Elsewhere (168)
Katherine Timpf on a “white privilege” conference for teachers and school administrators:
“Many white people in Oregon have no idea that our schools and state are immersed in white culture and are uncomfortable and harmful to our students of colour, while also reinforcing the dominant nature of white culture in our white students and families,” one of the conference documents explains. The manual defines this “white culture” with a list of values, such as “promoting independence, self-expression, personal choice, individual thinking and achievement,” because apparently those are strictly “white” concepts and not emphasised in black communities.
Educators of pallor are being told, at public expense, that in order to become “anti-racist white allies,” they must first embrace the conceit that “All white people are racist. [Therefore] I am racist.” If that sounds not only absurd but a little sinister, practically Maoist, that’s because it is.
Here’s one of the many reasons why the leftist website Salon gets laughed at quite a lot.
And Fraser Nelson agrees with Charlotte Church and Polly Toynbee, perhaps more than they would like:
At the end of our tax returns, we declare how much tax we owe. [George] Osborne can introduce a new line in the tax return saying: if you think this isn’t enough, how much extra would you like to pay? People like Ms Toynbee and Ms Church can then fill in the extra so they can pay 50 per cent, or even 70 per cent, if they like. This ‘nudge’ tax reform would be consistent with the liberal principles of a Conservative government while allowing left-wingers to act along with their conscience and hand over more of their income to the government. So next time, rather than complain that they would be happy to pay 70 per cent tax, such people can proudly claim that they do pay 70 per cent tax. And they will have the tax return to prove it.
However, as we’ve seen, Polly is much more troubled by what you earn and keep than by what she earns and keeps – which, given her six-figure Guardian income, plus appearance fees, royalties and property portfolio, is quite a feat. Like many of her peers, Ms Toynbee thinks that voting for the state to confiscate even more of other people’s earnings is somehow an act of altruism. It’s also, conveniently, presented as an excuse for not using her own considerable resources personally, directly, to help those she deems deserving. And if a well-heeled leftist bangs on week after week about how terrible unequal incomes are and how something must be done urgently – and then says she won’t do what she insists is morally imperative unless the state forces her to do it – this isn’t a resounding affirmation of her professed principles.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Here’s one of the many reasons why the leftist website Salon gets laughed at quite a lot.
Dumbass for sure, but the linked article makes a mistake which is one of my pet peeves: it calls this hypocrisy, when it is in fact inconsistency. I noticed the two terms got used interchangeably during the time of the Iraq War, and it annoys me immensely.
That’s not to say the people at Salon are not idiots, though.
And if a well-heeled leftist bangs on week after week about how terrible unequal incomes are and how something must be done urgently – and then says she won’t do what she insists is morally imperative unless the state forces her to do it – this isn’t a resounding affirmation of her professed principles.
That.
That.
Well, given the endless indignant articles on the subject, all that well-paid harrumphing, you’d think that Ms Toynbee and her peers would want to be seen living their professed values. Walking the walk. Setting an example to the rest of us – instead of waiting for the state to force their hand, which of course may never happen – would actually help some of the people they claim to care about and would make their position much harder to ridicule.
And yet…
Hmmmm, la Toynbee etc seem to have no trouble telling the rest of us what to do, but at the same time they are “waiting for the state to force their hand”. Somehow, I just suspect that there is a built-in internal contradiction in that position.
The manual defines this “white culture” with a list of values, such as “promoting independence, self-expression, personal choice, individual thinking and achievement,” because apparently those are strictly “white” concepts and not emphasised in black communities.
So according to this programme, John Wesley Rice Jnr. and his wife Angelena were thorough-going racists dominated by an alienating white culture and this was why they felt it appropriate to teach their daughter, Condoleeza, French, ballet, figure-skating and the piano?
No doubt it was a similar kind of alienation from ‘authentic’ forms of black culture that encouraged the young Condoleeza to pursue an education in European classical music and then later politics?
And presumably switching from a Democrat to a Republican in the early 1980s is the proof of her inauthenticity and betrayal of ‘real’ black culture?
Sorry – who’s the racist again?
