November 7, 2015

"The swastika appeared overnight, drawn with human feces on a college dorm’s brand new white wall...."

"Now a graduate student says he is on a hunger strike and is willing to die unless the school’s president steps down."
“I already feel like campus is an unlivable space,” said [University of Missouri student Jonathan L. Butler, 25], who is African American. “So it’s worth sacrificing something of this grave amount, because I’m already not wanted here. I’m already not treated like I’m a human.... It’s just gotten to the point on campus where it’s really not safe for black students or really all marginalized students. Me personally, I won’t feel safe on campus until there is an urgency that things need to change and be taken seriously. It’s just a very hostile environment for black students... We are facing a lot of negativity and oppression on a daily basis... And then you students go to a diversity forums, you see them write letters, you see them write e-mails and send tweets and do all these things, we bare our souls and tell very painful stories but … our lives are still not valued. At some point, after spending all that energy telling people that I deserve to be recognized as a human, like my existence matters, at a certain point you are putting people in a corner and you keep poking them with a stick, things escalate until people feel like they are hurt."
The linked article, in The Washington Post, describes some other incidents. The scrawler of the swastika is unknown. 

112 comments:

Jon Burack said...

Given many past precedents, this could have been done by a black student or other radical seeking to gin up a reaction. Or it could have truly been a white supremacist. Given the prevalence of one over the other on campuses, I'd be very cautious in assuming the latter. But who knows? In either case, the reason such disgusting symbols crop up on campuses as opposed to ordinary streets and walls of your typical village, town or city, is that campuses are where mere symbols and words have been accorded a magical power they have nowhere else. What lost soul can resist making their mark with the mere stroke of a paintbrush or whatever.

Ann Althouse said...

If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, why would you draw it with excrement?

spaz said...

The use of N-word and the Swastika are having their intended effects at Mizzou. What would happen if the intended victims of those words and symbols ignored them rather than reacting to them? Would the racism escalate or go away?

Owen said...

The real question is, was it Pat Nixon's handwriting?

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

The Smothers Brothers explain why it's frequently a swastika that gets drawn: listen till the end

Ron Winkleheimer said...

The professor is correct. Drawing a swastika in feces would seem to indicate that the individual is either disturbed or that its a faux hate crime.

I tried to read the linked article, but couldn't get past the part about how the Ferguson shooting "shook the whole nation." No, it didn't. A small subset of the nation is pushing a nonsense narrative in order to garner political power. I am under no obligation to buy into their nonsense.

In any event, the part of the article I did read was crafted to take a couple of racist incidents and use them to assure the target audience (guilty upper-class whites) that there's still plenty of racism, just as much when Bull Connor (D) was using firehoses and attack dogs to oppress blacks in the 60s.

Virgil Hilts said...

The "scrawler" is probably the same racist cracker who's been setting fire to black churches in Missouri not very far away. This story (and the video of the twits at Yale) suggest that these students think that if some redneck yells the n word or some silly coed wears a culturally appropriative Halloween costume its ultimately the school administrative's fault for not running a totalitarian enough tight ship to prevent something like that from ever happening. Meanwhile -- watch the twits at Yale -- would anyone be stupid enough to talk back to these bullies? What a weird combination of aggressive victim-hood. Watching the deranged Yalie scream "who the fuck hired you" into the face of this nice man who dared to suggest that students be a little more grown up and tolerant of free speech. I would not want to be a professor these days and feel for Ann.

MaxedOutMama said...

I don't understand why the point of the hunger strike is to have Wolfe removed? That seems self-defeating.

No university could possibly permit one student to dismiss any university officer of whom she/he did not approve this way. I question the mental health of this activist. Strongly.

Nor do I understand why the university president should be removed. This tactic seems designed for futility. If a meeting with the top officials to explain why he thinks the man should be removed isn't going to change things, perhaps this individual needs involuntary commitment.

MaxedOutMama said...

Ann - that's my reaction to the swastika, too. I would suspect that it was a provocative incident designed to keep the outrage alive, rather than an actual display of racism.

But more seriously, this sort of agitation and provocation is proceeding on a two-sided basis, and it is not going to quiet on its own.

I shouldn't write this, but I suspect this is a career move by this student, designed to get national press and a high-profile job after graduation, rather than an actual serious attempt to address civil rights concerns on campus. It's the equivalent of the mattress stunt by the woman. That, or he is ill and a danger to himself.

Lewis Wetzel said...

We don't send our best & brightest to college anymore, do we?
one wonders what Butler would have done as a GI in WW2 Europe. That place was chock-a-block with swastikas back then.

