Prof. Robinson's Odd E-Mail
It’s hard to come up with another explanation for why UCSB professor William Robinson would consider it appropriate to send students in his"Sociology of Globalization” class an e-mail headed “parallel images of Nazis and Israelis.” The e-mail, sent out on the class list-serv, included various photos from Gaza and Nazi death camps, and explained that"Gaza is Israel's Warsaw - a vast concentration camp that confined and blockaded Palestinians, subjecting them to the slow death of malnutrition, disease and despair, nearly two years before their subjection to the quick death of Israeli bombs . . .We are witness to a slow-motion process of genocide."
After receiving complaints from two students, the university has agreed to investigate Robinson’s actions. Predictably, a group has sprung up in Robinson’s defense claiming that his academic freedom is threatened, though it’s not clear to me how academic freedom applies to a professor sending his students extremist e-mails unrelated to his course. The fact that UCSB apparently has a policy prohibiting such behavior by professors doesn’t help Robinson’s case any. Unless UCSB wants to repeal its policy, it should at least issue a public statement condemning Robinson’s action.
The ADL has labeled Robinson’s email anti-Semitic; I think Volokh’s David Bernstein is more on target in writing that “while anti-Semites can be condemned as appalling ignoramuses, not all appalling ignoramuses are anti-Semites.” That said, I also agree with Bernstein that “there is a clear double standard at universities regarding material that makes Jewish students uncomfortable and that makes other minority students uncomfortable. Imagine, for example, that Prof. Robinson had sent out (a) an link to the Geert Wilders film criticizing Islam, along with a personal note stating that he thinks that Islam is the greatest threat to world peace and stability; (b) and article about homosexual sexual practices, criticizing them for spreading disease globally, along with a note that he personally finds such practices abhorrent; or (c) and perhaps most analogous, an article about crime in South Africa, juxtaposing images of white crime victims in South Africa with images of lynching victims in the American South, with a personal note that he thinks that the apartheid regime was better than the current South African regime. And let's assume that Muslim, gay, or black students similarly complained about Robinson's abuse of his authority. How many of Robinson's current defenders of his ‘academic freedom’ would publicly defend him in those circumstances?”
Indeed, given that the major pro-Robinson group describes itself as committed to defending “academic freedom through a coalition of progressive students and organizations on campus,” I suspect its members wouldn’t be too interested in taking up the cause for a racist or an anti-gay Prof. Robinson. But, of course, it’s hard to imagine that any professor would think it appropriate to send the type of hypothetical e-mails that Bernstein’s post offered.