The fact that the gaps marked [ ] below not only can but often are completely interchangeable with the sets misogynist / misogyny / women and transphobe / transphobia / trans people speak volumes about the real agenda going on in this kind of pernicious nonsense.
I can love myself even though I am [ ] because I have made a commitment to fight my own [ ] and [ ] in the larger society. I expect to make mistakes, learn from them, and am compassionate to myself and others as I make this journey.
Despite my best intentions I will still act out racism and people of color may have reason to be angry with me. I will not die from anger or criticism; in fact I will grow and become stronger.
When [ ] criticize what I say or do, I will accept it as useful information …
but the linked article makes a mistake which is one of my pet peeves
You are being too generous, this is a microaggression!
From the comments on the Timpf article:
“I wonder if the guy who just made $100,000 selling failure as a goal feels privileged?”
Boom.
Everything you ever needed to know about politics. And logic.
I tried watching that, but I gave up, what with all the singing in-between, and the woman’s mode of speech. Can you summarise what point she was trying to make? Sorry.
This is not so much a problem with people as it is a problem with women. Women are socialists and fascists by nature, and Salon is THE site for stupid leftist women and their beta male shills.
It ruffles feathers and produces a deafening thunder of cackling, clucking, and egg-laying…but this is why women were traditionally denied the right to vote or hold positions of authority.
I just suspect that there is a built-in internal contradiction in that position.
It is odd. I mean, Polly is someone who every week pretends to be a socialist – albeit for a six-figure sum – in print, at public events, on national TV, etc. She regularly and vehemently denounces those who earn as much as she does (or slightly less than she does) and is forever wailing that something must be done. And yet she herself won’t voluntarily do what she wants others to be forced to do, and what she wants them to not mind being forced to do. I wonder how she copes with the mismatch of what she says and how she actually behaves.
Maybe inside her head there’s a loud, unpleasant buzzing, like faulty wiring or a balloon full of bees.
I’ve read a quite few Toynbee articles. Even allowing for her political views, they are of low caliber. She is neither a good writer nor a good analyst, but simply a political standard bearer. Beats me how she became one of the most prominent columnists in the UK.
Beats me how she became one of the most prominent columnists in the UK.
Grandpa, and (probably) to a lesser extent, Pa.
Talking of mad old bats…
Can you summarise what point she was trying to make?
I cannot. The nature of truth is its incomprehensibility.
All you need to know about the likes of Polly Putt-Kettleon and her friends is that they have the cash (and opportunity) to get out of the UK quick if their plans for the ‘people’ turn out to be an unmitigated disaster.
They will then advise from afar what we must do to scrape our world back together.
It all gets very clear and easy once you take the Hypocritic Oath.
The more the government tires to take, the more we hide it … as most sane people would do. No one wants to be robbed blind year after year …. so we wind up with two economies … the government controlled tax-slave model and the underground free flowing economy. People do much better when government stay the hell out of the way.
What shade of off-pink officially counts as a “student of color” I wonder? Is there a color wheel that they pass out for teachers to hold up to student’s faces to check their whiteness?
Yes, that’s sarcasm. Congratulations.
This is not so much a problem with people as it is a problem with women. Women are socialists and fascists by nature . . .
Ehhhhhnnnn, actually that rather is more correctly stated as This is not so much a problem with people as it is a problem with socialist and fascist women. Socialist and fascist women are socialists and fascists by nature, . . . . which then of course also applies to the males of the type as well, and therefore, yes, people . . .
I note this from my ongoing personal and general experience of a lot of time spent working with the competent, sane, and clueful of either gender, and particularly through all the times that we have had to put up with and outmaneuver the clueless, dictatorial, and insistently incompetent of either gender.
I note this from my ongoing personal and general experience of a lot of time spent working with the competent, sane, and clueful of either gender,…
From my experience, that’s not a large talent pool. In fact, I’m guessing we know the same people…ok, one guy…he’s blonde…and blind…his name is Bill…ring a bell?
