Probing the ‘White People’ Rant That Roiled Columbia
Last semester, a Columbia University undergraduate named Julian von Abele gained notoriety when a video posted to Twitter by a classmate showed him lavishing praise on white people. The clip, which quickly went viral, starts in medias res.
“We built the modern world!” von Abele declares.
“Who?” someone asks.
“Europeans!” he exclaims. “We invented science and industry, and you want to tell us to stop because we’re so baaad. We invented the modern world. We saved billions of people from starvation. We built modern civilization. White people are the best thing that ever happened to the world. We are so amazing! I love myself! And I love white people! Fuck yeah, white people! Fuck yeah, white men! We did everything! I don’t hate other people. I just love white men.”
Viral outrage was swift, spreading from Twitter to the media. The Columbia Spectator noted that the rant occurred amid “a string of hate crimes targeted at students of color at Ivy League institutions.” An NBC writer likened von Abele to the murderer in Charlottesville, Virginia. A university statement declared, “At Columbia, we stand firmly against white supremacist language and violence.”
[Read: The coddling of the American mind]
“White people are the best thing that ever happened to the world” does sound like the sort of rhetoric a white supremacist might use. But then AP got a quote from von Abele.
“I am not a white supremacist or racist, nor do I subscribe to any views that support that
