This New York Post story about a prominent Columbia University professor punching out a female colleague in a discussion over "white privilege" has several lessons:
1) Never discuss sensitive or controversial issues in a place where alcohol is consumed in large quantities.
2) Whatever the disagreement, a man hitting a woman in the face with a punch so hard that it knocks off her glasses and is heard in the next door kitchen...well, that's bad form.
3) It is particularly wicked when the woman did nothing to provoke such an attack. Except, that is, to disagree with the professor's sense of political-correctness regarding affirmative action.
4) When you've committed such a bonehead move, take responsibility for it, apologize and make suitable restitution. Don't come up with a mealy-mouthed response like this guy did, "It was a very unfortunate event. I didn't mean for it to explode the way it did." Misfortune had nothing to do with it. She didn't trip. She wasn't caught with an elbow on the dance floor. You punched her -- and quite hard -- in the face. Of course, you meant it to explode the way it did. So, man up and make it right.
And Lesson Number 5) Those racial divides that were supposed to end once we elected a bi-racial, post-racial President? They are, alas, with us still. And they're our personal business to attend to. Understanding, tolerance, learning how to argue on the merits of a case rather than leaning on stereotypes, emotions and prejudices -- that's on us, not the White House.
So let the discussions begin on race, affirmative action, "white privilege," cultural dominance, slavery and Jim Crow, segregation, language and customs, ethnicity and "tribal culture," white guilt, and so on. But let's keep those conversations calm, intelligent, informed...and out of the taverns.
