Juno News - September 06, 2020


Another case of a professor, a controversial tweet and a resignation


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

158.96996

Word Count

1,852

Sentence Count

122

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hi everyone. In June of this year, David LeBarre, an evolutionary ecologist and Dean of Graduate
00:00:11.280 Studies at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, sent out a tweet, which has now been
00:00:16.880 deleted, that said, and shockingly enough on our campuses, even white males receive racist comments
00:00:22.920 about their past. Why can't we all see that we were once a monkey, let alone a bacteria?
00:00:28.020 All Lives Matter. Now, unfortunately, this All Lives Matter trap is one that well-meaning people
00:00:35.540 can fall into when they want to emphasize equality and unity, because in a nutshell, Black Lives Matter
00:00:42.320 advocates and activists, they see the saying All Lives Matter as detracting from the lifting up of
00:00:49.040 Black voices. So they'll say, yeah, we all know that all lives matter, so why can't you just for once
00:00:56.000 focus on the undervaluing of Black lives? That's their argument. So with these people who say
00:01:04.720 All Lives Matter, they're not racist, they're not terrible people, they're just a little bit out of
00:01:10.120 touch, and they're not following the social media politics around this All Lives Matter phrase. I
00:01:16.980 compare it to this. I had a boss once who wanted to refer to a Chinese man, and so she said,
00:01:23.140 that Oriental gentleman over there. So she was, you know, a middle-aged woman, probably in her late
00:01:28.840 40s, and this job had nothing to do with media, politics, academia, activism, nothing like that,
00:01:36.060 very apolitical job. So she was simply not aware that we don't say Oriental anymore. At one point,
00:01:44.240 Oriental was the preferred term, but that was decades ago, and that's probably where this particular
00:01:50.020 woman dropped off of the, you know, political correctness treadmill, as Steven Pinker calls it.
00:01:55.900 So I don't think, you know, she's not a racist or terrible person, she was just out of touch with
00:02:01.840 what we say now. And like this Laurentian University professor, David Les Barrères, he likely didn't
00:02:08.180 realize that saying All Lives Matter is seen as basically taking away from the lifting up of Black
00:02:14.460 voices. But like a good boy, he sent out his apology a day after his controversial tweets.
00:02:21.920 He tweeted,
00:02:22.780 Last night, I issued a tweet that hurt many people. I apologize for my words and understand that I must
00:02:29.220 educate myself further about Black Lives Matter and Twitter. I didn't know that hashtag existed and
00:02:35.260 now realize it is rooted in values I do not hold and that I strongly condemn. I pledge to continue
00:02:41.040 to educate myself, continue the fight for inclusivity and against racism, and I apologize to all people
00:02:46.780 I have hurt. Now, I'm not one of these types who says never apologize because they'll come for you
00:02:53.180 anyways, because I think in some cases apologies make sense. But with this apology, you can really
00:02:59.400 tell that he's using all the words they want to hear. You know, he's hurt people. He's going to educate
00:03:04.340 himself. That's the most important. He's going to fight against racism. Okay, sure. But as is
00:03:10.720 often the case, your apology won't save you. And so Laurentian University first issued this
00:03:17.380 statement. They said,
00:03:19.460 Yesterday, our Dean of Graduate Studies issued an inappropriate and offensive tweet. He has since
00:03:25.120 apologized publicly for his comments, which, by his own admission, have hurt many people in our
00:03:30.420 Laurentian community and beyond. The university is following up on this expeditiously and with the
00:03:35.860 utmost care and attention. Let's be totally clear. There was nothing wrong with what Les Barrères said.
00:03:42.900 The only thing he can be accused of is being a little bit out of touch and not using the preferred
00:03:47.880 lingo of the activists. But that's, that's really the worst of what he did, what he said. So there was
00:03:54.400 nothing wrong with his tweet. And then that Laurentian University statement directs students on how they
00:03:59.960 can get counselling, which is just tragic. About two weeks later, President and Vice-Chancellor Robert
00:04:07.720 Hachet released a second statement. This one said,
00:04:12.520 Further to my statement of June 9th, condemning racism on campus, today I wish to communicate with
00:04:18.240 the Laurentian community that Dr. David Les Barrères will be stepping down from his day-to-day functions
00:04:23.560 as Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies for an indeterminate period, effective immediately.
00:04:29.780 So his institution threw him under the bus. They are not standing up for him, not defending him.
00:04:35.960 What does make this case a little bit different, though, is that a large contingent of professors and
00:04:41.540 students came out in support of Les Barrères. And they even started a petition to get him reinstated
00:04:47.620 as Dean. And that is all ongoing right now. So that's something that's a little more rare.
00:04:52.980 Now, this all happened in June 2020. And because it happened in, you know, a less populated place,
00:04:58.580 Sudbury, Ontario, at a lesser known university, this kind of flew under everyone's radar. But it was an
00:05:06.180 op-ed published this month that brought some attention to this case. So now more people
00:05:11.460 are talking about it. What I want to do now is read through this op-ed, which was written by
00:05:16.900 three Laurentian-affiliated professors and published in the Sudbury Star.
00:05:21.380 Cancel culture has no place at Laurentian. Okay, great.
00:05:26.100 To lobby to damage the reputation, career, or family livelihood of people who disagree with you
00:05:31.380 is not a particularly magnanimous instinct and mode of human behavior. It is even less honorable when the
