by John Stevenson
St. John’s College (not the Johnny-come-lately St. John’s
University) is the third oldest college in the United States. Four of its founders actually signed the
Declaration of Independence.
Distinguished alumni include Francis Scott Key. Presidents George Washington and Dwight
Eisenhower visited the Annapolis, Maryland campus. A second campus, in Santa Fe, New Mexico was
opened in 1964---with 81 students in its first freshman class.
Imagine St. John’s venerable ivied halls and the idyllic campuses. You might picture a serene and harmonious
academic community. Sadly, not so. Apparently the ugly faces of racism and
misogyny plague the Santa Fe campus.
Apart from its official courses, St. John’s (Santa Fe) has
extracurricular “study groups.” Typically,
the study groups each meet for several sessions. Students and faculty are
invited to participate in these informal studies of important topics. Recent groups have explored “Islamic Texts”
and the economist Francis Fukuyama.
The study groups are announced via email to the campus
community. A campus-wide March 2 email
announced a study group to tackle the issue of racism. Here’s what it said:
“We will read about and discuss the privilege of white
people (especially white males), patriarchy, sexism, and racism in the
neoliberal capitalist empire of the United States.” And how might participants benefit from this
study? “This is a group where those who
most often exhibit racist and sexist behavior---white males---can begin to be
self-critical of the very dangerous, brutal, and depraved hierarchical pathologies
of superiority, supremacy, and inferiority handed down to us by white
Euro-American institutions ….The main topic for discussion will be an ongoing
one: How do we deal with the depravity of whiteness and the brutality of
masculinity? How can we get to the root
of the problem.”
So there you have it.
The evil of our American evil empire and the evil of whiteness. Especially evil male whiteness. And the invitation to white males to come on
down and take a verbal and psychological whipping. To be administered by their betters: the
practitioners of love, peace, and tolerance.
The watchdog group campusreform.org obtained a copy of
the email announcing this apparently open-minded and inclusive study
group. They sought to get more
information by contacting St. John’s. In
response, the college’s only interest in dialogue was “…how did you obtain a
copy of an email sent in-house?”
Do you think the white males of St. John’s showed up in
droves, anxious to “get to the root of the problem,” their own depravity and
brutality? And what about their parents,
footing the bill for a private school education? Well, except for the efforts of
campusreform.org, the parents would probably remain blissfully unaware of the
self-loathing being taught to their progeny at their expense.
And what about the four St. Johns’ signers of the
Declaration of Independence? What about
Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem? What about George Washington, who did more
than any other to establish our Nation?
And what about Ike, who led us in defeating the Nazis? What might they think of what is going on at
this once esteemed institution that, in its unenlightened past, did not teach
self-loathing to white males and hatred of them to the rest of the campus
community.