Gusty Winds said...

I have lived in some places I did not like. So I moved. A hunger strike was out of the question.

CWJ said...

Althouse beat me to it. Designed for peak outrage rather than political identiication. It's a hoax.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Having seen the Yale video I'm left wondering why anyone would hire someone from Yale. Seriously.

Gusty Winds said...

I would recommend self-immolation or an old fashioned public seppuku. Much more dramatic.

Wince said...

Whose job is it to determine the feces are human and by what means is that done?

And what if it tested positive for pizza and traces of Anal Lube?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

PROBLEM: When the university was founded in 1839, Missouri was a slave state. The state capitol was built by slaves and the university also used slave labor. Several of its founders were ardent slavery supporters.

SOLUTION: Demolish the University and Capitol, leaving "not one stone upon another." Salt the grounds with radioactive waste. Expel Missouri from the Union.

Well, at least melt down that offensive T.Jefferson statue.

Gusty Winds said...

America's Universities. Self-proclaimed bastions of rape and racism. You too can have your children be a part of this wonderful experience. Everything included for $20k to $50k a year.

Anonymous said...

based on this post and the law school one earlier, it seems clear that grad/Law students at UM neither speak or think clearly.

Gusty Winds said...

I think my first meal after I ended my never death intended hunger strike would be one of those giant skirt steak burritos that are as big as your head. Sour cream and guacamole added. Always a late night campus favorite.

Anonymous said...

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...
SOLUTION: Demolish the University and Capitol, leaving "not one stone upon another." Salt the grounds with radioactive waste. Expel Missouri from the Union.


You left off the part after salt the grounds that is supposed to read, "kill all the men, and sell all the women into slavery..."

I say that partly in jest, but also to point out that those new Carthaginian slaves were what would be called 'white people" and the Slavers were "white people" Further, that slavery has been endemic throughout the world for millennia. It isn't something invented by "white people" and inflicted only on "black people". In fact, since our roots are in Africa, it is assured that slavery was invented by blacks and inflicted on blacks first.

Grackle said...

I would like to suggest a new "reality" show for aggrieved young black people. In this show, they will be dropped off in a sub-Saharan African country (varying from week to week) with a sandwich, a canteen, a cell-phone, $1,000 cash and the complete written works of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Hussein Obama. The return flight will be scheduled for three months later.

False Fucking Grackle

Vet66 said...

I have little doubt that the students from China, India, etc. were busy studying their class assignments while Mr. Common Core, future educator, and overall mover-and-shaker against the old bugaboo "white supremacy was grandstanding to make a point. Do they receive elective credit for "raising hell" from wimpy social science instructors running these agitators for the latest project proving outrage is alive and well in the country? Meanwhile, my latest visit to a Doctor's office reminded me of "It's A Small World" at Disneyland; a Dr. of Osteopathy from Nigeria, his associate a nurse from South Korea, a Doctor from Syria fleeing Assad trying to get his family to the U.S. at his own expense before they are slaughtered who received his MD license at the University of Chicago which he said was worse than Syria and Lebanon and a Dentist from the Ukraine. Note to Mr. Bullhorn on hunger strike at Missou, people in other countries are picking corn out of camel dung and you are going on a hunger strike? You think you are alone in being on the receiving end of epithets? Grow a pair and get on with your education because other folks that have lost far more than you are running circles around your narcissistic dramatics. Some of your professors and their parents called Viet Nam veterans returning from war were called far worse than your pathetic pimping of racism that most have adapted to and overcome.

traditionalguy said...

The artist does his work in a medium that best expresses what is in his soul. Get the guy a private gallery show and see how much it will sell for.

Seriously, Missouri's problem is that it is not racist enough for the "Victims of White People Party" so they are having to fake it.

Tank said...

If he wants to be taken seriously, he should douse himself with lighter fluid and set himself on fire. That would show them !

jaydub said...

Do him a favor and put him out of his misery by letting him starve. He's unlikely to survive in the real world, anyway.

Rusty said...


Blogger CWJ said...
Althouse beat me to it. Designed for peak outrage rather than political identiication. It's a hoax.


Yep. 2 will get you 20 it was a setup piece.

Fernandinande said...

Ann Althouse said...
If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, ...


Good luck.

...why would you draw it with excrement?

Must've been some determinist who doesn't believe in luck or quantum mechanics.

Curious George said...

Asked if he was really prepared to die, Butler claimed he was.

“It’s a very real reality,” he said. “It’s a very real reality.”

What is the flip side of this...an unreal reality?

