The left’s effort to demonize and criminalize all opposition to its sinister agenda is advancing rapidly, and so the news out of Kentucky’s Berea College on Friday, as outrageous as it was, came as no surprise. Fox News reported that Berea “is scheduled to host an event critical of Donald Trump and associating the former president and ‘white citizenship’ with terrorism.” But would Berea or other colleges and universities like it ever dream of holding an event about actual terrorists, specifically Islamic jihadis? Not on your life!
“A flyer obtained by Young America’s Foundation (YAF),” Fox continued, “describes the event as a way to ‘resituate Trumpism and white citizenship as forms of white terrorism enacted against the majority of people living within the borders of the U.S. and beyond.’”
The event is set for this coming Wednesday. In these days of stifling Covid orthodoxy, it will, of course, take place not in person, but over Zoom. The flyer announcing the event reads like a parody of today’s campus intellectual fads and shibboleths: “The Women’s and Gender Non-Conforming Center [I bet you wish you had one of those on your campus] presents GENDER TALK…White Citizenship as Terrorism: Make America Great Again, Again.” The event is “co-sponsored by Law, Ethics, and Society,” an organization that likely has little to with actual law, ethics, or anything that would strengthen a society.
The flyer, according to Fox, “features images of protesters carrying tiki torches at the racially charged Charlottesville, Virginia, protests at the beginning of Trump’s presidency.” It states:
Despite calls for multiculturalism and color-blindness, segments of white America mourn their so-called loss of privilege, consistently begging to return to the nostalgic past in which their esteemed value as white citizens went unquestioned. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” appears to follow suit by offering a seemingly benign promise to return America to a previously “great” past. But the offer to “Make America Great Again, Again,” requires we refocus on how the last four years of daily tweets and administrative actions redefine whiteness. If terrorism is defined as the use of violence and threats to create a state of fear towards particular communities and identities, then this is what “Trumpism” is at its core.
As ridiculous and groundless as all that is, as rooted in leftist fantasy about Trump’s presidency being somehow “white supremacist,” Berea College officials were not embarrassed, as they should have been, when asked about this event. On the contrary, they defended it, as any fascist smear merchant would, issuing a statement that said: “To some, the provocative title of the event implies that Berea is not a welcoming place for individuals with differing political views.” More than “implies,” you fascists.
“That is not true,” the Berea statement insisted:
At Berea, we strive to live out our motto: God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth. Berea accepts students of all faiths (or none at all), religious beliefs, ethnicities and political leanings, creating a diverse environment that encourages acceptance, respect and even appreciation across our differences. We encourage open dialog on difficult topics. Racism and white nationalism have been topics of great debate over the past five years. The event planned for next week seeks to confront aspects of the political spectrum that relate to the difficult topic of race in America. While that may cause discomfort, it is a valid and important conversation in this time of political and racial division. It is our hope that these types of conversations will occur across the country. Open, honest dialogue is essential to understanding racism and moving toward an anti-racist society.
Unless you’re a Trump supporter, that is.
Meanwhile, it is a 100% certainty, not 99%, but 100%, that Berea College administrators and professors would recoil in horror at the prospect of hosting an event focusing on the threat of jihad violence and Sharia oppression. In the extraordinarily unlikely off-chance that such an event were scheduled, it would be inundated with charges of “Islamophobia” and “racism” to the extent that most students would not attend, for fear of the social stigma attached to going.
But this? Demonizing and smearing half the American electorate? That’s just fine. And of course it plays right into the agenda of the political and media elites, who have embarked upon a clear initiative to defame all supporters of the former president as “extremists,” as they did previously with foes of jihad terror and Sharia injustice, and destroy them accordingly. The U.S. is entering an extremely dark period, but it has been a long time in the offing. And it has gotten dark early at Berea College.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
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