Prof: “The Constitution Is Racist”

Authored by Robert Schmad via Campus Reform,

One Illinois professor recently took to Twitter to insist that America’s legislative foundation is “racist,” and that America should therefore “abolish” the Senate and Electoral College.

North Central College professor Adam Kotsko, who teaches the history of philosophy and religion, tweeted August 3 that “the Constitution is racist,” going on to qualify the statement by saying it could “operate in non-racist ways” but also claiming that “the design and effect of the constitution, in all its iterations, has been racist.”

In the following tweet, he added, “Same for capitalism, by the way!”

When asked by a Twitter user how he would change the Constitution to make it “non-racist,” Kotsko replied, “Abolish state autonomy, the Senate, and the EC. Add an affirmative unconditional right to vote for all citizens. Abolish local control and funding of schools.”

Two days later, on August 5, Kotsko tweeted that “white American cultural common sense” is “‘giv[ing] the police the benefit of the doubt” to ensure “enough” Black people are killed. He called this the “default position” and suggested that people who defend affording the police such respect are just advocating for the death of Black people in a “euphemistic way” so they can “sound smart.”

When asked if Amendments 13, 14, and 15 to the Constitution (the amendments that abolished slavery, afforded equal protection under the law and made it illegal to abridge rights on the basis of race, respectively) were racist in design and effect, Kotsko refused a request for comment. He also refused to comment when asked on what evidence he based his assertions about White culture.

Kotsko said he refuses to provide comment to Campus Reform because it is “an illegitimate and harmful pseudo-journalistic enterprise” stating that its “only purpose” is “to encourage harassment of professors and threaten their livelihoods.” 

He concluded his statement by encouraging the author of this article to “sever all ties with Campus Reform.”

After Campus Reform reached out to Kotsko he again went to Twitter to provide his thoughts. He announced to his followers that Campus Reform was writing an article about his “Very Controversial Tweets” stating that “no one should be concerned.” 

He went on to call coverage of his tweets a “pathetic attempt at harassment.”

Campus Reform reached out to North Central College but not hear back in time for publication.

This is not the first time Kotsko’s tweets have made headlines.

In the past, the professor has used his Twitter account to joke about all White people committing suicide and to express a lack of surprise regarding the 2015 terrorist attack targeting French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which he believed to be “devoted to hate speech.” 

Kotsko later apologized for that tweet.