Butler is "starting a Master’s degree in educational leadership and policy analysis...."

He's just looking for some street cred to put on the old resume. This fucker will be on the outside of a ham sandwich in no time.

Phil 314 said...

Uh... Hitler and the Nazis killed white people.

PS If I starve myself to death, am I a "casualty"?

James Pawlak said...

RIP----And good riddance.

pst314 said...

I would not be surprised if it turns out that Jonathan Butler is the one who drew the swastika.

Michael said...

He will eat soon. I wish the press would follow him to catch that tasty moment.

Baronger said...

Virgil Hilts said...
The "scrawler" is probably the same racist cracker who's been setting fire to black churches in Missouri not very far away. This story (and the video of the twits at Yale) suggest that these students think that if some redneck yells the n word or some silly coed wears a culturally appropriative Halloween costume its ultimately the school administrative's fault for not running a totalitarian enough tight ship to prevent something like that from ever happening. Meanwhile -- watch the twits at Yale -- would anyone be stupid enough to talk back to these bullies? What a weird combination of aggressive victim-hood. Watching the deranged Yalie scream "who the fuck hired you" into the face of this nice man who dared to suggest that students be a little more grown up and tolerant of free speech. I would not want to be a professor these days and feel for Ann.

11/7/15, 6:50 AM

-----------------------------------

Actually they already caught that guy. Turned out that the guy who did it was black. I've seen to many of these, faux hate crimes to take them seriously anymore. I expect these things will happen more and more, as racism goes away.

Virgil Hilts said...

Yep, I knew that. I was being sarcastic.

n.n said...

Swastikas, sickles, hammers, fists, and scalpels... they're desperate to start a fire.

Anonymous said...

Baronger: Actually they already caught that guy. Turned out that the guy who did it was black.

I'm shocked, shocked to see hate-hoaxing going on at an American university.

Jason said...

If Yale students were smart they'd start a hunger strike to get Yelling Girl expelled.

Tim the Shrubber said...

The article inflates the importance of sh*t swastika, because that is not really the main issue. The problem is there have been multiple brazen incidents in the last year or two, and the university officials have been very slow to react. (And note, I used the work 'react' not 'act'. They have barely been acknowledging the incidents are even happening. I mean, when a pick-up full of white kids yells "N*gger" at the student body president while he walks down the street it might just warrant a statement from the Chancellor. Instead there was silence.

Now, the hunger strike in over the top and stupid, but the concerns he is trying to highlight are not. There has been a clear up-tick in racist incidents on campus.

Krumhorn said...

All of this has such a manufactured quality to it. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why that event in Ferguson is still used as an iconic moment in racial history where a big black thug had just robbed a store, assaulted the store owner, swaggered down the center of the street with his loot, wrestled with a policeman for his gun inside a squad car and was then shot and killed.

If faux outrage over events like that followed by papering a statue of Thomas Jefferson, the man whose glorious language gave life and spirit to founding documents that enumerate our freedoms, with epithets isn't intended to provoke someone to say or do something stupid, then why not stop a parade, physically intimidate the university president and his wife and then hope someone will be inspired to trowel poo on the walls?

As one who worked in the civil rights movement in 1966 in Cleveland, MS, I can say with a certain limited authority that we're not not talking about racism here. This is something very different.

- Krumhorn

JAORE said...

Might start compiling a list of students close to being "dismissed" for "poor scholarship". There are numerous instances where, given sufficient, wide spread outrage, a list of demands will include amnesty for failing grades during that period of turmoil.

Paco Wové said...

"There has been a clear up-tick in racist incidents on campus."

Cite?

'TreHammer said...

...call his bluff...

Anonymous said...

Tim the Shrubber: There has been a clear up-tick in racist incidents on campus

To begin, I'm sure we can all agree that inquiring about what proportion of these "racist incidents" are trivial, imaginary, or out-and-out hoaxes is racist in itself.

Obviously, colleges need to hire more diversity co-ordinators, and have more required indocrti..., er, required classes on White Privilege - as, apparently, half a century of "heigh heigh ho ho Western Civ has got to go" hasn't done the trick.

Also, more, and more intensive, struggle sessions for insufficiently groveling and apologetic cis white hetero males.

Oh fuck it, Tim, you know what the real problem is? The university still admits white males, who have no business being anywhere near an enlightened institution of higher learning.

You should consider hunger-striking for as long as this unacceptable admission policy remains in place.

lemondog said...

Marketing guy:

Jonathan L. Butler

Founder and CXO at Moyo Wazi, LLC
Columbia, MissouriMarketing and Advertising

Tim the Shrubber said...

