Tommy J Curry thought forcing a public discussion about race and violence was piece of his job. It turned out that people didn’t want to hear it. By Steve KolowichOne Thursday morning in May,Tommy J Curry walked through the offices of the philosophy department at Texas A&M University with a police officer at his side and violence on his intellect. The threats had started a few days earlier. “Since you said white people need to be killed Im in dread of my life,” one person had written via email. “The next time I see you on campus I might just maintain to pre-emptively defend myself you dumb fat nigger. You are done.” Curry didn’t know whether that person was lurking on the university grounds. But Texas is a gun-friendly state, or Texas A&M is a gun-friendly campus,and he took the threat seriously.
Curry supports the right to bear arms. It was piece of how he ended up in this situation. In 2012 he had appeared on a satellite radio show and delivered a five-minute talk on how uneasy white people are with the view of black people talking about owning guns and using them to combat racist forces. When a recording of the talk resurfaced in May, people thought the tenured professor was telling black people to kill white people. This view swept through conservative media and into the fever swamps of Reddit forums and racist message boards. The threats followed. Related: What will it take for the US to eradicate racist ideas? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com