Helen Thomas Diversity Award Yanked By Wayne State University

DETROIT — Wayne State University says it'll no longer offer the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award, citing recent comments made by the longtime journalist.

In a statement Friday, the Detroit school says it "encourages free speech and open dialogue," but strongly condemns what it says are "anti-Semitic remarks" made by Thomas on Thursday.

According to The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, the Wayne State alumna said during a speech in Dearborn that Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by "Zionists."

Thomas resigned in June as a Hearst Newspaper columnist over comments she made calling on Israelis to get "out of Palestine."

Thomas was born to Lebanese immigrants in Kentucky and raised in Detroit. She worked much of her career as a United Press International reporter.

Comments

[Obacalypse N0w]

12:42 PM on 12/07/2010

Your raps reflect your life and that's a shame
cause the way you're soundin, you must think that it's a game
I can see if you came from the ghetto, but you came from the Meadow
you really need to let that go
You got no respect for hip-hop, and you tryin to rhyme
Biding your time
and I find it a crime
I even tried to bury the hatchet man
Cause we all African,
you wanna be a rapper start practicin,
--DEL

[stuckinthemiddle3]

10:32 PM on 12/06/2010

I don't know what's more disgusting- Helen Thomas' most recent comments or the fact that so many "liberals" on here are defending her and justifying her comments.
Please don't insult our intelligence by saying that when she said Palestine, what she meant to say was West Bank. If that's really what she meant she would have said "They need to go back home to ISRAEL" instead of saying "They need to go back home to Germany, Poland, United States..."
And these latest comments are straight out Der Sturmer (which she would have been a great writer for) where Jews were regularly portrayed as controlling the governments, banks, and media of the entire world. How liberals on here can defend that is really disturbing.

[GlennWatson]

12:16 PM on 12/07/2010

Disturbing, but not surprising,

[GlennWatson]

06:06 PM on 12/06/2010

The reality is that Isreal won the territory in multiple wars. Its theirs by right of conquest in the same way that Florida belongs to the USA rather than Spain.

[Darcha]

03:19 AM on 12/07/2010

'The principle of inadmissibility of acquiring territory by force has become part of general international law, endowed with the character of a preemptory rule of international law (jus cogens). It has been confirmed in such instruments as, inter alia, the Friendly Relations Declaration of the General Assembly (GA) in 1970 and reaffirmed in a series of Security Council (SC) resolutions concerned with specific cases, including Resolution 242….’
International Law: A Dictionary, Boleslaw Boczek, p. 214.

This is what we got out of WWII: that you don't get to conquer territory anymore. It's called progress. Israel's only argument is the throwback logic of barbarism.

[GlennWatson]

12:15 PM on 12/07/2010

With respect, you are wrong.

Let me explain. If a strong country takes territory from a weak country and can hold it then that territory belongs to the strong country. All dictionaries in the world do not change this basic reality.

Don't believe me. Go to a playground and see how the kids interact. Go to Mexico and see who in in charge of the towns. Read a history book and notice which countries grow and shrink and find out why.

In one of those cases will you see the Internatio­nal Law Dictionary as a factor.­

[nigele8992]

02:46 PM on 12/06/2010

Race and religion don't even need to be brought up...

Helen Thomas is defending the colonized against the colonizer.

I lol @ anti-colonialism being anti-semetic

[Json]

04:43 PM on 12/07/2010

What about saying that the jews control the US congress and the media?
That sure isn't "anti-colonialist". What would you call it?

[Trial Lawyer]

01:39 PM on 12/06/2010

There is no doubt that what Helen Thomas said is anti-semitic. She is taking a page right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to say that Jews run everything. She didn't say people who support Zionism, she said Zionists--meaning Jews. It's sad to see the numbers who leap to her defense in these comments.

[BcemXAHA]

09:12 AM on 12/06/2010

Good for Wayne State University!

[jc budmo]

02:13 AM on 12/06/2010

It's quite touching to see all the Zionists on here clearly upset, yet again by perceived 'bigotry' - against Jews that is. What a pity it is that we don't hear from them when it comes to bigotry against Arabs and Muslims. Worse still when they are the most persistent offenders.

[BcemXAHA]

09:13 AM on 12/06/2010

How adorable, the foot stomping in particular, too bad for you, and wonderful for Wayne State University!

[jc budmo]

08:46 PM on 12/06/2010

LOL thanks, you could not have given a better example of the hypocrisy of your stance on bigotry than by your mocking tone.

[Bystander]

01:11 PM on 12/06/2010

Perhaps when the Palestinians cease the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel, when they cease to dispatch Muslim suicide terrorists to kill and maim Jewish (and Muslim) civilians and other innocents, when the charters of Hezbollah and Hamas no longer call for the destruction of Israel, then you and the anti-semite, Helen Thomas, might have some credibility. In the meantime, not so much.

[StCuthbert]

02:53 PM on 12/06/2010

Fanned.

[jc budmo]

08:48 PM on 12/06/2010

Perhaps when Israel ceases to illegally, and brutally occupy Palestine they will cease their LEGAL right to resist occupation. Further, perhaps when you get up to date on the numbers of civilians slaughtered by Israeli terror in Palestine and Lebanon you might some credibility.

[jc budmo]

12:41 AM on 12/06/2010

Wayne State University has renamed its Spirit of Diversity Award to the Spirit of Conformity Award and is offering it to all the other members of the Whitehouse press-pool.

