raised in Texas, I know this is true because I have seen it and it took my whole life to figure out it was me.
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Dr. Riley is the latest victim of a trend that began in the late 60s/early 70s: it became taboo to call a white person racist unless s/he was wearing Klan robes. This trend continued, and got to the point where today a black person is called a racist for pointing out white racism. This is part of the 50-year re-branding by the Right of liberalism in general and racial justice in particular. Liberals were described as “bleeding hearts,” “soft on crime,” “tax and spend”; the black struggle for justice and equality was called “whining,” “wanting special privileges,” and “dodging responsibility.” The latter is not new. As early as the 1890s, the U.S. Supreme Court characterized the former slaves’ request to be protected from state sanctioned violence and oppression as Not Standing On Your Own Two Feet.
I don’t know about Dr. Riley’s first tweet. Certainly, movies like “12 Years A Slave” educated people. What could be argued is the white embrace of the movie: a truly enlightening experience or secret longing for those times. One cannot know, but I generally give people the benefit of the doubt. Most of the true “slavery porn” was in book form, like Mandingo.
What you can take from this cautionary tale is that, whether your comment is a mindless rant or an uncomfortable truth, the internet is forever. And the PC mobs form on both the left and the right.
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So far? Alabama? 75 mph speed limit.
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If so-called professional white adults found these tweets offensive, that’s proof positive that they are racist to the core.
So few white people can handle even the simplest discussion of racism that doesn’t include Dr. King’s “Dream” and “what about Chicago?”
I hope he sues the piss out of them and wins.
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After reading Abagond’s article, I searched for and read the Brietbart article. The Brietbart article never calls for his resignation. In fact, there is no commentary about Dr. Riley’s tweets or what their interpretation should be. Is there any connection between the tweets and Dr. Riley leaving U of A other than the timing of the article?
This doesn’t look like anyone freaked out over his tweets. There were no protests or campaign to get Dr. Riley fired. If anything, this is what most people expect college administrators to believe, right?
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I cant find it now but a long time ago i posted here, is the racist trope worthwhile in a longer ‘arc’ argument or morality play worth the immediate detrimental image
World War Zimmerman https://g.co/kgs/9EFHMN
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@ Jimmy
A freak-out doesn’t need to be public to have an impact. If there were enough wealthy alumni and donors calling and threatening to pull their support, or if there was behind-the-scenes pressure by the university’s governing board or the state legislature, that would have done it.
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@ Jimmy:
Stop being obtuse.
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—– Forwarded Message —– From: Di Wang To: YouTube Sent: Sat Sep 28 2019 17:53:31 GMT+0200 (W. Europe Standard Time)Subject: Re: Islamic Solution heeft net een video geüpload rupert cried.
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Hey Mary!! I hope things are going great with you.
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I feel no more sympathy for this clown than you people did for Papa John.
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