By Dr. Richard Benkin ——Bio and Archives--April 10, 2012
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“Where did you get your figures?” “Where did you get yours?” “No, no. I’m not the one who stood up in front of a room full of students and represented what I said as objective truth. You did. So, I ask again: where did you get your figures?” “I’ve seen the records.”He uttered the last statement dismissively with a wave of his hand, and no matter how much I pressed him, he refused to cite a single reference in his defense. “Have you spent much time in black communities in the US?” I asked him; because, I added, I spent years in places like the West and South sides of Chicago, North and West Philadelphia “and I can tell you that 90 percent of their population was not in prison.” When he insisted that blacks in the US are marginalized and cannot find success, I offered him to accompany me into the offices and even boardrooms of major US companies where he will see black people in positions of leadership. But when he responded to that with a wink and a nod to the crowd and a “now we know what you are” to me, a funny thing happened. His lame recourse to ideology helped sway the crowd in my direction. I said that there were quite a few people there who spent a lot of time and hard work to research their topics and justify their positions; and whether or not we like or dislike their conclusions, none would have Guru’s temerity to disrespect this university and its students with misinformation so simplistic that a first year student paper would not pass with it. With faculty and staff focused on academic integrity instead of ideology, they looked at Guru for a response, but none was forthcoming. As one colleague noted to me, “you spoiled his party.” I followed up with a formal complaint that provided hard figures on US incarceration, as well as their sources, and noted that “came from the US Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Justice Statistics [and] are easily accessible to anyone with online access. If Professor Guru cared a fig about being intellectually honest with his students, he would have at least done that minimal amount of research before dropping his misinformation bomb on GBU’s unsuspecting students; but he did not. I do not mind ideological differences; variety of thought is a key element to the maintenance of a free society. I do, however, find intellectual dishonesty reprehensible…. Whatever standing Professor Gopal Guru has, it certainly does not give him leave to play fast and loose with the facts, providing students with authoritatively sounding but blatantly erroneous statements, and evidently put ideology over intellectual truth.” The complaint is working its way through channels, but I frankly have no illusions about its ultimate disposition. JNU is known as a hotbed of leftist activity, and when I speak there I am the one who is “marginalized.” But my actions will be ineffective only if they are isolated and we continue to give those who hate the US, free markets, and free people free reign to direct the minds of young people at home and abroad.
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Dr. Richard L. Benkin is a human rights activist who most often finds himself battling America’s and Israel’s enemies. He is the foremost advocate fighting to stop the ethnic cleansing of Hindus by Islamists and their fellow travelers in Bangladesh. He earlier secured the release of an anti-jihadi journalist and stopped an anti-Israel conference at an official Australian statehouse. For more information, go to InterfaithStrength.com orForcefield.