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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Depravity and Brutality

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.