Self-Righteous Marquette “Diversity Advocates” Block Traffic on Wisconsin Avenue, Make Absurd Demands

It happened back in April, a bunch of students demonstrating for “diversity” by blocking traffic on Wisconsin Avenue. They were quite proud of themselves, as they splashed a photo of themselves blocking traffic all over the top of their Facebook page.

They were, of course, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Below are the mug shots of the students arrested.

Rebecca Zellelew

Miguel Sanchez

Victoria Gokee-Rindal

Joseph Martinez

So what are these students demanding? In fact, there is a document that is their manifesto, and it reads like a compilation of the standard politically correct grievances and demands of the race hustlers on college campuses.

The Seal

The first demand:

Recrop the Marquette University’s seal which depicts a biased and impartial [sic] narrative of Marquette’s initial relationship with Indigenous peoples to include the Illinois peoples whom [sic] are welcoming and guiding Marquette

That these folks don’t know what “impartial” means nor the usage of “who” and “whom” are the least silly things about this.

What is supposedly objectionable about the seal? One leftist faculty member explains:

“Where Father Marquette is active and commanding, the Native figure appears passive and subservient,” [Jodi] Melamed said. “It’s the classic colonialist and white supremacist division of humanity being represented: the white Jesuit provides the direction, he’s the brains of the outfit, the Native person provides the labor and follows the white person’s lead.”

Melamed, of course, brings the standard politically correct obsessions to the issue. Academics like her, if administered a Rorschach test, would doubtless see colonialism, white supremacy, racism, sexism and homophobia in the ink blots. In reality, Father Marquette was indeed “in the lead” as somebody exploring a land new to him.

And others don’t bring Melamed’s obsessions to the subject:

Jacqueline Schram, faculty advisor of Marquette’s Native American Student Association, sees the image as an inspiration of reflection and hope that Marquette can work to improve its focus on Native American issues and students.

“For me, the Native American in our seal serves as both a source of pride and compass,” Schram said in an email. “The decision to indelibly etch the historic relationship between the First Peoples of Wisconsin and Father Marquette pays homage to the interdependency and inspires a sense of hope that this can be once again.”

But for the politically correct, no opportunity to be aggrieved should be passed up.

Demanding More Indoctrination

Next demand:

The expansion of the core curriculum to include 2-3 more diversity and inclusion required courses that unambiguously address the realities of white privilege and oppression at Marquette, in Milwaukee, and in our nation[.]

Marquette already requires one “diversity” course chosen from a list of courses, virtually all of which are politically correct victim studies.

But this, apparently, is not sufficient indoctrination.

Note the demand that “required courses . . . unambiguously address the realities of white privilege and oppression at Marquette.” Apparently, there has to be an ideological litmus test for these courses. The instructor is not allowed to conclude that “white privilege” is not a useful concept in analyzing race relations, nor that the chief sources of black oppression come from within the black community.  Of course, objective social science says that the biggest disadvantage that black children face is the lack of a father. This subject would apparently be out of bounds in these courses (or else, somehow blamed on white Republicans).

What we have, then, is a direct assault on academic freedom. Faculty who don’t buy into the oppression narrative would not be allowed to teach these courses. Faculty who do, rather than being free to come to their own conclusions, would have to endorse a leftist interpretation, on pain of not being allowed to teach these subjects.

Violence

The there is this:

A dialogue and reflection based training on How to end discriminatory violence in the classroom and in the campus community for Faculty/Administration/Staff, New student orientation and beginning Service Learners

So there is violence in Marquette classrooms? Minority students are getting beaten up? If so, where are the arrests?

But the politically correct campus left, unfortunately, defines violence as pretty much anything they don’t like. Might a black student hear somebody criticize affirmative action? Might an Hispanic student hear somebody say that the nation should control its borders, and stop illegal immigration? In the rarefied world of academia, mere opinions that the leftists don’t like qualify as violence.

And of course, the standard treatment for Thought Crime is a “dialogue and reflection based training.” In other words, Stalinist reeducation.

Rat Out Politically Incorrect Expression

The next part is more explicit as to what might constitute “violence.”

The further development of the Bias Incident Report System to include an anonymous submission option and a student response team inclusive of student leaders, residence hall RAs and Diversity Peer Coordinators. . . . We define discriminatory violence as physical harassment, language, exclusion or imagery that targets an individual or group based upon their race / gender / sex / class / national or cultural identities

Here, it is obvious that “violence” is defined so broadly as to be meaningless. Is telling an ethnic joke violence? And how about “inclusion?” If a bunch of guys in a dorm go out for a beer, and don’t invite the black guy, is that violence? Did they fail to invite him because he’s black, or rather because he’s always whining about “systemic racism?” Or maybe he just wasn’t around when the guys decided to go out.

