Cancelling Dr. Seuss

[Wahoo Redux]

A T-shirt like that one or a sticker like that one, true, would signify that one is probably not on board with the expectation and reserving the right to one's basic human dignity.

Displaying and wearing them in a multicultural center might suggest you are welcoming a confrontation.

BTW this is an old story. Just curious as to why is it news now?

Well, if you read the article, the young men thought it was a study center.  The multicultural center was not well publicized nor was there good signage.  They had been there several hours, studying for a test, before anyone even noticed them. 

[jimbogumbo]

Thanks. I couldn't as I've hit my free limit. Didn't see anything about that aspect in the older stuff I found.

[mahagonny]

Putting my cards on the table: a 'multicultural center' that is understood to be off-limits to people whom others choose to identify as racially white is a horrible idea, but may well serve as a useful negative example to mobilize sensible people against the woke culture and cult. This idiocy needs to be fought and defeated. The logic of it alone is futile. If whiteness is not culture, then how do you 'de-center' whiteness? There is nothing to de-center. I'm surprised more of these things have net ended up in court, but I expect when they do, things will change.

[on-topic rant]

[Wahoo Redux]

And the hits just keep coming!!!!

Carnegie-Mellon prof wishes Queen to die "agonizing death."

Uju Anya's tweet wishing a dying Queen Elizabeth II "excruciating" pain has faced an avalanche of criticism and calls that she be disciplined or fired since she posted it early Thursday.

Some, though, are rallying to her defense. The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression confirmed Friday that it has urged Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian in a letter not to sanction her, even if the words were offensive.

<snip>

The initial tweet, followed by others in which she appeared to double down, said, "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating."

This one makes me a sick.  What's wrong with this woman!?

Her justification is that she was born after the Nigerian civil war, which she blamed the Queen for.

Once again, we have someone striking out with words at a person who was not there and did not do the things which make her so angry.  Since we cannot punish the criminals of the past, some feel the need to vent on the people alive (or dead) today.  That really should stop.

[Wahoo Redux]

Lawsuit Challenges Florida Ban on "WOKE" Subjects.

DeSantis is a fascist.

Today, a professor and student group from the University of South Florida sued to protect professors' ability to teach and students' ability to learn. The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, alleges that the higher education provisions of Florida's "Individual Freedom" law (dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act" by its proponents), impermissibly chill free expression and promote unconstitutional censorship on the state's college campuses.

[mahagonny]

Lawsuit Challenges Florida Ban on "WOKE" Subjects.

DeSantis is a fascist.

Today, a professor and student group from the University of South Florida sued to protect professors' ability to teach and students' ability to learn. The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, alleges that the higher education provisions of Florida's "Individual Freedom" law (dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act" by its proponents), impermissibly chill free expression and promote unconstitutional censorship on the state's college campuses.

Well, considering Biden would have a fascist government body in place by now, the 'Misinformation Governance Board,' if there hadn't been a furor, we should expect some from the right fighting back in heavy handed ways. The POTUS sets the tone. And, outside of Trump, there hasn't been a president in my lifetime who's been this reckless or divisive.

[Langue_doc]

A T-shirt like that one or a sticker like that one, true, would signify that one is probably not on board with the expectation and reserving the right to one's basic human dignity.

Displaying and wearing them in a multicultural center might suggest you are welcoming a confrontation.

BTW this is an old story. Just curious as to why is it news now?

Well, if you read the article, the young men thought it was a study center.  The multicultural center was not well publicized nor was there good signage.  They had been there several hours, studying for a test, before anyone even noticed them.

I didn't watch the video but read the rather wordy article, according to which, one of the two white students had come straight to campus from his ER job where he worked as a scribe, attended a 7:30 class and was studying for a test. In one of the photos he and the other white student are seen sitting at a table in a rather large room, so the student who claimed to have felt threatened could have easily moved to another part of the room. Other than the sign on the door "Multicultural Communities of Excellence" there is no indication that certain ethnicities are excluded from this room or that only a subset of the students enrolled in the school can use the room. The student who confronted them is described as an "activist" who goes by the nickname "The troublemaker". At the end of the encounter the two white students leave. Subsequently the university instituted disciplinary hearings against the three "activist" students, following which:

Managing the responses on that page soon became emotionally taxing, so Tekola recruited friends to draft posts and moderate comments. One of those moderators, Amanda Salvione, told university investigators that on Sept. 30 she posted an analysis of racism in the medical field and tagged Beckerman in it. "If he's willing to insert himself intentionally in the only A.S.U. campus space not created with him central to its design," that post read, "what harms will he be willing to commit behind closed doors one on one with a Black patient?"

According to Will Knight, the lawyer who represented Tekola, Qureshi and Araya in eventual disciplinary hearings, an A.S.U. investigator told him the university had received more than 1,500 email messages about the incident within the first week. I requested copies of those emails, and of those I received, almost all either criticized Tekola and Qureshi — one alumna called them "terrorists" in her email — or A.S.U. for not yet punishing them. A group of 20 Arizona state legislators signed an open letter threatening funding cuts against A.S.U. for "using taxpayer dollars to institutionalize racism and further divide our society by enabling neo-segregation." Paul Gosar, a U.S. representative from Arizona, tagged Crow in a post that called the incident a " racist attack." Then, someone on the internet found out that Tekola had a fellowship from the Ford Foundation and Tucker Carlson invited the U.S. senatorial candidate J.D. Vance onto his show to discuss why that foundation and other organizations, like the Harvard Endowment, should lose their tax-exempt status.

It appears from the article that the university sided with the two students who were studying and were clearly harassed, but the students who confronted them are still playing the victim card. Universities are supposed to broaden one's horizons and not help certain students live in bubbles where other students are excluded.

