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Brooklyn College students are demanding a professor be fired after he wrote a blog post asserting that whoever has not been accused of sexual assault ‘is not a member of the male sex.’ The post was written on Thursday, September 27.
Mitchell Langbert, a business associate professor at Brooklyn College, wrote, “If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex.” Langbert also accused the Democratic Party of being ‘tutu-wearing pansies’ for their opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, according to CNN.
What Happened?
Students at Brooklyn College are calling for the immediate dismissal of Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor of business at Brooklyn College who wrote a post on his personal blog arguing that committing sexual assault is a male rite of passage.
“If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex,” the blog wrote. “The Democrats have discovered that 15-year- olds play spin-the-bottle, and they have jumped on a series of supposed spin-the-bottle crimes during Kavanaugh’s minority, which they characterize as rape, although no one complained or reported any crime for 40 years.”
Langbert wrote the comments in a blog post on September 27, but they received renewed attention in light of the contentious Senate hearings.
“The Kavanaugh hearing is a travesty, and if the Republicans are going to allow the sissy party to use this travesty to stop conservatism, then it is time found a new political party,” Langbert wrote in his blog.
Students at Brooklyn College were outraged. On Wednesday, October 3, Sydoni Ellwood, a 28-year-old senior majoring in political science, vocalized her condemnation of Langbert’s post in an email to the provost and the chair of the Department of Business Management. She argued in the email that the professor is “rationalizing sexual predatory behavior,” according to The Cut.
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Corrinne Greene from Young Progressives of America said her group wants Langbert fired, cited by CNN.
“To have someone in a position of power espousing sexual assault is not a joke. It’s something that needs to be taken seriously,” Greene told CNN.
Greene has also organized a protest for 12:30 P.M. on Thursday, October 4.
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Who Is Mitchell Langbert?
Mitchell Langbert is a 64-year-old associate professor of business who teaches on weekends at Brooklyn College.
According to CNN, Langbert said the post was parody, and he apologized to anyone who was offended.
“I was trying to be satirical, but I guess I’m no Jonathan Swift,” Langbert said, referring to the Irish author from the 1700s. “I appreciated that it may have been in bad taste and I have apologized for that and I will again. I’m sorry people got offended. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings or cause them to not feel respected. I honestly didn’t expect them to read it.”
He said he has turned over threats of violence toward him to authorities.
As the Daily Mail reported, Greene said that Langbert went too far.
“An institution with a ‘commitment to diversity’ cannot employ anyone who publicly supports and calls for sexual based violence,” she said told the Daily Mail. “Brooklyn College must immediately cut ties with Professor Langbert. We call for a full investigation and for his termination.”
College Provost Ann Lopes wrote in a statement that she views the post as “offensive, obviously abhorrent, and contravening the fundamental values and practices of our community.”
I view the post as offensive, obviously abhorrent, and contravening the fundamental values and practices of our community. However, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects even speech that many experience as offensive, such as the faculty member's post.
— Brooklyn College (@BklynCollege411) October 3, 2018
It is still unclear about the school’s decision to pursue disciplinary action.