00:05:37.300 person simply made a human error. Worse still, if they felt deeply sorry and immediately apologized
00:05:43.380 for the mistake. But the unforgiving mob still persisted in its cheap performative justice.
00:05:49.700 President Obama has called this sort of thing call-out culture or cancel culture. Oh, did President
00:05:55.380 Barack Obama come up with the term cancel culture? A lot of people talk about cancel culture. The authors
00:06:02.180 are being very careful here to name drop someone who would be seen as progressive. Most recently,
00:06:08.500 in Sudbury, it happened to David LeBarre, the French evolutionary ecologist and dean of graduate
00:06:14.260 studies at Laurentian University. We can all learn from his story. He is the canary in the coal mine.
00:06:20.740 He's the canary in the coal mine? Um, well, I'm going to be charitable here and assume that the authors are
00:06:26.500 talking exclusively about their university because this case is not the canary in the coal mine. It
00:06:34.100 is just a continuation of what's been happening for years. The authors of this op-ed criticize LeBarre's
00:06:40.500 tweet. They say it was not the best time to bring up anti-white racism. It was a poorly worded tweet.
00:06:46.740 He shouldn't have used the word monkey. He shouldn't have used the hashtag all lives matter. And he
00:06:53.220 deployed a microaggression by saying that anti-white racism exists in the first place. And somewhat
00:07:00.100 laughably, the authors claim that you probably need a PhD in critical race studies to understand that
00:07:06.500 many people today disbelieve in anti-white racism. But no, you don't need a PhD in critical race studies
00:07:13.700 for that. The media and activist class is always telling us that racism against whites does not exist
00:07:20.660 or it's not real, structural, institutional racism. So don't worry. We non-PhD holders are
00:07:27.940 very well aware that there is a disbelief in anti-white racism. They continue,
00:07:34.580 If anything, we felt the apology was a tad excessive. We try to teach our children to apologize
00:07:39.780 sincerely for honest mistakes, but not to grovel, especially if they are being pressured. When that
00:07:45.060 happens, they should stand their ground. Why? Because what sensible people want is your apology,
00:07:49.700 not subjugation. And insensible people will ultimately accept neither because what they
00:07:54.980 want is blood under the guise of deconstruction. Okay, that is true. To employers, presidents,
00:08:01.460 and board members everywhere, we say, stand by your falsely accused employees. Defend them publicly
00:08:06.980 against online and on-campus purity mobs. Be the adult in the room. Do not cave in. Et cetera,
00:08:12.500 et cetera. Regardless of melanin levels, sexual orientations, and political leanings, the vast
00:08:18.500 majority of students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders, the vast majority of humanity,
00:08:23.300 still recognize genuine virtue from cheap virtue signaling and will thank you for it. Okay, nice.
00:08:30.740 And they kind of end on this note. Together, let's call out this disgraceful and illiberal call-out
00:08:36.580 culture. If we stopped being collective cowards, we could end it tomorrow. But if we do not muster
00:08:41.780 our courage, we will lose, also, our remaining students to YouTube and Jordan Peterson. Come
00:08:48.500 help bail the boat instead. The academy is worth defending. We will need all hands on deck.
00:08:54.340 So, right after the authors rail against cheap virtue signaling, they take a cheap shot against
00:09:01.780 Jordan Peterson. You know, they just had to, didn't they? But newsflash, you can really appreciate
00:09:08.740 the academy as an institution and also like Jordan Peterson on YouTube. I consider myself in that
00:09:15.380 category. I believe in the purpose of the university, and I also like Jordan Peterson on YouTube. It's just
00:09:24.260 unfortunate that they have to try so hard to convey. They have to drop all these hints
00:09:30.180 throughout their op-ed to convey that they are the good guys. They are the progressives.
00:09:34.100 They're the liberals. You know, they're, they're superior to those who like YouTube and Jordan
00:09:38.740 Peterson. Like, oh, we're not, we're not like that. Um, and I used to fall into that trap too,
00:09:44.420 of needing to prove that, you know, I'm one of the good guys. Um, and, and, you know, I'm, I'm a liberal,
00:09:50.020 I'm progressive. But now I just kind of trust that people who understand me will understand me and
00:09:55.700 people who won't, won't. Anyway, so this case at Laurentian University, it's not a canary in the coal
00:10:01.220 mine. We've seen a dozen stories like it, uh, just this summer alone. And I hope we do read more op-eds
00:10:07.940 like the one we just read that defend cancelled people. But I hope that those op-eds don't feel the
00:10:14.100 need to take those cheap shots to, you know, indicate some sort of intellectual and moral
00:10:19.540 superiority because I don't think that that is necessary. It's actually very similar to the
00:10:24.420 Harper's letter that was published this summer in July that made quite a buzz. It was called
00:10:28.740 A Letter on Justice, An Open Debate. And it was signed by very notable people, you know, Noam Chomsky,
00:10:35.140 Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling were among the signatories. And the letter, it stood up for debate,
00:10:41.620 open inquiry, expression, but of course they had to take a shot at Donald Trump. So I think it takes
00:10:49.780 away from the power of these written pieces, you know, whether it's this letter or an op-ed,
00:10:57.060 when you can see that they were so deliberately inserting things that would indicate their moral
00:11:04.740 and intellectual superiority. So I hope we see less of that. I don't know if we will though because
00:11:10.580 it's kind of the name of the game right now. I'm Lindsay Shepard with Tree North. Thanks so much for
00:11:15.540 watching.
00:11:21.380 Let's go aside!
00:11:25.480 Let's go now!
00:11:27.560 You guys are watching this one, so I don't know.