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In other words... : 6/26/2009

Hate and Racism is fine as long as it is directed at the right groups

What a child : 6/26/2009

The professor should be reprimanded if not for anything else, then at least for the unnecessary disturbance and cost that he caused. I might expect this from a child but not from a supposed instructor of higher learning. He could not get away with this at any other establishment or workplace. This is a crock.

Double standards : 6/26/2009

Imagine if it were latinos, blacks or gays that he defamed and offended? Would the outcome have been the same?

It all seems right to me : 6/26/2009

I hope the student who filed the original complaint and who viewed the material as "intimidating" was asked to clarify that accusation. I can believe "disgusting" and "horrific" but those are matters of taste. Intimidation is a loaded accusation and requires a fair inquiry, complete with the accuser's basis. When is "intimidating" material not similarly (or even better) described as "challenging?" There's an important distinction because challenging students is the sine qua non of collegiate teaching excellence. It's the student who is NOT challenged (or initially intellectually intimidated) by course material who has the more sympathetic demand for redress. If you're not being challenged or slightly intimidated by coursework then you may be wasting your valuable time (not to mention money). Complain about THAT!

Rick C

Yousef Baker... : 6/27/2009

Yousef Baker, I hope some concerned citizen kicks the living crap out of you and knocks your self-righteous, victim identity right in the gutter. I'll bet my left pinky you're a complete douchebag.

Concerned citizen

Go to the source : 6/27/2009

Rick C, you can find the e-mail from Robinson in question here: http://sb4af.wordpress.com/robinson-case/the-original-email-at-issue/ "Intimidating" or not, inflammatory soapbox ranting like Robinson's is neither professional nor intellectually valuable. (Nor very relevant to "Sociology of Globalization", I might add.) "Challenge" students, sure, but do it with something substantive.

Shall the victim be attacked : 6/29/2009

When you attack the customer (students) reporting what they see as at least as wanting better service something is wrong; Kill the messenger?

GN in SB

Coersion taints future! : 6/29/2009

Allowing UCSB professors' lies to stand now allows anyone to reject any UCSB graduates as probably being influenced to being liars too! Say one of these students wrote what the professor wants to hear as a starting point "to have a better chance to get an "A". When that professor turns copies of the papers over to say a Jewish research group then it would be harder to say get a security clearance. Dumb everyone down.. Go watch Reality shows people, eat cheap junk food, and vote how we want you too!

Academic Freedom and Apt Comparisons : 7/4/2009

First, academic freedom is the lifeblood of the academy. Without the freedom to make interpretations and draw judgments about the empirical and conceptual materials in front of them, intellectuals can't do their work. Moreover, the desire to censor objectionable materials and punish the professors who present them is not the work of rational minds but of ideologues who wish to put the university in the service of state projects - in this particular case, the project of a foreign power. We must not allow the university to become any more of a tool of the elite (foreign or domestic) than it is already. Second, historical comparison is standard method in both social science and historiography, and comparisons may involve historical facts, documents, photographs, art, music, religious ideology, and so forth. One compares cases to theorize and test hypotheses concerning the causal forces and processes underpinning social phenomena. For example, one may compare revolutions to test the hypothesis that a weak state is the main factor in successful social revolutions. In making such comparisons it is understood that the cases are not identical, rather that they have differences and similarities. In the Robinson case, the professor forwarded a comparisons between the Warsaw and Gaza ghettos, the experience of the victims (Jews and Palestinians), and the behavior of the oppressors (Germans and Jews). Both cases were the result of ethnonationalist projects and the similarities are too numerous to document here (view the materials for yourself and study the cases - any objective observer will find the comparison is apt). Of course there were differences, but the differences do not eradicate the similarities. Finally, Robinson is not practising hate and racism. Quite the opposite. He opposes the destruction of the Palestinian people and the racism of Zionism.

Andrew

Tel lthe truth in education : 7/9/2009

Perhaps Professor Robinson should include mention in his class discussion of the nearly 1 million indigenous Jews who were etnically cleansed from 9 Arab countries and Iran during the 1950-70's. Is he aware of these facts? Probably not, because it's not part of the "pro-Palestianian" narrative so popular with liberal university professors. Tell him to investigate and share this story with his students. Merely because they were Jews, nearly 1 million Jews whose families had spent thousands of years in the Middle East (longer than many Arabs whose ancestry is traced back to the 7th Century when Mohammed and his forces invaded the Middle East and forced conversion on the populace) were forced out of their coutries of origin. They were forced to leave behind their businesses, their homes, their bank accounts, their synagogues and religious belongings, their histories and move elsewhere because nationalist countries wanted only Muslims to inherit their lands. So much for the "peaceful" religion of Islam. Tell Professor Robinson to share this story!

Nearly 1 million Jews ethnically cleansed from the Middle East but no one tells their story. Why?