From a dispassionate academic standpoint, it is truly astounding, and more than a little amusing that the same person who wrote "We Were Never Woke" can be so utterly and completely clueless when it comes to justifying his own tribal political beliefs.
You state:
Universities are not hotbeds of antisemitism. In reality, higher-ed institutions are some of the spaces in the U.S. where antisemitism is least prevalent.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!
Columbia University is probably the most anti-Semitic place in the United States and it has been for a very long time. In 2011, when my daughter was doing college visits, we stopped at the Hillel House. the young lady who gave us a guided tour stated she had to leave because of the rampant anti-Semitism. Today, even the Columbia administration admits there is a huge problem with anti-Semitism on campus. Multiple Jewish students have been attacked and many more have been harassed. I suspect most are deathly afraid of pro-Hamas instructors like yourself.
According to the report: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
And yet you can look at these statistics and tell me that institutions of Higher Ed are not anti-Semitic?
WOW...Just WOW!!
Now...
CUE THE MUSIC!!!
Here is where you piously state that you are not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist. To quote a blast from the past, you will now tell me that some of your best friends are Jews. Here is the deal. 85% of Jews strongly identify with Israel. So, stating that you are not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist, is a bit like someone saying, I am not Islamophobic, I just think Mecca should be nuked and turned into a parking lot. Are you buying that one?.. I didn't think so. I don't buy it either.
And I just so we are clear I had a long career in the oil biz. I worked with way more Muslims than you have. I have worked with Muslims in numerous countries, including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan (pre-9/11) and Yemen (pre-Houthi). I was given a autographed copy of the Geology of Pakistan by a professor there who became a colleague. A Pakistani engineer and I corresponded for several years after working on a gas field in Pakistan with him. I never denied I was Jewish and no Muslim I worked with had a problem with that
What is especially sad is that I know you from HxA forum days. Jon Haidt, who is Jewish was clearly a mentor to you. and you now support those who are calling for his elimination. What does Globalize the Intifada mean to you? How about "By any Means Necessary" or "Final Solution"? What do you think they mean to Haidt?
To paraphrase Haidt: Methinks you have been riding the elephant
What are my own tribal beliefs in this case, specifically? What is my tribe purported to be, and what is it I'm trying to accomplish by ostensibly downplaying antisemitism? What's my motive?
To call me a "pro-Hamas" instructor is wild.
Columbia is an institution I know something about, having lived there for seven years, with a large number of Jewish peers, having mentored many Jewish students (who flourished there and never expressed any concerns about antisemitism nor demonstrated any fear of speaking up or social interaction in my presence -- now, I'm only privy to what I was able to observe, right? Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe).
In addition to interacting with the students, as a student and TA, I have myself been mentored in turn by Jewish and Israeli professors throughout my academic journey, including and especially while I was at Columbia. One of these mentors, Gil Eyal, a professor from Israel whose work deeply inspired my own, read the article I linked to there, described it as the most nuanced and persuasive empirical roundup on the matter, and pushed emailed it to the university president at the time. Jon Haidt and Nadine Strossen (former president of the ACLU, a dear friend, also Jewish) both also praised this same essay, and shared it widely with the same enthusiasm. And it was published on Slow Boring by Matt Yglesias.
Which is to say, it's an article that many thoughtful and well-informed Jewish scholars -- people with skin in the game -- have reviewed, and found to be thoughtful, persuasive, careful, and well-evidenced. This is the article I link to in the sentence you seem to take issue with. It provides a robust review of empirical literature on these questions running through 2024, and updated into 2025 as new data becomes available: https://musaalgharbi.com/2024/01/11/misunderstanding-antisemitism-america/
I didn't just make a blase claim made out of some purported tribal affiliations. I don't have a "tribe" in this. Ethnically and culturally, I'm a half-black, half-white dude from Arizona. Politically, I don't vote, as this essay stresses, and the whole point of this piece it is to pour cold water on partisanship in general, and more specifically, to underscore how other people voting for the party I voted for most typically in the past -- this, in itself, will do little to address most problems. Religiously, I'm a Muslim (convert from Catholicism), but this doesn't somehow fix my position on any of these issues anymore than being Jewish does for others.
Many Jewish students at Columbia took part in the protest movements. Muslims are on varying sides of this issue too. Reihan Salam, for instance, is a Muslim and the president of the Manhattan Institute, and he recently pushed conservative legend Glenn Loury out of the organization because Glenn offered relatively tame criticisms of Israel on his podcast, as he details here: https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-glenn-loury (Loury is not a Muslim, an Arab, a progressive, or anything of the sort, so if tribal allegiance is responsible for his own position on these issues, I'm not sure which tribe that would be either)
A big theme of my work -- a thing I constantly stress to progressives who make strong assumptions about what others "must" think or feel or be motivated by based on identity characteristics -- is that, in fact, people are complicated and inconsistent, and the relationship between any of these characteristics and any specific views people have is also complicated and inconsistent. And I'd add, on the other side of the coin, the same tribal dynamics that people often try to impute to others also apply to oneself, corrupting their reason and judgement just as much as anyone they're accusing. Analytical symmetry and reflexivity are big priorities to me.
