The student’s name remains a mystery, as does the reason for his initial suspension. But his expulsion came after a blaze of glory so remarkably idiotic as to leave no doubt that it was for the best that this kid was saved any further tuition payments at Oklahoma City Law School. And it’s not entirely unfortunate that the legal profession will be spared someone who would almost certainly bring it into disrepute.
A student has been expelled from the Oklahoma City University School of Law after posting flyers that said “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE.”
OCU Police Director Bill Citty said the male student was already on suspension from the law school, 800 N Harvey, and was not allowed to be on school property. The student violated the terms of his suspension when he posted the flyers on the door and exterior of the law school building the night of Oct. 31, Citty said.
To characterize this as “posting flyers” fails to provide the full spectrum of idiocy on display.
This 4Chan meme has morphed into an annual display, but it’s one thing to post a flyer and another to plaster the joint with paper.
The signs first appeared in the fall of 2017 as a coordinated 4chan campaign, whose users spelled out their “game plan” on the anonymous Internet forum board instructing people to post the signs on campuses to prompt a “completely berserk” response.
It appears the trolling effort may now be an annual tradition.
To get the obvious out of the way up front, the student was not expelled because of the content of the flyers or his ridiculous excess in plastering them everywhere. He was expelled because he violated the terms of his suspension, which prohibited him from being on campus.
Had he been expelled based on the content of his expression, it would have been an obvious violation of the First Amendment.
Law professor Eugene Volokh, whose writings have been cited by the Supreme Court, notes “that the flyers consisted solely of the messages ‘It’s OK to be white’ and ‘Islam is right about women,’” and that “such messages are of course fully protected by the First Amendment.”
Some argue that in light of books like Robin DiAngelo’s absurd “White Fragility,” posting flyers that say “It’s okay to be white” is a justifiable counter-expression. As irrational as DiAngelo’s delusional indulgence in white guilt and Kafka-trap argument that any dispute proves her thesis may be, posting flyers like this serve to prove her point. Of course it’s okay to be white, adherents of the religion of critical theory notwithstanding, just as it’s okay to be black, purple or green.
Proving the blind squirrel adage, Staci Zaretsky is right when she calls Dean Jim Roth’s response to the flyers “gracious.”
Despite what the intentions of that message may have been, the message reminds me of one fact that I know our community embraces — it’s okay to be EVERYBODY. Exclusion and hate will not be tolerated here. You are accepted at OCU Law no matter how you pray, what you look like, or who you love. And you always will be.
As wrong as it is for those, like DiAngelo, who contend that being white makes you inherently evil, and as much as there is a free speech right to express the opinion that “it’s okay to be white,” that doesn’t mean it’s not an exceptionally dumb thing to do, whether for the lulz or because you are as fragile about being white as DiAngelo says you are. It’s bad enough that social justice warriors impute race into every issue, and reacting with counter-racial assertions validates their point. Dean Roth was absolutely right, it’s okay to be EVERYBODY.
And before you say it, the reason Black Lives Matter is that cops kill unarmed innocent black men at a grossly disproportionate rate. It’s not that white men aren’t killed as well, but it’s hardly okay that being black significantly exacerbates the risk of being killed by police. Let’s not conflate your racial sensitivities with getting killed for no reason.
Of course it’s your right to say “it’s okay to be white,” provided you haven’t violated some other neutral law or rule in the process. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should or that you’re not a dick* for doing so.
*While I’m not entirely clear on what makes one a dick, which appears to be based on other people’s reaction to a person, I use the word just because I like the video and that’s the word it uses. It may be a old guy problem.