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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with him almost entirely. Too bad we're more concerned about political correctness and not offending anyone.[/quote]its not about political correctness. It's about facts. And his opinions fly in the face of factual information. [/quote]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.[/quote]
Which comment exactly?[/quote]

Jerry Hough wrote:
[quote]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.[/quote]

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.  [/quote]

+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.[/quote]

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