Kyle Kashuv and Harvard Admissions

In the last several days, former Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv was denied admissions into Harvard because he apparently used the N-Word flippantly in a sort of continuing chat with classmates through Google Docs. Many conservatives came to Kashuv’s defense in the past twenty-four hours. Here is a smattering of the arguments that I have seen:

• Kyle was only 16 when he wrote them
• There is an impossible standard that society has set for people
• He apologized
• Have we forgotten our ability to forgive
• Why didn’t Harvard do something to Elizabeth Warren
• Harvard singled out Kyle because he’s conservative
• Harvard hypocritically applies its policies (not sure which ones)
• Harvard caved to the mob
• How is Kyle supposed to grow now that he can’t grow at Harvard

None of these takes are correct. In fact, I am shocked, although I should not be that so many people are defending Kashuv and attacking Harvard. Let’s start with the easy point here. Harvard is a private university, probably the most prestigious in the country and its admissions has every right to make this decision. Duh.

On the merits alone though, Harvard’s decision is extremely reasonably and is consistent with the times. Person X does or says something repulsive, social media goes ape shit, and then institution reacts. We all know that in 2019,  white people cannot use the N-word. Even as I write this piece, I know that I cannot spell out the word. I don’t necessarily understand why I could not just write the word in this context, but it doesn’t bother me that I can’t. It’s one of the rules of society, it’s unambiguous and everyone knows better.

But here’s Kahuv, someone smart enough to get into Harvard [Kyle was valedictorian], using the N-word like it’s no big deal. So this defense of Kashuv just seems so absurd and wrong. I get why it’s happening but it’s so stupid and ill-intentioned.  You see, Kyle rose to “fame” because he was an outspoken advocate for the Second Amendment after the Parkland shooting. While his other classmates were marching to stop gun violence, Kyle was meeting with President Trump and speaking at NRA conventions about the importance of a robust and free right to bear arms. Because Kyle held these views and was given a platform, conservative adults embraced him as one of their own. And for good reason.

But rather than uniting around a terrible and tragic event, our society continues to let us down as the media branded Kyle as someone different than Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and Delaney Tarr. And conservative media and conservatives on social media attacked the Parkland kids relentlessly for their advocacy. Once again, both sides retreated to their partisan corners and used these kids for their own personal gain. The adults failed the Parkland kids and they continue to fail them even today with this reaction to the Kashuv story.

So Kyle screwed up big time and he lost his spot at Harvard and now the adults are using Kyle to push back against “the mob” that is supposedly responsible for Kyle’s ouster. Yep, not that Kyle used the N-Word repeatedly in disgusting context. Kyle has now become a martyr. A victim of the culture war.

I ask then, will Kyle learn his lesson? Or will Fox News book him for the next five years, Jerry Falwell might give him a full ride to Liberty University, or maybe the NRA will put him next to Dana Loesch on their “tv” channel. I don’t know.

You see, there is a real problem in this country with this so-called mob ruining people’s lives. It’s happening all the time and it’s claimed victims of all races, genders and political parties. Conservatives seem to think that “their people” are the only victims, but it’s happening everywhere. And it needs to stop. But using Kyle Kashuv to push back is dumb and misguided and frankly, you are condoning what he said if you are defending him for the sake of defeating the mob. This is not the hill to die on.

There are countless examples of good, innocent people  to illustrate that the mob is dangerous. Just three months ago, Harvard took professor Ronald Sullivan’s coveted faculty dean position away just for representing Harvey Weinstein. Professor Sullivan is black, the first African-American faculty dean at Harvard and a democrat. What about Bari Weiss at the New York Times who had the audacity to write nice things about Jordan Petersen and David Rubin and the rest of the so-called “intellectual dark web?” Do you remember the students who freaked the hell out on Professor Nicholas Christakis at Yale a few years ago because they didn’t feel safe when some students were wearing Halloween costumes? My best friend’s brother was a professor at Yale and he was fired simply for having a piece of art in his office that was a crushed AK-47. He was/is probably the most liberal person I know. But he was fired just for having a piece of art in his office around the same time as the Sandy Hook shooting. Do these outraged conservatives really want to compare the Catholic Covington kids with the kid who uses the N-Word?

These are perfect examples where the mob came for someone worth defending. Now I’m not condoning the mob here at all. I am anti-mob all the way. But on the merits, Harvard acted perfectly reasonable in it’s decision to pull Kashuv’s admission. In fact, Harvard rescinded admissions of ten students just two years ago for the same thing!

So in this instance, Harvard made a very reasonable decision. I won’t say it was the correct decision, because I respect Harvard’s autonomy and its right to make that decision. I doubt it kowtowed to the mob but even if it did, it’s decision was not without merit. But the adults once again are failing our young people. We have retreated to our partisan corners to fight for “one of us,” even when defending “one of us” requires the adults to defend indefensible behavior.

Someone on Twitter told me that I would defend my son to the death if it were my kid and that I was a hypocrite for taking this position. I cannot even come close to imagining that I would somehow fight for my son’s supposed “right” to go to the most elite, prestigious school in this country after getting caught saying the things that Kashuv said. Advocating for my son to get into Harvard would be sending the wrong message to my child and I have no doubt that he would not learn from his mistakes if he still got into the best University in the country.

Life is hard and full of adversity and children need to experience these tough times to grow and learn to become better prepared for adulthood. But advocating for Kyle’s admission into Harvard because he’s pro Second Amendment is dumb, selfish and sends the absolute wrong message. Kyle is a victim here. He’s a victim to our reactionary response to the mob. He’s a victim of adults who want to exploit his situation for political gain. He’s a victim of a sensationalized media that makes a story out of this garbage. But most importantly – Kyle is a victim of his own ignorance and stupidity.

He screwed up.  He is not entitled to go to the most prestigious University in the country. But Kyle Kashuv has a lifetime to make things right. He just doesn’t get to go to Harvard, and that should be ok with everybody else.