Horowitz sponsored a national ad campaign against reparations for slavery called, “Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea—and Racist Too.” In the campaign, Horowitz said, “Reparations to African-Americans have already been paid” in the form of “trillions of dollars of welfare benefits and racial preferences” for Black people. In addition, Horowitz claims that African-Americans “owe a debt” to white people for "giving them freedom."
"If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president," Horowitz has said, "blacks in America would still be slaves.”
Horowitz is the publisher of FrontpageMag, a right wing journal that frequently publishes white supremacists. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, FrontpageMag published a piece called "Africa in our Midst: Lessons from Katrina," by Jared Taylor, a white supremacist who is close to Louisiana klansman David Duke and argues that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior to whites. Following this line of attack, Horowitz himself complained that "in the national discussion of Katrina, Bush was accused of racism for failing to be on site immediately in New Orleans but actual racial crimes committed by blacks were rendered invisible." Horowitz has also published James Lublinskus, a former editor of the white nationalist movement's flagship publication, American Renaissance.
Horowitz is most famous for his self-declared war on Islam - the Southern Poverty Law Center lists him among the most prominent anti-Muslim racists in the US, and he is publisher of Jihad Watch, an online magazine dedicated to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric. He is known for statements such as “what has the Arab world contributed except terror?…The theocratic, repressive Arabic states do no significant science, no significant arts and culture.” He has also called Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin a "Muslim Brotherhood plant." Following this theme, the topic of his event this week is “From Boston to Jerusalem: How Islamic Jihadism Affects Us All.”
It is especially ironic that a local university would host Horowitz, as he has made a reputation for his work to stifle free expression on campuses. For example, in 2003, Horowitz started Students for Academic Freedom, which encouraged students to sneak into classes to take notes and report on "suspicious" professors as part of an attempt to launch campaigns to fire (or deny tenure to) professors who are insufficiently "pro-American."
Despite his history of attacks on African Americans, Muslims, and even academic freedom, Tulane Administration is helping to bring this hate speech to New Orleans. This is not the first time that Tulane has embraced Horowitz. In 2007, Tulane University hosted "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," part of a national anti-Muslim campaign launched by Horowitz. A primary sponsor of this event is a Tulane student group, Tulane Students United for Israel, as well as a UNO student group called Allies for Israel. In selecting Horowitz as a speaker, they appear to be making a statement that white supremacy and Israel advocacy go hand-in-hand.
Tulane students are asking allies to wear Black and meet at 6:15pm on Wednesday at Jones Hall on the Tulane campus. For more information, including contact info for student organizers, see this link, or you can directly contact Hillary Donnell at hdonnell@tulane.edu or Tulane Students for Justice in Palestine at tupalestine@gmail.com.
9 comments:
Just a quick clarification, he is being hosted by a student organization, not the university itself. There is a distinction.
The university has to give permission to any event held on their campus, and they bear ultimate responsibility for any event hosted on their facilities. Even if they do not give direct funding, they are providing facilities, security, insurance and other in-kind donations. Any student who has ever tried to sponsor a "controversial" event on any campus can tell you that universities will always treat any event on their facilities as if they are accountable for what happens there.
My Replies to the Tulane Hate Groups That Want To Shut Down My Speech
By David Horowitz
The claim that I am a white supremacist is laughable. I have been a campaigner for equal rights for African Americans since my first protest march in 1948, before any of these bigoted idiots were born. My grandchildren are black. I was given an Operation Hope achievement award for raising millions of dollars for their organization which teaches economic literacy to inner city blacks. The head of Operation Hope is my friend John Bryant who is black. Andrew Young civil rights icon and former US Ambassador to the UN sits on the Operation Hope Board.
My campaign against reparations for slavery 137 years after the fact at a time when there were no former slaves to receive reparations or slave owners to pay reparations was because it was divisive, would isolate blacks. The ad was originally published as an article in Salon.com, a leftist magazine for which I was a columnist at the time. If my arguments were racist, obviously Salon wouldn’t have published them.
I said the reparations campaign was racist becuase the reparations would be awarded on the basis of skin color not actual servitude, and paid by everybody who wasn’t black including for example Hispanic immigrants who obviously had nothing to do with American slavery. My statement about whites having died to free blacks was made to counter the racist claims of the reparations campaign which held that all whites were guilty of the sin of slavery and must be made to pay. Most Americans are descended from people who came to this country after slavery was ended. My own grandparents were confined to ghettos in Russia when there was slavery in the United States.
The claim that I called Oprah Winfrey “a fat woman” is ludicrous. I was praising Oprah for her remarkable achievements in America, despite being black and raised in racist Mississippi, sexually abused, overweight and so forth – all characteristics that leftists claim are marks of oppression that prevent those who bear them from opportunity. My point was that America has come so far that Oprah Winfrey notwithstanding these obstacles could become the richest woman in America.