And just for backup, I’m more inclined than not to agree with Glenfilthe on Women are socialists and fascists by nature. Based on my schooling experience, women teachers were far more likely to punish the class as a whole for the sins of a few as opposed to men teachers. Granted, you do see this disciplinary approach in the military, especially in basic training, however the military is by its nature quite socialist and fascist. Of course, you want those people to have a certain edge to them.
TN
“it calls this hypocrisy, when it is in fact inconsistency”
Just as a lie is a type of untruth, hypocrisy is a type of inconsistency – specifically, moral inconsistency. The difference between moral inconsistency and hypocrisy is not very clear, because hypocrisy requires the intention to pretend or dissimulate, and determining intentions is not easy. Did the Salonistas pretend in one of their tweets to hold moral principles that they don’t really hold, or are they so thick that they just can’t perceive the inconsistency? I can see why you might go for the latter alternative, though I incline to the former. In any event, it is not a matter of fact but of judgement.
From my experience, that’s not a large talent pool.
Oy. You have my condolences. And I rather recommend, you need to go swimming in a larger pool . . .
Admittedly, for the circumstances where I’m the only one with a clue, then I am rather insistent on working alone, as I’ll actually get things done. And then for the instances of a group of us, actually knowing what we’re doing and doing that, Oy Again is it such a relief to work with the sane and competent—and yes, with great regularity and consistency, we do get a great variety of shapes, sizes, genders, Etc, that are all uniform in having a clue and demonstrating such . . . .
Every time I think about donating my own quid to a charity, I calculate the average of individual donations, multiply by .5 (to account for those crazy millionaires and their big checks), then donate that.
Because my virtue must be measured against what everybody else is doing.
@ Tim Newman – odd coincidence here through my 1st wife, I knew Oswyn Murray, who I think is the grandson (?) of G.G. Murray. Oswyn is a much regarded classical scholar. When I was doing a Ph.D. (metallurgy, not completed), I knew a girl called Julia Goodfellow. She is now the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent; I googled for some photo’s of her, and there is one of her standing next to arrgh! Polly
“Maybe inside her head there’s a loud, unpleasant buzzing, like faulty wiring or a balloon full of bees.”
Still laughing.
“Maybe inside her head there’s a loud, unpleasant buzzing, like faulty wiring or a balloon full of bees.”
The Lord of the Flies making his presence known?
Take a look at this gem of an interlocutor I snagged (Thea Carol @TimothyCGrome): https://twitter.com/dicentra33/status/613127107279896576
He terminates the convo by telling me that I’m undebatable because I never concede a point. Me, I figure he decided to go use that spectacular Kafkatrapping on someone else.
“Maybe inside her head there’s a loud, unpleasant buzzing, like faulty wiring or a balloon full of bees.”
My money is on Ba-da-da-DUM! Ba-da-da-DUM! Ba-da-da-DUM! #TheMaster
Talking of mad old bats
I found that truly embarrassing. Especially the use of language in the article. I had flashbacks to art school and the awfully pretentious language that was bandied about like it really meant something.
Today I heard an intern actually say, “Republicans would totally re-crucify Jesus!” which sounds like the title of a Salon article. It’s easy to laugh at Salon, but I’m not sure how to respond when people actually begin talking like the articles. I mean, I can’t seriously address this as an argument, right?
The purpose of “white privilege” is to foster unearned guilt in the listener, which can be psychologically devastating.
The purpose of “microaggression” is to foster the idea that nothing is so small and seemingly unimportant that it can’t be portrayed as racist.
there is one of her standing next to arrgh! Polly
I do like arrgh! Polly.
Like Bidisha! [jazz hands]™
Still laughing.
But it is odd, the imperviousness to contradiction.
As noted earlier, Ms Toynbee rails against “the unjust rewards of the rich,” by which she means, “the 1.5% who earn over £100,000.” These, she says, are the “extravagant earners” who “feel profoundly entitled to take what they like in salaries… untouched by public disgust or a sense of propriety.” All of this is aired in the most sermonising and self-elevating way. She wants us to know that “left-wing people” – like her – “are more intelligent and just generally better people,” because, she claims, they care so very much. About the fact that Bill earns more than Barney for doing a different job.
