Women's Studies Department: Liberals Only

Once upon a time there was a black woman living in Inner City, USA--we'll call her Star. Star was a single mother who didn't have the will power to make it through on her own. She had the strength and the ability, but she chose to cheat the welfare system instead. Star had multiple abortions, no goals, and was dead weight on the back of society. Then, one morning Star woke up and realized that she was wasting her life and her talents. She got a job, got off of welfare, and started being a better mother to her children. After she got on her own two feet, nobody could stop her. Star went on to start her own non-profit organization that helped other struggling African-Americans get out of Inner City and created better lives for thousands. Not only was Star the president and founder of her own organization (which became national, by the way), but she was also a well-respected author of several books dedicated to her cause. She was a true role model who inspired thousands to get off of welfare and start living their American Dreams.

Great story, right? Exactly the kind we like to hear in the United States. It’s a story of hope and change and human triumph. It’s the kind of story we don’t hear often enough.

Unfortunately, it's not the kind of story that minority and women's groups on campus don't support.

Star Parker--the woman from the story--is a real person. Her story is true and she's going to be telling that story tomorrow (3/5) at 7:30 P.M. in 2080 Grainger.

Emails regarding this event and potential cosponsorship were sent to the Campus Womens Center, the Womens Studies Department, the Wisconsin Black Student Union, the Afro-American Studies Department, the Multicultural Student Center, and several other minority groups on campus. There are no cosponsors.

Most of the groups were non-responsive; those that were declined the invitation to support the event. Not only did the Women's Studies Department decline, but Aili Tripp, the director of the Women's Studies Research Center, responded to me that Star Parker's autobiography "does not reflect the types of objectives that [the department] would be able to support as a community of scholars."

Translation: the Women's Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin would rather have women on welfare, having abortions on the taxpayers' dime, wasting their God-given talents than out in the world thriving without the so-called help of the government. Is that really the kind of message that we should be supporting? Should the Women's Studies Department and other minority groups at this university shy away from a message just because it seems a little conservative? No. But it happens.

Personally, I take this as proof of something that I've known since I first stepped foot on this campus: groups like the Campus Women's Center, the Women's Studies Department, and the Wisconsin Black Student Union are nothing but leftist front groups. These groups get the funding that political organizations on this campus can't to spread the leftist political message. Without the funding of the UW through student segregated fees, how much funding would these groups have? Who would actually give to a group that spreads the message that minority women belong on welfare? This is a worthless and inherently untrue message from an otherwise insignificant set of organizations and for years nobody has called them on it.

Now, I'm calling you out. I challenge these groups and those who run them to show me even one event or flyer or part of their mission statement--anything, really--that is unbiased or *gasp* conservative. My guess is that they can't do it.