"Cite?"

I live here and pay attention.

April -

"On April 9, a swastika, Illuminati symbol and the word "heil" were discovered in the residence hall and were cleaned off the afternoon of April 10. Afterward, a swastika and the words "You have been warned" were written in the stairwell that same day."

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/national-organizations-send-letter-to-mu-chancellor-about-anti-semitic/article_6d641dfe-57d2-5822-8a3f-1c19abed78c8.html

And for the record a white student was identified as the perpetrator.


September -

Student body president harassed and called n*gger while walking down the street.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/16/what-the-student-body-president-did-after-he-was-called-the-n-word-again/


October -

The LBC Homecoming court embarrassed by a drunk white guy who then calls them n*ggers.

http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2015/10/5/lbc-homecoming-royalty-harassed-traditions-plaza/

...and now a sh*t swastika.


In my 25 year association with this community there have always been a few similar incidents here and there, but never so many high profile ones at once. It is almost like some students took joining the SEC as an endorsement of the Confederacy.

Anonymous said...

Baronger: Watching the deranged Yalie scream "who the fuck hired you" into the face of this nice man who dared to suggest that students be a little more grown up and tolerant of free speech.

Just watched that. Good Lord. Screamy Girl lacks the mental and emotional maturity necessary to function in freakin' primary school, let alone in a tertiary institution. And yet there she is, a student at one of the planet's sooperest-dooperest most prestige-o-licious, elite-o-riffic universities, melting down like a spoiled special-needs toddler. Our anointed future leaders seem a tad highly-strung, don't they?

MacMacConnell said...

So let's get this straight, the first time a black student body president gets called a racial slur on campus, he doesn't report it to the administration, he writes an open letter on the student body network. This happens on the weekend.

The Chancellor immediately sends the MUPD to investigate and issues a statement on Thursday.

The student president's letter hits all the SJW talking points, not just race, it's tripe. He signs it "Your Nigger/Faggot Missouri Students Association President,
Payton Head".

MU is so racist that the student body not only elects a black man president, but the majority of the executive cabinet.



Tim the Shrubber said...

Mac - The Chancellor has been an avid person on twitter interacting with students in real time constantly. The lack of reaction seemed deafening compared to is normal behavior. If he can tweet about a women's volleyball win within minutes of the match ending it should not take a week to have a response when the student body president was called a n*gger.

jr565 said...

Everyone is aggrieved over everything. I hope he does go on a hunger strike and dies.
And what is the grievance. Because someone somewhere who we don't know drew a picture (?) of a swastika. Is this guy even jewish by the way?
And for this the head of the campus needs to be fired? What?!?
We need to teach kids going to school to stop acting like babies. But that is what the SJW ethos, and the left frankly, engages in. Everything makes you a victim. And someone needs to pay.
Such delicate creatures should really not be walking amongst us. I'm starting to rethink my opposition to the population bomb. Erlich was right. We need fewer people. If you believe in evolution this would be example of someone incapable of adapting to environment. if you can't you don't get to take up space.

Ken B said...

An's point is good. Also this has all the hallmarks of a hoax. Highly symbolic, no physical harm to the alleged video Tim, no witness. Histrionic allege victim. So the chance of a hoax is high.

Anonymous said...

Tim the Shrubber: In my 25 year association with this community there have always been a few similar incidents here and there, but never so many high profile ones at once. It is almost like some students took joining the SEC as an endorsement of the Confederacy.

Nazi-dork graffiti ("illuminati symbol", nice touch), and two incidents of racial slurs (one by a certified drunk)? These are your "so many high profile", "brazen" racist incidents?

It is almost like some students took joining the SEC as an endorsement of the Confederacy.

All three of 'em (or maybe four - guess you're still hoping the shit-swastika perp was another white dork), yeah. Surely the harbinger of the rise of the Neo-Confederacy. In unholy alliance with the Illuminati.

jr565 said...

Instead of rape culture this is racism culture. And I'm sure there is anti gay culture and transphobia culture. Singular incidents become the stand in for overall policy on campus. And it then become an epidemic. An unsafe place.
How many times, for example, was a swastika written on a wall? It has to be infrequent since its made it to Althouse's blog. So ONE picture, drawn by ONE person, now means the entire university is indicted.

