I'm sad to say, he's on his way
As Scott notes below, Columbia University, in response to rioting associated with the appearance of a speaker with strong anti-illegal immigration views at an event sponsored by its Young Republicans, apparently has adopted new procedures to encumber the hosting of "controversial" speakers on campus . Meanwhile, Joe Malchow reports that Dartmouth has invited calypso singer Harry Belafonte to be the keynote speaker at its Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration.
Belafonte is perhaps second only to Jimmy Carter when it comes to has-beens who love America's enemies. For example, he is an admirer of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez whose anti-American and anti-Bush rhetoric has been denounced by left-liberal Democrats. And Belafonte routinely compares President Bush to Adolph Hitler and equates American foreign policy with terrorism.
Indeed, as Joe notes, "Mr. Belafonte’s most egregious torts have not been against country but against decency." He has publicly referred to Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as “slave[s]” living “in the master’s house.” When asked what he made of the fact that Bush has African Americans in top positions, Belafonte replied (falsely) that “Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy in the Third Reich.”
The decision to invite this ill-informed bigot to lead-off events honoring Dr. King apparently was made by history professor Judith Byfield and women’s and gender studies professor Giavanna Munafo. Neither has responded to emails from Joe asking about their selection of Belafonte. One must assume that Belafonte was selected because of his extreme anti-American views. Perhaps Byfield and Munafo believe that the more closely they can associate those views with the memory of King, a universal hero, the further they can advance the hateful anti-American agenda they may share with Belafonte. That King, the antithesis of a hater, did not share these views or that agenda is beside the point.
Belafonte, of course, has the right to speak and Dartmouth's radical community has the right to invite him. Finally, the Dartmouth administration has the right to turn over control of a serious event to members of its radical community, even at the risk of reducing the seriousness of the event. However, the administration may want to reconcile the appearance of Belafonte as a speaker with the pronouncements it made in favor of "civil discourse" during last month's "Indian wars." As Joe puts it:
Dishonest and bigoted as he is, Mr. Belafonte’s right to speak merits not a whit of protestation. Free speech exists to protect unpopular speech. But here’s something curious. Dartmouth’s activists and perennial offendees recently held a “rally for civil discourse,” at which they decried as unacceptable speech that offends. Mr. Belafonte, with his trashing of the United States — so full of verve and excitement is it — and his support for an economic system that has shattered millions of lives during its bleak reign, offends me. I don’t expect a soul to care. Those activists at Dartmouth have, however, attempted to set a new standard for what is appropriate speech at Dartmouth: civility. Harry Belafonte, the man who called Colin Powell a slave, is flatly incivil. Let us see what happens.SCOTT adds: I think it's fair to say that Dartmouth trustee Todd Zywicki is not amused. Over at the Volokh Conspiracy Professor Zywicki writes:
Belafonte is the legendary performer cum radical speaker of such classic performances as "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," "Mama Look a Boo-boo," and "Jump in the Line."Belafonte's more recent ditties have been in a different style, however: "There are those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master. Colin Powell was permitted to come into the house of the master..." (memorably performed on Larry King Live) and "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value...." In his Martin Luther King address last year at Duke he compared President Bush to al Quaeda and has called President Bush the world's worst terrorist.
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Given Belafonte's repeated utterances, I believe that it is exceedingly inappropriate for Dartmouth to provide him with this honor and speaking platform. I disagree with this invitation and the honor that it implies. I had nothing to do with inviting Belafonte and did not learn about it until after the fact.
An irony is that this announcement comes just weeks after Dartmouth held a campus-wide rally against hate and for "civil discourse" (indeed, one such sign persists on the web site of The Dartmouth today). Whatever that means, it is hard to see how this is the sort of discourse is consistent with it.
In my opinion Belafonte's comments have placed him beyond the pale of thoughtful intellectual society. He demonstrated at Duke last year that he has no appreciation of the solemnity and propriety of what words are appropriate for particular occasions and particular audiences. As the Director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies has commented, "Hitler and his regime murdered six million Jews and launched a world war that caused more than forty million deaths. How can that be compared to current U.S. government policy?"
In fact, it turns out that one of the members of the Wyman Institute's Advisory Committee is Elie Wiesel, who gave a moving and inspirational Commencement address at Dartmouth this past June. From the sublime to the ridiculous.
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As far as I can tell, Belafonte has never apologized for comparing Rice and Powell to "house slaves," his comparisons between President Bush and Hitler's Third Reich, or for suggesting that President Bush is a terrorist and comparing him to al Quaeda. When given the opportunity he has instead reinterated them.
In my opinion, Belafonte has proven himself an intolerant fool better suited to speak on a street corner soapbox than the largest auditorium at an institution of higher learning. I can see no reason why he deserves to be honored at an institution dedicated to the life of the mind.
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