[Rapier]

10:27 PM on 12/05/2010

In a topsy-turvy world, truth is bigotry and bigotry is truth. We have less of a democracy and more a lobbyocracy as this article (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/22-1) shows.

[kookaid]

07:38 PM on 12/05/2010

Helen Thomas has been a professional in the news business for a long, long time. She should know better. Has anyone stopped to think she may be losing her mind? Alzheimer's perhaps? The discussion of whether or not her remarks are bigoted or not are out of line. Of course they are bigoted. To say that Wall Street, Hollywood, Congress are all Zionists is a bigoted remark. That is a not so veiled version of those institutions are run by Jews. Jews know this to be a bigoted remark. To say that all Jews need to go back where they came from is a 100% bigoted remark. You can't say all African-Americans should go back where they came from. That's bigoted. Helen Thomas may or may not have had a working brain before. She does not have one now. Her statements are illogical, offensive, and bigoted.

[theuniversalcollective]

07:48 PM on 12/05/2010

what koolaid said .... two times

[Soma99]

08:24 PM on 12/05/2010

No it's not a bigoted remark, that's patently absurd. Your scared it will incite violence towards jews. Which is different from bigotry. It may be, on some level, a valid fear but a solution is not to silence adults talking about motivations of influential social systems. All gentiles are not genocidal maniacs. Why are you so bigoted against non-jews to think that.

Helen's main beef is the extreme bigotry of Israeli policies and the US political system that helps support the racist vile polices. Helen is fighting bigotry. But you are spun around with propaganda you can't even see it.

[erehwon2]

09:26 AM on 12/06/2010

If you assume Helen Thomas meant only the West Bank when she said "Palestine," does that mean that you also consider only the West Bank to be Palestine? Can we assume that in all future discussions of the ME you also will agree that Israel (excluding the WB) is not Palestine and that you are renouncing all Palestinian claims to Israel?

[EmmaNYC]

10:54 PM on 12/06/2010

Helen Thomas' characterizations of Jews are most certainly bigoted and disgraceful remarks. Saying all of any group is 'whatever negative' is by definition bigoted. If her beef is with Israeli politics, then she should address her remarks as such, but to claim that all "Zionists are ...." or all "Jews should..." is quite clearly bigoted. And this has nothing to do with the fear of violence. These are just the ludicrous remarks of a demented, elderly woman whose time has obviously passed. They are bigoted, unpleasant and should be as widely rejected as they are.

[BannedInBoston]

07:04 PM on 12/05/2010

They should have substituted the Helen Thomas Political Incorrectness Award -- awarded to the student each year who commits the biggest PC gaff....

[Wisco-libertarian]

07:38 PM on 12/05/2010

haha

[dbmetzger]

03:17 PM on 12/05/2010

Helen Thomas: "I'm Anti-Israeli, but I'm Not Anti-Semitic"
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas discusses her resignation and her views on the Middle East. In particular, Thomas elaborates on her infamous comments calling for Israel to "get the hell out of Palestine." http://www.newslook.com/videos/266199-helen-thomas-i-m-anti-israeli-but-i-m-not-anti-semitic?autoplay=true

[BannedInBoston]

07:28 PM on 12/05/2010

Personally, I think firing Thomas over her infamous comment was absurd but understandable, given the kinds of political pressure UPI was obviously under. Unfortunately, the Israeli lobby in the US HAS succeeded in equating anti-Israeli sentiment with anti-Semitism, including even opposition to Israel's current reactionary government.
 
That said, Thomas's comment WAS over the top. While we may debate the historical issue of whether the state of Israel should ever have been created in the first place, it exists now and therefore has the right to exist, and thinking or advocating any differently is simply absurd. Any sentiments of the kind Thomas apparently harbors ought more to be directed at the current reactionary government running Israel than Israel herself....

[cityprole]

02:52 PM on 12/05/2010

This "university" should be added to that less of the brain-dead-est in the country..what a complete crock!

[theuniversalcollective]

06:47 PM on 12/05/2010

They should be lauded for shutting down an outlet for antisemtism and bigotry in this terrible woman's name.

[Randy Wetzel]

09:07 AM on 12/06/2010

Drama queen much?

[Randy Wetzel]

09:07 AM on 12/06/2010

Dra-ma qu-een much?

[Jasmine Munk]

02:43 PM on 12/05/2010

This whole thing is truly ridiculous. She didn't say anything anti-Semitic. She was merely expressing her disapproval over the way Israel has achieved statehood- pretty much through colonization ushered in by the west. Anyone who can't understand that doesn't understand basic history and should read a book to educate themselves. Yes, the way she said it and expressed herself was crass and rude, but shes OLD. Old people don't give a sh*t. Get over it people. Really.

[GinaCucina]

10:39 PM on 12/05/2010

Agree. I support all religions, including Judaism. But the Israeli government and the Jewish religion are not the same thing.

[Basilio]

11:56 PM on 12/05/2010

Helen Thomas said she was referring to the West Bank. If she, she has international law on her side, and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank entails racist actions by the state of Israel because the state seizes Palestinian farm land and homes all the time. Who says anything about that?
No one because they are Arabs and then people wonder why people in the Arab countries are upset with America. That's one major reason.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

03:31 PM on 12/06/2010

She was referring to the west bank when she said the Jews control "Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street"?

Obviously, she needs a good geography lesson!

[FirstSpeaker]

01:17 PM on 12/05/2010

They should keep giving the reward, but change the name to something like the "Helen Thomas Bigotry Award."