I'm long past getting worked up over grievances from people who find everything to be a grievance. Remember Vester Flanagan (The guy who shot two former coworkers on camera while they were doing a news report)? This guy reminds me of him. He was described as finding racism and homophobia IN EVERYTHING. So much so that they ended up firing him. Which he took as a further grievance.
People that find grievances in everything may in fact be unbound. I just hope this guy doesn't go postal later in life when he realizes that in the world some people just might be mean to him.

jr565 said...

Tim the shrubber,
You describe three incidents. That's not an epidemic. If three such incidents is a lot over your 25 years, you seem to be describing a pretty tolerant place. 3 is a lot more than 1, but 3 is a lot less than say, 10. And even 10 such incidents is not really a lot considering the number of people on campus. It could even be the same people commiting multiple acts.

jr565 said...

Tim, If you think this is bad you should get a load of racial/gender studies courses. Most likely on your campus. The white men may not be called honkies, but they are certainly called oppressors. And they are certainly scape goated for all of the worlds ills. And Yale will gladly take peoples money to promote such classes.
So, I don't really want to hear it. The left engages in class/race warfare as part of their raison d'etre. That's their coalition.

White men, primarily, not raping women are going to be smeared as rapists. And white students who don't paint swastikas with feces are going to be smeared as racists. Because one swastika is smeared.

Anonymous said...

...it should not take a week to have a response when the student body president was called a n*gger.

Hey Tim, here's a wild thought exercise for ya: consider that maybe, just maybe, somebody being the target of a racial slur isn't the huge deal that you seem to think it is. (Or being "student body president", either. OMG, it was the student body president!. Hey, wait a minute - how did this pest-hole of high-profile, brazen racial hatred end up with a black student body president?)

That it is, as a matter of fact, rather trivial, no worse than millions of other acts of assholery committed around the nation on any given day. And that, no, certain kinds of trivial acts of assholery are not freighted with immense importance because...history!, and that they are not the thin edge of the wedge leading to Dylan Roofs and Colin Fergusons, and that constantly drama-queening about them, and demanding obscene Cultural Revolution abasements from officials over every minor "incident", will not fix anything, but only poison social relations and promote tension and violence.

Michael K said...

Five bucks says the hunger striker did it.

He sounds like he needs an intervention.

jr565 said...

anglelyne wrote:
OMG, it was the student body president!. Hey, wait a minute - how did this pest-hole of high-profile, brazen racial hatred end up with a black student body president?)


That is kind of relevant isn't it? Clearly racism on the campus wasn't such that it would prevent a black queer from becoming student body president. Two interest groups that are spat upon by the racists. And this guy embodied both, and rose to the top.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"Oh fuck it, Tim, you know what the real problem is? The university still admits white males, who have no business being anywhere near an enlightened institution of higher learning."

Well, I am a white male Republican with both a BA and MA from the University of Missouri, so that is not a position I would advocate.

Like I said, I do not agree with the hunger strike, and I do not think their 'demands' are the least bit reasonable. But even still, they have a point.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"If three such incidents is a lot over your 25 years, you seem to be describing a pretty tolerant place."

This is three high profile incidents since this April (four if you include the sh*t swastika).

That is far more frequent than the previous 24 years.

MacMacConnell said...

Maybe the guys in the truck are from Ferguson and still pissed off about the Governor telling the National Guard to let it burn.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"An's point is good. Also this has all the hallmarks of a hoax. Highly symbolic, no physical harm to the alleged video Tim, no witness. Histrionic allege victim. So the chance of a hoax is high."

You know, assuming that these are hoaxes just because there may not be absolute proof is starting to sound like you are saying "Black people are liars", which just might be interpreted as racist.

There certainly are hoaxes. But you cannot justify assuming that these are always hoaxes absent definitive proof.

Anonymous said...

Michael K: Five bucks says the hunger striker did it.

That was my first guess. Fits the standard hate-hoax MO.

Paco Wové said...

I can see why Jewish students would get upset over swastikas, but why some black guy?

What's an "illuminati symbol", anyway? One of those pyramids on the back of the dollar bill? Ooh, scary.

Jupiter said...

"Now a graduate student says he is on a hunger strike and is willing to die unless the school’s president steps down."

So, problem solved, right?

jg said...

We shouldn't say 100 of the last 100 such reports have been hoaxes. But all of them *probably* have been. At least, we can say we're tired of hearing such tales.

Unknown said...

I live in Columbia. We've seen it before. It's a trope in social justice by now. Maybe no one will be caught in this case but, if anyone is, the smart money is on one of the BLM protesters recently active on campus. If this turns out to be the case it won't matter. There will even be someone seriously saying that it could have been a racist and so the president has still got to go. I have zero sympathy for university administrators in these cases. I laugh at the fools being terrorized by their own Frankenstein.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"Clearly racism on the campus wasn't such that it would prevent a black queer from becoming student body president."

