An Asian conservative student editor at a major university is under attack from the biggest threat to free speech on American campuses today — leftists claiming their feelings are hurt.
Jonathan Zhao, the new opinion editor for the Duke Chronicle, penned a column titled “The plight of black America” on May 27, that blames the “pervasive sense of crippling victimhood within the black community” for hindering the progress of black people in America.
Two weeks ago, in response to the column, a group calling itself “Concerned and Conscious Duke Students” did what any good, free-speech loving liberal would do. It demanded Zhao be fired and silenced via a petition on change.org.
“We are demanding that The Chronicle management reconsider their ill-advised decision to make the writer of this piece, rising senior Jonathan Zhao, a columnist and the Editorial Page Editor for the 2015-2016 academic year,” the petition reads.
The petition mentioned previous columns by Zhao being offensive but didn’t name any.
Some of his previous works include “Gay marriage is not a right,” “Equal pay is anti-feminist” and “A farewell to arms control.”
“We do not believe students have a protected right to use a student publication meant to serve and represent the Duke community as a platform to proliferate racist stereotypes and misinformation about an entire group of people – a group of people to which the writer does not even belong,” it continued.
Translation — We believe in free speech only if you agree with us, and you can only write about your own color.
“We are concerned that if Zhao continues as an editor of the opinion column, he will also continue to abuse his position of power to create an unsafe educational environment for marginalized students,” the group wrote.
Tellingly, the complainers said it was not a matter of being “politically correct” or censorship, while demanding writers be politically correct and that Zhao be censored.
“We request the immediate removal of Jonathan Zhao as columnist and editor of the Chronicle’s opinion column,” the petitioners concluded, reinforcing the impression that removing Zhao from his position as editor isn’t good enough, they want him hushed.
It’s time for universities to create mandatory courses explaining what free speech actually is because the lefty students don’t seem to get it.
Petition for removal of un-PC editor at @DukeU paper assures us that it is not about PC or #censorship. Oh, well… https://t.co/651AuFRH41
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) June 5, 2015
Ridiculous @DukeU students want student paper editor removed because they disagree with him: https://t.co/651AuFRH41 pic.twitter.com/kEtJ7l7bIP
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) June 5, 2015
@andrewmgrossman Well, that’s a relief. @AriCohn
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) June 5, 2015
@ReaganCoalition And these are the people always saying we need “open dialogs”.
— Artemis Foul (@Ambidexedrine) June 8, 2015
Please stop embarrassing me, current @DukeU students or whoever is behind this. @DukeChronicle https://t.co/4ZEHNZqImS
— Robert Shibley (@rshibley) June 5, 2015
Jonathan Zhao has managed to offend women and both the black and gay communities with his articles. He is a terrorist to the Duke Community.
— Denise Huxtable (@Jordan_p34) May 28, 2015
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