In all of this, the position I'm taking here is perfectly consistent with the arguments of the book. It explicitly questions the kind of thinking that would lead someone to impute others' motives etc. on the basis of identity characteristics, and it urges people to apply turn the same kinds of narratives and accusations they make of their adversaries onto themselves, their allies, etc. too. I've published multiple pieces excoriating Columbia University, the protestors, et al. Quite famously... I had a really, really viral essay dispassionately critiquing the protests: https://musaalgharbi.com/2024/05/09/columbia-ivy-intifada-class/
The idea that I'm a tribal hack on this issue is a strange thing to assert. If we're in disagreement, it might not be because I'm ignorant, stupid, a bigot, or just a slave to my identity. Nor do you have to be any of those things to come down differently from me.
As it relates to the report by Alums for Campus Fairness.... they're a (formally apolitical but pretty unapologetically) political org and they were pre-committed to very specific findings before conducting the study. There is zero chance that they would conduct a study finding something other than the convenient narrative, any more than a progressive advocacy org would conduct a poll finding that most of the public rejects their views, and the people they're trying to help wish they'd stop. All these orgs consistently find data that advances their preferred thing through prejudicial design question, highly selective sampling, lots of corner cutting, etc. I wouldn't cite a poll from a progressive advocacy org to make a case, but neither would I put much weight in an anti-woke culture war org that was not-so-secretly designed to push back against progressive advocacy orgs (with findings designed to bias the other direction).
And with the statement of the person during the visit in 2011 -- I don't know her story, so I can't evaluate it. But I do know that I see lots of people who work in DEI spaces who also make strong claims about Columbia being awash in anti-black racism, and claiming to have experienced widespread anti-black racism. I would never just completely write off these type of stories, but I *do* take them with a *heavy* grain of salt. I think that's the appropriate posture. Especially for accounts of this nature by someone who works in an identity-oriented org (at an elite university, no less). I'm sure there *are* black people, Jewish people, and people of various other backgrounds who have genuine, negative, identity-based experiences in these institutions. But they're not hellscapes of bigotry, violence and abuse. Empirically, they're just not.
The Columbia task force reports, I've read. The reports have been criticized, we can put that to the side. They don't actually directly contradict anything I argue in the lit review I linked to..
"Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe)".
And therein lies the crux of the issue. You are a famous well-known sociologist who is Muslim. Do you really think an 18 year old Jewish Freshman is really going to have an honest interaction with you about anti-Semitism on campus? The power differential is way to large for that to happen. You are the guy who is grading her. However, I am reasonably sure that you can read. Anti-Semitism at Columbia has been widely reported upon by media on both sides of the political spectrum for years.
You could read those articles. or the hundred more I could provide you with
Or you could read the results from Columbia's own Task Force on Anti-Semitism (referenced in my earlier post). The second and third paragraphs of the Executive Summary from Report #2 read as follows:
"After October 7, many Jewish and Israeli students began to report multiple instances of harassment, verbal abuse and ostracism, and in some cases physical violence. Given the volume of these reports, the Task Force invited all students—not just Jewish and Israeli students—to tell us their stories. Over the course of the spring, nearly five hundred students offered testimonials, at over 20 listening sessions, which provided invaluable insights into the campus climate during these troubled times. These student stories are heartbreaking, and make clear that the University has an obligation to act.
This report recounts student experiences in a wide variety of venues—day-to-day encounters, including dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom. Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced—the way repeated violations of University policy and norms have affected them, and the compliance issues this climate has created with respect to federal, state, and local anti-discrimination law. Many of the events reported in the testimonials took place well before the establishment of the encampments and the takeover of Hamilton Hall; the experiences reported during that period were even more extreme."
Reread this sentence that begins: "Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced....." Who do you think they are talking about?
You also could read the Harvard Report on Anti-Semitism, referenced in my earlier post which states: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
Do you believe that the faculty and administrators at both Columba and Harvard are making these things up?
What tribe do you belong to? Well, that is pretty easy to determine. You castigate the former president of Columbia for unleashing administrative punishments on protestors, and then siccing the cops on them. One might point out that occupying a university building and both kidnapping and assaulting the janitors of that building is not generally considered within the bounds of peaceful protest. The "POC" janitors in the building probably have a different view as to whether "siccing" the cops on the protestors (sic, rioters) was a bad thing.
One who belongs to a different tribe might consider the one semester suspensions to be slaps on the wrist given the severe penalties meted out to those convicted of thought crimes against perceived marginalized groups.
But your tribal affiliation is best expressed by your refusal to admit that, despite all evidence, including that gathered by Columbia itself, that anti-Semitism does not exist at that institution or in elite universities in general. Columbia is far more anti-Semitic than the "unenlightened" are in Sierra Vista for that matter, anywhere else in flyover country. Ask yourself, how many pro-Hamas demonstrations have there been at Cochise College? Anti-Semitism is a luxury belief.
