Walter Block vs. ‘Diversity’
He steps up his battle against the racial-sexual thought police.
Vote @ Reddit please
Also a digg submit would be cool if anyone is interested.
A ‘diversity task force’ at his school? Task force sounds wonderfully militant and brutish.
I have been following this for awhile now and the one word that comes to mind is cowardice. Universities are supposed to be basitons of free thought and discussion. It is episodes like this that cause me to be sceptical about a good bit of what comes out of our colleges. Its ashame really that I should have to feel that way.
If I may weigh in here…
Not only am I a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, I also studied under Walter Block for several years. When this all came up a year ago he asked me to write him a letter supporting his character and denying that he is partial to any type of race/gender in his class. While coming from a white male my letter likely meant less then the ones he received from his female and black students (He was charged with racism as well as sexism all from one speech!). I wish there is more I could do to help Dr. Block on his endeavor for justice. If I was still in New Orleans I believe I could do more.
I don’t know if I have anything really insightful to say about this whole thing, I guess I feel that I owe Loyola just a shred of defense. The econ department in the business school is primarily Austrian, both Dr. Block and Dr. Barnett are the head honchos. I think I owe the school some gratitude as it is willing to promote these professors and allow them to mold young minds like my own; there are many other schools that would avoid the risk of controversy by bringing in such “radical” minded professors. However Loyola is a “social justice” university and there seems to be a constant battle between Block and his peers, this is not the first war waged against him that I have witnessed, the problem with Dr. Block is that if someone goes on the attack he will not back down, he will harass them with letters and requests for public debates until the offender backs down to save face of being humiliated in a public medium.
Lets call the diversity task force what it really is, thought police. Loyola is a great school that I think strives to make critical thinkers out of their students, had I not gone there I would not be lurking these forums everyday. I had hoped that when Loyola Baltimore charged Dr. Block with being a racist that Loyno would come to back him up. But look at the bright side of this debacle, as I am sure Dr. Block intended… he has made this a completely public conflict. Loyno has made no attempt to censor him (like that is possible anyway!) and he has turned the thing into a monster before their eyes. Now the issue of justice and defamation has been brought to the stage for all to see, and perhaps in doing so Block is reaching out to a greater audience and asking them to think for a second.
P.s Wing Fok is an accounting professor, as far as I know he has no weight in this area. I think when you read his letter where he said he was “considering” Blocks request he was actually second guessing himself, realizing he was clearly outmatched. I hope Block doesn’t stop until the task force apologizes, Loyno apologizes, and Loyola Baltimore too.
If I was Walter Block I would be tempted to allege that his persecutors are anti-Semites.
They are clearly persecuting Walter not on the basis of any evidence but because of his ethnic background. [;)]
I believe he has already done just that.
That’s intense that Block is being hung out to try without evidence or trial…
Can anyone shoot me a link to somewhere I can read about the arguments Block uses for race/sex inequality?
i can’t get the Mises link to work, but theres a youtube mirror http://mises.org:88/WalterBlock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAzkQWgIEbU
enjoy!
http://mises.org:88/WalterBlock (video)
Thanks for the links guys. It’s great to see someone like Block who can make both sound theoretical and empirical arguments. Laymen don’t seem to listen to anything other than evidence.
I definitely wish I knew about this resource sooner. I had the race/sex inequality debate with someone and all I could explain was the theoretical. I went digging for evidence and found a bit. It was good stuff, but Block’s analysis is expertly constructed.