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College Student Refuses to Be Cancelled
Rae’Lee Klein, Station Manager of Arizona State University’s Blaze Radio.
What happens when the mob demands you be canceled, and you simply say “no?” Rae’Lee Klein, a junior at Arizona State University, is finding out.
Klein, 21, is serving her second year as station manager of student-run Blaze Radio. The Wyoming native hosts coverage of the school’s hockey team, reports for ASU’s Cronkite News, and co-hosts a political podcast. She might be studying journalism but she made one critical error: she actually shared news.
The legacy media has studiously avoided mentioning Jacob Blake’s list of alleged crimes. It’s much easier to pretend “Blake good, cops evil” than include the many shades of gray in the Kenosha story.
The outrage was swift over Klein’s Commission of Journalism with the Intent to Inform. Wanting to make peace, Klein took to Twitter.
I would like to clear the air about my previous tweet. It was not my intent to make an excuse for what happened to Jacob Blake. The incident is tragic in every sense of the word. The point of my tweet was to provide an additional perspective.
I apologize to anyone who I may have offended.
While my profile is separate from Blaze Radio, I know that I am affiliated with the station because I am the Station Manager. My tweet was in no way associated with Blaze, the Cronkite School, or ASU.
I’m grateful for the conversations I’ve been able to have with people who have offered differing opinions. I, as a student journalist, did not take into account the harm this may have further caused and I am committed to minimizing harm as I try to seek truth. Again, I apologize.
My DMs are open if you’d like to have an open conversation. The original tweet has been deleted to minimize harm.
It’s hard to find any potential for harm in Klein’s original tweet but with her deletion and apology, looks like all was well in Blazeville. Not so much.
The Blaze Radio Board of Directors, made up of Klein’s fellow students, demanded her resignation. Not wanting to be left out of a seething mob, several other student-led campus groups called for Klein’s job.
The Blaze Radio board of directors voted unanimously this weekend to remove Rae’Lee Klein as station manager. We reached this conclusion after a series of extensive discussions with one another and our Blaze Radio members.
The board gave Klein an opportunity to step down under her own will. As of the time of this statement, Klein has not made the decision to resign. In light of this, the board wants to make it clear that we do not recognize Rae’Lee Klein as the station manager of Blaze Radio.
That ought to do it. The cancel culture script clearly states that the Object of Hate will quickly denounce herself, retire from public life, and wander the deserts wearing a warning bell and shouting “Unclean! Unclean!”
But Klein didn’t follow the script. She simply ignored the mob and refused to resign. And now the mob is very, very confused.
Since the Blaze board is just a bunch of students, they have no authority to fire their station manager. So they released another Official Statement:
We believe that as long as Klein holds her post, students of color will not feel welcome in Blaze Radio. Because of this, we believe she no longer represents the key principles of diversity and inclusion within the organization and is not longer fit to lead Blaze Radio, which has meant so much to many. Due to Blaze directors’ status as employees of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, we call on Interim Dean Kristin Gilger to honor the Board’s vote and remove Klein from a leadership role.
(Can I mention that the board’s statements are riddled with grammatical errors? I can’t? Okay, I won’t.)
I will mention that if Klein is ousted, students of varying views will not feel welcome “in” Blaze Radio. The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, of which I am an alum, will no longer represent the key principles of diversity and inclusion.
You can neither shun your way to diversity nor fire your way to inclusion. Acceptance and tolerance are two-way streets and the First Amendment applies to everyone.
For some reason, the second cancel attempt has proven as unsuccessful as the first. Klein remains the station manager and continues to work on her degree. In fact, her cause has been taken up by local talk radio, a handful of national blogs, and even a left-leaning opinion editor at the state’s largest daily newspaper.
Turns out it’s tough to cancel someone when they refuse to be canceled.
As the Cronkite School’s most beloved summa cum laude graduate, let me give some advice to Blaze Radio’s Board of Directors. Sometimes people hold different views than you. When this occurs, you say “I disagree,” and move on.
If you find their statement incredibly shocking, you can write an article disagreeing with them. This is called “free speech” and is foundational to journalism. It’s time to swallow your pride, confess your intolerance, and apologize to Ms. Klein for your self-defeating actions.
And if the Cronkite School is going to keep sending me fundraising letters, its faculty better back Blaze Radio’s station manager 100 percent.
Published in General
This is deeply unsatisfying. It is not as if she stood on principle. She apologized profusely and backed down on the main point.
What makes her different? She refused to stop clinging to power. This is not necessarily more admirable than if she had faded away.
What an amazing young woman! I am thrilled to know that she stood up to them. I hope people will note this:
In the words of Nancy Reagan, “Just say no.”
Thanks for a great post, Jon. You made my evening!
Press on, Ms Klein.
I just absolutely love this story. Thanks for sharing it.
It’s hard to admit these days that I’m an ASU grad (class of ’78). They have already lost any of my contributions. I just know that it’s not the same place it was 45 years ago or so.
I don’t think she had anything to apologize for and wish she hadn’t done so. That said, I’m glad she’s refusing to be cancelled.