You wrote a damn good book. I would suggest that there are parts you may want to reread. Physician, Heal thyself!
"Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe)".
And therein lies the crux of the issue. You are a famous well-known sociologist who is Muslim. Do you really think an 18 year old Jewish Freshman is really going to have an honest interaction with you about anti-Semitism on campus? The power differential is way to large for that to happen. You are the guy who is grading her. However, I am reasonably sure that you can read. Anti-Semitism at Columbia has been widely reported upon by media on both sides of the political spectrum for years.
You could read those articles. or the hundred more I could provide you with
Or you could read the results from Columbia's own Task Force on Anti-Semitism (referenced in my earlier post). The second and third paragraphs of the Executive Summary from Report #2 read as follows:
"After October 7, many Jewish and Israeli students began to report multiple instances of harassment, verbal abuse and ostracism, and in some cases physical violence. Given the volume of these reports, the Task Force invited all students—not just Jewish and Israeli students—to tell us their stories. Over the course of the spring, nearly five hundred students offered testimonials, at over 20 listening sessions, which provided invaluable insights into the campus climate during these troubled times. These student stories are heartbreaking, and make clear that the University has an obligation to act.
This report recounts student experiences in a wide variety of venues—day-to-day encounters, including dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom. Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced—the way repeated violations of University policy and norms have affected them, and the compliance issues this climate has created with respect to federal, state, and local anti-discrimination law. Many of the events reported in the testimonials took place well before the establishment of the encampments and the takeover of Hamilton Hall; the experiences reported during that period were even more extreme."
Reread this sentence that begins: "Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced....." Who do you think they are talking about?
You also could read the Harvard Report on Anti-Semitism, referenced in my earlier post which states: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
Do you believe that the faculty and administrators at both Columba and Harvard are making these things up?
What tribe do you belong to? Well, that is pretty easy to determine. You castigate the former president of Columbia for unleashing administrative punishments on protestors, and then siccing the cops on them. One might point out that occupying a university building and both kidnapping and assaulting the janitors of that building is not generally considered within the bounds of peaceful protest. The "POC" janitors in the building probably have a different view as to whether "siccing" the cops on the protestors (sic, rioters) was a bad thing.
One who belongs to a different tribe might consider the one semester suspensions to be slaps on the wrist given the severe penalties meted out to those convicted of thought crimes against perceived marginalized groups.
But your tribal affiliation is best expressed by your refusal to admit that, despite all evidence, including that gathered by Columbia itself, that anti-Semitism does not exist at that institution or in elite universities in general. Columbia is far more anti-Semitic than the "unenlightened" are in Sierra Vista for that matter, anywhere else in flyover country. Ask yourself, how many pro-Hamas demonstrations have there been at Cochise College? Anti-Semitism is a luxury belief.
You wrote a damn good book. I would suggest that there are parts you may want to reread. Physician, Heal thyself!
Here is how new Columbia President Claire Shipman described the Butler Library riot:
“I spent the late afternoon and evening at Butler Library, as events were unfolding, to understand the situation on the ground and to be able to make the best decisions possible. I arrived to see one of our Public Safety officers wheeled out on a gurney and another getting bandaged. As I left hours later, I walked through the reading room, one of the many jewels of Butler Library, and I saw it defaced and damaged in disturbing ways and with disturbing slogans. Violence and vandalism, hijacking a library—none of that has any place on our campus.”
I assume that this is what you consider to be academic freedom.
“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions... Ideology—that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.” ―Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Like many boomer Jews. I grew up in the civil rights movement. Both of my parents spent untold hours volunteering for organizations like NAACP and CORE. My father’s best friend went to Mississippi to help register black voters. So, I remember the reaction of southern whites to the movement. They were shocked, SHOCKED, that they were considered to be racists. In their minds, they were good people. I will never forget one woman’s reaction. She stated: “Our darkies (sic) were happy until these outside agitators came in.” At the time I just considered the statement to be typical racist garbage. Much, much, much later, after I learned the definition of cognitive dissonance, I realized that she was stating what she honestly thought to be true, no matter how ludicrous it seems to us - then and now. After all, whites had schools, blacks had schools, whites had water fountains, blacks had water fountains, whites had public restrooms, blacks had public restrooms so what was the big deal? Blacks that she had encountered were polite and respectful to her and she saw blacks laughing and joking among themselves. So, why wouldn’t she believe that the “darkies” (sic) were happy?
I have made my point. I will not post again to this thread. Maybe I got through. Maybe not. After all: "Cognitive sophistication renders symbolic capitalists especially good at producing these kinds of rationalizations to ourselves and others."
