ADAMS: Che Pride Week

This week, I am sitting down to write a letter to the Chief Diversity Officer at my university, UNC-Wilmington. I assume that he is the one in charge of the five diversity centers we have on campus that waste untold amounts of taxpayer resources promoting various left-wing causes. I am hoping I can convince him to actually do something useful in an age of intellectual conformity disguised as diversity. Specifically, I am writing the letter to ask him to sponsor a first-ever “Che Pride Week,” which would be dedicated to the life and legacy of communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

I hope he will take my request seriously in light of our institution's professed desire to fight against hatred and intolerance. For those who are wondering, my request has been inspired by my direct observation of the rising number of Che Guevara t-shirts among university students – most of which also support Bernie Sanders. They obviously suffer from a profound ignorance of Che’s life and his true legacy. So I think having a Che Pride Week would go a long way towards remedying that ignorance.

Before I get into the details of what I want to include in the new Che Pride Week, I would like to address the reasons why he is so misunderstood. A lot of the confusion has to do with the press. Here are some examples of misleading statements made by columnists and authors, which might explain why some of our students regard him as a hero rather than a villain:

"Few doubt Che's sincerity." David Segal, Washington Post.

"[Che presented a] Christ-like image … with his mortuary gaze it is as if Guevara looks upon his killers and forgives them." Jorge Castaneda, Newsweek.

"Che's decency and nobility always led him to apologize." Jorge Castaneda, Newsweek.

"Bravery, fearlessness, honesty, austerity, and absolute conviction … he lived it – Che really lived it." Jon Lee Anderson, author.

"[Che's image] derives from a visual language … it also references a classical Christ-like demeanor." Trisha Ziff, Guggenheim Museum Curator.

"Che died a martyr's death in 1967." David Segal, Washington Post.

In order to help counteract some of the misleading statements authors, journalists, academics, and celebrities have made about Guevara, I would propose that we have an official Che Pride March. Following that plan, we could have administrators from our Women’s Resource Center, African American Center, El Centro Hispano, LGBTQIA Office, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion parade around campus holding signs that display some of Che’s most revealing quotes. Some suggestions follow:

"A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate." Che Guevara.

"If the nuclear missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City." Che Guevara.

"We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims... We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm." Che Guevara.

"Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial bowl." Che Guevara.

"(T)o execute a man we don't need proof of his guilt. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. It's that simple." Che Guevara.

"Don't shoot! I'm Che, I'm worth more to you alive than dead." Che Guevara.

During Che Pride Week, we could also ask the LGBTQIA Office to hold a special panel of experts documenting Che's commitment to gay rights. It is important for people to know that Che Guevara helped criminalize gay sex and supported the incarceration of young men who exhibited mannerisms merely perceived to be gay.

We could also ask the UNCW English Department, which is full of communists, to place some of Che’s actual correspondence in glass cases. That way, people could learn that Guevara signed some of his early correspondence "Stalin II." They could also hand out copies of Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, by Humberto Fontova. It would be nice for English students to learn about Guevara by reading something other than The Motorcycle Diaries.

We could even ask the History Department to set up a room to display pictures of Che fighting in actual revolutionary warfare. This room would be nearly empty because there is little historical evidence that he ever fought in anything that could be characterized as a real battle. This is due to the fact that most of the people killed by Che were men and boys he shot at close range while they were bound and gagged.

Of course, we could also ask the Department of Sociology and Criminology to help set up a special display on the death penalty — given their near universal opposition to capital punishment, not to mention capitalism. This display would feature 1,892 candles — one for each man Che sentenced to the firing squad. This is the most conservative estimate I could find, by the way.

Another display located in the African American Center would educate visitors about the true impact that the regime Che co-founded had on race relations. Special attention would be given to the life of Eusebio Penalver who was the longest serving black political prisoner of the 20th century. He was incarcerated in Cuba longer than Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in South Africa. His jailers called him "N****r" and "Monkey." They also repeatedly warned him that they would pull him down from the trees and cut off his tail.

Above all, I would recommend that we promote Che Pride Week with posters showing Guevara wearing his Rolex watch. Of course, that poster would be dedicated to all of my communist colleagues at UNCW who talk like revolutionaries, live like hypocrites, and fail to teach their students about inconvenient truths.

Mike S. Adams is a criminology professor, the author of Letters to a Young Progressive, and a columnist at TownHall.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSAdams.

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