Elsewhere (139)
Cathy Young on academic standards and “masculinity studies”:
When Michael Kimmel talks about men and boys – at least ones unreconstructed by feminism – it is often in a tone that ranges from ironic condescension to scolding rebuke and outright antipathy… He waxes enthusiastic about “rape awareness” measures that treat all men as potential rapists – such as “splash guards” on a college’s public urinals with the slogan, “You hold the power to stop rape in your hand.” Tackiness aside, such a stunt directed at any other group would be readily seen as “hate.” Imagine proposing that “You are looking at someone who can stop terrorism” be inscribed on bathroom mirrors at a campus Islamic centre.
Heather Mac Donald on the Ferguson riots and the ‘racism’ media narrative:
The only reason that blacks are subject to fines and warrants [for traffic violations], according to the media, is that they are being hounded by a racist police force. “A mostly white police force has targeted blacks for a disproportionate number of stops and searches,” declared Time on September 1. What is the evidence for such “targeting”? Time provides none. Might blacks be getting traffic fines for the same reason that whites get traffic fines — because they broke the law? The possibility is never contemplated. The most frequently summonsed traffic offence is driving without insurance, according to the New York Times’s “exposé” of Ferguson’s traffic-fine system. Perhaps the Times’s editors would be blasé about being hit by an uninsured driver, but most drivers would be grateful that the insurance requirement is being enforced. Might poor blacks have a higher rate of driving without insurance than other drivers? Not relevant to know, apparently.
And again, here:
The only way to avoid what the protesters label as “racial profiling” is to stop proactive policing entirely… But if the police back off from proactive policing, law-abiding residents of minority neighbourhoods are going to be hurt the most.
And don’t forget there are those who insist we must have racial quotas in school discipline to avoid any impression of racism, regardless of who’s actually misbehaving or how often and violently they’re doing it.
And Theodore Dalrymple on bizarre dictators and related paraphernalia:
I learned that there was a company in Paris that specialised in strip-cartoon propaganda on behalf of dictators. It was called ABC Groupe Média International, and it had published such propaganda on behalf of Siaka Stevens — the first dictator of Sierra Leone, from whose rule the country has never since recovered — and El Hadj Omar (formerly Albert-Bernard) Bongo of Gabon, father of the present president, and ruler and looter for 41 years. When I was in Paris one day, I visited the company’s headquarters, which, if I remember correctly, were in the rue du Cherche-Midi. Suffice it to say that they were not pleased to see me there, and said that since the publication of these immortal works the company had changed its business model.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets. It’s what these posts are for.
I denounce the word ‘Bongo’ as racist.
The only way to avoid what the protesters label as “racial profiling” is to stop proactive policing entirely… But if the police back off from proactive policing, law-abiding residents of minority neighbourhoods are going to be hurt the most.
But that’s the point.
And once poor black neighbourhoods become little Mogadishus due to the collapse of law enforcement, “activists” will cry about the terrible racism of the police in not doing their job to protect law-abiding black folks.
It’s a heads-I-win, tails-you’re-a-racist proposition.
The only way to win this game is not to play it at all. Has WarGames taught us nothing?
It’s a bit silly I know, but I am always on the lookout for interesting foreign (to an anglo) names. My previous favorite was Javier Pérez de Cuéllar because it it rolled so fluidly off the tongue. I’m thinking El Hadj Omar Bongo or Omar Bongo or El Bongo might be my new favorite.
The only way to avoid what the protesters label as “racial profiling” is to stop proactive policing entirely
Somehow that reminds me of the strong support that the mafia gives to gun control. Funny how criminals complain about vigorous law enforcement
Of course, what the media doesn’t say is that the vast majority of the protesters are importing themselves from other places, solely to foment, manufacture and then exploit the chaos. Last week, several busloads of them showed up from Chicago. And it doesn’t help when politicians are more concerned with how their reactions play politically than with finding out the truth.
I’m thinking El Hadj Omar Bongo or Omar Bongo or El Bongo might be my new favorite.