I am disappointed. You critique voting but provide no option. The current party in charge of the federal government is, in my view, seriously harming the country. But you argue that voting to replace that party won't help. Because in places where democrats have one party rule, there is inequality - they haven't eliminated it. Well - I don't know of and you haven't explicated any examples where a political party has eliminated inequality, or even made society much better. So I find your critique disingenuous. In your article, you say: "We’ll only get out of this predicament by engaging with those who are currently skeptical of, or alienated from, our institutions – by acknowledging and constructively responding to their concerns." Hmm... I might be a "symbolic capitalist". I have the education (an MBA). When I was working, I worked with concepts and knowledge. I made an above-average income. But, I didn't and don't put effort into achieving status and never had it. I don't try to enforce social justice paradigms. So I don't know if I'm part of the "we" you reference. Let's say I am. What in the heck to you mean by "engaging with those who are currently skeptical of, or alienated from, our institutions..." How does me having those conversations have more positive impact that me voting for people whose values and policies are in my view, better? Believe explain how that works?
You’re right! in terms of fundamental change, the Democratic Party is “basically useless” and, right again! “[o]ften . . . they’re a big part of the problem” and, right again! “the damn Republicans” are not to blame.
However, I think you’re off the mark when you suggest the possibility of universities “sav[ing] themselves” and helping to make things right. Universities, as is true for political parties, are, and will continue to be, useless “when the chips are down, and the rubber meets the road”—even if they become “more explicit about addressing[,] . . . serving[,] . . . pushing back[,] . . . asserting[,] . . . defend[ing] [them]selves in public[,]” and act according to the other aspects of your “path forward”—such as, “respecting the truth.”
These sorts of strategies, and voting (actually, all known strategies; more about this later), cannot bring about significant/meaningful changes. That’s because universities and political parties—as well as government agencies (civilian and military), companies and corporations, banks and other financial enterprises and, with various degrees of significance depending on different situations, family arrangements and religious associations—are increasingly integrated into the Internet’s electronic, distributed, network of 24/7 computation, information sharing, interconnectivity, and interdependency.
This Internet network—whose nodes of dominate influence are high-tech hard- and software (e.g., smartphones, AI), massive amounts of multi-source information (e.g., big data), certain companies (for instance, Amazon and Meta), particular specialists (for instance, coders, software engineers)—is increasingly more inclusive and more tightly interconnected and interdependent; a symbiosis in which the parts interact for mutual gain. You might think of this Internet network as an intensified Marcusian one-dimensionality; a system that accommodates/absorbs all efforts for significant change.
Within this Internet network/system there occur revisions/differences that, sometimes, at best, might, at any one period of time, contribute to incremental and inconsequential modifications of the status quo. This is our situation.
Our lives are driven by forces—the force of the Internet network/system described above, and also the forces of globalization, nationalization, society, demography, genes, and so on—over which we have, at any one point in time, no control, no ability to redirect. I take guidance from Henry Adam’s The Education of Henry Adams, and John Gray’s Straw Dogs. Also relevant are Robert Sapolsky’s Behave and Determined. Kerry Livgren’s (Kansas) “Dust in the Wind” is a tuneful rendition of the point I’m making.
To be sure, we might effectuate incremental and inconsequential changes within our Age (often called, the Information Age) that might, over an extended period of time, accumulate with other and similar incremental changes to bring about a breakthrough to a different Age (The Singularity?). But, within each Age (Agricultural, Industrial, Information), there are only incremental modifications of the present situation; only “useless” actions; only strategies that, at any one point in time, never suffice for significant/meaningful change “when the chips are down, and the rubber meets the road.”
From a dispassionate academic standpoint, it is truly astounding, and more than a little amusing that the same person who wrote "We Were Never Woke" can be so utterly and completely clueless when it comes to justifying his own tribal political beliefs.
You state:
Universities are not hotbeds of antisemitism. In reality, higher-ed institutions are some of the spaces in the U.S. where antisemitism is least prevalent.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!
Columbia University is probably the most anti-Semitic place in the United States and it has been for a very long time. In 2011, when my daughter was doing college visits, we stopped at the Hillel House. the young lady who gave us a guided tour stated she had to leave because of the rampant anti-Semitism. Today, even the Columbia administration admits there is a huge problem with anti-Semitism on campus. Multiple Jewish students have been attacked and many more have been harassed. I suspect most are deathly afraid of pro-Hamas instructors like yourself.
https://www.columbia.edu/content/report-1-task-force-antisemitism
https://www.columbia.edu/content/sites/default/files/content/about/Task%20Force%20on%20Antisemitism/Report-2-Task-Force-on-Antisemitism.pdf
A report by Alums for Campus Fairness polled Jewish students across the country and found:
83% of respondents considered antisemitism a “very serious problem.”
81% of respondents said they or their friends had received threatening or anti-Semitic messages from people associated with their university.
Nearly eight in ten respondents said they had avoided places on campus out of concern for their safety as Jews.
60% of respondents said a faculty member had made an offensive antisemitic remark to them or someone they knew.
58% of Jewish students reported that they or someone they knew was physically threatened on campus for being Jewish.
