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Thursday, March 18, 2004

TEACHING TODAY

Dunned


Ah hell, let's just keep it coming, shall we? Yet another in a series highlighting notable faculty at American and overseas universities.

Today: Professor of Psychology Kerri Dunn, Claremont Colleges.


Since no one was around to do it for her, Kerri destroyed her own car - broke windows, slashed tires, wrote anti-semitic and racist statements all over it, etc. - because of her insistence that her institution be made aware of the pervasive reality of hate crimes in America [latimes.com, March 18]. Like a firefighter who sets fires in order to heroically dash in and put them out, Kerri stages hate crimes against herself in order to be lionized as a victim of hate crimes.

Galvanized by the appalling nature of this act (Kerri didn't mention to Claremont that she'd done it herself - two witnesses came forward a few days after her lionization to describe watching her do it -- and investigators reported that Kerri's responses to their questions about this were, er, "inconsistent"), all of the Claremont colleges were shut down for a day of rallying, garment rending, and Dunn-worshipping. I quote from The Student Life, a newspaper at Claremont:

'Dunn made a surprise visit at the end of the rally, speaking publicly for the first time since the hate crime. "I can't tell you how it makes me feel to look out into the sea of you and know that you are here to support me and the larger issue of civil rights and equality," said Dunn after waiting two minutes for the crowd's explosive applause to die down. "These were terrorists," Dunn said of those responsible. "Calling these acts ignorant is a dangerous misnomer. It's an excuse to turn your head."'

Two minutes!

Well, you know what's next. Like Jayson Blair, Kerri will turn out to have been suffering from any number of traumas - cocaine addiction, recovered memories of childhood molestation -- and when interviewed during the national promotion of her book -- Burning Down My Mother's Car -- she will say "I now think the reason I was drawn to the field of psychology was an attempt to heal my own wounds..."