Re: J. Donald SILVA v. The UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al. (was Re: The Center for Individual Rights...) (fwd)

[Andrew Wayne Austin <aaustin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Katha Pollitt wrote:

>You will NEVER persuade Americans that it's okay to exclude men but not
>women, okay for black students to insult white ones but not the reverse,

Which is why (a) America is an ideologically sexist and racist country and
(b) the left must educate America rather than follow its historic
ignorance.

Marxists don't kowtow to public opinion because we know that under
patriarchal, racist, capitalist conditions the public's opinion reinforces
the structure of domination.

Had the Old Left that Katha waxes nostalgic for followed public opinion
nothing progressive would have been accomplished.

Freedom of speech is dependent on the conditions under which speech is
exercised. A class where the teacher and the students are forced to permit
members of the oppressor group to attend will be a classroom in which
speech will not be freely expressed.

Professors who have taught women's issues in classrooms where men were
present notice the difference. What is needed here is the freedom of
choice Daly afforded her students. Her policy, which ought to be adopted
in all women's studies courses, maximizes freedom of expression by
permitting the development of fora in which speech can be freely
exercised.

Katha has no concept of power.

Andy