44% of current students said they “never” or “rarely” felt safe identifying as Jewish on campus.
https://www.campusfairness.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ACF_AntisemitismReport.pdf
As for Harvard, they released their own 311 page report documenting numerous anti-Semitic incidents committed by students staff and faculty.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Harvard-antisemitism-report.pdf
According to the report: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
And yet you can look at these statistics and tell me that institutions of Higher Ed are not anti-Semitic?
WOW...Just WOW!!
Now...
CUE THE MUSIC!!!
Here is where you piously state that you are not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist. To quote a blast from the past, you will now tell me that some of your best friends are Jews. Here is the deal. 85% of Jews strongly identify with Israel. So, stating that you are not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist, is a bit like someone saying, I am not Islamophobic, I just think Mecca should be nuked and turned into a parking lot. Are you buying that one?.. I didn't think so. I don't buy it either.
And I just so we are clear I had a long career in the oil biz. I worked with way more Muslims than you have. I have worked with Muslims in numerous countries, including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan (pre-9/11) and Yemen (pre-Houthi). I was given a autographed copy of the Geology of Pakistan by a professor there who became a colleague. A Pakistani engineer and I corresponded for several years after working on a gas field in Pakistan with him. I never denied I was Jewish and no Muslim I worked with had a problem with that
What is especially sad is that I know you from HxA forum days. Jon Haidt, who is Jewish was clearly a mentor to you. and you now support those who are calling for his elimination. What does Globalize the Intifada mean to you? How about "By any Means Necessary" or "Final Solution"? What do you think they mean to Haidt?
To paraphrase Haidt: Methinks you have been riding the elephant
What are my own tribal beliefs in this case, specifically? What is my tribe purported to be, and what is it I'm trying to accomplish by ostensibly downplaying antisemitism? What's my motive?
To call me a "pro-Hamas" instructor is wild.
Columbia is an institution I know something about, having lived there for seven years, with a large number of Jewish peers, having mentored many Jewish students (who flourished there and never expressed any concerns about antisemitism nor demonstrated any fear of speaking up or social interaction in my presence -- now, I'm only privy to what I was able to observe, right? Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe).
In addition to interacting with the students, as a student and TA, I have myself been mentored in turn by Jewish and Israeli professors throughout my academic journey, including and especially while I was at Columbia. One of these mentors, Gil Eyal, a professor from Israel whose work deeply inspired my own, read the article I linked to there, described it as the most nuanced and persuasive empirical roundup on the matter, and pushed emailed it to the university president at the time. Jon Haidt and Nadine Strossen (former president of the ACLU, a dear friend, also Jewish) both also praised this same essay, and shared it widely with the same enthusiasm. And it was published on Slow Boring by Matt Yglesias.
Which is to say, it's an article that many thoughtful and well-informed Jewish scholars -- people with skin in the game -- have reviewed, and found to be thoughtful, persuasive, careful, and well-evidenced. This is the article I link to in the sentence you seem to take issue with. It provides a robust review of empirical literature on these questions running through 2024, and updated into 2025 as new data becomes available: https://musaalgharbi.com/2024/01/11/misunderstanding-antisemitism-america/
I didn't just make a blase claim made out of some purported tribal affiliations. I don't have a "tribe" in this. Ethnically and culturally, I'm a half-black, half-white dude from Arizona. Politically, I don't vote, as this essay stresses, and the whole point of this piece it is to pour cold water on partisanship in general, and more specifically, to underscore how other people voting for the party I voted for most typically in the past -- this, in itself, will do little to address most problems. Religiously, I'm a Muslim (convert from Catholicism), but this doesn't somehow fix my position on any of these issues anymore than being Jewish does for others.
Many Jewish students at Columbia took part in the protest movements. Muslims are on varying sides of this issue too. Reihan Salam, for instance, is a Muslim and the president of the Manhattan Institute, and he recently pushed conservative legend Glenn Loury out of the organization because Glenn offered relatively tame criticisms of Israel on his podcast, as he details here: https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-glenn-loury (Loury is not a Muslim, an Arab, a progressive, or anything of the sort, so if tribal allegiance is responsible for his own position on these issues, I'm not sure which tribe that would be either)
A big theme of my work -- a thing I constantly stress to progressives who make strong assumptions about what others "must" think or feel or be motivated by based on identity characteristics -- is that, in fact, people are complicated and inconsistent, and the relationship between any of these characteristics and any specific views people have is also complicated and inconsistent. And I'd add, on the other side of the coin, the same tribal dynamics that people often try to impute to others also apply to oneself, corrupting their reason and judgement just as much as anyone they're accusing. Analytical symmetry and reflexivity are big priorities to me.
In all of this, the position I'm taking here is perfectly consistent with the arguments of the book. It explicitly questions the kind of thinking that would lead someone to impute others' motives etc. on the basis of identity characteristics, and it urges people to apply turn the same kinds of narratives and accusations they make of their adversaries onto themselves, their allies, etc. too. I've published multiple pieces excoriating Columbia University, the protestors, et al. Quite famously... I had a really, really viral essay dispassionately critiquing the protests: https://musaalgharbi.com/2024/05/09/columbia-ivy-intifada-class/
The idea that I'm a tribal hack on this issue is a strange thing to assert. If we're in disagreement, it might not be because I'm ignorant, stupid, a bigot, or just a slave to my identity. Nor do you have to be any of those things to come down differently from me.