Not to be confused, of course, with El Kabong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010aaw1Ajo0
It’s a heads-I-win, tails-you’re-a-racist proposition.
It is quite strange, the mental contortion required. And we’ve seen the philosophical terminus of that particular attitude. Most notably when social justice warrior Sunny Drake argued – or rather, asserted incoherently – that if you should be mugged in a part of town where lots of black people happen to live, you mustn’t call the police, as this would be proof of your racism, your ignorance and your “white privilege.” In fact, says Sunny, you must actively “take steps to deter” a police presence following your assault, regardless of the consequences for you or the local population, among whom muggers and carjackers must roam unmolested.
Apparently, it’s one of the scenarios in which victim-blaming is deemed necessary and a measure of progressive virtue.
An African dictator whose name is “Bongo”? For real?
Life truly is more absurd than art.
How many did Mr. Al Bongo kill I wonder, and how hot is the fire where he is now?
As to Michael Kimmel, his writings do not amaze me. Consider that Mr. Kimmel works at SUNY Stoney Brook in New York. Having gone to some colleges for a time in the SUNY system as an adult, I can say that the SUNY system abounds with poseurs and IDIOTS, of whom Mr. Kimmel is but one. I used to make myself very unpopular by asking such people inconvenient questions of fact about their statements from the back of the room. I remember one Gray Eminence of the New York Hospital System actually sputtering when asked if his upward results trajectory with downward budget trajectory graph didn’t really mean he was doing more work with less money, when he complained about the Regan tax cuts “damaging” his department.
Somehow maintained a 4.0 GPA in their courses anyway. A bit of towering Scotsman looming over them, the odd well-timed scowl and poof!, “wrong” answers suddenly became “understood in their proper context”. Like magic, it was.
Never underestimate the power of age and an intimidating physical presence in the liberal academic world. Gutless wonders, each and every one of them.
By the way, apologies to anyone who’s recently had trouble accessing this site. Apparently one of Typepad’s upstream providers, CloudFare, has been “having issues.”
So ‘Women’s studies’ tells students it’s all men’s fault while ‘masculinity studies’ tells students it’s all men’s fault.
Great.
David – from Mr. Drake’s musings:
I’m asking myself and other white people: how are we reflecting on and actively transforming our own personal racism? And our collective racism? …Because white people: we are ALL racist
This is true.
I never liked that magician Ali Bongo.
I’ve never once laughed at Lenny Henry’s jokes.
When I saw 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and James Mason encouraged the hostile natives to stand on his submarine, then electrified the hull – making them do a hot-foot dance – I roared with laughter.
When Roger Moore’s James Bond shagged Grace Jones, I thought ewwwwww.
I am guilty of cultural appropriation by singing “Buffalo Soldier” at karaoke.
I applied shoe polish to my face and went out at Halloween dressed as Blackula once.
AND I’D DO IT ALL AGAIN! MUAHAHAHAHA!
Karen M – we white men are the turds at the centre of the universe.
from Mr. Drake’s musings…
It isn’t so much a mind as a tangle of wreckage. And not, I fear, salvageable. I suppose the appeal for Laurie is that, even if your refusal to alert the police subsequently results in someone else being robbed and beaten by the same mugger, most likely someone who lives in one of those “Black and Indigenous communities” that Sunny Drake ostentatiously frets about, at least you can take comfort in the fact that you won’t be accused of racism by a pinhead named Sunny Drake. So there’s that.
In other, lighter news… Over the weekend I saw a forecourt advert for discounted wines, emblazoned across the top of which was the exclamation “Bargasm!”
It’s my new favourite word.
From the keyboard of Sunny Drake:
… white people: we are ALL racist. It is impossible to have grown up in a white supremacy and not have taken on racist beliefs and actions […] sometimes these beliefs and actions are incredibly sneaky – they are designed by white supremacy to look normal and natural. As white people, sometimes we can find them difficult to spot – yet they are glaringly obvious to those who are hurt EVERY SINGLE DAY by our racism.
On reading this, I thought ‘Who is this major a**hole?’ and thanks to the magic of the Internet, it turns out to be this major a**hole right here.
From the Cathy Young piece:
In a 2006 analysis on the politics of domestic violence scholarship, psychologists Donald Dutton of the University of British Columbia and Kenneth Corvo of Syracuse University bluntly accuse [sociologist Michael Kimmel]
of misusing data “in a direction favoring activist ideology” and trying to “manufacture” desired conclusions.
If anyone is interested, I have just the other day come across a free online course in Gender Studies that, I have to say, turns out to be really rather informative once you get past about 1’30” of the first video.
It’s here.
Here’s another “heads-I-win, tails-you’re-a-racist” proposition, in which David Cameron is criticised for having his picture taken with some partly blacked-up morris dancers.
As someone points out “There probably are some genuinely racist people in Britain, but chances are they aren’t morris dancers”.
David – Bargasm!
It’s not even the January sales yet, so surely that was a premature bargaination.
Nikw211 – That Sunny D sure is a talented, ehh, man?
As someone points out “There probably are some genuinely racist people in Britain, but chances are they aren’t morris dancers”.
. . . I’ve had a general acquaintance with some morris dancers over the years . . what mainly comes to mind is a quote from Prince Edmund.
Lancastrian Oik –
In 2014, it is frankly tedious to explain, once again, why and how black-faced minstrels and golliwogs remain problematic.
Well, she could… I dunno… stop? Move on with her life?
Is the prime minister an expert in the complicated and obscure history of blacking up in Morris dancing?
Is Ms Okolosie? Is this a pressing issue? Does Cameron have to learn the complicated and obscure histories of everybody he has a photo taken with, like these guys:
http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9059230.ece/alternates/w460/Cameron-at-Golden-Temple.jpg
Or these chaps:
http://static10.imagecollect.com/preview/2036/f77186040454626
Or these chavs:
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_02/3DavidCameronPA_468x280.jpg
Do we really want a Prime Minister who is scared to leave the house in case somebody, somewhere, might be offended?
Ostensibly, this is a time to endorse English values and an English cultural identity. That black people may be offended or, indeed, intimidated by this climate, no longer matters.
She seems to think black folks are poor, delicate flowers, taken to fainting like Victorian matrons.
Also, is she really arguing that English values and identity must be quashed because she is black?
Oh, boy.
Farage bragged that his party was the only one to “explicitly ban BNP members from joining”. Commentator Alex Andreou quite rightly asked: “What party, other than a party whose policies are attractive to such organisations, would need to do that?”
Yarp. UKIP banning BNP members just proves they’re racists. Also, UKIP welcoming black and asian members proves they’re racists. The racistfinder generals know these things.
I know I’m not the only one feeling left out and isolated by this renewed zeal for Englishness.
I, too, am feeling left out and isolated by Morris Dancers and their terrifying hey-nonny-nonnies.
They’re basically the English Sturmabteilung. Before you know it they’ll be goose-stepping all over England with their hobby horses and sinister bells.
David:
“It isn’t so much a mind as a tangle of wreckage.”
Ha, I like it. I may have to steal it — sorry, “to socialise it for the public good”…
Steveageddon:
“In 2014, it is frankly tedious to explain, once again, why and how black-faced minstrels and golliwogs remain problematic.”
Not nearly as tedious as having to listen, once again, to the paranoid ramblings of the Social Justice League…
“They’re basically the English Sturmabteilung. Before you know it they’ll be goose-stepping all over England with their hobby horses and sinister bells.”
Still, look on the bright side: you can always hear them coming from miles off, so there’ll be plenty of time to hide the minorities in your attic.
Things you could be doing instead of worrying about the inevitable Morris Men putsch:
1) Petting a cat –
http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/5/56/Pet-a-Cat-Step-4-Version-2.jpg/360px-Pet-a-Cat-Step-4-Version-2.jpg
2) Learn how to embrace yourself by listening to Lady Gaga –
http://m.wikihow.com/Embrace-Yourself-by-Listening-to-Lady-Gaga
3) Learn how to fight a mountain lion –
http://pad2.whstatic.com/images/thumb/2/27/Fend-off-a-Mountain-Lion-Step-4.jpg/360px-Fend-off-a-Mountain-Lion-Step-4.jpg
4) Look like a mime –
http://m.wikihow.com/Look-Like-a-Mime
5) Party like it’s 2012 –
http://pad3.whstatic.com/images/thumb/7/7e/Do-the-Gangnam-Style-Dance-Step-4.jpg/360px-Do-the-Gangnam-Style-Dance-Step-4.jpg
6) Pretend to be a robot –
http://m.wikihow.com/Act-Like-a-Robot
Mr. X – WikiHow has them covered:
http://m.wikihow.com/Hide
@Herbert
“It’s a bit silly I know, but I am always on the lookout for interesting foreign (to an anglo) names.’
I used to enjoy hearing mention of Lawrence Eagleburger, when he was US Secretary of State. What would an Eagleburger taste like?, I’d think idly.
I did everything idly back then.
@The Phantom
“An African dictator whose name is “Bongo”? For real?”
Precisely my reaction on hearing, as a child, that Zimbabwe was under the control of The Rev. Canaan Banana.
@Dan: about the time I joined the Foreign Office in 1981 an office circular went round saying simply that “In future, talks with the Rev Canaan Banana are not to be described as fruitful.”
The Guardian seems to have it in for Morris dancers these days. Here’s an unfunny article from last week by the clapped-out penseur Terry Eagleton: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/10/terry-eagleton-king-for-a-day-jeremy-clarkson
an office circular went round saying simply that “In future, talks with the Rev Canaan Banana are not to be described as fruitful.”
From wikipedia:
Janet Banana later discussed and accepted her husband’s alleged homosexuality, even though she considered the charges against him to be politically motivated.[6]
And so, Banana split. He fled to South Africa whilst released on bail before he could be imprisoned, apparently believing Mugabe was planning his death.
Preceded by this little nugget:
In 1982 a law was passed forbidding citizens from making jokes about his name
The Name Game for which is quite redundant:
Banana, Banana, bo-banana,
Banana-fana fo-fanana
Fee-fi-mo-manana
Banana!
. . . Terry Eagleton . .
Oooohhh. Nice opening!!!!
A number of years ago there was an Oxford Union debate that had something to do with the effects of nuclear war, something about abolishing weapons, or not, as I very vaguely recall.
What I do rather remember was that one side started, she made a very definite presentation, sat down . . . And then her opponent stood up . . . waved his hands around . . . finally found words, saying something to the effect of . . Total devastation . . . absolute annihilation . . . utter, widespread collapse . . . All of these . . . being an accurate summation of my opponent’s attempt at an argument just now.
Oh, My.
And then I dropped references into Google, and I do believe that OU debate was Lange vs Falwell, back in 1985 . . .
I’m not finding a comprehensive transcript, where the paraphrase, above, was of a couple of the student debaters. Another bit tossed in by one of the students was when the student’s time came up, or he was being introduced, and he strolled over to Falwell to very pointedly shake Falwell’s hand.
It’s good to meet you, I particularly wanted to be able to say I’d shaken the hand of the Reverend Ian Paisley of the Bible Belt.
Ah, Heh, heh. proclaimed Falwell. . . . . Falwell then added; Who’s Theyt?
The student’s reply: He’s the Ayatollah Khomeini of Northern Ireland.
OT
This is a great headline:
NUS refuses to condemn ISIS terrorists…because it’s ‘Islamophobic’
Story is here.
“Janet Banana later discussed and accepted her husband’s alleged homosexuality … ”
Well, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he turned out to be bent.
I recall a particularly clear example of the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t problem of policing minority communities from here in Australia:
A few years back I was driving somewhere and listening to one of those radio news-in-soundbit-form programs, and heard this:
“Aboriginal rights groups criticise the government for failing to apologise to the “Stolen Generation” and their descendents.”
