The Internet never forgets. That’s one lesson that a taxpayer-funded professor is learning.
A University of Delaware professor has been let go after suggesting Otto Warmbier “got exactly what he deserved” when he recently died at just twenty-two after serving a portion of his fifteen-year sentence of hard labor in North Korea. The university confirmed in a statement that it cut ties with Katherine Dettwyler, who taught in the anthropology department, and will not be welcomed back in the future.
Last week, Dettwyler published questionable comments on Facebook and on a National Review article. The remarks can be summarized by this: Warmbier was a “spoiled” and “white, rich, clueless” American student who “got exactly what he deserved.”
Here is what the sixty-two-year-old wrote on Facebook:
Is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved? He went to North Korea, for f[—]’s sake, and then acted like a spoiled, naive, arrogant, US college student who had never had to face the consequences of his actions.
These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade. His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it’s Otto’s parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives
Here is what the breastfeeding expert penned in the National Review comments section:
Otto is typical of the mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueles [sic] males who come into my classes. These are the same kids who cry about their grades, because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade. They simple deserve a good grade for being who they are. Or instead of crying, they bluster and threaten their female professors.
Dettwyler removed the comments – or at the very least hid them from the public – on Friday.
Once her statements were discovered, Dettwyler received a flurry of negative responses, including urging her employer to terminate the professor.
At first, the university attempted to distance itself from Dettwyler. The school issued a statement, writing that it condemns the “insensitivity toward a tragic event”:
We condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic even such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered. We find these comments particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values. Our sympathies are with the Warmbier family.
It turned out that this did not suffice. The university announced over the weekend that it would be ending its contract with Dettwyler, reports The Daily Caller:
On June 23, the University issued a statement about comments that Dettwyler recently posted online, at a time when she was not employed by the University, concerning student behavior and the Otto Warmbier incident.
Those comments in no way reflect the values or position of the University of Delaware.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, traveled to North Korea last year and was arrested for allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel. Following a trial –which many say was dubious at best – he was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor for “hostile acts” perpetrated against the government. After eighteen months in captivity, Pyongyang released Warmbier earlier this month, after he suffered significant neurological injury and arrived home in a coma. Shortly after that the UVA student passed away.
This latest incident with the University of Delaware professor isn’t just the rantings of a single person. Many on the left have continuously mocked Warmbier over the last year.
Since the reports of his detainment, leftist media outlets rejoiced, celebrating the fact that his so-called white privilege did not stop the state from carrying out its duties.
In March 2016, the Huffington Post published an article by La Sha titled “North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal.” The author opined that Warmbier “learned that the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.”
Salon was just as gleeful in a piece called “This might be America’s biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea.” The story has since been removed.
Ebony Magazine echoed HuffPo and Salon’s sentiments with this op-ed: “You Gon’ Learn Today: On the Revocation of White Privilege in North Korea.” Bustle posted something similar: “Why Do People Blame Otto Warmbier For His North Korea Sentence? Privilege Can Sometimes Come At A Price.”
Last week, Affinity Magazine tweeted:
Watch whiteness work. He wasn’t a “kid” or “innocent” you can’t go to another country and try to steal from them. Respect their laws.
(Does Affinity feel the same way about illegal immigrants from Mexico?)
The tweet was soon deleted.
Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central made light of the situation, noting that he has little “sympathy for this guy and his crocodile tears.” Wilmore later apologized to the Warmbier family.
The left is so entrenched in this insipid and asinine idea of white privilege that they are willing to defend a communist dictatorship. Regardless of political affiliation and a lack of common sense, nobody committing such a silly crime should ever be sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, especially in North Korea, where the conditions are barbaric and repulsive.
It is a sad state of affairs when the left is coming to the defense of a tyrannical government because they detest straight white males. As the days go by, it becomes clear that social justice ideologues are vile beings who have little respect for those who have a skin color of which they disapprove.