A Kern Community College District Board of Trustees apologized for saying that certain faculty who challenge diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives should be taken to the “slaughterhouse,” according to a statement provided to the College Fix.
John Corkins, Board of Trustees vice president, made the comment during a December board meeting during which community members expressed concern about the Renegade Institute for Liberty, which is a group of Bakersfield College professors who support free speech, according to a video of the meeting. Constituents asked that the board terminate the professors in the institute, which reportedly led Corkins to equate those professors to “livestock.”
“I think there’s a segment, as there is in everything, in every company and every business, a small percent of people at our [school] using disrespectful, or whatever you call, and… that 5% that we have to continue to cull,” Corkins said. “Got them in my livestock operation and that’s why we put a rope on some of them and take them to the slaughterhouse. That’s a fact of life with human nature and so forth, I don’t know how to say it any clearer.”
He said in a statement obtained by the College Fix that he “apologize[s] to anyone who felt threatened or was offended” by his words and that his “intent was to emphasize that the individuals who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting [had his] full support.” (RELATED: Brandeis University Pressures Students To Pledge Allegiance To Diversity)
“Bakersfield College student Jordyn Davis, BC professor Dr. Paula Parks, and several statewide representatives from the Umoja program, which is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for African-American students, bravely shared their feelings of fear based on the actions of a small group of faculty members and their feelings of disappointment in the district for allowing these actions to continue,” Corkins said. “I believe all students, staff and faculty in our district have an unequivocal right to feel safe and accepted as they pursue their educational goals or assist students in completing their degrees, certificates or upper division transfers.”
The Renegade Institute for Liberty, which consists of 23 current and former Bakersfield College professors, is “a coalition of Bakersfield College faculty dedicated to the free speech, open inquiry, critical thinking to advance American ideals within the broader Western tradition of meritocracy, individual agency, civic virtue, liberty of conscience and free markets,” according to its website.
It claims to “promot[e] diversity of thought and intellectual literacy” through discussions on “American ideals, including civil, economic, and religious freedom” and hosts campus activities including debates, guest speakers and book clubs.
In 2021, Matthew Garrett and Erin Miller, both professors and members of the Institute, filed a federal lawsuit against the district after their jobs were allegedly threatened for questioning why grant money was being used to fund social justice initiatives.
Corkins, Bakersfield College, Parks, the Renegade Institute for Liberty, Garrett and Miller did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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