A little under 28,000 undergraduates.

7,075 voted in the MSA Presidential ELections

3,848 voted for the gay black man for President.

Still, plenty of room in that equation for a few racists to be on campus. Probably not a huge number, but Payton Head's election does not in anyway make them disappear.

Anonymous said...

Tim the Shrubber: ...You know, assuming that these are hoaxes just because there may not be absolute proof...

...is not the same thing as "speculating on the perp's probable profile based on familiarity with many previous similar incidents".

Stop projecting, Tim. You're the only one here who's going to be disappointed if the perp turns out not to be a white guy.

...which just might be interpreted as racist.

We'd expect no less from you. Interpreting everything under the sun as "racist" is what people like you do in lieu of leading an adult life.

eddie willers said...

Ever since Tawana Brawley I have kept an anecdotal total in my head. Of the 30 or so I have remembered to check after the initial accusation, all but one have been hoaxes set up by the accuser.

n.n said...

swastika

Greek cross with arms bent at right angles, 1871 (in English specifically as emblem of the Nazi party from 1932), from Sanskrit svastika-s, literally "being fortunate," from svasti-s "well-being, luck," from su- "well" (from PIE *(e)su- "good") + as-, root of asti "(he) is," which is from the same PIE root as Latin esse "to be" (see essence).

No symbols?

Smearing the swastika with feces, presumably human, hearkens back to the days of occupation.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

Paco Wové said...
What's an "illuminati symbol", anyway? One of those pyramids on the back of the dollar bill? Ooh, scary.


Yes! It was "a triangle with an eye on top"! (The guy probably used a one-eyed symbol because he's a bit cross-eyed).

For your own collective safety, everyone should collect their dollars bills, put them in a plain brown paper bag and send them to me. I'll be sure to dispose of them properly, at the Illuminati Bar & Grill

Moneyrunner said...

Regarding that Yale debacle: Struggle Sessions http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2015/11/struggle-sessions.html

eric said...

Blogger Tim the Shrubber said...
"Cite?"

I live here and pay attention.


The fact that you believe these stories without any skepticism tells me you're not paying close enough attention.

Just as one example, what was the license plate on the red pick up truck?

Fernandinande said...

Moneyrunner said...
Regarding that Yale debacle: Struggle Sessions


From an, um, impassioned* Yale Herald letter about it:
…”This [Christakis] email and the subsequent reaction to it have interrupted their lives. I have friends who are not going to class, who are not doing their homework, who are losing sleep, who are skipping meals, and who are having breakdowns. I feel drained. And through it all, Christakis has shown that he does not consider us a priority.”

*euphemism for "insane".

Paco Wové said...

"You know, assuming that these are hoaxes just because there may not be absolute proof is starting to sound like you are saying "Black people are liars", which just might be interpreted as racist."

You know, sticking words in people's mouths and then condemning them for what you said just might be interpreted as you being a jackass.

The reason people are assuming this may be a hoax is because very frequently these sorts of things do turn out to be hoaxes.

rcocean said...

"If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, why would you draw it with excrement?"

Why would you draw ANYTHING in excrement? It seems a smelly, nasty, time consuming way to make a point.

Wouldn't spray paint be quicker and easier?

rcocean said...

100-1 its just another SJW hoax.

And why are college campuses hot-beds of Nazis, KKK, and right wing haters?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I'm not sure this is shit. We're gonna run it down to the lab and do some tests, but I'm 85% sure this is shit. I just wanna know, is this human shit or not?

fivewheels said...

This is kind of a weird thing for me to think about. I went to Missouri in the '80s. In the years I was in the dorms, I lived with a diverse group of guys. A few of them were serious hicks. And they would occasionally use the n-word. In fact, even though I was an Asian kid, they might call the foreign Asian students "gooks" right in front of me, which they seemed to think would be OK because I wasn't "like them."

Now, this is not stuff I condone, but I didn't scream in their faces. I pretty much let it slide, because I'm not a confrontational guy, but they knew I didn't agree. Still, instead of drawing battle lines, I played Wiffle ball and touch football with them, and I was popular among these relatively unenlightened guys for some reason. I had a good arm at QB, and I wasn't a dick to them.

I went for a weekend visit to the literal one-stoplight hometown of one of them, and it was a big culture shock for a suburban kid. I gained respect for him from seeing his origins. He was the first in his family to go to college, and he was working to do better than what was possible in shitkickerville. The most "country" of the other guys said he could really show me some rustic shit, but his dad wouldn't appreciate me being around so much, presumably for racial reasons. I got it, he got it, we didn't need to spell out why that was unfortunate.

