“‘Whites Only’ was written above a water fountain, ‘(N——r) Oven’ was written inside the elevator, and ‘No (N——rs)’ was written on a bathroom door” at one dormitory, according to the publication.
Swastikas and epithets were drawn on posters around the school. Activists implied the incidents were tied to Black History Month. The final straw? A menacing presence on campus who allegedly donned a “KKK hood” and robe near the segregated black dormitory known as “Afrikan Heritage House.”
Oberlin President Marvin Krislov and three college deans ostentatiously published an “open letter” announcing the administration’s decision to “suspend formal classes and non-essential activities.” The campus body immediately jumped to conclusions and indulged in collective grievance-mongering.
But what the AP public relations team and Oberlin didn’t report is the rest of the story. City police told a local reporter that eyewitnesses saw no one in KKK garb — but instead saw a pedestrian wearing a blanket. Yes, the dreaded Assault Blanket of Phantom Bias.
Moreover, after arresting two students involved in the spate of hate messages left around campus, police say “it is unclear if they were motivated by racial hatred or — as has been suggested — were attempting a commentary on free speech.”
Color me unsurprised. The truth is that Oberlin has been a hotbed of dubious hate crime claims, dating back to the late 1980s and 1990s, when I was a student on campus. In 1988, giant signs reading “White Supremacy Rules …” were hung anonymously at the Student Union building. It has long been suspected that minority students themselves were responsible.
In 1993, a memorial arch on campus dedicated to Oberlin missionaries who died in the Boxer Rebellion was defaced with anti-Asian graffiti. The hate crime was concocted by an Asian-American Oberlin student engaged in the twisted pursuit of raising awareness about hate by faking it, Tawana Brawley-style.
In 2006, I went back to Oberlin to confront the campus with the hate crime hoax phenomenon. I documented case after case of phony racism by students and faculty, from Ole Miss to Arizona State to Claremont McKenna.
The response from “students of color”? They took offense, of course, and characterized my speech as self-hating hate. Just as their coddling faculty and college elders have taught them to do.
Mix identity politics, multicultural studies, cowardly administrators and biased media — and you’ve got a toxic recipe for opportunistic hate crime hoaxes. Welcome to high-priced, higher mis-education, made and manufactured in the U.S.A.
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