Douglas Muir, a lecturer at the University of Virginia, has agreed "to take leave" after a Facebook post comparing Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan, university officials said. Photo: Facebook
A lecturer at the University of Virginia is taking time away from the classroom after he compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan in a recent online post, university officials said.
Douglas Muir, an adjunct lecturer for the university’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, made the comment on Oct. 4 in response to a Facebook post by a real estate agent attending an event featuring Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.
“Black lives matter is the biggest rasist [sic] organization since the clan,” Muir replied. “Are you kidding me. Disgusting!!!”
Muir’s response, which has since been deleted, prompted a flurry of criticism online, where some noted the misspelling in his original post, and from university officials who said it raised “serious concerns” about the school’s commitment to inclusion.
“While free speech and open discussion are fundamental principles of our nation and the University, Mr. Muir’s comment was entirely inappropriate,” university officials said in a statement. “UVA Engineering does not condone actions that undermine our values, dedication to diversity and educational mission.”
Muir, who teaches entrepreneurship in both the university’s School of Engineering and Darden School of Business, has “agreed to take leave” from the school and is preparing to release his own statement, university officials said.
“UVA Engineering is educating the nation’s future leaders, problem-solvers and policy makers,” the statement continued. “We expect our faculty and staff to create a climate that supports and engages all. This incident has illuminated the need for further dialogue.”
Attempts to reach Muir, of Charlottesville, were not successful on Monday. According to his university faculty website, Muir is also a “seasoned restaurateur” with family-style Italian eateries in Charlottesville and Richmond.
An employee who answered the phone Monday at his Charlottesville eatery, Bella’s, said Muir had not been at the restaurant since the controversy erupted.
“He’s not available, he hasn’t been in the restaurant since this all happened,” the employee told The Post. “Obviously, people are upset, so he hasn’t shown his face.”
Muir’s post also caught the eye of Charlottesville City Councilman Wes Bellamy, who called for a boycott of his restaurants.
“I didn’t expect this from him, but if this is how he feels, he doesn’t have anything else to say to me,” Bellamy wrote on Instagram. “I would encourage everyone in the city to boycott the restaurant.”
Bellamy’s post continued: “The notion that #BlackLivesMatter can be comparable to the Klu Klux Klan is not only incredibly misguided, but goes to show the lack cultural awareness [sic] that still plagues many professors at our Universities across the country. An organization, a movement, a collective body that aims to empower Black People, and rally allies is not a terroristic organization, but one that aims to collective bring people together to address systemic oppression and racism, amongst other things, is here to stay.”
Bellamy told The Post on Monday that he’s glad Muir has taken a leave of absence.
“I believe that the University of Virginia should not allow Mr. Muir to be placed in front of students again until he has had a great deal of cultural competency training and professional development,” he wrote in an email to The Post. “I have spoken with Mr. Muir, and he has stated to me that he is remorseful for his words, and I appreciate that. However, that does not change the fact that he needs to be educated on just exactly what Black Lives Matter is all about; putting an end to systemic oppression and injustice, and the need for us to work together to break down these barriers. He has received backlash on social media, but he has also received a great deal of praise, and in my opinion, that shows just how divided our community and our country is.”
University officials apparently were alerted to the offensive post when a Twitter user informed them on Wednesday, saying it’s “unacceptable” for a university lecturer to compare Black Lives Matter with the Ku Klux Klan.
Tom Katsouleas, executive vice president and provost of the University of Virginia, said he was “disturbed and saddened” by Muir’s post.
“This statement is inconsistent with the University of Virginia’s values and with its commitment to the principles of academic freedom,” Katsouleas said in a statement. “The University of Virginia stands firmly against racism and social injustice of any kind.”
Muir’s comments do not “foster intellectual exploration, nor do they encourage the voices of others,” Katsouleas’ statement continued.
Muir has previously worked as an airline captain for US Airways, according to his University of Virginia faculty web page. He’s currently trying to expand his stable of Italian restaurants.
“He is in the planning stages of opening three more Bella’s Restaurants in Virginia before exiting the company to a hedge fund in 2017,” the website reads.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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