Re: Thoughts on Ward Churchill

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

bitchlab wrote:
>
>
> he has set back feminist and leftist struggles in the academy by, no doubt,
> at least a decade if not more.

No. He is neither the first nor the last  leftist, in or out of the
academy, to screw up in one way or another. Complaining about him making
it difficult for other leftists in the academy is simply complaining
about the weather. If we can't build a left even with all the screw-ups
in our midst, then we are not going to build a left, because those
screw-ups will be always with us.

The important point about the whole Churchill affair is whether or not
the investigation would even have begun were it not for his political
actions (stupid or wise) outside the academy. If the answer to that is
_no_, then the investigation is corrupt from the beginning and it
doesn't make a damn bit of difference what moral or scholarly crimes he
did or didn't commit. If faculty can't see that (and currently for the
most part they can't), then neither will they be able to see what's
coming down the tracks on issues of retirement, medical benefits, job
security, or teaching load. An injury to one is an injury to all is
still (for the most part) alien to academic  workers, particularly to
tenured ones.

Carrol