As it relates to the report by Alums for Campus Fairness.... they're a (formally apolitical but pretty unapologetically) political org and they were pre-committed to very specific findings before conducting the study. There is zero chance that they would conduct a study finding something other than the convenient narrative, any more than a progressive advocacy org would conduct a poll finding that most of the public rejects their views, and the people they're trying to help wish they'd stop. All these orgs consistently find data that advances their preferred thing through prejudicial design question, highly selective sampling, lots of corner cutting, etc. I wouldn't cite a poll from a progressive advocacy org to make a case, but neither would I put much weight in an anti-woke culture war org that was not-so-secretly designed to push back against progressive advocacy orgs (with findings designed to bias the other direction).
And with the statement of the person during the visit in 2011 -- I don't know her story, so I can't evaluate it. But I do know that I see lots of people who work in DEI spaces who also make strong claims about Columbia being awash in anti-black racism, and claiming to have experienced widespread anti-black racism. I would never just completely write off these type of stories, but I *do* take them with a *heavy* grain of salt. I think that's the appropriate posture. Especially for accounts of this nature by someone who works in an identity-oriented org (at an elite university, no less). I'm sure there *are* black people, Jewish people, and people of various other backgrounds who have genuine, negative, identity-based experiences in these institutions. But they're not hellscapes of bigotry, violence and abuse. Empirically, they're just not.
The Columbia task force reports, I've read. The reports have been criticized, we can put that to the side. They don't actually directly contradict anything I argue in the lit review I linked to..
You state:
"Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe)".
And therein lies the crux of the issue. You are a famous well-known sociologist who is Muslim. Do you really think an 18 year old Jewish Freshman is really going to have an honest interaction with you about anti-Semitism on campus? The power differential is way to large for that to happen. You are the guy who is grading her. However, I am reasonably sure that you can read. Anti-Semitism at Columbia has been widely reported upon by media on both sides of the political spectrum for years.
https://apnews.com/article/campus-protests-israel-palestine-columbia-f2984f21aa38a4f637982af7b98fed5e
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/columbia-antisemitism-israel-palestine-trump/682054/
https://nypost.com/2025/05/07/us-news/masked-anti-israel-protesters-storm-columbia-library-shove-past-security-as-ivy-leaguers-prep-for-finals/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/nyregion/columbia-protests-antisemitism.html
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-833242
You could read those articles. or the hundred more I could provide you with
Or you could read the results from Columbia's own Task Force on Anti-Semitism (referenced in my earlier post). The second and third paragraphs of the Executive Summary from Report #2 read as follows:
"After October 7, many Jewish and Israeli students began to report multiple instances of harassment, verbal abuse and ostracism, and in some cases physical violence. Given the volume of these reports, the Task Force invited all students—not just Jewish and Israeli students—to tell us their stories. Over the course of the spring, nearly five hundred students offered testimonials, at over 20 listening sessions, which provided invaluable insights into the campus climate during these troubled times. These student stories are heartbreaking, and make clear that the University has an obligation to act.
This report recounts student experiences in a wide variety of venues—day-to-day encounters, including dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom. Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced—the way repeated violations of University policy and norms have affected them, and the compliance issues this climate has created with respect to federal, state, and local anti-discrimination law. Many of the events reported in the testimonials took place well before the establishment of the encampments and the takeover of Hamilton Hall; the experiences reported during that period were even more extreme."
https://www.columbia.edu/content/report-2-task-force-antisemitism
Reread this sentence that begins: "Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced....." Who do you think they are talking about?
You also could read the Harvard Report on Anti-Semitism, referenced in my earlier post which states: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
Do you believe that the faculty and administrators at both Columba and Harvard are making these things up?
What tribe do you belong to? Well, that is pretty easy to determine. You castigate the former president of Columbia for unleashing administrative punishments on protestors, and then siccing the cops on them. One might point out that occupying a university building and both kidnapping and assaulting the janitors of that building is not generally considered within the bounds of peaceful protest. The "POC" janitors in the building probably have a different view as to whether "siccing" the cops on the protestors (sic, rioters) was a bad thing.
https://nypost.com/2025/04/28/us-news/columbia-janitors-sue-protesters-who-allegedly-held-them-hostage-in-hamilton-hall-takeover-while-revealing-chilling-maps-used-in-attack/
One who belongs to a different tribe might consider the one semester suspensions to be slaps on the wrist given the severe penalties meted out to those convicted of thought crimes against perceived marginalized groups.
