Cornell Law Prof Says There’s A “Coordinated Effort” To Have Him Fired After He Criticized Black Lives Matter

Recall, it was just days ago that we pointed out Cornell professor and friend of Zero Hedge Dave Collum was publicly shamed by Cornell for daring to express the “wrong” opinion about current events on social media. Now, there’s a second Cornell professor coming under fire for his critique of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson has challenged any student or faculty member to a public debate about the Black Lives Matter movement after he says liberals on campus have launched a “coordinated effort” to have him fired from his job. At least 15 emails from alumni have been sent to the dean, demanding that action be taken, according to Fox News. 

“There is an effort underway to get me fired at Cornell Law School, where I’ve worked since November 2007, or if not fired, at least denounced publicly by the school,” Jacobson wrote on Thursday. “I condemn in the strongest terms any insinuation that I am racist.”

Jacobson founded the website Legal Insurrection and says he’s had an “awkward relationship” with the university for years as a result. The recent outrage comes as a result of two posts he recently made on his site:

• Reminder: “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case (June 4, 2020)
• The Bloodletting and Wilding Is Part of An Agenda To Tear Down The Country (June 3, 2020)

“Those posts accurately detail the history of how the Black Lives Matters Movement started, and the agenda of the founders which is playing out in the cultural purge and rioting taking place now,” Jacobson said. 

He recently wrote on his blog: “Living as a conservative on a liberal campus is like being the mouse waiting for the cat to pounce. For over 12 years, the Cornell cat did not pounce. Though there were frequent and aggressive attempts by outsiders to get me fired, including threats and harassment, it always came from off campus.”

“Not until now, to the best of my knowledge, has there been an effort from inside the Cornell community to get me fired,” he says.

“The effort appears coordinated, as some of the emails were in a template form. All of the emails as of Monday were from graduates within the past 10 years,” he continued. Jacobson’s “clinical faculty colleagues, apparently in consultation with the Black Law Students Association” drafted and published a letter denouncing ‘commentators, some of them attached to Ivy League Institutions, who are leading a smear campaign against Black Lives Matter.’”

Cornell responded, backhandedly defending the Professor’s right to his own opinion:

“…the Law School’s commitment to academic freedom does not constitute endorsement or approval of individual faculty speech. But to take disciplinary action against him for the views he has expressed would fatally pit our values against one another in ways that would corrode our ability to operate as an academic institution.”

“This is not just about me. It’s about the intellectual freedom and vibrancy of Cornell and other higher education institutions, and the society at large. Open inquiry and debate are core features of a vibrant intellectual community,” he stated.

“I challenge a representative of those student groups and a faculty member of their choosing to a public debate at the law school regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement, so that I can present my argument and confront the false allegations in real-time rather than having to respond to baseless community email blasts.”

“I condemn in the strongest terms any insinuation that I am racist, and I greatly resent any attempt to leverage meritless accusations in hopes of causing me reputational harm. While such efforts might succeed in scaring others in a similar position, I will not be intimidated,” Jacobson concluded.