And then, a few years ago, Toynbee’s Guardian salary was revealed as £106,000 – excluding royalties, advances, media fees, rental income, etc. But oddly enough, Polly doesn’t regard her own financial rewards as “extravagant,” “unjust” or in any way improper, even at a time of chronic losses, large scale redundancies and a rapidly shrivelling readership. Such is her ability, and the ability of her supporters, to tolerate dissonance.
Which makes me think that she uses her socialist indignation as a kind of rhetorical chaff – a way to divert the envy and tribalism she’s so keen to inspire in others: “Yes, alright, I’m loaded, but look at those people over there – the ones who disagree with us and don’t mouth our pieties – they have slightly more, or almost as much. Let’s all hiss at them.” And this tactic seems to work surprisingly often. Which doesn’t exactly support Polly’s claim that leftwing people, people like her, “are more intelligent.”
The purpose of “white privilege” is to foster unearned guilt in the listener,
Meanwhile, in academic news… Preston Mitchum, a barely literate adjunct professor at Georgetown University and self-described “intersectional thinker,” thinks Father’s Day is a gendered holiday, and therefore bad.
Another adjunct professor, Ali Michael, at UPenn’s Graduate School of Education, tells us she dislikes her own “whiteness,” and the “whiteness” of others, and that she refuses to have children to avoid “propagating [her] privilege biologically.” “I felt like the way to really end racism was to feel guilty for it,” says she, “and to make other White people feel guilty for it too.”
Ah, the finest minds.
If I were a parent, I’d feel obliged to warn my son or daughter that if they go to university they’ll probably encounter some very damaged people whose lives have been dominated by a dysfunctional institution and who will try very hard to damage them.
I *am* a parent, and I am becoming increasingly concerned about them going to university one day.
@brilton – tell your kids you will support them at university only if they do science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) or a faculty eg medicine, which is based on STEM. Anything else is a waste of your and the taxpayers’ money, and of their time and mental resources.
Well, David, I think that’s the case with so many dimwit actors, musicians, artists, etc., who’ve made it “big” and are lefty yappers–sure, I have 5 swimming pools and fill them all despite CA’s drought, but it’s the fault of the wingnut climate skeptics! I’m a good person, even though I fly around in a plane by myself–my carbon waste is spent going to important lefty parties and talking about all those right-wing millionaires, not me and my friends, the GOOD millionaires! Love me!
I think that’s the case with so many dimwit actors, musicians, artists, etc.
About 30 years ago I got a chance to spend a couple of days on a film location, we’d hired some vehicles to the production company and I had to go along and make sure they didn’t destroy them. I spent those two days with the technical guys: intelligent working men who knew their jobs. Their contempt for the luvvies was, how shall I put it – absolutely hilarious. I think the kindest word they used to describe them was ‘wankers’.
The difference between moral inconsistency and hypocrisy is not very clear, because hypocrisy requires the intention to pretend or dissimulate, and determining intentions is not easy.
I see it more as hypocrisy requires you to be doing something that you condemn others for also doing. Which is not the same as holding different people to different standards.
Meanwhile, in academic news…
Why do so many of these “intersectional thinkers” have trouble with junior school grammar?
Why do so many of these “intersectional thinkers” have trouble with junior school grammar?
It does seem to be a thing. You see the word intersectional and then wait for the pile of typos and mangled grammar. Maybe it’s because they’re so busy making sure we know how clever and intensely political they are, and so busy listing their various identity affiliations. Or as Mr Mitchum puts it, “Intersectional Thinker | Feminist | Queer | Black | Professor | Writer.”
Take a look at this gem of an interlocutor I snagged
Read the whole thread. Said interlocutor debates at a low level – a presumed adult projecting platitudes about self-examination in order to signal virtue from which to claim the reason to validate condemning strangers.
The manual defines this “white culture” with a list of values, such as “promoting independence, self-expression, personal choice, individual thinking and achievement,” because apparently those are strictly “white” concepts and not emphasised in black communities.
