Think Good Thoughts
Peter Hasson discovers that questioning the premise of microaggressions is itself now deemed a microaggression and therefore impermissible:
The phrase “politically correct” is now a microaggression according to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The university’s “Just Words” campaign is the work of UWM’s “Inclusive Excellence Centre” and aims to “raise awareness of microaggressions and their impact” — microaggressions like “politically correct” or “PC.”
According to its mission statement, the Inclusive Excellence Centre “invests time, energy and resources to create a socially just campus in order to include different perspectives, engage in authentic and challenging dialogue, and build connections with vibrant and global communities.” And therefore, obviously, students are warned to avoid such emotionally crushing terms as “crazy,” “trash” and “thug.” The latter being particularly heinous because it “assumes that violence is the sole motivating factor in an action. Ignores issues of poverty, education and other institutional barriers. Used as synonym for Nigga/er.”
Regarding the offensive term “politically correct,” the centre’s website says,
I’d like to add Politically Correct (PC) to [sic] program… and seek a way to succinctly outline/define PC for its basis, purpose [sic] especially how its [sic] used now to let people hide their bias but also minimize the pushback they received after contributing aggressive [sic].
As I said, excellence.
But setting aside the intriguing prose, it’s all feelings, sensitivity and fluffy goodness. Good people with high minds and good hearts, doing good, good things.
Interestingly enough, while the university’s Inclusive Excellence Centre has labelled several common-use adjectives harmful, the man running the campaign, Warren Scherer, the director of the university’s Inclusive Excellence Centre, has taken to Twitter to express his displeasure with Republican presidential candidates in a non-inclusive manner. Scherer tweeted “fuck every fibre of your being” to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and also accused him of “pandering to Republican Jews.” Scherer, who identifies himself as an UWM employee on his twitter profile, also accused presidential candidate Rand Paul of courting “rich Jews.”
I know. You’re shocked.
Mr Scherer also shares his wisdom via YouTube.
Update, via the comments:
Despite the airy guff about “different perspectives” and engaging in “authentic and challenging dialogue,” it turns out that Mr Scherer isn’t exactly fond of his own pronouncements being questioned, even for basic clarity. As Ashley Rae Goldenberg of MRCTV discovered:
Instead of responding to the questions, Scherer demanded to know MRCTV’s editorial process. Despite the setback, MRCTV still wanted to provide “per” (Scherer’s preferred pronoun according to per staff listings) the opportunity to clarify some of the vague language, grammatical errors, and incomplete sentences used on the “Just Words?” website and accompanying flier. In response, instead of answering the question, Scherer replied that per thought the story was already written and “you want me to defend myself” – adding that he would hold MRCTV “personally responsible” if “the young men and young women who work in my office, receive threats of murder, assault, rape, etc. or any other harassing communication as a result of your publication.”
Although Scherer wrote on the “Just Words?” campaign website that per “would truly appreciate your insight, your critical engagement, your challenge,” per did not respond to general inquiries about the program. Rather, Scherer, who earns $50,500 a year in taxpayer dollars (as of 2014) for per positions as director of the Inclusive Excellence Centre, did not uphold the Inclusive Excellence Centre’s mission to create a “welcome and inviting community” where “folks feel included, engaged, and connected.”
Ah yes. An intellectual for our times.
[‘Thug’] being particularly heinous because it “assumes that violence is the sole motivating factor in an action. Ignores issues of poverty, education and other institutional barriers.
So if someone punches my wife and steals her phone I can’t say he’s a thug because he might have left school with only two CSEs.
I feel so much wiser now.
I often find that the people who hold the “correct” thoughts can be just as nasty and hateful to anyone they convict of “wrongthink”. I mean they are so good and just, they should be able to say anything they want but everyone else has to mind their words.
In short, what a crazy piece of politically correct thug trash.
I feel so much wiser now.
Yes, we must learn to habitually make excuses for the opportunistic vermin that choose to prey on us.
As I said, excellence.
Is an illiterate, badly organized website mandatory for these things?
