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Doug Israel's avatar

First and foremost the following phrase would result in the immediate expulsion of a student advocating it "I believe blacks are inferior and ought to be enslaved." That statement doesn't even call for genocide. I don't think this statement OUGHT to by itself lead to expulsion. I tend to be more on your side of the street on expression. But it's simply MADDENING that this statement would unequivocally lead to expulsion while a statement of Jew hatred would need to explore the context.

That said the real issue is not calls for genocide. The real issue is one that seemed to slip past the committee (or maybe not I didn't watch the whole thing) which is that these colleges have not just had a student write a tweet or email calling for genocide. They have harassed, intimidated, assaulted and generally menaced Jewish and pro Israel students for years now culminating in the horror shows we've seen since October 7. All are if not criminal acts, then at the least clear violation of student codes of conduct and NOTHING has been done to either the guilty students (and faculty) or even to keep civil order so that Jews on campus don't feel in peril. This in an environment where a sniff in the direction of criticism of a favored class would result in immediate expulsion. The "genocide question" got all the press because it makes an especially horrible television moment but it is a small bit of a straw horse to the real issue.

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Lee Otis's avatar

Paul, take a look at Eugene Volokh's contrary argument here:

https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/09/more-on-advocacy-of-genocide/

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