Yesterday, we brought you the story of Sarah Grunfeld, the 22 year-old student at York University who ran out and publicly accused her (Jewish) sociology professor of anti-Semitism when he said the phrase "Jews should be sterilized"—as an example of a bad opinion. Grunfeld's reasoning: "The words, ‘Jews should be sterilized' still came out of his mouth, so regardless of the context I still think that's pretty serious."
So we would be remiss if we did not bring you the following STATEMENT from Sarah Grunfeld, which B'nai Brith Canada is circulating, apparently under the misguided notion that Sarah Grunfeld is deserving of sympathy. If she apologized for the simple misunderstanding, then sure. But Sarah Grunfeld is doubling down on her outrage. And victimhood!
STATEMENT BY SARAH GRUNFELD RE YORK UNIVERSITY INCIDENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETORONTO, 14 September 2011 : Sarah Grunfeld, fourth year York University student has made the following statement relating to the recent incident in Professor Cameron Johnston's class at York University, and has asked B'nai Brith Canada to circulate it to interested parties on her behalf. This statement of her position is only to be used in its entirety:
I stand by my initial concern brought to the University's attention immediately after the incident that when Professor Cameron Johnston made the abhorrent statement in his class that all Jews should be sterilized, he failed to qualify the statement clearly as an unacceptable opinion held by others. His delivery of this statement, made in a class of 450 impressionable students, was offensive to me and to others in the room.
I have since been grossly misquoted and ridiculed by the media, and attempts have been made to assign blame to me with the false claim that I simply "misheard" or "half heard" what was said. Meanwhile, the professor has not been called to account in any way for his "miscommunication".
This is in spite of the fact that in a meeting with Martin Singer, Dean, (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York) and Rhonda Lenton (Vice Provost Academic), I was assured that they believed Professor Johnston was 'terribly regretful', and that they expected and would encourage him to issue an unambiguous in-class apology. I have not heard even minimal expressions of regret by Professor Johnston, and a York university representative in subsequent communications with the media, has since contradicted the assurances I was given to that effect.
It has been a very painful experience for me to see how the university has closed ranks and reneged on its assurances to me. I understand that there may have been a miscommunication, but any miscommunication was on the part of the professor, not me. The media has been complicit in allowing a false interpretation of my actions to be circulated widely, which can only have a chilling effect on the ability of students to have any kind of a voice on campus.
END OF STUDENT STATEMENT
Highlighting ours! I tried to only highlight the laughably dumb parts, but that proved to be impossible. So, the girl who didn't hear the professor say that he did not believe that "Jews should be sterilized" also did not hear "even minimal expressions of regret" from the professor. Seems consistent! Sarah Grunfeld is outraged that the lying media would claim that she "misheard" the professor's statement. The fact that she did mishear the statement will do nothing to stop Sarah Grunfeld's seething outrage. This is about students having a voice!
A voice that says "What?""
She really shouldn't receive a college diploma anytime soon, but since York hadn't managed to discover and highlight her critical thinking deficits through failing grades before this incident, I fear it's too late to do anything about that now. Therefore, it's a good thing that she's outed herself as an idiot on the internet (and seems determined to keep the incident going long enough to firmly embed it in google results for years to come). If anybody is stupid enough to hire her -- well, they deserve the chaos that will undoubtedly arise in their organization the first time she feels slighted at something somebody said (or, more likely, didn't actually say).
ReplyDeleteI would be afraid to send this girl to act as a button-pusher in a Patriot missile launcher.
ReplyDelete"Did you say launch?"
"No, LUNCH!"
*somewhere miles above, a commercial airliner explodes*
My. Oh. My.
ReplyDeleteShe writes better than she listens, it seems.
ReplyDeleteYou can find anyone student or staff's email address via a Directory link on the York University website - just out of curiosity, I notice her email address is no longer available on the search engine. I'm guessing the inbox is rather full these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming that removing any link to email addresses and websites for anyone mired in controversy is SOP for universities now. Awhile back when that chem grad student was busted for operating a meth lab, not just the grad student's profile disappeared, but also that of his supervisor and the entire lab he belonged to.
Yeah, what EC1 said. I kind of wonder if she had this ghost-written. . .
ReplyDeleteThis kerfuffle reminds me of the excellent "Glenn's Homophobia Newsletter," published in the early 1990s in some alternative gay mag by, I swear it was, David Sedaris before he got famous. The newsletter was dedicated to ferreting out homophobia everywhere: toilet paper roll not changed? THAT'S HOMOPHOBIA. And so on. It was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I was having a conversation with a philosopher teaching a "Critical Thinking" course the other day. It seems that the current research on the students is that even at fairly good colleges, they often have trouble with standard questions identifying an argument made in text, and paraphrasing it without confronting it. To say anything at all is to agree with it.. exactly as this young woman is doing.
