Chansky’s Notebook: Open letter to Todd Starnes

Dear Mr. Starnes:

I must apologize for saying you lied in your column on alleged micro-aggression at UNC and for suggesting that the school publicly call you a moron.

At the time, I believed your piece was a spoof on micro-aggression, a term for finite forms of prejudice that has been floating around since a Harvard professor coined it in 1970. I was being over protective of my university, which as you must know has been a punchline for bad publicity over the last five years.   It turns out that my alma mater, like many schools around the country, has been conducting informal discussions among administrators, faculty and students about political correctness in Chapel Hill, and some of their talking points found their way onto a university website. So you were correct in reporting that and also to report that UNC officials quickly removed those topics and replaced them with a statement that none of it was or is an official policy of the school.

Your column was a spoof with hyperbole and editorial slant, and I assumed your description of the university’s reaction was also part of your sarcasm. You had every right to call WCHL management and complain that I said you lied when, on that particular point, you did not.

Prejudice in all forms is a serious and sad part of our society today, and I would like to believe that UNC is doing all it can to discourage and, if necessary, discipline that kind of misbehavior. Personally, I do not like the term micro-aggression because it underscores the fine line between people stating their opinions and having it seen as passing judgment.

Certainly, what is inappropriate to one person can be taken in a completely different way by another. So while I still dislike you picking on my school when the Internet is filled with alleged incidents of micro-aggression everywhere, I was wrong to jump to conclusions on everything you wrote.

I have been called a “fiction writer,” and worse, in my profession as a columnist, commentator and author. And while some of that is based on having a different opinion or lacking the facts (as I did with you), I still don’t like it. So I hope you will take my apology with the sincerity intended. Obviously, I don’t agree with your political stance, but you are certainly entitled to it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS