Professor Ward Churchill scores $1 million over illegal dismissal
Special to Western Voices
Professor Ward Churchill, the far leftist and antiwhite “academic” dismissed from his tenured position at Colorado University (CU) in 2007, has prevailed in his lawsuit against the University, scoring a million dollars in damages, plus his legal costs, and a shot at getting his job back.
Churchill, 61, was fired after an investigation was opened following outcry over his statement that the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks were “little http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=269," guilty of complicity in US imperialism, and thus legitimate targets.
But while Churchill’s opinion, however repellent, is perfectly legal, protected by the First Amendment, academia is the last place http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=6618 as a “professor of ethnic studies.” Churchill is a baby boomer, and like many white leftists of his generation he has claimed Indian blood (to some objection from “real” Indians, who claim he is white), and has become the “go to guy” for academic bolstering of the dominant narrative of Indian/white relations: environmentally conscious noble natives subjected to genocide by ignorant white racists. In keeping with his cartoon ideology, Churchill even dresses in “redface”; in court he appeared in an Indian blanket jacket, with the sunglasses and pony tail reminiscent of American Indian Movement activists circa 1978.
But the issue is not Churchill’s ridiculous opinions, but his right to hold them and express them. The academic world has been nearly completely taken over by radical leftism, not so much because of the numbers of leftist professors involved, but because of the climate of intimidation that has been created. In fact, one reason CU moved against Churchill was because conservatives were using his Eichmann comments to highlight the very real abundance of extremism on campuses, which parents are paying through the nose to subject their children to. With the value of college degrees decreasing, and very serious questions about the cost involved, academia is starting to become conscious of its disconnect with the real world. One encouraging sign has been the modest but important growth of genuinely alternative campus groups, such as Youth for Western Civilization. And the victory of Ward Churchill over the CU censors sends a strong signal to the politically correct that they should think twice before persecuting people for their opinions.