So I can believe that regressive attitudes still exist at Mizzou 30 years later. But is the current fashion of condemnation and self-segregation better than the kind of passive engagement I went with? It bothers me when I see people saying on Facebook that they'll unfriend anyone who's a notch to the left or right of them. People aren't very good anymore at being civil to those who are different, and that's on all sides. You see it in comment sections. It seems like we did better in the bad old days.

MayBee said...

I mean, when a pick-up full of white kids yells "N*gger" at the student body president while he walks down the street it might just warrant a statement from the Chancellor.

Why?

Spiros Pappas said...

Does this loser still live in the dorms?

Fernandinande said...

MayBee said...
[I mean, when a pick-up full of white kids yells "N*gger" at the student body president while he walks down the street it might just warrant a statement from the Chancellor.]

Why?


When I was in college I was walking along minding my own bidness and some guys driving past yelled "Hey, asshole!" and threw a sandwich at me. They missed.

So anyway, I personally know the pain and heartache of not eliciting statements from a Chancellor.

Quaestor said...

Racist cracker arsonist

If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, why would you draw it with excrement?
We tend to forget that the swastika represents much more than we tend to think it does.

The use of fecal matter reminds me of the Tawana Brawley case. Mr. Butler should be considered a suspect.

ELC said...

I figure the administration, faculty, and staff of Mizzou is as reliably liberal as that of most colleges in the USA. So, to them I say, "Welcome to the world you helped to create. I hope you enjoy your stay."

eddie willers said...

After the initial furor, they have declined to identify the culprit.

KKK lynching message on Berkeley High School computer traced to student

Hmmmm....wonder why?

Michael said...

Tim

You live out there in danger land where five out of every three women are raped and the n word is on every lip and the incidents are getting worse and more frequent.

Thank you for keeping on top of this for us. Oh, and I am in favor of the hunger strike and hope you and other SJWs join in.

You will if you are serious about changing the world, Tim. Counting on you here.

Fernandinande said...

eddie willers said...
KKK lynching message on Berkeley High School computer traced to student


Most phony "hate" crimes are mysterious.

The lynching threat[sic and ha ha] was the third racist incident since last year in the district [Berkeley High], school officials said.
"Last spring, in a hack of the school’s digital yearbook files believed to have been aimed at students of color, a heading describing students’ futures was changed to read “future trash collectors,” Coplan said."

That's funny in two ways, one being hypocritical, perverse and passive - "believed to have been aimed" - and the other just funny.

hawkeyedjb said...

"...our lives are still not valued.

One of the things you learn in the transition from childhood to adulthood is that the world actually doesn't much give a fuck about you or your life. We have laws to prevent or give redress for actual harm, but most all of humanity - the part outside your family and circle of friends - really doesn't have the time or energy to actively care about you or your problems or your phobias or your bizarre ideas about how others are obligated to care about you.

I don't know this person but I hope no undeserved harm comes to him. Otherwise I don't care about his life any more than he cares about mine. If I choose to waste my life wallowing in self-pity over slights, I don't expect this guy to waste any time on me. Why would he? Why would anybody?

Tim the Shrubber said...

"You live out there in danger land where five out of every three women are raped and the n word is on every lip and the incidents are getting worse and more frequent.

"Thank you for keeping on top of this for us. Oh, and I am in favor of the hunger strike and hope you and other SJWs join in."

Well, you live in a paranoid delusional world where anyone who does not agree with you must be 100% on the other side. It hardly makes me a social justice warrior to think that a black man should be able to walk down the street without being called a n*gger.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"When I was in college I was walking along minding my own bidness and some guys driving past yelled "Hey, asshole!" and threw a sandwich at me. They missed.

"So anyway, I personally know the pain and heartache of not eliciting statements from a Chancellor."

So then, is "asshole" a reference to your race, gender or sexual preference?

Tim the Shrubber said...

The Black members of the football team have now gone on strike until the UM System President is gone. Now he is toast.

MayBee said...

It hardly makes me a social justice warrior to think that a black man should be able to walk down the street without being called a n*gger.

This doesn't answer why a University Chancellor should get involved.

(does "asshole" not hurt someone's feelings? Is it better than a woman being called a "bitch"? )

Paco Wové said...

