Conundrum

Like many of you, my stomach has roiled at the ludicrous statements made by the excretal Ward Churchill.  Yet, because the man has tenure (no comment here about the logic in that move), he has more protections for his job, irrespective of his digusting utterances.  And, I might add - rightly so.

Nevertheless, part of me is utterly amazed at the contrast in how some voices react to Churchill's rude statements, and to the observances of Harvard president Larry Summers.

Summers never said that women should not aspire to whatever goals they wish in life.  He never said that women could not be brilliant mathematicians or scientists, nor that anyone, anywhere, should discriminate against women.  Summers only gave voice to the possibility that the reason we see lower percentages of women in certain positions may well be related to evidence that there are physiological differences in the brains of males and females.

Why is it that Ward Churchill's crass and painful statements about "little Eichmann's" getting what they deserved are met with staunch support for "free speech" and "there's truth in what he says," but about Summers we hear:

President Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard was confronted at a meeting of his own faculty on Tuesday by some of the university's most influential professors, who expressed strong dissatisfaction with his leadership and charged that he was damaging the institution.

These professors, including two department heads, said after the meeting that they had emphasized that their concerns went well beyond the furor that resulted from Dr. Summers's recent comments suggesting that innate sex differences could account for the lack of women in science and math careers.

"Many of your faculty are dismayed and alienated and demoralized," Dr. Arthur Kleinman, chairman of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said at the meeting, referring to a "crisis concerning your style of leadership and governance."

"It's as if the business of the university has ground to a halt until this matter is resolved," said Prof. Henry Louis Gates, the chairman of the African American and African studies department, adding, "It is clear that much of President Summers's legacy will be determined by how he deals with this crisis."

As King Mongkut in "The King and I" would say:  'tis a puzzlement.

Comments

[Tim Wilson]

For those who are so outraged by Churchill's comments below is a good read:

http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/ward_churchill_responds.html