moral: don't be a racist.

I bet Liberty U would snap him up.

Unless you've been living on the moon for the past 10 years, you should know that almost everybody checks an applicant's social media posts.

Sadly, not everyone shares your peculiar sensibilities for being extreme and shocking. It's the burden of the performance artist, and now you've lost a chance at going to Harvard. That's so sad, I almost forgot about people with real problems, like the refugees who have had their families broken up and tortured by our government. Or the Americans in Puerto Rico.

Perhaps your typing skills will land you a nice position someplace other than Harvard.

There are some obvious points of discussion here given that the judgement of a 16 year old is severely lacking, however, these are adolescents and their parents, who have to be aware that we are growing up in an age where your thoughts and actions are made readily available to hundreds of millions of people. You have to be more careful about what you put out there especially if you are in the business of raising your profile like this guy was.

This guy lost the privilege to go to Harvard. It is entirely Harvard's choice to extend admissions to people they want to represent their student body. He wasn't rejected because of his race, gender, conservative views, religion, etc.. He lost the spot because he and his friends thought is was a good idea to post racist rants onto the internet, where it is accessible to others. The point isn't that they put it up, the point is that they thought that "sharing with each other in private" vile racist language, was acceptable. Again, I know he was a stupid 16 year old but still, how do we know that he has changed at all? The sad thing is that he is a conservative and unfortunately conservatives have the tendency and desire to preserve the old order of things which often includes a racial superiority and keeping Black people and other minorities in their place.

He can probably get a full ride at Liberty University.

I certainly wasn't a racist. This isn't a matter of "bad judgment," IMO: it's indicative of character. No doubt Harvard took this into consideration.

I would argue that we are all exposed to racism living in American society and express it to varying degrees. I think that people can outgrow their learning and become better people through exposure to others and re-examining their ideas. Being conservative however, is not a good sign of willingness to grow. Also, going to Harvard is not a right so it isn't owed to anyone. I am sure that Harvard does not want to be associated with explicit racism, especially as this young man has a high profile going in.

When I was 16, I didn't use any of those words. Not because I was worried about getting into a top school. I didn't use them, simply because I didn't use them - ever.

You did use them, and they came back to bite you on the ass. You wanted to be "extreme and shocking." Well, you succeeded, apparently, and now it's costing you something.

Too bad. Not for you, but too bad that you had a mindset that let you use those words in the first place. I hope you've learned from that, but I can't blame Harvard for rescinding your admission. Stuff has consequences. That's what my parents taught me, long before I was 16.

Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2019, 03:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Glad they don't want him -you don't get a pass because of your age

"People will remember any stupid thing you do, even if they don't remember the good things."

Now, like any self-respecting teenager, I did plenty of stupid things, but never any that hurt anyone in any way. I actually listened to my father for the important stuff, and went my own way on things that didn't matter much.

I was my small high school's prankster and practical joker, and often found myself sitting in the Principal's office over some prank I had pulled. But, none of my pranks caused any real harm, and the Principal usually had to stifle his laughter as he attempted to scold me.

But, nobody nor any property was ever damaged by any of my pranks or practical jokes. Some of them are still remembered by my classmates, over 50 years later.

The Little Richard music that boomed out of the neighboring church's steeple, instead of the noon carillon music, for example. Of course I was caught. I was the only 16 year old kid who had keys to the pastor's office. I mean, who else could have done it? Oddly enough, though, even the pastor didn't take away my keys. He did make me promise not to do that again, though.

This is what played that day:

when we were his age, we didn't have the Internet to record our stupid! And our friends did not all have a video camera in their pockets, either.

Link to tweet

Someone didn't raise him proper.

Well, it's text and skype messages, but you get the idea.

This kid should use this to grow and learn, instead he'll claim he's a victim of left wing Harvard.

Know this, there are kids out there who worked just has hard as Kashuv did to get into Harvard, now one of them will presumably get his spot, and that student won't have been the type of kid who 2 years prior was spouting racial slurs.

And he only apologized now because he was found out, if he was sorry he should have apologized back then. The Republican Party is racist, he will be welcomed in it.

Open up a slot at Harvard for someone who didn't need to be taught not to use that word so profligately. If young Kyle is going to learn the lesson, missing out on a place at Harvard will be a good way to remember the lesson.

I used to play in a monthly poker game, and we had a guy we nicknamed the Barracuda because when he bluffed you out of a pot or suckered you into plunging, he had a slow smile that would spread across his face. A couple of times, he brought his early 20s-age son along to play. On more than one occasion, Baby-cuda was about to fold a winning hand when dutiful dad alerted him to look a little closer. Someone else put the bee in Allan's ear that if he couldn't help himself from letting his son learn a little lesson, maybe he ought not to bring him. The point being that if you lose a pot because you weren't attentive, it would be a far better teacher for playing poker than having Dad keep an eye on you.

right-wing terrorists shouldn't be admitted to places of learning. But then....there are probably plenty of Universities in red states that would gladly welcome him and his guns.

If I’d typed that kind of filth I’d sure as hell remember it.

As a fact of life, it is the responsible thing to do for schools to deny admission to right wingers that present the highest risk. If society will do nothing to protect students that leaves schools with the burden of doing it themselves.

Link to tweet

Good for Harvard.

While most gun nuts can't get into college anyway, I'm glad that the few that qualify are getting their due.

On edit: I see the terrible post he made. He got what he deserved.

well before they turn 16.

So while privileged little white boys and girls are bemoaning the unfairness of being held accountable for their racist actions as teenagers, black and brown children are being taught how not to get murdered by racists.

