Diversity? Yes, If You’re Just Like Me…

Roger Baldwin, the early leader of the ACLU, routinely derided those “who believe in civil liberties for our side only.” Many preferentialists today, like the targets of Baldwin’s wrath, appear to believe in diversity only for people who agree with them.

A case in point is described in The Michigan Daily‘s article yesterday about a speech Jennifer Gratz gave at the Michigan Union “amidst massive protest.” Not, mind you, polite picketing protest but loud, disruptive, intimidating, shouting “Racism!” in your face protest.

Gratz, you will recall, was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that succeeded in eliminating Michigan’s notorious 20 point bonus to minority applicants. She is now one of the leaders of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), the group orchestrating the protest demonstration, claims to believe that anyone who opposes racial preferences is “fighting for segregation and racism.”

BAMN argues that “diversity” justifies racial preferences, but its version of diversity has no room for speakers who disagree with the official pro-preferences orthodoxy at Michigan and other campuses.

Say What? (4)

  1. Claire February 16, 2004 at 10:05 am | | Reply

    Same old-same old. As usual, the left is crying racism against those who want to eliminate racial preferences, and showing their total lack of respect, or even tolerance, for anyone who disagrees with them. Yet the mainstream media doesn’t see anything wrong with this…

    The funny thing is, the more tolerant people are, the less likely you are to hear their viewpoints in the liberal media, because there’s ‘no story’. They want blood, conflict, agression, etc. – to them, that’s the only thing that’s really ‘news’.

    It’d be hysterically funny if it were a movie, but it’s scary as h*ll since it’s real life…

  2. Sage February 16, 2004 at 11:23 am | | Reply

    For what I think are some pretty deep cultural reasons, we tend to attatch a certain presumption of virtue to anybody who is willing to organize a protest, and it is exactly this willingness to march and scream that had made the left so potent–even on issues where they are obviously wrong. Conservatives’ unwillingness to do more than stage impersonal, if outlandish, stunts continues to hurt them.

    I know part of the reason is that I, and most others on the right, would simply feel ridiculous holding candles and marching on the president’s office. There is a certain dishonesty about it, a poseurism that makes the idea laughable to us. But there’s no doubting that it is effective in gaining sympathy. Again, part of the reason for this is that, unlike an AA bake sale or stunt scholarship, there’s no real argument underlying a “hey-hey-ho-ho” rally. It’s just a mawkish kind of outburst, like throwing broccoli on the floor from your high chair to get attention.

    In short, it’s simple, easy, and comforting to chant as a group rather than sit quietly and listen, as adults are expected to do, and offer a substantive rebuttal. The mere presence of others is the confirmation of rightness one seeks, and it’s also a short-cut method for getting you opinion across. I repeat, it gets your opinion across, but it doesn’t get your POINT across, which is something altogether different.

    Are we surprised by this? We shouldn’t be. Just look at what these protesters are advocating, and it will become readily evident why they feel threatened by the possibility of an actual discussion on the merits. (After all, “merit” is a sham concept in their view. Why should it be less so for ideas than for policy?)

  3. Claire February 16, 2004 at 2:43 pm | | Reply

    I think the name of the group opposing the ending of racial preferences in Michigan is rather telling of the left’s tactics: By Any Means Necessary.

    Sort of sums up their approach to anything: the ends justify the means, and lying, slander, intimidation, etc. are okay as long as their worthy goals are accomplished.

    Sounds a lot like situational ethics to me….

  4. Chetly Zarko February 17, 2004 at 11:17 pm | | Reply

    Wow. What a trifecta of comments that I missed when leaving Discriminations for a week.

    Here’s an exclusive first person account of the event, for Discriminations.

    Of course, I was at the event John cites here, in a private room answering the very good and tough questions of a College Republicans chapter. It can be scary, as one person points out; and it is serious; but we will not let intimidation deter us. We got in quietly through superior planning; but of course the only way out was through BAMN. While answering questions, about a dozen or so BAMNers, maybe more because I never counted (I’m told there were several dozen onlookers, normal traffic for a student union), loudly chanted through the walls in an effort to intimidate us and silence us through volume. Jennifer gave a great speech, about standing up for principles instead of playing pragmatic politics; and answered dozens of questions, excellent questions. When our campaign manager left through one door he was swarmed by a half dozen BAMN members. Jen and I left moments later out a second door, and Luke Massie, a towering middle-aged (white) man and BAMN president, and two or three others followed us for several hundreds yards through an internecine maize of halls and doors representing a back way to the our destination, a student dorm attached to the student union. U-M police were quite professional, despite Massie getting in front of Jennifer the whole way and backtracking as she progessed. Massie leaned into Jennifer’s face at about two inches the whole while shouting racial epitaths at the top of his lungs, while she simply ignored him. He was hard pressed at times to avoid making physical contact, which for him was quite fortuitous given the presence of a police officer trailing the whole way. Our host, a student resident with a dorm access card was able to stay tightly with Jennifer the whole way, but at several points two female BAMN members slowed me down and tried to separate me by physically obstructing my path (a mildly illegal act). I was able, given my knowledge of that building from more than 10 years past, to easily find ways around them. When we reached the dorm entrance of course, U-M police made it absolutely clear to Massie and entourage they couldn’t enter a dorm. One BAMNer quipped that neither Jennifer or I were students and that was “preferential treatment” while the police professionally restrained them. Our host, paying attention to the statement, held up his dorm pass card, stated Jennifer and I were his guests; and that this was entirely consistent with U-policy and privacy principles. U-M police already understood this obvious distinction without elaboration. He then scanned the card, and we entered the dorm (we simply used its main hallway to cross out to the other entrance).

    The stories from U-M students at other events are startling. The level of intimidation that U-M conservative students have been constantly subjected to when setting up petition gathering tables (having a mother instruct her four year child bang can of coins on their table asking why they wanted to prevent him from going to college), having a “human wall” forming a ring around tables to obstruct the path of potential signees (an illegal act that has gone unresolved by U-M police); yelling at anyone who approaches a table, having people yell epitaths within inches of one’s face; having a person yell that “we won’t stop until people like Ward Connerly are no longer allowed to speak here again.” (I have videotape of the quotation, from person later arrested but released without charges, for violating university rules of conduct and resisting physically arrest)

    The courage of these students is remarkalbe. The good news is BAMN is tiny; only several dozen in scope (although they bus many inner city Detroiters and high school students in to boost their numbers); and they are well-enough funded by an unknown liberal “angel” as they are called to pay Luke Massie and staff’s full-time expenses.

    Better news is that Ann Arbor only is an island of safety for these intimidators; their support (but their intimidation has an effect) dwindles inversely proportional to the distance from their ideological center. But the students that are there brave it out. My hat is off to them.

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