Duke professor's racist comments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with him almost entirely. Too bad we're more concerned about political correctness and not offending anyone.

its not about political correctness. It's about facts. And his opinions fly in the face of factual information.

His comments about African-American support for Malcolm X vis-a-vis Martin Luther King just sound ignorant. Seriously? This guy is a university scholar and this lazy thinking is what he produces? That's embarrassing for Duke even beyond the racist comments.

Which comment exactly?

Jerry Hough wrote:

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state (sic). King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.

Okay, how many ways is this inappropriate? First of all, the reference to King helping "them" overcome as if MLK were the only person involved in the civil rights movement and there weren't lots and lots of other people playing their part -- as if black people were just these passive victims who did nothing till MLK came along (okay that's an overstatement but there is an element there like that). Then the reference to the blacks following Malcolm X. Yeah, right, all those black people who turned their backs on MLK and followed Malcolm X -- who at the time of his death had something of a following but even less than he had within the Nation of Islam and it was nothing like the mainstream civil rights movement. I deeply admire Malcolm X but the truth is he was a great speaker but not much of movement organizer. (FWIW I am a sociologist who has studied social movements and taught the civil rights movement.)

The fact that Hough got his PhD in 1961, over fifty years ago, makes me wonder if there isn't some age-related mental problem going on here. Because, forget racism, this guy is just really embarrassing for Duke on an intellectual level. OTOH, back when this guy got tenure -- probably in the 60s, it was really easy to get tenure because there was a high demand for professors to serve the burgeoning baby boom. This wouldn't be the first time a university had mediocre profs from an earlier era hanging on as long as they could.

Okay, I should be compassionate -- I should pity this guy. He's obviously in over his head. But, boy, this is embarrassing for his department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with him almost entirely. Too bad we're more concerned about political correctness and not offending anyone.

its not about political correctness. It's about facts. And his opinions fly in the face of factual information.

Which fact are you referring to?

"Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration.

Not true.



"The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage"

Not true.


"Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white."

Not true.

Blacks have always approved more than white of interracial marriage.

White-Asian marriages make up 14% of all marriages. Black - white marriages make up 8% of all marriages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

He is a professor of Soviet politics, and you'll be happy to know that before 1991, he was very open-minded about whether or not the USSR was an evil dictatorship. He argued that it was a participatory meritocracy little different from a parliamentary democracy. He showed great empathy for Soviet leaders Brezhnev and Andropov in their struggles with the primitive Reagan regime, and warned against supporting Gorbachev.

Different poster here. Actually that's good to know. (It will help me work on being compassionate towards the old... er, towards him.) Too bad he hasn't applied that open-mindedness to domestic politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That professor sounds like an idiot. The university needs to fire him.

For what exactly?

Only a fellow racist would ask that question.

You may call people whatever you want, just for calling you out on your nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(article link below) Your thoughts? While I believe in freedom of speech, it saddens me to see yet another professor fail to understand the complexity of the issue. I have never heard of an Asian American being subjected to police brutality and yes there are Asian gang members and Asian criminals too. I have never heard of an educated Asian man being pulled over by police when the only possible reason is he is driving a new Mercedes. As far as I know, Asian Americans were not told to sit at the back of the bus, and drink from separate water fountains and they did not have to worry about being tarred and feathered for dating a person who is white. There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duke-professor-criticized-for-online-comments-about-african-americans/ar-BBjQOfY?ocid=iehp

You have a SHOCKINGLY weak grasp of American history if you've never heard of discrimination against "Chinamen."

+1. I don't particularly agree with his comments, but let's not pretend that Asians have never experienced devastating racism.

Exactly.

While there is no denying the Chinese Exclusion Act's racism, the more recent Asian American experience is hardly one of prevalent racism.

Asians are one of the most successful segments of American society. While Asian people are a minority among the population, they are generally excluded from affirmative action programs (how racist is that!!?!).

While there are exceptions of course, recent Asain immigrants are highly successful in America, and their first generation children tend to be phenomenally successful.

Please don't start playing the victim card as Asians; it is tiresome enough when constantly played by all the other minorities, as well as this administration.

