My latest in PJ Media:
This is the state of American academia today: Gordon Klein has taught courses in business law, tax law, and financial analysis at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management for no fewer than forty years. He is a respected academic who has been on CNBC and quoted in the Wall Street Journal for his economic expertise. But now, after being suspended, he has filed suit in California Superior Court against the university regents over his suspension. Klein has a good case: He was suspended from teaching at UCLA for the crime of refusing to discriminate and treat his black students differently from how he treated others.
“I was suspended from my job,” Klein explained, “for refusing to treat my black students as lesser than their non-black peers.” His ordeal began on June 2, 2020, when “a non-black student in my class on tax principles and law emailed me to ask that I grade his black classmates with greater ‘leniency’ than others in the class.”
In a sane society, a “non-black student” who demanded that black students be graded with greater “leniency” than others would be castigated as a racist. But in the Left’s funhouse mirror ethics, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, and treating students differently based on race is racial justice.
The student wrote to Klein: “We are writing to express our tremendous concern about the impact that this final exam and project will have on the mental and physical health of our Black classmates.” Klein believes that the student was using an online racial justice form letter: “There was no project in this class, and it was unclear to me who the ‘we’ in this case was. I suspected the student simply used a form letter he found online and neglected to change the subject.”
The letter went on to claim that black students were too traumatized by racism to do well on the final exam: “The unjust murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the life-threatening actions of Amy Cooper and the violent conduct of the [University of California Police Department] have led to fear and anxiety which is further compounded by the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on the Black community. As we approach finals week, we recognize that these conditions place Black students at an unfair academic disadvantage due to traumatic circumstances out of their control.” It concluded: “This is not a joint effort to get finals canceled for non-Black students, but rather an ask that you exercise compassion and leniency with Black students in our major.”
Klein notes that “in a subsequent conversation with a university investigator,” the student who wrote the letter made it clear that he “intended that the requested adjustments apply to Black students and not the class generally.” To strengthen the case, the student invoked the Anderson School of Management’s “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” agenda, which stresses that a “commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion as fundamental to achieving Anderson’s mission.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
nicholas tesdorf says
Have we reached Peak Insanity yet? At least, no Muslims were involved here!
bill says
Nicholas:
I suggest that as athletes of colour are usually better at track events than white athletes, in future competitions the whites should be given a five meter (15 feet) head start, in order to make it fair.
somehistory says
Some of the most vocal about this kind of stuff are Black people…ones who respect themselves and others and demand that people be treated as equals, and not given special privileges or “consideration’ based on their skin shade.
These “non-black” people are just stirring up trouble. Imagine a few years down the road…a Black man raising his kids, finds out that their teacher has found out that he was given “special treatment”….because it was floated on thin air that he couldn’t make the grade without the extra help and lowering of standards.
Nothing remains the same. Just look at clothing…in a long years past, a few years ago and what will be coming next as an example. Society is constantly changing…sometimes, many times, in a bad way.
This professor is right to sue. Who knows how that will go, as some of the “judges” today are just as foolish and stupid as the “non-Black” stirring up this trouble.
Giacomo Latta says
If a potential employer is not so desperate for employees that he can take the time to look at educational history of a prospect then those black students who did not need an ”adjustment” at UCLA are going to suffer in search for employment. Tax law and financial analysis are not airy-fairy careers with employment prospects at liberal universities.
gravenimage says
Madness: UCLA Suspends Professor for Refusing to Assign Grades Based on Skin Color
…………….
Utter madness–this is the very definition of racism.
Glad to see that Professor Klein is fighting back against this insanity.
Looks as though he has been reinstated–but his being suspended at all was grotesque.
https://www.thefire.org/ucla-reinstated-gordon-klein-who-will-reinstate-his-reputation/
maria says
It is more than madness it is a black terrorism and racism.
I think everybody should boycott UCLA until they re instate Professor Klein
gravenimage says
It was a non-black student who made these damands, and the university who backed him up against their own esteemed professor. That is indeed madness.
Professor Klein has already been reinstated, which is good.
He is now suing the university over this grotesque treatment.
Keith O says
This professor made the right call.
If he had changed the grades of black students two things could have happened.
1st. He could have been done for racial discrimination because he didn’t give the other “students of colour” a free ride and
2nd. he could have ended up as some political correctness Nazi’s bitch and then have to bow down to whatever crazy schemes they come up with.
Anne Smith says
I thought Martin Luther King said he had a dream where his children would be judged on their character and not on the colour of their skin.
It seems his fight for equality has now been traduced.
gravenimage says
Greimly often true. There are Leftists who actually sneer at King for this.
notnolib says
Nice!!! Another school our HR department can immediately dismiss from our hiring process!!
James Lincoln says
Gordon Klein was 100% correct and was using factual, evidence-based logic.
But, particularly in California, the world is completely upside down.
The content of the test in question was not specifically mentioned but likely contain some elements of
business law, tax law, and financial analysis.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that a future recipient of professional financial services was being served by a person who passes their exams legitimately?
And what about a CPA exam, medical board exam, commercial pilots exam, etc.?
Wouldn’t you want to be served by the very best people regardless of skin tone, etc.?
OLD GUY says
So what is the worth of a degree from UCLA?
It appears that all you have to do is pay tuition and you get an instant degree.
Of course a lot of what our collages and universities are teaching our young men and women in these institutions of higher education won’t help them make a living or become useful citizen of their community.
Our country needs people who know how to work hard and smart and together for the common good.
Unfortunately most of our schools now teach individualism and self first ideologies and that the Government owes you everything.
Oh I left out if you make bad decisions it’s not your fault. Society has failed you and you shouldn’t be responsible for your actions. RIGHT!
Michael Casmer says
What if one of these Black students is hired by a company and can’t do the work? Will he be fired? Would he scream and yell discrimination?
Lenny Leaps In says
I do not care whether my brain surgeon is black or white. I just don’t want a surgeon who got the job because he/she received higher grades only because of his/her color.