Probably the only sentence that means anything to the Cronkiters.
Same here.
Wait! ASU has a hockey team? I see they have recently moved up to NCAA. And they had a winning record! Their road games are all far away, that must be brutal. Are they they only PAC12 school with an ice hockey team? It looks like they are the only NCAA team west of Colorado and south of Alaska.
Yeah. Her groveling is unseemly. She conceded too much. Furthermore, bending the knee did not stop the demands for her head.
By now, everyone should know that prostrating oneself before the mob merely emboldens them because it is taken as an admission of guilt and a sign of weakness. The correct approach is to hold firm and to reject the underlying premise of the attackers, which usually is that whoever dares to disagree is racist. Never give an inch.
As it is, we are left with the weak hope that
This story has not yet ended. It’s far too soon to celebrate. I put her chance of survival at 50%.
I really don’t get this. My ancestors came from Europe, the homeland of some of history’s greatest monsters. It does not make me feel unwelcome if someone reveals that some white person shot by police is a dirtbag. Do students of color demand that everyone pretend that all people of color are saints? It seems kind of racist to attribute such a childish attitude to people based on their skin color.
“And if the Cronkite School is going to keep sending me fundraising letters, its faculty better back Blaze Radio’s station manager 100 percent”
I continue to be amazed that people keep donating their money to universities that don’t teach their values. I quit donating to Purdue decades ago. When they called me I stated that I would not donate to a school that uses race as an acceptance criteria for students (affirmative action). I hate racism and will not support it. I donate to Hillsdale.
Except the issue isn’t whether there was a warrant, or for what, it’s that he was shot in the back by someone who had a hold of his vest. Or is that another person? In any case, I don’t think it’s a hanging offence to talk about the warrant, only off topic.
They are the only independent D1 team in the NCAA. They were ranked #11 and would have been in the NCAA tournament this year. They made the NCAA tournament last year as well. Those Canadian kids must really like the weather.
I hope she learned that apologizing to snowflakes for hurting their feelings won’t work, because they have already melted.
Don’t apologize and don’t resign. Make any attempted firing hurt. (Easier said than done.)
This was after two separate attempts were made with tasers to subdue him had failed and after calls of “he has a knife” had been made by cops on the scene. The officer was well within the range where a man with a knife is capable of killing those close to him, and they had no idea what he plan was once he had access to the car’s interior.
In the context of all the facts, the left wing narrative doesn’t hold. That’s why she was cancelled.
Her first mistake was apologizing.
She’s young. If she learns that it was a really bad idea to apologize when she did nothing wrong and has the guts not to do it the next time—which, having kowtowed this time will be harder—she might be OK.
That’s a great point Leftcoast. But I think you are overly pessimistic. She will be less likely to apologize because now she knows that the mob has no pity. She didn’t start off like we would prefer but I believe she will finish strong. Simon-Peter denied Christ three times and he was still the one to carry on Jesus’s message if you recall. Maybe we should be more lenient with this girl.
Also, having stood up to the mob once, it will be easy to stand up to them again.
Grrrl Power!
These days, that does indeed seem to be the case. Or pretty close, anyway.
Is it just me. Or does she have a face that could kill a man at a hundred yards?
Rae’Lee Klein is doing outstandingly for age 21. She made 2 mistakes.
(1) She shouldn’t have written “You’ll be quite disgusted”. Just make everyone aware of the article and let them be whatever they are.
Everyone still would have had a fit. So….
(2) In her first paragraph, instead of what she wrote, she should have written: “I would like to clear the air about my previous tweet. It was not my intent to do anything more than provide additional perspective on this tragic incident.”
There’s absolutely nothing she’s done for which she should be voluntarily resigning. It made my evening, and just gives me hope for the future, that this kid has the guts to be willing to say: “Either take the position from me or get over it.” ❤️
I was such a wuss at her age.
I think the fact that the police knew they were responding to a domestic disturbance report about a man for whom there was a rape warrant outstanding is relevant. Not dispositive, but relevant. The police would and should be more on their guard in dealing with such a suspect than they would be at a traffic stop of you or I. Jacob Blake was reasonably believed to have a history of violence and known to have a strong motive to resist arrest. I don’t know how you can conclude that those facts don’t color the police’s actions. They don’t necessarily justify what happened, but they are an important part of the story.
Exactly.
Well, maybe not quite exactly. Here’s how it seems to me: Based on the information they had at the time, and the violent, maniacal way he was acting, the minute Jacob Blake opened that car that had children in it, the police had an obligation to shoot him.
Why ? Because nothing else had worked to stop him, and they couldn’t do anything else without further risking their own lives. They had to shoot to ensure he wouldn’t be able to harm or kidnap his children.
Blaming the police for this tragedy is just morally wrong.
For the sake of his precious children, and his beautiful, dignified mother, as well as for more self-interested reasons related to wanting nothing to fuel more riots, I find myself praying that Jacob Blake regains the use of his legs, makes a complete recovery, and totally turns his life around.
And then spends a long, long time in prison.
🤣