Ben Shapiro Defends Protégé Kashuv After Racist Comments
Peter D'Abrosca
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A prominent #NeverTrump figure is defending his protégé Kyle Kashuv after Kashuv’s acceptance to Harvard was revoked amid a racism scandal.
“Harvard Rescinds Admission To Conservative Kyle Kashuv Over Private Racist Remarks He Wrote At 16, Despite Apology And Evidence Of Growth. This Is Disgusting,” read a headline on Ben Shapiro’s site The Daily Wire, penned by Shapiro himself.
Shapiro went on to defend Kashuv in the piece, who used the N-word about 50 times at age 16 in a shared Google document while studying with classmates. Kashuv had been admitted to Harvard College, but the school revoked his acceptance, a decision which Kashuv made public Monday. Kashuv publicly apologized after the scandal, but Harvard proceeded to boot him anyway.
Shapiro has often stated that he is unequivocally against racism, and has become downright indignant when members of the leftist of the media label him as such. But it seems that in the case his protégé, he’s willing to make some equivocations. After all, Shapiro gave Kashuv a platform. Kashuv has about 10 bylines on The Daily Wire.
“In a normal world, this [Kashuv’s apology] would have been enough. Kashuv is 18 years old, and he wrote the comments when he was 16,” Shapiro said. “He didn’t commit a crime; he didn’t espouse his gross views publicly; his behavior since has not mimicked any of the content or attitude of the comments.”
By this logic, private racism, which Shapiro describes as “gross views,” would be just fine. Of course, it is not.
Shapiro continued, making the same excuse for Kashuv that Kashuv tried to make for himself – saying that the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which claimed the lives of 17 students and thrust Kashuv and his left-wing counterpart David Hogg into the the political spotlight, was a “life-changing trauma,” attempting to use this fact as a means to argue that Kashuv has matured since making the comments.
He spent the rest of the piece complaining about the viciousness of the political left – and therein lies the crux of this issue.
America First conservatives have been warning NeoCons like Shapiro that no amount of capitulation to the left on any issue will make them accept anyone who puts and (R) next to their name. Still, Shapiro has spent a great deal of time capitulating, essentially apologizing to the political left on behalf of Republicans for the actions of President Donald J. Trump, otherwise called “virtue signaling.”
As it turns out, all that weak capitulation, branded as “fair-mindedness” or “true conservatism,” didn’t make a difference in poor Kashuv’s Harvard admissions status. But hey, it’s like Shapiro always says – that’s how the free market works. Harvard is a private college that can behave as it wishes. And if conservatives are unhappy about that, they should simply build their own Ivy League school.
Big League Politics reached out to Shapiro when the initial racism scandal broke. He never returned our comment request.
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