Then some other piece of national or international news, and then:
“Aboriginal rights groups criticise the government for not doing enough to protect abused and neglected children in Aboriginal communities.”
For those people who have better things to do than keep up with Australian race politics, the “Stolen Generation” is the SJW name for various Aboriginal and half-caste individuals who where placed in foster care between around 1910 and 1970, due to “abuse”, “neglect”, or fears of same.
The basic argument with this is that the “abuse” and “neglect” where greatly exagerated because of racism, and also that the government agents didn’t take into account the fact that many of the Aboriginal communities where still following a fairly traditional lifestyle, which is somewhat lacking in things like “proper” housing, food, and medicine. (Also likely lacking in some/all Aboriginal communities depending on who you ask: taboos against domestic violence, rape, and significant age differences between sexual partners)
One thing the race situations in the UK and US have in common is that black/asian people seem to be almost encouraged from an early age to watch out for racism.
It’s tricky, I remember reading Lenny Henry saying that if he’d responded to every “monkey” comment, he’d have been in a fight every day. We’d clearly like that not to have happened, but the combined effect of the stupid remarks and our hyper-sensitivity about “racism” is that people will see racism everywhere*.
A young black or asian will learn very early (before they have really good critical faculties) that they get extra sympathy or leeway if they say they are a victim of racism. So they are as good as trained to see racism – even if it’s not there. By the time they grow older and more rational it’s hard to escape the habit. some will be convinced that racism is everywhere and the more cynical will claim it whenever they are criticised, or brought to justice.
It’s basic human nature. Some people are utterly cynical, others become that way when they fall on hard times. Do-gooders trying to win points by fighting racism forget this fact, or don’t care
There are psychological effects of this over-concentration on “racism” (a vague word at best). But also the fact that our beloved “equality” goes out of the window because we are told to be sensitive to some people’s feelings and not others
* we also need a sense of proportion. The monkey comments are nasty, but I listened to hundreds of stupid Irish jokes when young. They were slightly annoying, and eventually stopped, but I’m conscious that you can over-react. Also I’d get less sympathy for being part of a white victim group, and we don’t get to win gold at the oppression olympics
Chris Snowdon ponders the word ‘progressive’:
Worth a squint.
“Brighton has become an object lesson in why it is a disaster to vote Green.”
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/10/brighton-has-become-an-object-lesson-in-why-it-is-a-disaster-to-vote-green/
Darn, Naz beat me to it. Still, I will go ahead and highlight this passage in particular:
“This year the Greens worked in concert with the Conservatives to secure funding for an architectural monstrosity: a 574ft tower to be erected on the beach opposite Brighton’s burnt-out West Pier. It will be hideous. A giant up-yours to the landscape that would look audaciously phallic in Tokyo, it is totally out of place in a town where the buildings are no more than three storeys high. This particular act of cultural sabotage says a lot about the Green agenda. They aren’t interested in conserving what they inherit so much as transforming it to reflect their progressive ideology. Not for them the countryside of traditional farming and hunting, nor the ramshackle urbanity of Georgian Brighton. No — they dream of an integrated eco/bio/renewable future of steel and glass that will render the inefficient past obsolete.”
Brighton has become an object lesson in why it is a disaster to vote Green.
I did chuckle at the council’s “meat-free Mondays” upsetting the bin men. It sort of sums up the basic – dare I say it – class conflict.
I find the “meat-free Mondays” incident quite reassuring. It seems to show that ultimately people will stand up to their ‘betters’ bossing them around, if only when there’s bacon involved.
Meat-free Mondays, fine. Then others can insist on Tofu-free Tuesdays and Wibble-free Wednesdays to balance the books and make the Greens start crying like a baby, as usual.
To see what the word progressive means today, consider the city of Berkeley, California. . . . . So liberal that it is illegal to smoke a cigarette in your own flat (sorry, ‘apartment’)
From The Telegraph’s political summary for today.
. . . and those 67 children are tired of starting smoking over and over again and would like to hand off to someone else . . . !