Columbia removes 3 deans for texts that touched on "antisemitic tropes"
Columbia removes 3 deans for texts that touched on "antisemitic tropes"
These are the texts in question
I'm fairly sensitive to antisemitism because I've been on the receiving end so many times in my life, but the only thing I can think that might be antisemitic, and it's really hard to tell from the context, is:
My guess is that it is not associating Jews and money, but if it is, that is the only place there and it seems like you could only argue that one or maybe two of the deans were involved.
Considering it's Columbia, I think it's likely just talking about the rich people who go to and are associated with the university, which could be of any ethnicity.
It seems possible that they're all watching someone who is equating pro-Palestinian protestors with Hamas and condemning them, and all the people texting are fairly disgusted with the university for publicly lying about and betraying their own students in that fashion, and speculating on the motives -- i.e. that in one way or another that person or the university or both will keep the flow of donations going by saying this.
I don't know for sure but that's the feeling I get from it. It doesn't sound anti-Semitic. That's just my take on it without much context.
That was my takeaway too. I can kinda see that one.
The vomit emoji one is particularly egregious though.
It's hard for me to remember the state of the war on October 24th when that op-ed was written. I also don't know the context of what the actual anti-Israel protests immediately after the attack. But it wouldn't surprise me if they considered it to be a gross exaggeration. Especially with some of the assertions the op-ed made.
Remember that in a situation like this, people demand that heads roll. And when Columbia University went looking for the worst antisemites on campus, this is the best they could find.