“Privilism”: When Privilege Becomes an Insult
The meaning of privilege in Harvard's activist groups has changed. In our discussions of race, sexuality and gender, the existence of privilege now has its own role in dividing us further.
On the Newsstand:Prejudice
Rand Paul a Racist? I Think Not.
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and ... Read More
Finally, A Post on Stephanie Grace
Until now I’ve resisted commenting on the controversy that was created last week when Harvard 3L Stephanie Grace’s private email saying she “does not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent” came to light. But now I see that Andrew Sullivan is having a related conversation about race and intelligence, and ... Read More
Good and Bad Arguments for “Discrimination” against Muslims
HPR staff writer Eli Martin has a piece in today’s Crimson criticizing European “Islamophobia.” I don’t want to baldly disagree with Eli that “outright discrimination toward Muslims in Europe is becoming a reality.” But I do want to complicate things a bit. Eli implies that burqa bans and the like could only be products of Geert Wilders-esque prejudice, neglecting a ... Read More
An Embarrassment to Harvard Conservatives
In case you aren’t sick of the subject, I have written a full-length take-down of the recent Harvard Salient article on Ethnic Studies. It originally appeared in today’s Harvard Independent. Check out my HPR blog post from last week if you want the pithier, more sarcastic version. An Embarrassment to Harvard Conservatives Harvard conservatives, those Aristotle-citing, modernity-bemoaning, Western canon-promoting Young ... Read More
The Most Salienty Salient Article Ever
In the new Harvard Salient, Patrick T. Brennan has achieved the Platonic ideal of a Salient article: equal measures of pure arrogance, submerged racism, and exclusive affection for all things ancient. The only way to appreciate this article is to quote some of the choicest sections. For example: Americans of color have undoubtedly done some things of note, but their ... Read More
Welcome to Israel
On December 23rd, 2009, Harvard Law student Hebah M. Ismail’s ’06 landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport with the intention of joining Clinical Instructor and Global Advocacy Fellow Ahmad Amara, as well as another fellow student, for research on land disputes between the Israeli government and Bedouin communities in the Negev desert. At airport security, Ismail was interrogated for ... Read More
Anti-Atheist Prejudice: Response to the Salient’s Response
I’m glad to see my Crimson column of October 18 is still getting some attention! I had written that discrimination against atheists, both in the legal arena and in the popular mind, is a serious problem — not the biggest problem in the world, but a problem worth noting and criticizing. In his critique of that column, the Harvard Salient’s ... Read More
E Pluribus Pluribus
Public discourse in the age of the Internet Republic.com 2.0 by Cass Sunstein Princeton University Press, September 2009, $24.95, 272 pp. Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen Dutton Adult, July 2009, $25.95, 272 pp. Cass Sunstein begins Republic.com 2.0 by asking his readers to imagine a world where their control over the media they consume is total.”It is some ... Read More
At Home and Abroad
Today was a good day. The Democrat-dominated House of our wonderful northern neighbor Vermont overrode GOP Governor Jim Douglas’s veto on a law to legalize same-sex marriage (picking up three votes from moderates that had opposed the legislation the first time). The liberal grassroots – text message, Facebook, Twitter, email lists, you name it – erupted in jubilation. “Four down, ... Read More
Warming the Bench
Obama’s nominations will be liberal, but not in the conventional sense For better or for worse, people will view it as historically significant,” mused Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy on the election of the Harvard Law Review’s first black president in 1990. Less than two decades later, the student in question has once again been thrust into the spotlight of ... Read More