What the authoritarians who drafted this document seem to want is to micromanage all student speech, expression and association.

Needing a Racial Quota

Next we have this:

Increased initiatives to recruit and retain students of diverse backgrounds – especially students from Milwaukee’s community. Currently the racial makeup of the city of Milwaukee is less than 50% white, while all racial minority groups combined only represent 20% of Marquette’s student population. This is unacceptable.

Why is it unacceptable? These folks appear not to understand that Marquette is classified as a “national university,” attracting students from across the nation (admittedly with a concentration from Wisconsin and northern Illinois). So why does the racial composition need to mirror the city of Milwaukee (and not even the Milwaukee metropolitan area)?

Marquette already discriminates against white students in admissions. Beyond a certain point, admitting less qualified minorities is counterproductive, since it places those students in a tough academic environment where they struggle, and often fail.

Divest

Another point:

We call for the University to responsibly invest in companies that adhere to our Catholic and Jesuit ideals of promoting the betterment of the human community, therefore reconsidering its investment policy and divesting from companies that take part in the abuse and repression of human basic rights

They don’t specify what companies they have in mind here. Companies that do business with Israel? Defense contractors? They don’t say.

Conceal Race of Offenders in Campus Area

This one is particularly interesting:

(a) Remove race from DPS [Department of Public Safety] reports, (b) report ALL crime including sexual assaults, drug usage, etc., which will make clear that white students are frequent lawbreakers and will destigmatize black males/people and students of color on campus and/or (c) make available ALL crime reports via an online active report

The beef here is the fact that Marquette University sends out “Public Safety Alerts” whenever there is a crime on or (more likely) near campus, and the race of the offender (or offenders) is reported. Overwhelmingly, the offenders are black.

We analyzed all Public Safety Alerts issued between May 2014 and April 2015 (inclusive), and found that of 44 offenders whose race was reported, 37 were black. (Four were white and three Hispanic.)

Oh, my! This might give somebody the idea that blacks disproportionately commit crime. So why not conceal this information? Surely, if it isn’t reported, students will start assuming that they are just as likely to be assaulted or robbed by a white as a black. At least, people who drafted this document seem to think so.

As for reporting all crime, naming and shaming (for example) drug offenders, we aren’t terribly opposed to that. But who is going to be named and shamed? Christian students? College Republicans? Or the good buddies of the “diversity” crowd?

These folks better be careful what they ask for. They might get it.

But of course, the purpose of listing the race (and other descriptive details) in the Public Safety Alerts for at large offenders is to help apprehend them. Students smoking joints in the dorm are a different matter entirely.

Politically Correct Dress Code

Then, in a section of the document drafted by The Native American Student Association, we have this:

Implement a no tolerance policy for the Warrior mascot merchandise; students continually wear clothing that represents the mascot which is deeply offensive to Native peoples and upholds White superiority on campus

Here we have the nasty authoritarianism of the politically correct, wanting to stifle student expression. The notion that Indian nicknames are offensive to “Native peoples” is simply untrue. That is unless “Native peoples” merely means Indian race hustlers on college campuses.

A Sports Illustrated poll of a representative sample of American Indians found that over 80 percent opposed changing native American team names. And an Annenberg School poll of American Indians found that over 90 percent did not find the name Redskins offensive.

So what we have here is a situation typical in academia: grievance mongers claiming to represent some constituency (Indians, women, blacks) in fact don’t. But on a college campus, where few have the courage to challenge them, and campus bureaucrats have every incentive to pander to them, they are anointed as official representatives.

Extremist Organization

That the Coalition of and for Students of Color at Marquette University is a rather extreme organization is revealed by their Facebook page, which shows support for cop killer Assata Shakur. Indeed, the posts show that these people see Shakur as a hero.

One of the images from the page is below:

There is also a link to an essay titled “Our Sister, Assata Shakur: Life, Struggle, Justice, and Love.” What are these people thinking?

So how will Marquette react to the demands of this group? In a principled way? Certainly not. Might many or most of the demands be rejected? If there is enough pressure from people who think Marquette has carried political correctness way too far, maybe.

Yet Another Faked “Racist” Incident on a College Campus

It has happened with some regularity: some “racist” incident on a college campus that was actually faked by leftist “diversity” activists in an attempt to goad the institution into pushing a leftist agenda. This one, a few months ago, was at the University of Chicago.

As described by The College Fix:

University of Chicago plays down the lie that provoked a federal investigation

A University of Chicago student who claimed his Facebook page was hacked and filled with racist and violent messages against him and another student has now admitted he faked the attack.

