Students Who Said Truth Is ‘A Myth’ Demand Compensation
The authors of the open letter that called objective truth a “myth and white supremacy” and sought disciplinary action against conservative journalists on campus are now demanding compensation for their “labor” from “non-Black allies.”
According to a screenshot sent to the Claremont Independent, one of the authors took to a Facebook group to reiterate his critiques of the email from Pomona College President David Oxtoby that originally prompted the letter and to seek financial support from “non-Black” students and allies beyond the Claremont Colleges.
In that original email, Oxtoby defended the value of free speech on campus and emphasized Pomona’s commitment to “the exercise of free speech and academic freedom” in the aftermath of protests that shut down a scheduled talk by Heather Mac Donald, a noted scholar and critic of Black Lives Matter, at the adjacent campus of Claremont McKenna College.
In his Facebook post, the author blasted Oxtoby’s statement and assailed the “normalization of antiblackness at the Claremont Colleges, particularly Pomona.”
“The response from the president of the College condones hate speech towards Black bodies as a form of free speech, while simultaneously berating those students of marginalized identities who protest for their right to safely exist that [sic] these institutions,” the author wrote. “This college would rather protect the right to verbally degrade Black people than to protect Black lives, especially those of the students at their campus; hinting at the inevitable vulgarity of whiteness and white supremacy.”
“We ask that other Black students and non-black allies from the [Claremont Colleges’] community and beyond to support us with this endeavor to hold our administration accountable,” he continued.
The author went on to admonish his “non-black allies” to pay him and the other two individuals responsible for the original open letter for their “labor.”
“Also ‘allies’ and other folks, if you receive social capital from sharing this letter, you should provide the organizers of this movement with tangible capital and compensate us for our labor,” he urged, appending the usernames for the Venmo accounts of himself and the other authors of the open letter to the end of his post.
Venmo is a payment service app that is used to send money directly to friends and make purchases.