At Georgetown University Law Center, it’s OK to disparage people based on their race and gender if you are a leftist. But if you are a conservative, you can be forced out of your job for criticizing affirmative action.
A Georgetown University law professor recently claimed that “ALL white people are racist” and “ALL men are sexist.” “Yes, ALL white people are racist. Yes, ALL men are sexist. Yes, ALL cis people are transphobic,” Adjunct Professor Preston Mitchum stated in a recent tweet, saying “we have to unpack that. That’s the work.” “If you’re apart [sic] of any dominant group when it comes to race, gender, sexuality, etc., you contribute to the oppression of groups period.” he said.
In another tweet, he expressed his deep hatred for police officers. “I really, really, really, really, really, really hate cops,” he emphasized. “Hate them. The power. The unfettered abuse. The narcissism. Hate hate them.”
While Mitchum is free to vent his hatred, Georgetown has pressured conservatives who don’t harbor hate to leave their jobs. Georgetown suspended a conservative scholar for more than 100 days over his tweet criticizing affirmative action in the selection of Supreme Court justices. His suspension came to an end when Georgetown’s civil-rights office finally admitted that the conservative scholar’s “views on affirmative action are protected by the university’s free speech policy and that his tweet [critical of affirmative action] ‘was not directed at a particular individual.’” But, it continued, “if he were to make another, similar or more serious
remark as a Georgetown employee, a hostile environment based on race, gender, and sex likely would be created.” Essentially, it said if he ever criticized affirmative action like that again, he’d be fired. Faced with the specter of termination for exercising his free speech rights in such a commonplace fashion, he resigned and found a job at a think-tank.
By contrast, Campus Reform reports that:
Georgetown Law School recently hired Mitchum, causing him to boast on Twitter that he “doesn’t just annoy people online,” but now gets “to be an adjunct professor, annoying people in real life.”
Mitchum, expanding on his statements to Campus Reform, reiterated that “any person [who is] a part of any dominant group when it comes to race, ender, sexuality, etc. contributes to the oppression of other groups,” and noting that “it doesn’t matter if they choose to do so consciously/subconsciously, knowingly/unknowingly, or with bad/good intentions.”
“What makes something racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, etc. is when ‘power’ and the ability to effectuate said power is added,” he explained, saying “we must stop using this textbook definition of ‘racism’ because it doesn’t take into account real world experiences of those who are on the receiving end of racism: people of color.”
Mitchum went on to note that he was “a little troubled, but not surprised, about the conservative outrage” provoked by his initial tweet, since most commenters took issue with his remarks about white racism.