Remind me who the racists are again…
Remind me who the racists are again…
Quite. Long-time readers may remember another professional race-hustler named Dr Caprice Hollins, who was paid $86,000 a year to tell Seattle educators that “students of colour” needn’t learn the grammar and fluency that Dr Hollins enjoys – and which employers generally expect of job candidates. These basic skills and others, including foresight and punctuality, are apparently “white values,” and expectations thereof constitute “cultural racism.” Instead of encouraging brown-skinned students to articulate their thoughts, to be responsible and plan ahead, we must, said Hollins, see people as “racial beings” and “teach [children] to view the world through a racial lens.”
And so we have condescension and bigotry presented as sophistication, as enlightened virtue. And as a result, many of Dr Hollins’ ‘progressive’ peers are desperate to affirm the worst of ghetto culture, all of which is presented as authentic “African-American culture,” as something one has to interpret, sensitively. To that extent that a black high school pupil can repeatedly punch a female teacher in the face, sending her to the emergency room, and it’s the teacher, being white, who gets scolded for her “unconscious racial biases,” while also being lectured on how difficult it is for young black thugs to overcome a criminal record.
Such is the funhouse mirror world of identity politics.
Regarding the ongoing farce of the Greek economy, Milo Yiannopoulos is on form:
“anti-racist white allies”, forsooth!
Carlos Castaneda laughs helplessly…
The revolutionary Russell Brand is booed by a crowd, apparently for his support of Miliband.
Well, mate, that’s what happens when you dip your tiny toes into politics.
David: “it’s the teacher, being white, who gets scolded for her “unconscious racial biases”
Not just race either. A female colleague of mine, when I taught briefly, was assaulted sexually by a yoof and had to be rescued by other students who thought the lad groping a female teacher wasn’t the thing to do. The lad in question was not suspended or disciplined, but my colleague was told by management that her lessons “weren’t stimulating enough” so she needed to look at her teaching methods. Oh, and this wasn’t some hellhole in the States but a lesser hellhole in the north of England.
So teachers being to blame for feckless teenagers is everywhere, it seems.
Not just race either.
As Thomas Sowell said,
What you reward and encourage, you’ll tend to get more of.
OMG! This didn’t get included in the last thread of my Twitter convo: https://twitter.com/TimothyCGrome/status/613139044185169920
Me: I criticize your self-righteous displays of piety. Normal self-criticism should stay under the hood, not be a halo.
Him: Ppl under the hood are not critical because they see their racism is justified.
Me (plotzing): The hood of a CAR, not a KKK costume. Wasn’t I talking about ostentation vs. non-ostentation?
I don’t think he’ll be back.
For sheer, poorly reasoned, ignorant, pretentious, self-congratulatory twaddle, Ali Michael, PhD wins by a furlong:
Rachel Dolezal is a fascinating case study in White racial identity development.* She is stuck in the immersion/emersion stage, in which White people, having learned extensively about the realities of racism, and the ugly history of White supremacy in the U.S., “immerse” themselves in trying to figure out how to be White in our society, and “emerge” with a new relationship to Whiteness. Only in the case of Dolezal, her way of dealing with the pain of the reality of racism, was to deny her own Whiteness and to become Black.
She is an extreme example of a common phenomenon. The “immersion” stage is typified by White people taking more responsibility for racism and privilege and often experiencing high levels of anger and embarrassment for racism and privilege, which they sometimes direct towards other Whites. They sometimes try to immerse themselves in communities of color, as Dolezal did. She’s not alone.
I definitely experienced this. There was a time in my 20s when everything I learned about the history of racism made me hate myself, my Whiteness, my ancestors… and my descendants. I remember deciding that I couldn’t have biological children because I didn’t want to propagate my privilege biologically.
Remember, that is PhD level stuff.
That deserves a thorough fisking. Or, even better, a Stevaggeddoning. Unfortunately, I don’t have time, and am not Steve2.
Remember, that is PhD level stuff
Much like Nobel Peace Prizes, the trend seems to be to hand out PhD’s with each oil change. So long as you can afford, or get someone else to pay for, that rather expensive oil change.