Titanic Post

I don’t know much about Ward Churchill, but I have read his book Cointel Pro, which was about the FBI response to the Black Panthers in the 1960s and the death of BP leader, Fred Hampton. I do know that he is critical of U.S. policies and been accused of “hating America” in the past. His recent remark that the victims of 9/11 were “little Eichmanns” has renewed the accusations that he hates America. That seems to be the summary of the criticisms aimed at Churchill, plus the fact that someone is trying hard to get him fired from his tenured position at the University of Colorado.

No one has really asked the salient questions: “What does he mean by this statement?” Or, “what is he trying to tell us?” I’m not saying that I know the answers, only that news reporters should be asking these questions, instead of dismissing the whole incident as the words of an “American hater” and calling for his dismissal.

Freedom of academic expression depends on there being no reprisals when a professor says something offensive. The UNESCO recommendations on academic freedom – which endows members of the university with the right to hold, express and teach any views they deem fit, and to research and publish their findings without restraint – is widely recognized as essential to the pursuit of knowledge.

Another UNESCO report from 1998 observed that academic freedom is ‘not simply a fundamental value’, but also ‘a means by which higher education fulfilled its mission’. Even those politicians, bureaucrats and administrators who are, by temperament, hostile to academic freedom should feel compelled to defend it.

Part of successful debating requires that we learn how not to get angry when someone says something insulting or offensive. If we are to keep our freedom of speech, we should learn to inquire before we retaliate, we might just learn something useful.