Interesting. MU English Department votes no confidence in Chancellor Loftin. There appears to be a lot of turmoil in the U. Missouri system at the moment, most of it power struggles and general governance issues. It looks like graduate students in particular have a beef with the chancellor – apparently he tried to cut their health insurance and teaching stipends.

Anonymous said...

Tim the Shrubber: It hardly makes me a social justice warrior to think that a black man should be able to walk down the street without being called a n*gger.

No, but this crap-quality, wholly failed effort at evading the point is pretty garden-variety SJW.

So then, is "asshole" a reference to your race, gender or sexual preference?

Sorry, Tim, but nothing says "SJW" like arrogantly assuming that the rest of the world naturally accepts without question your faith-based dogma that "race, gender, or sexual preference" are special exalted categories when it comes to grading insults.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"It looks like graduate students in particular have a beef with the chancellor – apparently he tried to cut their health insurance and teaching stipends."

Well, it was announced on a Sunday morning few days before the semester was to begin that the grad health insurance would be discontinued at midnight that night. Giving people less than 24 hours notice that their health insurance will be cancelled tends to make them a bit angry.

Lawyers for the Univ. said this decision was made because of how the IRS has been interpreting ACA rules, and they feared that the way the insurance was being provided was going to result in huge fines. A really legitimate concern. Still, you don't just throw the grad students you employ and whose labor you rely on under the bus. Fight the freaking IRS.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"This doesn't answer why a University Chancellor should get involved."

Er, because he is the leader of the organization.

MayBee said...

The organization? Of people on the street? People in pickups?

MayBee said...

Should the mayor address the situation of the people in the pickup and the student body president? The governor?

Why should anyone walk the street in a state and have to hear an insult (against race/religion/gender)?
Why should anyone in the country have to hear a slur?

MacMacConnell said...

First, ACA enrollment starts Nov 1, that's why MU dropped the insurance.

Second, any football team member on strike should be asked to turn in their jerseys. I'm sure they can transfer somewhere, maybe. What are they 4 and 5 this season? I'm sure Warrensburg would pick them up.

Bob Loblaw said...

Are these kinds of incidents ever not hoaxes?

Annie said...

"Fight the freaking IRS"

Something tells me that Tim is not who he says he is. Fighting the IRS takes lawyers and money, Tim. Is that the best use of the university's money when it is so much cheaper to just drop the insurance, like every other business is doing? You don't like it? Don't vote for fascists who will keep Obama's dream of destruction alive.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"First, ACA enrollment starts Nov 1, that's why MU dropped the insurance."

The grad insurance was cancelled with less than 24 hours notice in August. Nothing to do with the ACA enrollment date.

Tim the Shrubber said...

"Tim. Is that the best use of the university's money when it is so much cheaper to just drop the insurance, like every other business is doing?"

Is not screwing over their employees the right thing to do? Yes.

Worth noting that other Universities with similar setups did not take the same action. Nor has MU been fined by the IRS after reinstating the health benefit weeks later. MU just showed an extreme lack of backbone.

Rusty said...

Tim the Shrubber said...
The Black members of the football team have now gone on strike until the UM System President is gone. Now he is toast.


I remember when the NIU varsity team black members did that.
NIU had a winning season.


Rusty said...

This has gone from mildly amusing to WGAF.

Take care of this, Tim.
Let us know how it turns out.

MacMacConnell said...

IF I WERE THE PRESIDENT, I’D USE THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO CANCEL THE FOOTBALL PROGRAM: Missouri football players to boycott season until university president steps down.

27
Posted at 8:34 am by Glenn Reynolds

Littlebum2002 said...

Ann Althouse:

"If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, why would you draw it with excrement?"

So basically your argument boils down to "this must be fake, because I refuse to believe a white supremacist would act irrationally"

Rusty said...

Kim.
Why don't you give Tim a hand running this thing down for us.
Get back to us when you find out what's going on.

robother said...

Fair amount of DNA in an excrement sample. Shouldn't be that difficult to (at the very least) identify the racial group of the defacer.

Rusty said...

Sorry. Kevin.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Kevin Bumgarner said...
Ann Althouse:

"If you actually believed in what the swastika represents, why would you draw it with excrement?"

So basically your argument boils down to "this must be fake, because I refuse to believe a white supremacist would act irrationally"

There's no reason a Nazi wouldn't act rationally within his belief system, which has never included shitstikas, AFAIK.

robother said...

"Fair amount of DNA in an excrement sample. Shouldn't be that difficult to (at the very least) identify the racial group of the defacer."

You must be assuming that the swastika artist used his own feces. There's plenty of sh/+3 to be found in public bathrooms. People give it away for free.