'Professor' Steps in It, Reminds Us That the 'Smartest People in the Room' Rarely Are

If I had a dime for every time a liberal Democrat asked me what my level of college education was, a question that is usually thrown out there right before they tell me that I’m not smart enough to be weighing in on current events and political/social matters, I’d be able to retire right now and buy my own private island.

For whatever reason, a person’s level of education at a “higher ed” institution has for decades been a measuring stick for some in gauging how smart people are. Just to be fair, most come out of college being much smarter than when they walked in, assuming they haven’t been indoctrinated by woke leftist educators.

But oftentimes, a triple degree in whatever does not always translate into “smart.” And while I have a great deal of respect and admiration for anyone who puts themselves through years of arduous schooling to get law degrees and the like, I have precious little for any self-important elitist who treats that degree as though it effectively makes them the smartest person in the room, giving them license to treat others like second class citizens who should just feel lucky they get to breathe the same air as them.

All of this brings me to today’s story, which is the reaction of prominent “progressive” novelist and professor Joyce Carol Oates to a story she clearly didn’t know anything about.

It all started with a tweet from CNN’s Jake Tapper in which he shared a story out of Washington state about the Mukilteo School District school board voting unanimously Monday to remove the classic book “To Kill a Mockingbird” from a required reading list for ninth graders due to “racial concerns.”

Clicking on the link takes you to a video report, where you see one woman – presumably a parent or a teacher – who expressed concern over the book’s use of the “n-word,” the fact that it was written by a white author, and the alleged inability of white teachers to be able to explain the story contextually.

That “concern” was apparently the tone and tenor of other members of the community based on the story filed by the Everett Herald, which reported that one school board member talked about how they had “a visceral reaction to the racism in the book.” It was also noted that the effort to remove the book from the required list was started by three teachers who cited the following reasons: it “celebrates white saviorhood,” “marginalizes characters of color” and “uses the ‘n’ word almost 50 times.”

As you’ve probably guessed at this point, the war against the book was waged by wokesters on the left, a disturbing trend we’ve seen over the last couple of decades in response to books like “TKAM,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and similar novels.

A simple click on Tapper’s link and a watching of the video would have given her an idea of where the opposition to the book came from, but that’s not what Oates did. Here was her reaction to Tapper’s tweet:

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is removed from a school curriculum because it makes racists uncomfortable? whatever reasons are given, this must be the real reason. https://t.co/x1hiQkMPKR

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) January 28, 2022

And she wasn’t the only one. The Pima County (Arizona) Democrats Twitter page had a similar reaction:

Because fascism. https://t.co/6DeawXOgF5

— Pima County Democratic Party (@PimaDems) January 28, 2022

My RedState colleague Brad Slager set Oates straight here:

Ms. Oates proves again she is deeply adept at headline reading.
Don't go to the length of looking at the story, Joyce. The detail of a POC female offended at racial language written by a white author will derail your outrage.

For the record, Joyce calls this lady a 'racist'. https://t.co/UtbvSqNZXC pic.twitter.com/ulfuFYsg1f

— Brad Slager – Incontinent On Another Continent (@MartiniShark) January 28, 2022

It’s a painful reminder (for Oates and the Pima Dems) that it’s best to click on links BEFORE you knee-jerk react and make yourself look like a complete fool later (though I have ZERO doubt they’ll still try to justify their comments once they realize what they did, because Democrats are never wrong). It’s a good reminder for anyone else who has a tendency to do these things, too. A great many Twitter “outrages” could be avoided if people would just do this one simple thing:

Click. the. link.