Above Photo: From usuncut.com
Late senator Joseph McCarthy would be proud about a new list being circulated identifying professors espousing ‘anti-American’ values.
The website ProfessorWatchlist.org seeks to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” The list so far has almost 200 professors currently teaching at various colleges and universities around the country and includes well-respected academics like Dr. Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Posner, William Ayers, and many others.
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who is currently a professor at the University of California’s Berkeley campus, has been added to the list for teaching his students about income inequality. Georgetown University professor Michael Dyson was put on the watchlist for suggesting that alleged rapist Bill Cosby was wrong for suggesting that African Americans focus on breaking the law more than educating themselves. Cornel West, who teaches at Princeton University, was added for saying that America is a fundamentally racist nation.
As Inside Higher Ed reported, the watchlist was started by right-wing activist group Turning Point USA (TPUSA), which claims to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.” Its founder, 22-year-old Charlie Kirk, claims to have expanded TPUSA to over 800 colleges and high schools across the country. However, the group already has a sour reputation with at least one school. Drake University’s student senate denied Turning Point USA’s petition to become an official student group due to its allegedly “hateful record,” “aggressive marketing” and “unethical privacy concern[s].”
The list brings arguably hearkens back to darker times, when former U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) dominated political discourse through a series of extensive hearings targeting prominent academics and entertainers under the authority of his Anti-American Activities Committee. Trump ally Newt Gingrich — a former Speaker of the House for the U.S. House of Representatives — has suggested a similar Congressional committee aimed at interrogating and publicly shaming alleged sympathizers of terrorist groups in the United States.