Sanity has prevailed at George Washington University.
The college confirmed this week that it has pulled from its anti-racism resource guide a book that claims conservatism is synonymous with racism.
The school’s Office for Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement’s “Solidarity Resource Syllabus,” whose entire purpose is to help students navigate racism, discrimination, and so-called allyship, originally listed 126 suggested readings, including a book called Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same. As the book’s title suggests, the author believes all conservatives, even people of color, are racist by definition.
After campus conservatives and the Washington Free Beacon flagged the book’s inclusion in the school’s anti-racism guide, university administrators reversed course, pulling the offending literature and offering students an apology.
“The Office for Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement apologizes for the harm that members of the GW community experienced as a result of us listing a book about an author’s opinion on conservative people as a resource,” reads a statement made available on the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement’s website. “We removed the book and continue to engage with community members impacted. Our team remains open to receiving feedback from the GW community as we continue working toward a more diverse and inclusive GW community.”
The book’s author, San Francisco State University professor Robert Smith, likely disagrees that his book is a poor match for the college’s anti-racism syllabus. He told the Washington Free Beacon that his 2010 work, “a historical, philosophical, and empirical study,” is more important now more than ever.
“I think the book,” he said prior to his book being shelved by university administrators, “is useful to conservatives as well as liberals, and in light of Trump’s blend of traditional and paleoconservatism is even more relevant today.”
In his book, Smith argues that even if a person of color is a conservative, then that person is also a racist.
“Conservatism as a philosophy and ideology … is and always has been hostile to the aspirations of Africans in America, incompatible with the struggle for freedom and equality,” he writes.
Smith adds, “Repeatedly I was asked, ‘Are you saying that conservatism is racism, that all conservatives are racist?’ Aren’t there black conservatives? Are they racist?’ … My answer to most of these questions was a qualified yes.”
The removal of the professor’s book is a good first step, but GWU, which is still promoting programs with titles such as “Non-black people of color conversation: Role in anti-blackness” should probably remove a few more titles just to avoid falling into that trap of promoting explicitly racist nonsense in the service of pandering to racialist sensibilities. There is still time to avoid inadvertently becoming the next National Museum of African American History and Culture.
