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An
Open Letter to the Members of the Diversity Task Force of Loyola
University New Orleans
Open Letter
(well, as open as I can get it) to the members of the Loyola New
Orleans University Diversity Task Force:
Ted Quant
(Twomey Center), Lydia Voigt (Sociology), Wing Fok (Management),
Lisa Martin (Mass Communication), Alvaro Alcazar (Twomey Center),
James Hobbs (University Library), Kurt Bindewald (University Ministry),
Artemis Preeshl (Theater Arts and Dance), Karen Reichard (Women’s
Resource Center), Anthony Decuir (Music and Fine Arts)
In your
open letter report concerning me you trashed my reputation,
implied I am a racist and a sexist, and that I "marginalize"
my black and female students. You did so on the basis of a newspaper
report about a lecture I gave in Baltimore, MD, on 11/6/08,
which none of you attended. Anyone who has ever been misquoted
in a newspaper or in any other way had his actions misrepresented
can speak to the folly of relying on such reports, without verification
from independent source(s) of the underlying events. Before you
acted, did any of you contact any eyewitness to the relevant events
to the end of determining if the newspaper report was an accurate
depiction thereof? Well, here is your
chance to hear my views directly, right out of the horse’s mouth
so to speak. On this coming Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Nunemaker
Hall, at 7 p.m., I will give virtually the same lecture I gave before.
If you attend, this will be an opportunity for you to condemn me
(unless you are convinced otherwise) not for what others have said
about me, but for what I, myself, say.
 I
have made gentlemen’s bets with several friends as to whether any
of you will attend or not. They all take the view that none of you
will appear at this event. But, don’t ask me why, I have a higher
view of your academic integrity than they. So, please show up and
help me prove them wrong, regarding your willingness to hear for
yourselves a point of view you do not support, and that you have
condemned without a fair hearing, or, indeed, any hearing at all.
One of the
members of your Task Force, Prof. Wing Fok, went so far as to claim
that the burden of proof in cases of this sort rests not with the
accusers, but
with the accused. I vehemently reject such a juridical viewpoint.
But, suppose, arguendo, that it is correct; that the burden rests
with me to prove that I am not guilty of the charges leveled
at me by this task force. Well, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 I shall
be attempting (in effect) to do precisely that. I am therefore of
the opinion that you, the members of this Task Force, have at least
a moral obligation to attend, and listen.
 March
25. New Orleans, LA. Loyola University New Orleans, Economics Club.
"Is the capitalist system guilty of racism, sexism? No.: Walter
Block responds to his politically correct critics." Nunemaker
Hall, 7 p.m.
Yours truly,
Walter E. Block,
Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 5, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
wblock@loyno.edu
PS. Request
to all of my former students, whites, blacks, males, females: please
write me a letter stating your views as to whether or not, based
on your classroom experience with me, I "marginalize"
female and black students. I intend to use such letters to defend
myself against charges of racism, sexism. Do, please, indicate what
you are doing nowadays, if you have graduated.
March
23, 2009
Dr.
Block [send him mail] is a
professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior
fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending
the Undefendable and the newly released Labor
Economics From A Free Market Perspective.
Copyright
© 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in
part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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