Sexual Assault Should Be SCOTUS Prerequisite, Brooklyn Prof Says
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A Brooklyn College professor declared committing sexual assault should be considered “a prerequisite for all appointments, judicial and political,” in a blog post written the same day of Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing.
“If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex,” Professor Mitchell Langbert wrote Thursday. “Those who did not play spin-the-bottle when they were 15 should not be in public life.”
The business professor’s post, which he has since edited to include a comparison to Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay “A Modest Proposal,” spurred outrage on the Brooklyn College campus with students organizing under the Twitter hashtag #FireProfessorLangbert.
“I can’t see how having a professor at your college, Mitchell Langbert, blogging that rape culture for males of any age is an acceptable behavior & some kind of right of passage is appropriate,” Donna McAleese tweeted.
“Students shouldn’t have to be around an ‘educator’ who admits to being a predator/rape apologist,” added Stéfon Charlot.
Patch was unable to reach Langbert for comment, but the associate business professor explained in his edits that he had attempted to use satire as a means to highlight “the defamation that [Kavanaugh] has suffered at the hands of the media,” which he characterized as a disgrace.
“I was surprised to learn that some readers took me literally, claiming that I advocate rape,” Langbert wrote. “It is intended to be taken in the same light as Swift’s claim that Irish children should be eaten.”
Kavanaugh is currently the subject of an FBI probe after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified the candidate for a seat in the nation’s highest federal court held her down, tried to force off her clothes, and muffled her screams at a high school party in the 1980s.
Langbert blamed Democrats for the handling of Ford’s allegations and the resultant federal probe.
“The Democrats have become a party of tutu-wearing pansies, totalitarian sissies,” the professor wrote, “who lack virility, a sense of decency, or the masculine judgment that has characterized the greatest civilizations.”
Students have since called for the tenured professor to be sacked, but although Brooklyn College provost Anne Lopes issued a statement calling Lambert’s decree “a gender-biased and homophobic post,” she argued it was also protected free speech.
“I view the post as offensive, obviously abhorrent, and contravening the fundamental values and practices of our community,” Lopes wrote. “However, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects even speech that many experience as offensive, such as the faculty member’s post.”
A Brooklyn College spokesperson declined to respond to Patch’s inquiry whether Lambert’s tenured position at the college was in jeopardy.
Fliers have appeared calling for an on-campus protest Thursday.
Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Sept. 2017
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