The new dark age of silencing: The Miscellany News, the college newspaper at Vassar College, recently retracted an article not because it contained any errors of fact (which it did not) but because the article had simply interviewed too many white students in its reporting.

The article had been written to describe the controversy surrounding the school’s decision to have Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, speak at the school, and his decision to withdraw because of the uproar from students demanding he be blacklisted. From the newspaper’s retraction announcement:

We would like to use this statement to both emphasize our values of diversity and inclusion, and delve deeply into our editorial process and the resulting article in question, especially since we understand that many people in the Vassar community are unaware of the article’s removal. … In this article, we attempted to include a variety of quotes from students describing why there was protest to the announcement of him as speaker in the first place, and the students’ reaction to his withdrawal.

In prioritizing urgency over thoroughness, we made misguided and insensitive oversights with whom we were representing in the article and failed to provide in-depth reporting of the issue at large. The majority of our quotations came from white students and therefore we reduced the positions of students of color to a singular, tokenized perspective. After this was brought to our attention, the paper decided to remove the article online in an attempt to prevent further harm among the communities we misrepresented. [emphasis mine]

Notice the utter idiocy and outright bigotry of this action. First, the paper’s editors say it has values of inclusion, yet that value specifically demands that whites be treated as a lower form of life. Second, these editors claim that by merely interviewing a small number of blacks it has somehow “harmed” minorities at the school. Who has been harmed? How? The worst I can see is that some thin-skinned bigoted black activists on Twitter were offended that any whites were given the chance to voice their opinions. If these racists were harmed, then I say great! Harm them more!

Third, if you read the full statement from the newspaper, they expand upon their racist view of whites and American culture.

Journalism, including college journalism, has historically been a white-centric, often elitist field, and The Miscellany News is not immune to the consequences of these structures. The publication of the article and its subsequent removal reminds us of the systemic issues our members are implicated in, as well as the privilege and lack of diversity that we have allowed to persist for generations across our boards. None of our explanations for the failures of an individual article can mitigate the problem of past coverage on issues related to people of color, nor address in full depth the issue of representation within our board.

In other words, everyone ever involved in all of journalism, especially whites, were bigots, and thus must be wiped from history. Moreover, all future reporting must be shaped to express this view, and to favor minorities above all else. Get to the back of the bus, you evil whites!

Finally, note that at no time do the editors admit to any factual flaw in the article. In fact, it appears the article was entirely accurate, even if it did tout the blacklisting of Johnson in its writing. Thus, the editors retracted an article not because it was wrong but because it didn’t toady enough to leftist values. It wasn’t as good a propaganda tool as intended. It needed to be more blatantly biased, bigoted, and dishonest.

Woe for the future, as it appears it is the students at Vassar imposing these dishonest standards. They represent the future, and the future they want is one that is oppressive, unfair, racist, and evil.

Eating their own: Leftist protesters at Vassar College have forced Jeh Johnson, who was Secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, to back out of giving the college’s May 22nd commencement speech.

Johnson was replaced by an actor, illustrating once again the growing vapidness of modern academia. The accusations against Johnson also illustrate this bankruptcy by their empty slogans and shallow cliches:

The switch in commencement speaker has sparked heated online debate among students and alumni, with one camp opposed to what one student called Johnson’s “violence on marginalized peoples” and the other camp complaining of runaway “woke” politics.

The controversy deepened after a story that had quoted students referring to Johnson as guilty of “war crimes” — and which warned of “protest and disruption” should he speak — was deleted from Vassar’s student newspaper website, the Miscellany News. [emphasis mine]

The deleted article appears to be available here. This quote in particular from it demonstrates the empty-headed and intolerant thinking in today’s academia, aided by the intellectual dishonesty of an agenda-driven reporter:

Some students of color feel especially impacted by Johnson’s policies. In regards to Johnson’s history with Homeland Security, Oona Maloney ’22 was not at all surprised by the announcement: “It’s not surprising that Vassar, a predominantly white institution, would invite someone who played a key role in the Obama administration by exacting violence on marginalized peoples in the Middle East and at the border in the name of protecting US imperial interests,” she said. [emphasis mine]

The word “some” is a typical journalistic lie. The reporter quotes one person, and implies that the quote represents the opinions of many. Meanwhile, Oona Maloney’s words reek of leftist cliches and empty catchwords. Worse, she is entirely focused on race hatred, not tolerance and good will to all. To her, whites are evil, and any action that she disagrees with must be “racist.”

As a Democrat who worked for Obama, Johnson however is no saint in this matter. His withdrawal statement illustrates his eager kow-towing to these leftist brownshirts:

I believe commencements should be joyous, tension-free events for graduates and their families. In my public life I managed many difficult and contentious issues. In my private life I do not seek to be the object of controversy or speak at a commencement where students will object to me.

…Immigration is a difficult and painful issue. In my three years as Secretary of Homeland Security, I visited our southern border numerous times. During those visits, I often took the time to enter Border Patrol holding stations and speak directly through a translator to the children in our care, to ensure their welfare. As a father, I wanted to take them all home with me; as the Cabinet official responsible for securing our border, I knew I could not. At the same time, on my watch, the number of deportations from our country went down, the percentage of those deported who were convicted of serious offenses went up, and the number of young people enrolled in DACA went up. Whether immigration, border security or national security, leaders with a sense of humanity are often faced with less than perfect choices, sometimes nothing but ugly choices, but we always try to do the right thing.

During Obama’s administration border security was horrible, but there at least was an effort to follow the law. That effort has mostly now vanished during the Biden administration, which has apparently been captured by people like Oona Maloney who view anything the U.S. does to protect its sovereignty to be an example of the “US’s imperial interests” and “violence against marginalized peoples.”

The result: Even Obama officials are now subject to blacklisting.

Welcome to the New America, a land of propaganda, slogans, blacklisting, and the abuse of power against anyone who does not agree.