Vox’s fundamental problem isn’t that many of its writers are astonishingly ignorant. It’s that they are aggressively dishonest.
Consider, for example, how the website that promises to “explain the news” dealt this week with the ongoing story of Fresno State professor Randa Jarrar, who became Internet-famous after she cheered the death of Barbara Bush.
Vox published an article Tuesday with the headline, “Conservatives keep sparking ‘free speech’ battles. When a Muslim professor tweeted about racism, guess what happened?” The subhead adds, “Randa Jarrar’s case is a reminder that when a woman of color speaks out on her views about race, she faces unique dangers.”
The way Vox senior reporter Anna North tells it, Jarrar is a victim of anti-minority bigotries, a case study about what happens when progressive women of color try to engage in important conversations about race.
“Jarrar’s case is a reminder that when a woman of color speaks out on her views about race, she faces unique dangers that aren’t shared by white pundits who take controversial positions,” North writes. “And her speech isn’t always seen as courageous — even though women of color who call out prejudice, especially online, are virtually guaranteed to receive racist and sexist abuse.”
She concludes with these lines: “Jarrar’s experience is a reminder that progressives, not just conservatives, routinely face [grave] consequences, and that they’re often magnified for people from marginalized groups. And for women and especially women of color, speaking out online requires true courage every single day.”
North’s takeaway is as absurd as her generous characterization of the professor’s behavior.
First, Jarrar’s supposed contribution to a larger dialogue about race in America amounts to little more than Internet trolling. This entire ordeal begins when she tweeted, “Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. Fuck outta here with your nice words.”
She added later, “PSA: either you are against these pieces of shit and their genocidal ways or you’re part of the problem. that’s actually how simple this is. I’m happy the witch is dead. can’t wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. byyyeeeeeeee.”
Jarrar continued, “All the hate I’m getting ALMOST made me forget how happy I am that George W Bush is probably really sad right now.”
This is not an exploration of racism in modern America, contra Vox’s version of events. This is trolling for attention.
Second, the Vox article makes a big deal out of the fact that Jarrar might lose her job. That this is reportedly being discussed by school administrators is proof of the gross double-standard facing outspoken minorities, especially considering some of her colleagues have reportedly gotten away with worse behavior, North writes.
What the Vox story doesn’t mention is that Jarrar also tweeted, “I work as a tenured professor. I make 100K a year doing that. I will never be fired. I will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say.”
With this very stupid tweet, the Fresno professor explicitly made this episode her employer’s problem. She is hiding behind them for protection, which puts heat directly on them. They have no choice now but to choose between cutting Jarrar loose or going to the mats for an obscure employee, not necessarily best known for publicly cheering Barbara Bush’s death.
Third, many right-leaning commentators, including the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, the Washington Post’s Megan McArdle, National Review’s David French and my Washington Examiner colleague Siraj Hashmi, have defended Jarrar’s right to be an idiot in public. That’s precisely the opposite of how the Vox article characterizes how things have played out.
North eventually acknowledges that conservative-ish pundits have defended the professor’s right to free speech, but she also claims they’ve done so with “infantilizing language.” She also doesn’t mention any of this until roughly 24 paragraphs into the story.
Lastly, let’s not lose sight of the fact that a lot of the anger directed at Jarrar is not because of her stupid opinions, but because she did something much worse after her initial graceless tweets.
She punked Arizona State University’s crisis hotline.
When social media users started to swarm her Barbara Bush tweets, she directed Twitter users to a phone number she claimed went to her personal line. It was a lie. She directed them to ASU’s suicide hotline, overwhelming its operators. None of this is mentioned in North’s article published Tuesday. (She has, however, mentioned the hotline incident in a separate write-up).
This Vox article, and North’s eventual takeaway, are all rather remarkable considering this story is about nothing deeper than a troll fighting trolls and a supposed scholar behaving in a manner that reflects badly on the entire human race, let alone on her institution of learning.
Free speech martyr indeed.
