Maryam Muhammad never attended Claremont Mechanical College

You can bet the Michelle Malkin would be looking at Maryam Muhammad. But she wasn't looking this week. This was written back in 2004.

Ever since self-defacing teenager Tawana Brawley smeared feces all over herself, scrawled "KKK" and "nigger" on her skin, climbed into a trash bag, and blamed it on racist cops in New York, America has been victimized by wannabe victims — warped publicity-seekers so desperate for attention that they'll fake the hate by any means necessary.

Brawley (who now calls herself Maryam Muhammad) is all grown up. But her psychologically stunted heirs continue to soak up public sympathy and squander police resources.

Then Malkin hits close to home.

The latest case of apparently manufactured racism involves left-wing academic Kerri Dunn. On March 9, the Claremont McKenna College visiting professor of psychology claimed she discovered anti-Semitic, anti-black, anti-woman epithets ("kike," "nigger lover" and "whore") spray-painted on her 1992 Honda Civic. The car's windows were smashed and the tires slashed. Dunn had been a vocal critic of other alleged racist incidents on campus. After she reported the incident, administrators and students rallied around Dunn; classes were cancelled at all five of the Claremont Colleges; local and federal authorities launched an investigation.

Things started smelling funny when so many students didn't even know what "kike" meant that the campus rabbi had to put out an explanatory press release. Dunn, for that matter, isn't even Jewish. She is a Catholic "considering" converting to Judaism. So how did Dunn's purported assailants know this? She explained that the attack — which she called "a well-planned-out act of terrorism" — must have been committed by her own students, who knew of her plans to convert. More irksome questions arose. How did the assailants know which car on the campus parking lot was hers? The students must have followed her, Dunn said. And what about the $1,700 in property she told police had been stolen, which mysteriously turned up in Dunn's possession? No explanation.

The final blow to Dunn's credibility came when Claremont police and the FBI concluded that Dunn the victim was also the victimizer. Giving new meaning to the phrase "auto vandalism," two witnesses told investigators that they saw Dunn drive her car — adorned with the offending graffiti — into a parking lot and smash the car's windows and slash the tires herself. Investigators and administrators say the witnesses are credible and (unlike Dunn) have no agenda.

As is typical in these cases, the perpetrator and her loyal supporters are in denial. Dunn, who was involved in past tangles with the law over shoplifting charges, blames the police for being irresponsible and "irreparably damag(ing) her reputation and emotional health." Minority students shrug at the fraud. "I'm not concerned with whether it's a hoax or not," said Pomona College junior Adam Briggs of the Pan-African Student Association.

Of course not. When it comes to smearing America, as Tawana Brawley taught us all so well, the end always justifies the manufactured means.

My personal perspective on this was posted in the Ontario Empoblog in August 2004. (The comments, by the way, are from Inland Empress.)

Let me close by repeating a semi-related story that I shared on MySpace.

I'll tell the [story] about how I inadvertently insulted someone. Years ago (right after I moved to California) I was a counselor for the senior high group at the First United Methodist Church of Upland, California. It was June, and the church had a special event for the high school graduates, and I was asked to introduce the grads. I knew some of the people from youth group, but there was one guy that I didn't know because he never came to youth group. I quickly asked his name and his information, then proudly turned around to the attendees and announced that this student was going to go to school at Claremont Mechanical College.

Did I mention that I was new to the area?

tawanabrawley

Sphere: Related Content