[marshwiggle]

Managing the responses on that page soon became emotionally taxing, so Tekola recruited friends to draft posts and moderate comments. One of those moderators, Amanda Salvione, told university investigators that on Sept. 30 she posted an analysis of racism in the medical field and tagged Beckerman in it. "If he's willing to insert himself intentionally in the only A.S.U. campus space not created with him central to its design," that post read, "what harms will he be willing to commit behind closed doors one on one with a Black patient?"

I'd really like to hear how a space can be created where the skin colour of people occupying it will somehow be "central to its design". Special lighting? Paint and fabric to match or complement their skin colour???

[mahagonny]

Managing the responses on that page soon became emotionally taxing, so Tekola recruited friends to draft posts and moderate comments. One of those moderators, Amanda Salvione, told university investigators that on Sept. 30 she posted an analysis of racism in the medical field and tagged Beckerman in it. "If he's willing to insert himself intentionally in the only A.S.U. campus space not created with him central to its design," that post read, "what harms will he be willing to commit behind closed doors one on one with a Black patient?"

First, do no harm.

I'd really like to hear how a space can be created where the skin colour of people occupying it will somehow be "central to its design". Special lighting? Paint and fabric to match or complement their skin colour???

[Langue_doc]

Managing the responses on that page soon became emotionally taxing, so Tekola recruited friends to draft posts and moderate comments. One of those moderators, Amanda Salvione, told university investigators that on Sept. 30 she posted an analysis of racism in the medical field and tagged Beckerman in it. "If he's willing to insert himself intentionally in the only A.S.U. campus space not created with him central to its design," that post read, "what harms will he be willing to commit behind closed doors one on one with a Black patient?"

I'd really like to hear how a space can be created where the skin colour of people occupying it will somehow be "central to its design". Special lighting? Paint and fabric to match or complement their skin colour???

It's probably illegal to exclude students from certain spaces on campus because of their ethnicity, especially in institutions that receive state and federal funding. According to the article, the activists' position seems to be that "white" is not a culture and therefore white students should not be sitting in "multicultural" spaces.

Tekola can be heard telling one of the seated men why the Police Lives Matter sticker on his laptop is racist, telling the other that white is not a culture and explaining to both the significance of the space they were in that day: a sprawling third-floor room with floor-to-ceiling windows, neatly organized study tables and a smattering of pleather-bound, square backed couches and chairs.

"Do you understand what a multicultural space is?" Tekola asks at a point in which all the voices in the video begin to rise. "It means you're not being centered."

[nebo113]

We are an increasingly offendable society.  I cannot imagine a Merry Prankster bus journey, the movies Animal House or Airplane, or the jokes in The National Lampoon being tolerated these days.

This is because until recently, people felt they had a right to privacy; i.e. they had a right to hold their own opinions as long as they didn't have to try and impose them on others. This has been replaced by feelings of a right to validation; i.e. they have a right to having their opinions supported by others. The problem is, that sense of "support" can only be maintained as long as the person doesn't get exposed to conflicting opinions. Only the most oppressive police state could even pretend to offer people the "freedom" from hearing anything that contradicts their own views. When privacy was the goal, no-one even had to pretend that everyone agreed with them to feel that society was operating as intended, but with validation as the goal, as soon as anyone hears a dissenting opinion it represents a failure of society.

Ahhh....Sounds like book banners and forced birthers.

[mahagonny]

More hits. https://www.judicialwatch.org/ma-school-district-settles-lawsuit/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=corruption+chronicles&utm_term=members

Maybe the tide is turning.

[nebo113]

More hits. https://www.judicialwatch.org/ma-school-district-settles-lawsuit/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=corruption+chronicles&utm_term=members

Maybe the tide is turning.

Yup.  Bought time they stopped teaching about colored folk to innocent young white folk in history classes.  Guess in SC and Texas and other true southern states, they better stop teaching about Emancipation and the Great Skedaddle, and how Jefferson's negro slave concubine was his white dead wife's half sister.  Best to stick with Pitchfork Ben and Longstreet and all the lovely white women of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and those other supporters of the Lost Cause.

Oh Mahog.....Thank you so much for bringing to our attention the evils of knowing all those dreadful things.  I swoon before your insights and deep, true knowledge.

[Kron3007]

The Babylon Bee is banned from Tik Tok, and has already been banned from Twitter for not deleting a tweet. Tik Tok doesn't not believe they need to give a reason and they certainly don't, but I would be boycotting them now in response, except I can't because I've never used them.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/5/christian-satire-site-babylon-bee-banned-without-e/

We are an increasingly offendable society.  I cannot imagine a Merry Prankster bus journey, the movies Animal House or Airplane, or the jokes in The National Lampoon being tolerated these days.

At the same time, a private corporate entity has no obligation to carry content it thinks will damage its image or business, including social media.  Free speech is also the freedom NOT to say something.  I know that enrages some Trumpees.

Seriously?  I see all sorts of things on tv that would not have been accepted in the past.  We must watch different programming.

They didn't used to be able to say pregnant on tv....

This whole thought that we are more easily offended these days is ridiculous.  People have always been offended.

[mahagonny]

Oh Mahog.....Thank you so much for bringing to our attention the evils of knowing all those dreadful things.  I swoon before your insights and deep, true knowledge.

Compliments are welcome regardless of the source. Thank you!

ETA: But hey...it ain't about me. There are things in the news neither of us likes. You could always write a letter to the Dedham Public Schools and tell them they were wrong to apologize to those parents or should have fought harder, somehow, against the laws. Or maybe hold a mostly peaceful demonstration. They'd love to hear from you.