Roy Exum
I am a huge believer and strong advocate of “Black Lives Matter.” I feel just as strongly that Native American Lives Matter, that Asian American Lives Matter, that Episcopalian Lives Matter and any other ethnic, religious or atheist Lives Matter. As a matter of fact, I am for every American who walks on earth as long as all of us obey the rules and play between the lines.
Sadly, there are a few from every persuasion that do not and, when that happens, I believe each must be held accountable for his or her actions. What happened at the very liberal Dartmouth College last Thursday night got scant attention in the media but at an Ivy League school where we are urged to believe our next generation of world leaders is spawned, the despicable actions of a raucous crowd should be held high for the whole world to see.
Approximately 150 students attended a “Black Lives Matter”” rally in front of Dartmouth Hall. It included a parade, a couple of radical speakers and some outside riff-raff. But at a place where in April of 2014 the students took over the president’s office, demanding among other things unisex dorms and restrooms, as well as banning the words, “illegal immigrant,” the protesters weren’t quite getting the attention they desired.
So let’s go to “The Dartmouth Review” for an insider’s view of what happened next:
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“Black-clad protesters gathered in front of Dartmouth Hall, forming a crowd roughly one hundred fifty strong. Ostensibly there to denounce the removal of (NAACP) shirts from a display in Collis, the Black Lives Matter collective began to sing songs and chant their eponymous catchphrase. Not content to merely demonstrate there for the night, the band descended from their high-water mark to march into Baker-Berry Library.
“F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” “F*** you and your comfort!” “F*** you, you racist s***!”
“These shouted epithets were the first indication that many students had of the coming storm. The sign-wielding, obscenity-shouting protesters proceeded through the usually quiet backwaters of the library. They surged first through first-floor Berry, then up the stairs to the normally undisturbed floors of the building, before coming back down to the ground floor of Novak.
“Throngs of protesters converged around fellow students who had not joined in their long march. They confronted students who bore “symbols of oppression”: “gangster hats” and Beats-brand headphones. The flood of demonstrators self-consciously overstepped every boundary, opening the doors of study spaces with students reviewing for exams. Those who tried to close their doors were harassed further. One student abandoned the study room and ran out of the library. The protesters followed her out of the library, shouting obscenities the whole way.
Students who refused to listen to or join their outbursts were shouted down. “Stand the f*** up!” “You filthy racist white piece of s***!” Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. “If we can’t have it, shut it down!” they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting “filthy white b****!” in her face.
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In a following editorial, The Dartmouth Review opined, “The tactics, tone, and words of the Black Lives Matter protesters eerily mirrored everything they claim to stand against,” wrote the columnist. “The long list of their clear oversteps should spark a moment of reckoning for every honest onlooker, and especially those who have sympathized with their movement to this point.”
That’s what I am kind of thinking. But one protester posted this on Facebook the next day. “We raised hell, caused discomfort, and we made our voices heard all throughout campus in the name of standing up for or brothers and sisters across the country who are staring terrorism and assault directly in the face.”
This Monday night the university’s Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Inge-Lise Ameer, was at a meeting following the protest, and – read this carefully -- she apologized to protesters for the negative responses and media coverage that they have received, according to The Dartmouth newspaper.
You gotta’ be kidding me. Ameer reportedly said Monday that no complaints of violence were reported following the protest, although it was noted “a peaceful meeting” turned into a “political protest.” Ameer also told those who created havoc in the library, “There’s a whole conservative world out there that’s not being very nice.” Ms. Ameer said.
I, for one, don’t think shouting racial profanity to a guy studying for his midterm exam is “very nice” either. These Ivy League bums are nuts! What in heaven’s name can you accomplish screaming to fellow students obscenities such as “(Expletive] your white privilege” and “[Expletive] your white asses.”
Dan Korff-Korn, who took part in the vicious protest, explained it. “It was important to point out that the students sitting there in the library at the computers represented this greater degree of ignorance, apathy and privilege that you see at Dartmouth, but,” he did admit, “the way it was done by personally attacking people was counterproductive.”
One more time … “Several of the protesters pinned a girl to the wall and as she cried, they yelled in her face, ‘F*** your white tears!’” Arrests? You must be joking. There isn’t even an incident report.
But, don’t you see, the whole point was to make white kids cry and run and duck like all the black kids have to do? When you find a black person who is ever treated like this, call 9-1-1 immediately. But if a black protester does it to a white kid, shrug it off. That’s just an Ivy League education.
royexum@aol.com