Update II (11/30): Check out the rest of LBC!
Update: A commenter sent the link to Byington’s column. She committed the crime of the century: admitting she was a Republican. Again, let me stress that black students had a right to disagree with her views, but it’s too bad those with deficient intelligence chose to attack her personally.
This line is probably what drove them insane:
I think it’s sad when some whites feel they must stifle their opinions because of the color of their skin. That must be what life was like for blacks in the 1950s.
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Who is Christine Byington?
Last week she was a student at Winthrop University in my hometown in South Carolina. Byington, a former copy editor at the student newspaper, wrote a “controversial” column about the unfairness of skin color preferences. There was a barrage of criticism from black students in an uproar because another black person publicly bucked tradition and spoke out against race-based entitlements.
Today Byington is a former student. The pressure was too much for her to handle.
Byington’s column was titled, “Student observes double standards at Winthrop,” which contained similar assertions I make on this blog almost every day: skin color preferences of any kind are unconstitutional, abhorrent, and immoral:
In the column, Byington, who is bi-racial, criticized blacks who complain about Winthrop and went on to oppose minority scholarships and organizations devoted to blacks, arguing that equal treatment should be given to other races. She also compared today’s racial climate for whites to the oppression blacks faced before the Civil Rights movement.“Black people at Winthrop will probably be angry,” Byington wrote in the first sentence of the column.
And she was right….The comments that Kee said proved most controversial are ones Byington made about the current state of blacks in America and the fear whites feel about expressing opinions on racial issues.
“We no longer hose people in the streets,” Byington’s column states. “I’d say if you have the freedom to sit in a classroom and state those opinions, you’ve got it pretty well.”
The last line of the column drew particular criticism, describing what Byington said was a reluctance among whites to discuss racial issues.
“I think it’s sad when some whites feel they must stifle their opinions because of the color of their skin. That must be what life was like for blacks in the 1950s,” she wrote. (Source)
Before I go on, let me clear up something. I don’t agree that whites face the same racial oppression now that blacks once faced. I haven’t read the column, so I’m not certain whether Byington wrote that or if it’s the reporter’s interpretation. I don’t make a habit of insulting commenters, but some of you will ignore this entire post and focus on that one statement in the story.
For you registered members of the bonehead brigade, I’m warning you right now against accusing me of claiming whites are “oppressed” in any way comparable to blacks back in the day. Moving on…
Predictably, black students at Winthrop went into a ridiculous and illogical tizzy and did what black folks usually do: gather together in bi*** and moan sessions (BMS) and castigate other blacks (and whites) who have no interest in sharing or expressing their “woe is us” mantra.
That’s when the story was picked up by the Associated Press.
Technically, the college officials called for the forum, according to the story, but that doesn’t change my point. The officials likely did so because the students asked. Either way, the sentiment is still the same.
I’m not surprised by their reaction. As a member of the black race, I am well acquainted with “black think,” a mentally that I once embraced. For the record, just as Byington had a right to express her opinions in the column, students who didn’t like it had a right to say so. But I am deeply disappointed that Byington withdrew from the school.
Part of the reason many people read LBC is that I say what I believe and stick by it, no matter how much pressure there is against me. I haven’t succumbed to peer pressure since I was an insecure kid in high school. I’m a grown woman who knows what she believes and is able and willing to say so, out loud, to anyone who asks. I defend my positions on this blog and in person, and I do so under my own name, fully accountable, and not behind an infantile screen name.
I dare say some of you wouldn’t be able to handle the nasty e-mails and cyber-harassment I get on a weekly basis. I know exactly the sort of e-mail Byington received: unrighteously indignant black people calling her names and questioning her “blackness.”
That Byington is biracial only added fuel to the smoldering embers. It doesn’t matter, though. She could be a direct descendant of a West African slave with not a drop of “white blood” in her. It was her words and ideas that caused the uproar, and calling her out for having a white parent is simply ignorant ad hominem from people who haven’t learned to think critically, formulate arguments, and intelligently challenge the premise.
It’s shameful and embarrassing that some blacks are so emotional and irrational when it comes to discussing race honestly. They pay lip service to “honest dialogue” as long as blacks are portrayed as innocent victims and whites are characterized as demonic oppressors. They don’t want to talk about outrageous crime rates, for example, but skin color-based scholarships and government contracts, they’ll rant about all day.
The advantage I have over whites in this area is that I have an inside view of the game. When I was a naïve college student and perceived threats to my way of life as a member of the victim class (which was based on the fact that I’m descended from slaves), I struck out at whites and attended BMS, fighting for my “right” to retain my lowered-standard place in society. Of course, I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but since my enlightenment, I see it clearly.
It’s a sickness, and I thank God in heaven I was cured.
Christine Byington is young. I pray that she learns to withstand the pressure and not back down from telling and standing by the truth.
Update II: Thanks Kathryn and Betsy. This issue needs more attention. I’d like to contact Christine Byington and lend her my support. She needs to hear from someone who knows what she’s going through, and she ought to start blogging. 
Update III: This is what accountability means, anonymous bloggers and commenters, so take note: I’d like to interview Byington to find out exactly what happened, i.e., whether she received nasty e-mails about her parentage, etc. While briefly researching this story, I thought I read that she received comments about being biracial. If she didn’t get those comments or e-mails, I will retract certain statements in this post. I’d also like to get a transcript or recording of the forum, too.
I know all about the kind of anger Byington’s column sparked, but I don’t want to project my experience on to her. I will try to contact her; in the meantime, if you have an inside scoop please contact me.
More sources: Student quits Winthrop after column and Opinion article in Winthrop University newspaper stirs campus emotions.
Update IV: I’ve e-mailed the reporter in the first Herald story and asked him to forward my e-mail to Byington and the school’s director for “multi-cultural student life” to request a recording or transcript of the forum and an interview with him. I’ll keep you posted.