ReplyDeleteI fear for humanity. But then, I'm still on my first cup of coffee this morning.
I think the cream of the jest is the B'nai Brith introduction, "This statement of her position is only to be used in its entirety". Because after all, that's certainly what she did with her professor's comment! I guess context DOES matter when it's your own words someone is quoting.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't write that statement, obviously; heavily massaged by someone with at least half a brain (though not more than that). Though all the capitals indicate that she gave it a going-over before it was released.
Y'all are just haters. She's a member of the Moron-Canadian community and entitled to respect. http://www.popehat.com/2011/09/16/he-said-jehova-he-said-jehova/
ReplyDeleteNigger and cracker. I think those were words used by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn. Nigger and cracker. He didn't used the words "Grunfeld" or "twat" or "interwebs" or "iPhone." But nigger and cracker, I think, he did. I don't think that niggers and crackers and iPhones should be sterilized. That would be a bad opinion. A very, very, very, very bad opinion. And anybody who thinks that niggers and crackers and iPhones should be sterilized should be shipped off to the loony bin or the retard farm, post-haste!
ReplyDeleteI think I've got a crush on Grunfeld.
Yeah but, you said "r-----" ...
ReplyDelete@Proffie Poopie: Yes, "fucktard farm" would have been better. More alliterative. Thanks for the constructive criticism.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that the word "nigger" also shows up, repeatedly, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and also the works of Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison . . .I could go on, but you get my drift. Like Twain, these authors put the word in the mouths of both White and Black characters, with appropriate attention to character development, cultural context, etc., etc. Heaven help the professor (Black or White) if Ms. Grunfeld ever decides to take a class in African-American literature. While I'm not equally familiar with the literature of the Holocaust, I suspect she might encounter similar problems there (it's hard to expose atrocities without, you know, describing them, and perhaps even repeating some of the perpetrators' words. And what about depicting Jews as mice? Isn't that demeaning?).
ReplyDeleteCan I "+like" Southern Bubba's comment, just this once? I deplore the idea of words which are sacred or reserved or not to be mentioned. And does anyone remember the Space Moose comic?
ReplyDeleteBubba, I thought the post was awesome. Did my addition to the inanity not translate properly after travelling through the ether?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Poopie.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I wonder if it's right to make fun of this poor little Grunf and let the proffie entirely off the hook.
What's so fucking sad is that this ordinary proffie probably feels compelled to sensationalize his classes by using shocking examples. He can't just speak the truth; he must tantalize and shock and entertain the students, or else they won't stay awake, continue coming to class, and ultimately give him acceptable evaluations at the end of the semester.
And so he talks about sterilizing Jews on the first day of class. He doesn't know any of the students, and they don't know him--it's an intro class--and he's talking about sterilizing Jews on the first day? So, for that, I blame the administrators who pressure him to entertain the students, I blame the administrators for pitting the proffie against the students as if it's a war, I blame the society, and I blame most of the capitalists who would prefer that everybody with no money remain dumb, harmless, and distracted by tiresome episodes like this.
The proffie and The Grunf are stuck in this ridiculous game. And he's reduced to uttering the words, "All Jews should be sterilized." Would he, on the first day, have used an example like, "All McDonald's cashiers should be sterilized"? Or, "All students sitting in the front row should be sterilized"? Many of us would find that at least somewhat creepy.
It doesn't sound like he comes from the positivist school of social science; it sounds more like his brand of social "science" was born in one of the warmer and fuzzier humanities departments. The better science proffies I know (including social science) focus on the facts, the data, laws of nature, hypotheses, and investigating the world from an amoral perspective, rather than discussing "good opinions" and "bad opinions" about eliminating Jews on Day One.
It's sad what the university has come to, but I'm really quite drunk now and wish to remain so for the next couple of days. Long live bourbon! Gordon Presto forever! All hail the Mormon Canadians!
Fuck.
Call me crazy, but isn't this whole thing really an inter-Hebrew "comedy" of errors? Grenfeld sounds like a slightly ditzier Elane*; Professor Johnston, like a Philip Roth character who gets caught in the middle....actually, if the dialogue were zippier and Johnston more nebbishy this could make for a skit in an older Woody Allen film: "All You Wanted to Know About Idiocy (but were afraid to ask.)"
ReplyDelete_______________________________________
*...from "Seinfeld." Yes I know that Elane is supposed to be a Gentile, but I didn't want to call the girl a Canadian Jewish Princess outright. But now that I have, aren't things beginning to come together?
@PP -- Universities up here that have online email directories for their students generally (and perhaps by law) allow students to revoke their inclusion in those directories at any time.
ReplyDelete@Dr.P -- Ah, as a wee undergrad, how I used to look forward to each edition of the student paper and the new adventures of Space Moose that it brought.