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The New Guard

CUNY Assignment: Citing Revolutionary Socialist Magazine, “Describe the Three Thefts” That Got President Trump Rich

By

Kara Zupkus

September 10, 2020

An Urban Studies class assignment at the City University of New York-Queens asked students a simple question: “…how did the Trumps get rich? In your own words, briefly describe each of the three thefts that allowed Donald Trump to become rich.”

The question was based off of a 2016 article in Jacobin, a far-left outlet described as “offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.”

The article details three alleged ways that “the Trump fortune was built off theft,” absurdly claiming the president’s wealth came solely from “stolen wages,” “stolen taxes,” and “stolen land.”

“The task for socialists is not just to defeat Trump, but to wrest power back from real estate capital and to fight its hold over our lives,” the article concludes.

This isn’t the only troubling aspect of Alan Takeall’s “Urban Poverty and Affluence” class.

The syllabus, obtained exclusively by Young America’s Foundation, highlights the course reading list that is filled with leftist news outlets and journals.

Jacobin, the socialist magazine that draws its inspiration from the “Reign of Terror” in France, where radicals murdered many thousands of people by guillotine for possessing non-conforming beliefs, is assigned to the class seven separate times.  The articles include topics such as “Police and the Liberal Fantasy” to “The Roots of Trumps Immigration Barbarity.” Other far-left outlets assigned include the Monthly Review, an “independent socialist magazine,” and The Nation, a progressive weekly magazine. No conservative or center-right publications were listed as assigned reading for the class.

A spokesman for CUNY-Queens issued this statement to YAF:

“Queens College values and upholds the principles of academic freedom as fundamental to the protection of the rights of the faculty in teaching and of the students to freedom in learning. Consistent with applicable University policies, the college strives to remain a forum for the advocacy of ideas protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution and the principles of academic freedom.”

The school did not respond to YAF’s question if the assignment was approved by the university or academic department.

A student in the class, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, submitted the assignment through YAF’s Campus Bias Tipline

This blatant bias in the classroom is something we see nationwide. By selecting readings for his students that only confirm his own beliefs and values, this professor is forcing his own viewpoints on impressionable students– not even attempting to provide them with a diverse curriculum that would allow them to think critically.

Young America’s Foundation is an educational non-profit that routinely exposes incidents of campus bias against conservative thought and does not take positions on elections or election-related matters.


Are you facing bias on your campus? Submit a tip to YAF’s Campus Bias Tipline.

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