The Potatoe Is Not for Mashing!Jason Van Dyke is a "Racist Fascist Nazi Homophobic Bigot." At least, that is how his critics describe the Christian conservative who refuses to knuckle under to PC peer pressure at Michigan State University (MSU) where he is student. In the first week of April, Van Dyke's regular column appeared in the student paper The State News. As a result of this piece – entitled "Gay Rights Movement Teaches Tolerance Hypocritically" Van Dyke was dismissed. At almost the same time and for similar reasons, William Barnwell – a Christian conservative who now writes for lewrockwell.com was ousted from The South End, a student newspaper at Wayne State University (WSU). The suppression of anti-PC sentiment on tax-supported campuses across the United States is hardly news. But Van Dyke and Barnwell are fighting back and not through the usual channels of university appeal boards or lawsuits. Instead, they used the Internet and created ThePotatoe! – a militantly anti-PC site that serves as a home for writers who have been dismissed or otherwise disenfranchised because of their conservative views. For example, Chris Lilik – editor in chief of the student newspaper entitled Conservative Column at Villanova University. Earlier this year, his newspaper was banned from campus because of running a parody aimed at a bank with which the university had a business relationship. He now writes for ThePotatoe. Why the strange spelling of a strange name? True to the iconoclastic streak that occupies the entirety of both founders' backs, ThePotatoe is named in honor of former Vice-President Dan Quayle. Seriously. "Therefore, 'ThePotatoe.Com' is spelled exactly the way Mr. Quayle read it" in the famous television news clip that was used to ridicule him. What are the homophobic Nazi views and behavior for which Van Dyke and Barnwell are reviled by "right-thinking" people at MSU and WSU? Barnwell describes a typical incident that occurred while he attended a discussion of race relations at WSU. The audience was asked a question: if you were the principal of a school that received complaints about racial discrimination, what would you do? Among the solutions offered: students would be forced to sit at integrated tables in the cafeteria; the parking lot and lockers would be similarly integrated. When Barnwell's turn to speak arrived, he opened with, "for one thing, I would honor the right to free association." Van Dyke explained another incident – his refusal to go along with a program called "Our Divided Reality" at MSU. The segregation was intended to heighten student – read white male – sensitivity toward minority groups. Accordingly, various elevators, cafeteria tables etc. were labeled "For blacks (or gays) only." Figuring that he had paid full tuition to the university for access to all public facilities, Van Dyke refused to comply. He was excoriated. In one of his biweekly columns, Van Dyke replied, "As long as you agree with advocates' positions on issues, you're their best friend, but the minute you even start questioning their agenda, it's an entirely different story. When a person speaks out in opposition to their movement, whether for religious reasons or otherwise, they are instantly branded bigots and hate mongers." There are two aspects to what ThePotatoe and its founders advocate. The first is the specific content of its e-pages. They are aggressively conservative with a take-no-prisoner edge. As an anarchist and a feminist, I could sit down for hours with these two men and explain why they are utterly wrong on a certain few issues. For example, I don't see anything unnatural or offensive about homosexuality. The second aspect of ThePotatoe is a restatement of the first one: "I could sit down for hours with these two men..." In other words, both Van Dyke and Barnwell believe that people should respect the "diversity" that PC voices on campus so hypocritically champion. The most fundamental form of diversity is the toleration of differing opinions. This does not mean being forced to listen to those opinions, to provide a forum for them, or to be silent in their presence. It means extending freedom of speech to opinions with which you disagree. From all I know of Van Dyke and Barnwell, both of them would be far more interested by the quality of my arguments than by the fact that we have disagreements. This is almost a definition of respecting diversity. The dismissal of columnists, speech codes, the burning or confiscation of student papers, sexual harassment charges, the "heckler's veto" of drowning out speakers...the tactics through which conservative voices are squelched on American campuses have become common place. But, coming this fall, PC censors at Michigan State University will face a new and formidable challenge. The mission statement of ThePotatoe vows "to promote Conservative and Christian political thought on the World Wide Web and beyond." The "beyond" is occurring almost as I write this column. Van Dyke's latest venture The Spartan Spectator goes to press and hard copy versions of its e-message will blanket the MSU campus. With such features as a regular column by "The Voice of Jane Q. Liberal" – a figure of fiction – Van Dyke comments, "The first issue is guaranteed to offend just about every liberal on campus and we are anxiously awaiting what the response from distribution will be." Speaking as one of Irish descent, I'll cast my vote sight unseen – "Long Live That Noble Vegetable!"
Wendy McElroy is author of The Reasonable Woman. See more of her work at ifeminists.com and at her personal website. |
August
30, 2000