"The Gringo Mind"
ASU ignores racial slur by professor
As we return for a new semester at the largest state university in the country, we will also find the radicals back at work, doing everything they can to undermine the United States Constitution and advance their form of racism.
There are two central components of an employment contract at ASU. First, the employee agrees to uphold the United States and Arizona Constitutions. Second, the employee agrees not to engage in discrimination based on categories such as race. Violating either of these is a serious breach of the employee contract and should be addressed by ASU and ABOR. Beyond that, it is simply common sense.
Yet we know the rules are not applied evenly. A conservative who does either of these would come under immediate investigation. A leftist who does both on a regular basis is ignored and excused as engaging in “free speech.”
The First Amendment and free speech do not give an employee the right to violate an employment contract they freely entered into. The First Amendment protects an employee’s right to start a blog and express personal views on their own time. Nor does tenure protect an employee who breaks an employment contract. Tenure protects a professor’s academic freedom to research subjects he or she believes are important within the bounds of that contract. It does not protect discriminatory research projects.
We all know this. We also know that the rules are enforced only against conservatives. No administrator at ASU would seriously investigate a leftist professor who repeatedly violates his employment contract, even by using racial slurs. Why not?
And yet this is exactly what has happened at ASU. Stu Smith of the Manhattan Institute has reported on one such professor. The professor speaks of what he calls “the Gringo mind.” He openly concedes that this is a racial slur and says he does not care.
He then goes on to undermine the United States Constitution with statements like the following:
“There is no coexistence with the settler colonial project… and the civilizational thinking of the United States and other similar settler colonial projects like the one currently waging genocide in West Asia and bombing like 78 of its neighbors. There is no coexistence, because it’s always expansionist. At its core, it’s expansionist.”
By his own admission, the United States is a settler colonial project with which he claims he cannot coexist. This is a clear violation of ASU bylaws and the employee contract. Yet nothing is done. He will continue to teach ASU students this spring and advance his anti–U.S. research projects.
Run a thought experiment. What would happen to a professor who used a racial slur about any other group, admitted it is a racial slur, and said they don’t care? Why is “the gringo mind” an acceptable slur at ASU?
But you do have a voice. You can contact ABOR with this information and ask why no action is being taken. You can contact the office of ASU’s provost and ask why administrators continue to turn a blind eye. Here are the links for both:
https://www.azregents.edu/contact/contact-us
https://provost.asu.edu/about/contact
As for me, I’m always ready for a public debate with any ASU professor who advances the anti-settler colonial project. If that view is true, defend it in public in front of your students.