UCCS Professor John Harner and JD Vance have similar views about racism

This quick post was triggered when JD Vance (left, author of Hillbilly Elegy) made a cringe-worthy statement that trivializes the problem of racism in the USA, calling drinking a Mt. Dew racist. His statements can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7upuqbGy-U. Like Vance, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs professor John Harner (right) trivialized the significant problem of racism at CU Denver (has been and will continue to be documented at CUDenverLynx.com) by comparing it to drinking bottled water. While I was complaining about the racism of denigrating research and teaching with Black colleagues and students, Prof. Harner trivialized the significance of racism by comparing it to drinking bottled water. Unfortunately I do not have video of Prof. Harner's cringe-worthy comments, but the following exchange is copied from the hearing transcript.

DR. HARNER: With your definition of racism.

DR. CRONIN: The one that Dr. Viveiros reluctantly agreed with.

DR. HARNER: Which is this definition that when a white person in power makes a decision that harms a black person or an underprivileged minority, that's a racist statement [action].

DR. CRONIN: Yes.

DR. HARNER: So -- okay. If I take that logic, we could say, I drove my car here, and my car is emitting fossil fuels, and those pollutants are disproportionately harming black people, therefore driving my car is a racist act. Or drinking this bottle of water which made in plastic, and it's going to go into probably the water and eventually cause harm and that disproportionately hurts black people, so therefore this act of drinking from this plastic bottle of water is a racist act.

Just as Democrats never claimed that JD Vance was racist for drinking Mt. Dew, my complaints about racism at the University of Colorado had nothing to do with Prof. Harner drinking bottled water. Harner was grasping for straws to support his employer's racist effort to fire me. Whether it is Mt. Dew, bottled water, or any other beverage, the serious problem of racism should never again be compared to drinking a beverage.

Make a quick check of the fairness of my dismissal. Compare the scholarly productivity of John Harner and Greg Cronin. The more-productive antiracist Cronin was fired while Prof. Harner remains employed after participating in my firing.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Harner

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg-Cronin