Yeah, teens do stupid shit. But racism isn't something stupid they do - racism is a horrible and deadly way of thinking (and acting) they embrace.

No one gets to claim they simply didn't think about what they were saying or doing because they were/ are a teenager. Being 16 is not an excuse for racism.

They know full well the words they are using cause pain and damage. They simply don't care because they think their white skin entitles them. They don't even assume they will get away it - they never consider that they won't. It never enters their mind that it will come back on them. When it does they all whine about being just a kid.

Lot of dead black children who don't get the chance to say but I was just 16 (12, 13, 14, 15, etc.).

They're just dead.

I grew up in TN. In the 80s, when I was 16, the n-word was very clearly a bad word that people didn't use in polite conversation. They sure used it outside of polite conversation - all the time. That's because they were racists and they still are.

How anyone in this century could have thought typing what he typed into a shared school document was a good idea confounds me. It really confounds me even more that his teachers and administrators didn't call him out for it when it happened.

I think Brooks and this nasty little racist deserve one another. Good on Harvard for slamming the door on him.

By Isaac Stanley-Becker June 18 at 6:07 AM

... In addition to being a straight-A student, captain of the tennis team and a mentor to underprivileged sixth- and seventh-graders, the 19-year-old was also an orphan who lived on her own in Cambridge ...

But ... She had served six months in a juvenile detention facility after pleading no contest to killing her mother in 1990, striking her over the head at least 13 times with a lead crystal candlestick ...

... Harvard, after receiving news clippings about the case, called it an unforgivable omission that the student had not disclosed the crime and the punishment in her application. Within a week, the university had revoked its offer.

... she is not unique in gaining entrance to Harvard .. only to be turned away before matriculating ...

“An offer of admission may be rescinded if a student engages in behavior that brings into question his or her honesty, maturity, or moral character,” a university spokeswoman told the Harvard Crimson .. in 2015 ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/18/what-leads-harvard-rescind-admission-racism-plagiarism-killing-your-mom/?utm_term=.52a4a8e43758

BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 06/18/19 12:13 PM EDT

Former Republican Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) on Tuesday warned that the racist, anti-Semitic language which caused Harvard to rescind the admission of Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Kyle Kashuv is similar to rhetoric used by school shooters.

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle asked if Jolly thought the Ivy League school’s decision was political, given the fact that 18-year-old Kashuv is one of the few students who advocated for gun rights following the 2018 massacre at his Parkland, Fla., high school.

“I don’t,” Jolly replied. “I think this is the perfect story for our time. Within our culture, leaders are given greater permission to racist statements and people with racist feelings. They are given greater equity. It is important for Harvard to say, ‘Not in our community.’”

Jolly pointed to HuffPost’s report about comments Kashuv made prior to the shooting on a shared Google doc with classmates which repeatedly used the N-word and included the phrase “kill all the f---ing jews” ...

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/449089-ex-gop-lawmaker-hits-kyle-kashuvs-racist-posts-these-are-the

Michael T. Nietzel ... a former university president who writes about higher education

... as a private university, Harvard has every right to decide which students will be admitted, a privilege of private institutions that conservatives usually defend. The idea that Mr. Kashuv should not be held accountable for his behavior because he was only 16 just doesn’t cut it. College admissions are premised on the behavior of teenagers. That’s the information that’s available. You don’t get to explain away a bad high school GPA by saying, “Wait, I was young. Now I know better.” And you don’t get to excuse racist language by saying, “Wait, l was young and just trying to be extreme and shocking.” Mr. Kashuv chose racism as the dimension on which to be extreme, and Harvard was reasonable to say that his choice had consequences, just as it has for similar misconduct by other admitted students in the past.

... Kashuv did not apologize initially after his comments came to light ... He’s “embarrassed” about his “idiotic comments” and he’s critical of how he behaved, but there is no “I’m sorry,” or “I apologize.” The formal apology came after Harvard asked him for an explanation. And there is evidence that the racism and anti-Semitism in the texts and Google document were not isolated examples. Kashuv’s classmates report that he was “obsessed with ranking which women were most attractive, by race. Out of nowhere, he’d go, ‘Want to hear my racial ranking system?’” Another said that Kashuv used the n-word frequently both in texts and in person ... Harvard acted reasonably when it decided this was not the type of individual it wanted on campus.

... Kashuv has lamented that Harvard’s “deciding that someone can’t grow, especially after a life-altering event like the shooting, is deeply concerning.” He continues (rather unapologetically), “Throughout its history, Harvard’s faculty has included slave owners, segregationists, bigots and anti-Semites. If Harvard is suggesting that growth isn’t possible and that our past defines our future, then Harvard is an inherently racist institution.”

Of course, Harvard is not deciding that someone can’t grow; it’s stating that Mr. Kashuv needs to grow at some other place ...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2019/06/18/harvard-was-right-to-rescind-its-admission-offer-to-kyle-kashuv/#6f5a1fb168ab

EJ Montini, Arizona Republic
Published 12:07 p.m. MT June 17, 2019
Updated 3:19 p.m. MT June 17, 2019

... Kashuv is “news” only because he’s a darling of some conservatives, including the National Rifle Association, at whose gathering he has spoken.

He got to speak there because Kashuv is a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting who, unlike many of his fellow students, is a pro-gun advocate ...

What can separate someone who gets into Harvard from someone who doesn’t may very well be what was said online at 16.

And if it was anyone else, we wouldn’t be giving it a second thought.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/06/17/harvard-should-have-dumped-kyle-kashuv/1479950001/