Intended to shame the school into making drastic changes around race and speech on campus, the hoax appears to have worked.

The students behind the ruse, the hoodwinked university and the school newspaper have argued that the hoax – which provoked a federal investigation – should not detract from fixing the school’s “culture of racial intolerance,” in the words of a petition demanding policy changes.

Anatomy of a Hoax

The hoax was the culmination of a long list of racial grievances leveled by the perpetrator, Derek Caquelin, and his friend and fellow activist Vincente Perez.

Indeed, before Caquelin admitted they made the whole thing up, Perez told The College Fix not to ask for more details on the racist Halloween incidents they alleged and instead focus on the hostile “culture” of the university.

The hoax started with an allegation against a shadowy hacker group that calls itself the UChicago Electronic Army, which has feuded with activists who circulated a list of men they claim were sexual threats on campus.

As reported by Chicago area media including Red Eye Chicago, Caquelin’s Facebook page was allegedly hacked by the group Nov. 18.

Caquelin initially said the hacked Facebook status was in retaliation for his online complaints about Halloween costumes depicting Mexican criminals and a corresponding push by Caquelin and Perez to address the concerns of minority students. The Facebook status also said Perez would be the next target.

The petition, co-written by Perez, called for the university to create a “campus climate survey” and “mandatory cross-cultural competency program,” as well as “clearly” lay out its responses to “racially insensitive actions,” incorporate racial and ethnic studies in the Core Curriculum and diversity the faculty, according to the Chicago Maroon.

The Fix could not reach Caquelin for comment.

In a hostile email exchange with The Fix days before Caquelin confessed to the hoax, Perez said: “Please do NOT try to focus on the individual students their identities and their costumes. This movement is about revealing the entire culture of intolerance at the University.”

Despite complaining about racist costumes in multiple Facebook posts and possessing a photo of the students who wore them, Perez said the issue was “not about the students who wore the costume, or the hacking, but about the culture that exists at UChicago where Admin does not address students concern for their safety adequately and promptly.”

Perez declined to refer Caquelin to The Fix for more details, saying it was a “disservice” to the activists “fighting for this culture to be challenged.”

Perez nonetheless shared the widespread media coverage frequently on his Facebook page in a bid to get visitors to sign his petition to the university.

Shortly after receiving a followup email from The Fix, Perez posted a screenshot of his response and claimed he was “exhausted” from responding to media inquiries: “This burden is unfair.”

Muted response to a hoax revealed

Campus leaders, even while acknowledging the hoax and the federal resources expended to investigate a fake threat, couldn’t bring themselves to call for any punishments against the students who cried wolf.

Instead, they endorsed the political agenda behind the hoax.

The university, which said Nov. 20 that the “hateful and anonymous Facebook posts” were part of a “larger pattern,” issued a weak retraction four days later.

“Based on our ongoing investigation we now are confident that the Facebook posting was not created by a hacker,” Karen Coleman, vice president for campus life and student services, told the community Nov. 24.

“That conclusion does not erase the seriousness of this episode, the harm it has caused to individuals and our broader community, or the consequences for those responsible,” Coleman said. “Whatever its purpose, the language used in this incident does not constitute discourse and will not be tolerated.”

Coleman said the school would host “special sessions” for students, faculty and staff who wanted to talk about the incidents and “get support.”

In a Facebook post the same day, Caquelin confessed to the hoax.

“Do not defend my name. I am behind this, and only I,” Caquelin wrote. “No others were involved, so I really would like to ask you to leave them alone. There is no excuse for hate, which includes what I did.”

The editorial board of The Chicago Maroon wrote Nov. 25: “The sentiments that existed before the Facebook post still ring true, and should be treated accordingly. The conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion on campus must continue in light of recent developments.”

The revealing of the hoax “should not de-legitimize the issues of racism that have been raised, or mitigate the seriousness with which they should be addressed,” the editorial said.

In fact, incidents like this should de-legitimize the “issues of racism” that have been raised by leftist activists.

If the evidence of racism is bogus, and the people pushing the cause are dishonest, rewarding these people by pandering to them is grossly irresponsible.

And the charade is made worse in that genuine racism is extremely rare among college students today, whether at Chicago or Marquette. So the activists have to find “racism” in the mere expression of politically incorrect opinions, or the lack of “sensitivity” to the overwrought sensibilities of the perpetually aggrieved or some “microaggression” real or imagined.

But college administrations, who lack the courage to tell the politically correct activists they are being silly, and who indeed welcome an excuse for more bureaucratic initiatives, are easy prey for the race (and gender and sexual orientation) hustlers.