Again? Another Leftist Agitator Calls for Violence

October 23, 2025 Culture

It seems hardly a day goes by without some leftist nutjob calling for violence.

The latest is one Stacey Patton, a journalism (of course) professor at Howard University, who called on “white allies” to emulate the pre-Civil War John Brown, an abolitionist who fomented a rebellion against the American government.

Stacey Patton is a professor of journalism at the Washington, D.C., private school. In a recent blog post titled “John Brown Didn’t Ask Enslaved People How to Be A Good White Ally,” she discouraged White liberals from asking her how to be a better “ally” to minorities, and encouraged them instead to emulate Brown.

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We don’t know what Professor (I use the term in the broadest possible sense) Patton earns in a year, but I’m willing to bet she’s not worried about where her next meal is coming from. She lives a comfortable life, that’s certain; she enjoys the prestige of being an academic at an expensive private college, and yet she’s making noises about being repressed, and calling on people to emulate John Brown, who led an armed rebellion.

In October 1859, Brown led a 21-man raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, part of Virginia at the time. His goal was to start a slave uprising, but few slaves joined the fight. A local militia confronted Brown and his men and fought back. Four townspeople, including freed slave Heyward Shepherd, were caught in the crossfire and killed in the skirmish.

After 10 of his men were killed, Brown was captured. He was later tried for treason and eventually hanged.

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Professor Patton obviously isn’t a professor of history.

“So when white allies ask, ‘What can I do?’ here’s the answer: Be like John Brown. Ask yourself, what am I willing to burn so somebody else can breathe?” Patton wrote.

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That’s a call for a violent uprising. There’s no other way to interpret that. “What am I willing to burn so somebody else can breathe?” she asks. Who, exactly, is it that can’t breathe? There is no systemic racism in the United States. Some people are racists, but the system is not, and has not been for many years. Stacey Patton is a rabble-rouser, and nothing more. Howard should toss her out the door, but let’s be honest, they probably won’t. Oh, the university issued a standard disclaimer, and as for the professor herself, Fox News reports: