Rocky v. Churchill III: the plagiarizing

Ward. Plagiarism. Rocky. Read.

And Pirate Ballerina has a June 3 e-mail from Churchill's wife and fellow CU ethnic studies prof. Natsu Taylor Saito to supporters about CU's "investigation" (her scare quotes) into Churchill's scholarship. It has all the usual Churchillian crapola, plus a remarkably sly and arrogant April 13 e-mail in support of Churchill from Noam Chomsky. A fun part:

I have no idea what the plagiarism and other issues are [surrrre you don't] [but] if the charges were serious, they would have been brought up before. For what it's worth, there's no indication of that in anything of his I read-that is, nothing more than is standard in scholarship. . . . .

Does that include your scholarship, Noamy?

Heightening the hilarity, Saito's e-mail also contains a little polemical attachment (well, five of them). This particular one tells us

WHY WE NEED ETHNIC STUDIES

While we have received expressions of support from tens of thousand of people around the country, we also think it important to note the racism and intolerance that lies so close below the surface. Following are excerpts from e-mails and letters received by the Department of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill and other faculty and staff between January 31 and April 15, 2005.

They are not the most hateful, threatening or obscene that we have received, but particularly reflect the racism, sexism, and lack of historical understanding that we work to counter. . . .

So ethnic studies departments are a counter to racist and sexist morons. I did not know that.

Update: Introducing CU's new chair of the ethnic studies department.