Are YOU Asian? Or do you just like promoting the model minority stereotype?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(article link below) Your thoughts? While I believe in freedom of speech, it saddens me to see yet another professor fail to understand the complexity of the issue. I have never heard of an Asian American being subjected to police brutality and yes there are Asian gang members and Asian criminals too. I have never heard of an educated Asian man being pulled over by police when the only possible reason is he is driving a new Mercedes. As far as I know, Asian Americans were not told to sit at the back of the bus, and drink from separate water fountains and they did not have to worry about being tarred and feathered for dating a person who is white. There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duke-professor-criticized-for-online-comments-about-african-americans/ar-BBjQOfY?ocid=iehp

You have a SHOCKINGLY weak grasp of American history if you've never heard of discrimination against "Chinamen."

+1. I don't particularly agree with his comments, but let's not pretend that Asians have never experienced devastating racism.

Exactly.

While there is no denying the Chinese Exclusion Act's racism, the more recent Asian American experience is hardly one of prevalent racism.

Asians are one of the most successful segments of American society. While Asian people are a minority among the population, they are generally excluded from affirmative action programs (how racist is that!!?!).

While there are exceptions of course, recent Asain immigrants are highly successful in America, and their first generation children tend to be phenomenally successful.

Please don't start playing the victim card as Asians; it is tiresome enough when constantly played by all the other minorities, as well as this administration.

Are YOU Asian? Or do you just like promoting the model minority stereotype?

Are you the OP?

[Anonymous]

“Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration,” his online comment said. “Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.”

The comment concluded: “It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state (sic). King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.”

Seriously? Not only is that racist, it's moronic. "Every Asian student as a simple old American first name"? "Virtually every black has a strange new name"?

Holy crap. What an idiot.

I don't even know what to say about the idea that "the blacks" followed Malcolm X and not MLK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with him almost entirely. Too bad we're more concerned about political correctness and not offending anyone.

its not about political correctness. It's about facts. And his opinions fly in the face of factual information.

His comments about African-American support for Malcolm X vis-a-vis Martin Luther King just sound ignorant. Seriously? This guy is a university scholar and this lazy thinking is what he produces? That's embarrassing for Duke even beyond the racist comments.

Which comment exactly?

Jerry Hough wrote:

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state (sic). King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.

Okay, how many ways is this inappropriate? First of all, the reference to King helping "them" overcome as if MLK were the only person involved in the civil rights movement and there weren't lots and lots of other people playing their part -- as if black people were just these passive victims who did nothing till MLK came along (okay that's an overstatement but there is an element there like that). Then the reference to the blacks following Malcolm X. Yeah, right, all those black people who turned their backs on MLK and followed Malcolm X -- who at the time of his death had something of a following but even less than he had within the Nation of Islam and it was nothing like the mainstream civil rights movement. I deeply admire Malcolm X but the truth is he was a great speaker but not much of movement organizer. (FWIW I am a sociologist who has studied social movements and taught the civil rights movement.)

The fact that Hough got his PhD in 1961, over fifty years ago, makes me wonder if there isn't some age-related mental problem going on here. Because, forget racism, this guy is just really embarrassing for Duke on an intellectual level. OTOH, back when this guy got tenure -- probably in the 60s, it was really easy to get tenure because there was a high demand for professors to serve the burgeoning baby boom. This wouldn't be the first time a university had mediocre profs from an earlier era hanging on as long as they could.

Okay, I should be compassionate -- I should pity this guy. He's obviously in over his head. But, boy, this is embarrassing for his department.

+1. I'm black (and a Ph.D. in another social science, not poli sci) and when I read this I immediately thought that the only way I'd excuse this is if he's up there in years. I just looked up his Duke profile--yes, Ph.D. in 1961, bachelor's in 1955. So, I'm not all that angry at him, although I still think it's a shame that he'd opine about these issues when it's clear that race relations in U.S. history are not his area of expertise--and then he invokes the fact that he is a Duke professor to try to give his comments more authority. Not sure if there's any cognitive problems amiss; it may just be that he is a relic from an earlier time--at least in terms of his thinking about race, identity, and related issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

While there is no denying the Chinese Exclusion Act's racism, the more recent Asian American experience is hardly one of prevalent racism.

Asians are one of the most successful segments of American society. While Asian people are a minority among the population, they are generally excluded from affirmative action programs (how racist is that!!?!).

While there are exceptions of course, recent Asain immigrants are highly successful in America, and their first generation children tend to be phenomenally successful.

Please don't start playing the victim card as Asians; it is tiresome enough when constantly played by all the other minorities, as well as this administration.

