Anti-Semitism And The Ugly Double Standard In California State Colleges

Imagine the outcry if students on a university campus in California set up "checkpoints" to find out whether students with tan complexions are really African-Americans, or whether students heard conversing in Spanish are citizens or illegal immigrants. Screams of protest would rise if students set up similar barriers to check whether olive-complected schoolmates are outfitted with suicide bombs, or if anyone stopped students of any type demanding to know their sexual orientation.

Cries of bigotry would be deafening — and accurate.

But when Muslim student groups at U.C. Berkeley in 2010 dressed in combat fatigues and carrying fake but genuine-looking weapons manned such checkpoints and demanded that passing students tell them if they were Jewish? No outcry, no protest.

Nothing at all. Not a peep from the large corps of university administrators. Not a move by campus police, even when a counter-demonstrator was whacked with a shopping cart. No demonstrations anywhere.

The only action came from two students who filed a lawsuit charging that Berkeley administrators disregard intimidation by Arab students and foster a climate of anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, the checkpoints have continued sporadically on campus.

Now a federal court says any attempt to stop them would "raise serious First Amendment issues." So, implied U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of San Francisco last month, campuses can ban use of "hate speech" like the N-word and anti-gay smears, but outright physical attempts to intimidate Jewish students and impinge on their walking space are OK.

Read the rest here.