Whipping Our Universities into Shape

---

Donald Sterling’s remarks, made in private but secretly recorded, have cost him dearly. President Obama said that he was one of those “ignorant folks who want to advertise their ignorance” and that his remarks were “incredibly offensive” and “racist.” Fair enough, but when Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, publicly called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an “Uncle Tom” the President was silent. Perhaps the President wasn’t paying attention. Perhaps he is also unaware of anti-semitic remarks made by Jessie Jackson or the stream of vulgar and racist comments that continue to pour out of the mouth of Al Sharpton. Perhaps?

University Montana at Missoula

More likely, the President believes in taking a selective approach to free speech. Certainly, this is the approach his administration takes. The full weight of the U.S. government was brought to bear upon the University Montana at Missoula when it twisted the University administration’s arm into signing a Title IX (civil rights) consent decree that takes a giant step in the direction of limiting freedom of expression and academic debate. According to a recently released Department of Education report, a long list of other universities are under investigation for possible (make that unquestionable) Title IX violations. In essence, as Daniel Henninger noted in the Wall Street Journal, “The Obama administration has issued a federal hunting license to deputize fanatics at any university in America.” Economics, history and political science professors who have the temerity to question liberal orthodoxy on subjects ranging from income inequality to racism are already an endangered species on our nation’s campuses. The Obama administration can now use the Title IX club with which it beat the University of Montana into submission to flush out and silence what little remains of free and open academic discourse at American colleges and universities. Not that much remains anyway as the Rutgers students and faculty, whose protests caused Condoleeza Rice to cancel her planned commencement address, so clearly demonstrated. Still compared to what’s in store for Raif Badawi, the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals, the protests were a mild chastisement. He has been sentenced by a Saudi court to 10 years in prison and to receive 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam. President Obama is too respectful of the Saudi kingdom to speak out about this, assuming he even knows or cares. Besides, student and faculty protests are accomplishing for him what whippings and prison sentences are accomplishing for the Saudis—the restriction of free speech. And he is perfectly satisfied to let his Justice Department pile on by using the threat of Title IX enforcement to cow universities into silencing those who would dare criticize the liberalism that he espouses. For now, that is all the whipping that is required.