The claim that Frontpage promoted Jared Taylor is a lie:
Symposium on Taylor article in Frontpage
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=7082
Introductory statement by Frontpage editor and symposium moderator on Jared Taylor:
“Jared Taylor is a white nationalist who has clearly rejected a multi-racial society. At the end of his report, he draws racist conclusions that we here at Frontpagemag.com find repugnant. At the same time, we are appalled that no other journalist or commentator has had the courage or the integrity to describe these horrific events without which the picture of this disaster -- and the way we understand our responsibility as a nation -- is not and cannot be complete.”
Comment by symposium participant Marc Cooper (a leftist) on Jared Taylor:
Cooper: Let me start by noting the rather generous characterization our moderators have made of Jared Taylor. Mr. Taylor is not just a "white nationalist" but is, in fact, a rather blatant White Supremacist whose public work brims with affirmations that blacks are inferior.
The claim that I waged a campaign against professors is a lie. My campaign for a student academic bill of rights was solely and specifically a campaign to give students the right to hear two sides fairly presented to controversial questions and to make up their own minds – without retribution – as to which side of a controversy they would take.
The claim that I am anti-Muslim is a lie. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a radical smear operation that stigmatizes anyone who is concerned about Islam-inspired terror as just took place in Boston as “anti-Muslim.” I could continue but this is really tedious. What is going on here is a witch-hunt by Tulane leftists who don’t want members of the Tulane community to hear and consider what I have to say.
this is such a joke. A blatantly clear voice of the anti-israel left. I look forward to listening to Mr. Horowitz speak.
Hmmm is this surprising? Do students go to classes and file complaints against professors at Tulane?
Concerned Tulane Student:
What, really, are the limits of academic discussion on a college campus? I’m not that smart. I didn’t think I’d get into Tulane University. But when I, with bright-eyes and an open mind became a first-generation college student at this incredible institution, I saw a chance to expand my views beyond what my family and local community has instilled in me but to probe and access the views of peers and leaders in their fields. I saw a chance to have my own views changed and revised as I learned more and sought truth. Academic discussion, I thought, was an open forum to discuss and clash against presented views. It was a chance for a student to be equal to a professor…. a chance for those genuinely interested in finding the truth to sort it out directly and intellectually.
Then, when did we think ourselves so superior to an individual to allow discussion to be one-way? Everyone criticizes and attacks and jumps at this man’s throat because he’s such an easy target; we don’t even want him to respond. Heck, we're even limiting most of our criticism to Facebook, a medium through which he can't hear our criticisms to really respond. And this isn’t all. From the backlash I’m seeing on my friends list, we don’t think he has a right to talk about any other subject. So to you who believe this: riddle me this. He may have controversial views but why are you so sure that there is absolutely nothing worth listening to from him? What do you really know about what he’s read, how he’s reasoned, and whether or not his opinions have changed since prior media recordings? How do you know if there isn’t merit to what research he may have gathered of Islamic Jihadists? Yes, he seems to exhibit a questionable racist streak, and I dislike his comments as much as the next guy. The guy’s probably grade A douche-bag. Point is, if he’s wrong, you can tell him why. If he makes questionable comments, probe him until his arguments fall. If he’s stupid and ignorant, tell him why and let him defend himself. Then tell Tulane that their judgments are flawed. This guy has nothing to contribute to an academic discussion.
But oppressing the discussion and shutting up an individual from even offering his ideas to students interested in what he has to say is just undermining everything you stand for. And even if his views on the conflict are just flat out asinine, he now has a chance to meet informed counter-responses and have a possibility to have his mind changed. But you’re right guys. Let’s demonize Horowitz and say eff him. Let him be angry at those who stand against racism. Let him wallow in his own ignorance without giving him reasons why he’s wrong. Let him stay that ‘other’, that ‘dumbass we should all hate’. And you know where this leads? Surely, it’s not progress.
No one planned to shut down the speech. No one did shut down the speech. This is about two-way freedom of speech, the ability to respond to certain interpretations and arguments with an opposed one. Not one interrupted David Horowitz. In fact, the majority of students protesting the speech, its ideas and arguments, and Tulane's complicity in providing facilities for a privately financed speaker were outside the building having conversations about racism in both personal and institutional forms on Tulane's campus.
This was a well organized and mature response. David Horowitz knows nothing about the groups on Tulane's campus that he smears as "hate groups" and, unfortunately, he didn't and likely won't make any attempt to listen and have a deeper understanding of how race operates at Tulane.
-Tulane student who was outside the speech
wow... i can't fathom how someone who actually asks "what muslims have contributed to the sciences and academics in general" is allowed to speak in an academic environment... at the very least he should've done some research... i'm a catholic, but i don't tolerate that sort of ignorance on a college campus...
http://postimg.org/image/uwx2382zl/
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