The Daily Beast Dissects Reed College's 'Spring Crisis'

The Daily Beast this morning dissects the story of Jeremiah True's "rape culture" jeremiad on the Reed College campus.


The piece—written by a Reed graduate—captures the college's unique culture. "The school tends to draw a self-selecting student who is both academically gifted and a little weird socially," Mary Emily O'Hara writes. "Take a mildly autistic vegan genius with green hair, hop him up on Adderall, cram his brain with nuclear physics and classical Greek philosophy, and you’ve got your typical Reedie."

But it also starts to give more details about what True thinks he's doing. He's trying to heap scorn on Reed, he tells the outlet, by doing what he can to get more attention. 

Protest or no, when you read True’s rants and online name-calling (he referred to one female commenter as “a bitch and a cunt” and called another “fatty”), it all starts to seem a bit nuts.

“I am the God of MRA’s [men’s rights activists], Anti­feminists, Anti­Marxists, Libertarians, and White, heternormative men and women everywhere,” wrote True in a different part of the16-page essay posted on his Facebook page, “I am a misogynist and a misandrist, a racist, and a feminist. And now I’m here to call you out on your bullshit, Reed. I made my entire college run for cover because I’m an actual activist. I yelled “n**ger” in public places and nonviolently disrupted a forum on student activism when I felt my rights weren’t respected. Now that’s activism… Gender feminists. I am a biracial, bisexual, non-gender conforming Black n**ger. Suck. My. Enormous. Black. Dick.”

On Friday, Reed officials informed True he risked expulsion, according to The Daily Beast. "Your conduct is causing many community members—students, staff, and faculty alike—to report being afraid of what you might do to yourself and others,” a letter to True said.

True responded by telling administrators this was all part of his plan. In a separate interview with GotNews posted on YouTube on Tuesday, True said he wanted to parlay the controversy he stirred up into a career in the media. He said he purposely acted like an "asshole" and a "jerk wad."

As of Tuesday, Reed officials were standing by their decision to remove True from his Humanities 110 conference for his continuously disruptive behavior in class.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.