The folks at Tapped, having recently dropped their anonymity, appear in a rush to associate buffoonery with their actual names. Their most recent scandal involves charges of racism against Hillsdale College, penned by Richard Just:
THE GOOD OLD DAYS. One page of National Review’s new special supplement on higher education is, I think, worthy of special recognition. The supplement is filled with ads for various schools — mostly obscure religious institutions such as Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., and Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. But on page 18, there is an ad for Hillsdale Academy, a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school located in Michigan. The top of the ad reads, “Want to Bring Back ‘The Good Old Days’?” and beneath it is a photo of six white kids.
You can look at the ad and decide for yourself exactly what kind of good old days the folks at Hillsdale Academy are seeking to bring back. I didn’t think the message was too thinly veiled.
Outraged by the slander against Hillsdale and National review, Jonah Goldberg unloaded in the Corner:
I did look at the ad myself and I drew one inescapable conclusion: I think Richard Just is a bigot. Time and again the bloggers at The American Prospect have simply asserted that conservatives are motivated by cartoonishly villainous motives. Remember their nonsense about how liberals oppose a military draft for high-minded reasons, but conservatives oppose the idea because it would make America a better and more just society? But this is just appalling. So unless he ate some bad clams, he has no excuse. And he should certainly apologize…
Whatever the reason, Mr. Just sees no need to inquire because he already knows
Matthew
Eh, this is just Tapped getting their panties in a bunch as a way to regain street cred after Atrios attacked them for having an “all-white” roster.
Harry
Sorry, getting past race in this country ain’t gonna happen John Cole, because for the American left race is power.
Kimmitt
Sorry, getting past race in this country ain’t gonna happen, because for the American Right, denying the existence of racism while benefitting from it is power.
Matthew
Yes Kimmit, just as Democrats benefit from black anti-Semitism [rolls eyes]. Racism exists, but the whole TAPPED fracas is based on appearances, not reality. Hillsdale is not Bob Jones University, and TAPPED’s attempt to turn Hillsdale into the next BJU is a rotten smear.
Mason
Here’s something that stood out to me:
“Or that, as National Review itself wrote in 1999, the college’s refusal to take federal funds means that students cannot accept GI benefits.”
Since when did not feeding at the public trough (especially with all the strings attached) become a bad thing?!?!?
David Perron
I actually know the (recently) former chairman of the board of trustees of Hillsdale; the man doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. “Know”, in this case, means I used to hang out with his daughter a lot in high school and during college break, but haven’t seen the guy in a decade or so.
tom scott
There are several schools that are denied federal benefits. Grove City is one of the others. I believe federal funds are denied but what do they mean by GI benefits? As far as I know the GI bill for education allows student enrollment. I think it does affect Pell grants and federal student loans though.
The GI bill for education has been the most successful voucher program in the world. Ex-GI’s could attend any school they wanted to such as Notre Dame, Georgetown, Southern Methodist, Baylor, etc.
I am not real certain of the restrictions nor am I real certain as to what Richard Just meant by denial of GI benefits.
Calvin
The problem with attempts to gain ‘street cred’ by displaying sensitivity to bias against a given group is that most well-intentioned souls fail to understand that it is about power and identity politics, not actually rooting out evil.
If you aren’t easily identified with or cede all middle ground to the ‘victims’, you are considered suspect in your motivations.
Tapped should have already learned this via Atrios, but seem to have missed the entire point as shown by Nick Confessore’s comments where he carefully explains that despite the racially motivated hack job by Atrios, they weren’t really indignant. Well, of course not – why would a liberal be indignant about being accused of racism? Everyone knows that indignation about such a claim simply proves the accusation. It is best to hang your head and talk about all the brown people you know and work with.
Nick then finishes with a bold statement that the photo and caption were: ‘questionable’. And we all know what that means, right? [wink, wink, nudge, nudge]
Well, Nick, you asked the F-ing question and the 7 points on the ad answered the F-ing question. Now STFU.
Calvin
Too rich,
Melanie Alston-Akers jumps in and backs up the statement “If Goldberg’s going to fling absolutes around, he should get them right.” with “Goldberg probably did not because many white people, of all political persuasions, are blind to the racial implications of things around them” followed by “The ad shows white, I saw white, and I assumed white. Not because I’m a liberal, but because I’m not white”.
Identity politics at its best and a fine piece of self parody.