Conservatives defend fired writer on race

Conservative commentators and think-tanks have rushed in recent days to the defence of embattled journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley, who was fired from her job as a blogger with the respected Chronicle of Higher Education for questioning the value of black studies programmes, writes Ben Wolfgang for The Washington Times.

Chester E Finn, president of the conservative education think-tank the Thomas B Fordham Institute, called the decision “a truly reprehensible episode in the annals of American journalism”.

Liberal-turned-conservative Harry Stein, contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal magazine, said it represents “one more nail in the coffin of American higher education”.

Commentary Magazine writer Jonathan Tobin argued that Riley “transgressed no rules of journalism other than the need not to offend powerful constituencies”.

The heated debate, which has escalated quickly in the days since Riley’s 30 April piece was published, has again turned the spotlight on the sticky issue of race relations in America, particularly in academia. In her post to the magazine’s "Brainstorm" blog, commenting on a lengthy Chronicle news feature on black studies, Riley had said several of the black studies dissertations cited in the piece were “a collection of left-wing victimisation claptrap".
Full report on The Washington Times site