But your tribal affiliation is best expressed by your refusal to admit that, despite all evidence, including that gathered by Columbia itself, that anti-Semitism does not exist at that institution or in elite universities in general. Columbia is far more anti-Semitic than the "unenlightened" are in Sierra Vista for that matter, anywhere else in flyover country. Ask yourself, how many pro-Hamas demonstrations have there been at Cochise College? Anti-Semitism is a luxury belief.
You wrote a damn good book. I would suggest that there are parts you may want to reread. Physician, Heal thyself!
You state:
"Other students could've had different experiences than the ones I knew, or maybe my own students and colleagues experienced things they never let on about through their words, interactions, behaviors and plans that I was privy to. But that's what I was able to observe)".
And therein lies the crux of the issue. You are a famous well-known sociologist who is Muslim. Do you really think an 18 year old Jewish Freshman is really going to have an honest interaction with you about anti-Semitism on campus? The power differential is way to large for that to happen. You are the guy who is grading her. However, I am reasonably sure that you can read. Anti-Semitism at Columbia has been widely reported upon by media on both sides of the political spectrum for years.
https://apnews.com/article/campus-protests-israel-palestine-columbia-f2984f21aa38a4f637982af7b98fed5e
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/columbia-antisemitism-israel-palestine-trump/682054/
https://nypost.com/2025/05/07/us-news/masked-anti-israel-protesters-storm-columbia-library-shove-past-security-as-ivy-leaguers-prep-for-finals/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/nyregion/columbia-protests-antisemitism.html
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-833242
You could read those articles. or the hundred more I could provide you with
Or you could read the results from Columbia's own Task Force on Anti-Semitism (referenced in my earlier post). The second and third paragraphs of the Executive Summary from Report #2 read as follows:
"After October 7, many Jewish and Israeli students began to report multiple instances of harassment, verbal abuse and ostracism, and in some cases physical violence. Given the volume of these reports, the Task Force invited all students—not just Jewish and Israeli students—to tell us their stories. Over the course of the spring, nearly five hundred students offered testimonials, at over 20 listening sessions, which provided invaluable insights into the campus climate during these troubled times. These student stories are heartbreaking, and make clear that the University has an obligation to act.
This report recounts student experiences in a wide variety of venues—day-to-day encounters, including dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom. Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced—the way repeated violations of University policy and norms have affected them, and the compliance issues this climate has created with respect to federal, state, and local anti-discrimination law. Many of the events reported in the testimonials took place well before the establishment of the encampments and the takeover of Hamilton Hall; the experiences reported during that period were even more extreme."
https://www.columbia.edu/content/report-2-task-force-antisemitism
Reread this sentence that begins: "Unfortunately, some members of the Columbia community have been unwilling to acknowledge the antisemitism many students have experienced....." Who do you think they are talking about?
You also could read the Harvard Report on Anti-Semitism, referenced in my earlier post which states: 73% of Harvard’s Jewish students feel uncomfortable expressing their political opinions; 60% feel discriminated against or have been met with hostility due to their views; 44% feel mentally unsafe, and 26% even feel physically unsafe.
Do you believe that the faculty and administrators at both Columba and Harvard are making these things up?
What tribe do you belong to? Well, that is pretty easy to determine. You castigate the former president of Columbia for unleashing administrative punishments on protestors, and then siccing the cops on them. One might point out that occupying a university building and both kidnapping and assaulting the janitors of that building is not generally considered within the bounds of peaceful protest. The "POC" janitors in the building probably have a different view as to whether "siccing" the cops on the protestors (sic, rioters) was a bad thing.
https://nypost.com/2025/04/28/us-news/columbia-janitors-sue-protesters-who-allegedly-held-them-hostage-in-hamilton-hall-takeover-while-revealing-chilling-maps-used-in-attack/
One who belongs to a different tribe might consider the one semester suspensions to be slaps on the wrist given the severe penalties meted out to those convicted of thought crimes against perceived marginalized groups.
But your tribal affiliation is best expressed by your refusal to admit that, despite all evidence, including that gathered by Columbia itself, that anti-Semitism does not exist at that institution or in elite universities in general. Columbia is far more anti-Semitic than the "unenlightened" are in Sierra Vista for that matter, anywhere else in flyover country. Ask yourself, how many pro-Hamas demonstrations have there been at Cochise College? Anti-Semitism is a luxury belief.
You wrote a damn good book. I would suggest that there are parts you may want to reread. Physician, Heal thyself!
Here is how new Columbia President Claire Shipman described the Butler Library riot:
“I spent the late afternoon and evening at Butler Library, as events were unfolding, to understand the situation on the ground and to be able to make the best decisions possible. I arrived to see one of our Public Safety officers wheeled out on a gurney and another getting bandaged. As I left hours later, I walked through the reading room, one of the many jewels of Butler Library, and I saw it defaced and damaged in disturbing ways and with disturbing slogans. Violence and vandalism, hijacking a library—none of that has any place on our campus.”
https://president.columbia.edu/news/wednesdays-disruption-butler-library
I assume that this is what you consider to be academic freedom.