If you actually knew a something more about Asian Americans than model-minority sterotypes, you would know that you can't generalize all Asian American groups. Asian Americans have the widest intra-racial achievement gaps of any race. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian Americans are some of the poorest of the poor in the United States. They have some of the highest high school drop out rates in the country, and among the worst health outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(article link below) Your thoughts? While I believe in freedom of speech, it saddens me to see yet another professor fail to understand the complexity of the issue. I have never heard of an Asian American being subjected to police brutality and yes there are Asian gang members and Asian criminals too. I have never heard of an educated Asian man being pulled over by police when the only possible reason is he is driving a new Mercedes. As far as I know, Asian Americans were not told to sit at the back of the bus, and drink from separate water fountains and they did not have to worry about being tarred and feathered for dating a person who is white. There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duke-professor-criticized-for-online-comments-about-african-americans/ar-BBjQOfY?ocid=iehp

You have a SHOCKINGLY weak grasp of American history if you've never heard of discrimination against "Chinamen."

+1. I don't particularly agree with his comments, but let's not pretend that Asians have never experienced devastating racism.

Exactly.

While there is no denying the Chinese Exclusion Act's racism, the more recent Asian American experience is hardly one of prevalent racism.

Asians are one of the most successful segments of American society. While Asian people are a minority among the population, they are generally excluded from affirmative action programs (how racist is that!!?!).

While there are exceptions of course, recent Asain immigrants are highly successful in America, and their first generation children tend to be phenomenally successful.

Please don't start playing the victim card as Asians; it is tiresome enough when constantly played by all the other minorities, as well as this administration.

Are YOU Asian? Or do you just like promoting the model minority stereotype?

Are you the OP?

OP sure likes to stir the pot. Nothing like getting your week off to a good start, huh?

[Anonymous]

It's kinda funny that he thinks he IS an expert in American politics even though a more politically clueless statement is hard to imagine. From his website at Duke:

Specialties

American Politics

Research Summary

American Political Development and Implications for Nation-Building
Research Description

James B. Duke Professor of Political Science, formerly specialized in the government and politics of the former Soviet Union. He is the author of How the Soviet Union is Governed; Soviet Leadership in Transition; The Struggle for the Third World; Soviet Debate and American Options; Democratization and Revolution in the USSR 1985-1991; and The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia.

His current research centers on the establishment of the state, identity, markets, and democracy in the United States. His first book on the subject is Changing Party Coalitions: The Strange Red-Blue State Alignment (2006). His next book is George Washington and the formation of the American Political System, 1774-1799. The book focuses on the political philosophy of the Founding Fathers and the way that they solved the religions conflicts and the collective action problems of the revolution and the Constitutional Convention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(article link below) Your thoughts? While I believe in freedom of speech, it saddens me to see yet another professor fail to understand the complexity of the issue. I have never heard of an Asian American being subjected to police brutality and yes there are Asian gang members and Asian criminals too. I have never heard of an educated Asian man being pulled over by police when the only possible reason is he is driving a new Mercedes. As far as I know, Asian Americans were not told to sit at the back of the bus, and drink from separate water fountains and they did not have to worry about being tarred and feathered for dating a person who is white. There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duke-professor-criticized-for-online-comments-about-african-americans/ar-BBjQOfY?ocid=iehp

Well I'm sure you've heard of Asian Americans being yanked off planes because of their turbans or otherwise being discriminated against because they looked Arab right?

[Anonymous]

Funny how much attention he's getting here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(article link below) Your thoughts? While I believe in freedom of speech, it saddens me to see yet another professor fail to understand the complexity of the issue. I have never heard of an Asian American being subjected to police brutality and yes there are Asian gang members and Asian criminals too. I have never heard of an educated Asian man being pulled over by police when the only possible reason is he is driving a new Mercedes. As far as I know, Asian Americans were not told to sit at the back of the bus, and drink from separate water fountains and they did not have to worry about being tarred and feathered for dating a person who is white. There is so much more to consider than this, but how is it someone makes it to becoming a professor without having an open minded, an ability to see all aspects of an issue and empathy?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duke-professor-criticized-for-online-comments-about-african-americans/ar-BBjQOfY?ocid=iehp

Well I'm sure you've heard of Asian Americans being yanked off planes because of their turbans or otherwise being discriminated against because they looked Arab right?

Most of America does not understand that Indians are a sub-set of the group "Asians."

[Anonymous]

Yet another argument why they should reinstate mandatory retirement for tenured professors. This guy is just old and embarrassing.