“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions... Ideology—that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.” ―Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Happy Darkies
Like many boomer Jews. I grew up in the civil rights movement. Both of my parents spent untold hours volunteering for organizations like NAACP and CORE. My father’s best friend went to Mississippi to help register black voters. So, I remember the reaction of southern whites to the movement. They were shocked, SHOCKED, that they were considered to be racists. In their minds, they were good people. I will never forget one woman’s reaction. She stated: “Our darkies (sic) were happy until these outside agitators came in.” At the time I just considered the statement to be typical racist garbage. Much, much, much later, after I learned the definition of cognitive dissonance, I realized that she was stating what she honestly thought to be true, no matter how ludicrous it seems to us - then and now. After all, whites had schools, blacks had schools, whites had water fountains, blacks had water fountains, whites had public restrooms, blacks had public restrooms so what was the big deal? Blacks that she had encountered were polite and respectful to her and she saw blacks laughing and joking among themselves. So, why wouldn’t she believe that the “darkies” (sic) were happy?
Are Jews the “happy darkies” of Columbia?
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/agreements/ocr-joint-notice-of-violation-to-columbia.html#:~:text=An%20employee%20from%20Columbia%20University's,in%20classrooms%20in%20Hamilton%20Hall
I have made my point. I will not post again to this thread. Maybe I got through. Maybe not. After all: "Cognitive sophistication renders symbolic capitalists especially good at producing these kinds of rationalizations to ourselves and others."
Do you recognize this quote?
I am disappointed. You critique voting but provide no option. The current party in charge of the federal government is, in my view, seriously harming the country. But you argue that voting to replace that party won't help. Because in places where democrats have one party rule, there is inequality - they haven't eliminated it. Well - I don't know of and you haven't explicated any examples where a political party has eliminated inequality, or even made society much better. So I find your critique disingenuous. In your article, you say: "We’ll only get out of this predicament by engaging with those who are currently skeptical of, or alienated from, our institutions – by acknowledging and constructively responding to their concerns." Hmm... I might be a "symbolic capitalist". I have the education (an MBA). When I was working, I worked with concepts and knowledge. I made an above-average income. But, I didn't and don't put effort into achieving status and never had it. I don't try to enforce social justice paradigms. So I don't know if I'm part of the "we" you reference. Let's say I am. What in the heck to you mean by "engaging with those who are currently skeptical of, or alienated from, our institutions..." How does me having those conversations have more positive impact that me voting for people whose values and policies are in my view, better? Believe explain how that works?
You’re right! in terms of fundamental change, the Democratic Party is “basically useless” and, right again! “[o]ften . . . they’re a big part of the problem” and, right again! “the damn Republicans” are not to blame.
However, I think you’re off the mark when you suggest the possibility of universities “sav[ing] themselves” and helping to make things right. Universities, as is true for political parties, are, and will continue to be, useless “when the chips are down, and the rubber meets the road”—even if they become “more explicit about addressing[,] . . . serving[,] . . . pushing back[,] . . . asserting[,] . . . defend[ing] [them]selves in public[,]” and act according to the other aspects of your “path forward”—such as, “respecting the truth.”
These sorts of strategies, and voting (actually, all known strategies; more about this later), cannot bring about significant/meaningful changes. That’s because universities and political parties—as well as government agencies (civilian and military), companies and corporations, banks and other financial enterprises and, with various degrees of significance depending on different situations, family arrangements and religious associations—are increasingly integrated into the Internet’s electronic, distributed, network of 24/7 computation, information sharing, interconnectivity, and interdependency.
This Internet network—whose nodes of dominate influence are high-tech hard- and software (e.g., smartphones, AI), massive amounts of multi-source information (e.g., big data), certain companies (for instance, Amazon and Meta), particular specialists (for instance, coders, software engineers)—is increasingly more inclusive and more tightly interconnected and interdependent; a symbiosis in which the parts interact for mutual gain. You might think of this Internet network as an intensified Marcusian one-dimensionality; a system that accommodates/absorbs all efforts for significant change.
Within this Internet network/system there occur revisions/differences that, sometimes, at best, might, at any one period of time, contribute to incremental and inconsequential modifications of the status quo. This is our situation.
Our lives are driven by forces—the force of the Internet network/system described above, and also the forces of globalization, nationalization, society, demography, genes, and so on—over which we have, at any one point in time, no control, no ability to redirect. I take guidance from Henry Adam’s The Education of Henry Adams, and John Gray’s Straw Dogs. Also relevant are Robert Sapolsky’s Behave and Determined. Kerry Livgren’s (Kansas) “Dust in the Wind” is a tuneful rendition of the point I’m making.
To be sure, we might effectuate incremental and inconsequential changes within our Age (often called, the Information Age) that might, over an extended period of time, accumulate with other and similar incremental changes to bring about a breakthrough to a different Age (The Singularity?). But, within each Age (Agricultural, Industrial, Information), there are only incremental modifications of the present situation; only “useless” actions; only strategies that, at any one point in time, never suffice for significant/meaningful change “when the chips are down, and the rubber meets the road.”