Is an illiterate, badly organized website mandatory for these things?
Spelling and grammar are heteronormative, patriarchal constructs.
Also logic.
In short, what a crazy piece of politically correct thug trash.
He’s not crazy. He’s sane and evil.
Christ, that video.
Christ, that video.
Why, it’s almost as if identity politics were a platform for morally vacuous narcissists.
“That video”
If the camp, hand-twirling bloke in the shorts ever got mugged, then good luck to the investigating coppers trying to get a description out of him:
“They were wearing white tennis shoes and a black zip-up coat”.
“So there were two of them?”.
Etc., etc.
If the camp, hand-twirling bloke in the shorts ever got mugged, then good luck to the investigating coppers trying to get a description out of him
Quite. Following Mr Scherer’s own logic, such as it is, one mustn’t presume to gender the mugger, or deduce anything obvious from their actual behaviour, or anything potentially unflattering.
. . .the Inclusive Excellence Centre “invests time, energy and resources to create a socially just campus in order to include different perspectives, engage in authentic and challenging dialogue, and build connections with vibrant and global communities.”
Conspicuous by its absence is any reference to discovering Truth, something which I recall was important when I attended University. But then, I attended a state university in the midwest USA, so what the hell do I know?
engage in authentic and challenging dialogue,
Except when his bullshit is called out on twitter. Then he won’t answer a straight question.
https://twitter.com/warrenascherer/status/656940975164694528
Then he won’t answer a straight question.
I see from Mr Scherer’s choice of hashtags that being quoted verbatim now constitutes bullying.
I think the Inclusive Excellence Center is a clear contender for the Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
As I said, excellence.
This man is an educator?
Given the terrible grammar and spelling, and the general level of incompetence, it’s actually quite staggering to think that the term Inclusive Excellence Centre is being used unironically and without a hint of laughter.
Aah, yes, define the mildest criticism of your pet project as offensive and beyond the pale.
That’s how we do debate in the second decade of the 21st century.
The university, however, claims that calling something “politically correct” “has become a way to deflect, [and say] that people are being too ‘sensitive’ and police language.”
So what language *can* we use for when someone is being whiny and policing language? Asking for a friend.
So what language *can* we use for when someone is being whiny and policing language? Asking for a friend.
The idea seems to be to pre-emptively frame any questioning of opportunist and pretentious victimhood as by definition either suspect or beyond the pale. To reduce the scope of any discussion and thereby beg the question. Because people who invoke identitarian victimhood as a pretext to police language are never, ever dishonest little shits.
“Given the terrible grammar and spelling, and the general level of incompetence…”
Departments of Diversity: Affirmative action jobs for the retarded. Much better paying that usual job bagging groceries or sweeping floors.
” ‘thug.’ The latter being particularly heinous because it ‘assumes that violence is the sole motivating factor in an action. Ignores issues of poverty, education and other institutional barriers. Used as synonym for Nigga/er.’ “
First, “sole motivating force” is a lie. A “thuggish” robbery implies multiple motivations.
Second, “thug” is an expression of pride in the American black underclass.
It seems as if the entire leftist program is built on nothing but lies.
So if someone punches my wife and steals her phone I can’t say he’s a thug because he might have left school with only two CSEs.
rjmadden wins the thread. 🙂
“…engage in authentic and challenging dialogue, and build connections with vibrant and global communities.”
Wow, these people claim to favor social justice? Why do they only build connections with communities that are already vibrant and global? Shouldnt they be more focused on the listless and parochial communities, so that vibrancy and globality can be distributed more equally? Im feeling disappointment, so that must mean that they committed a microaggression, right?
“Vibrant”. That’s a dog whistle. It means, “recently imported, with a somewhat non-traditional attitude towards private property and gainful employment”. Still, at least you get a few to-die-for ethnic restaurants out of the deal before it all goes Camp of the Saints.
The two guys in that video seem like quite the pair of poofters.
When I see “Vibrant and Global,” I know bullshit is straight ahead.
That youtube video–these guys simply must try out for the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Then he won’t answer a straight question.
Mr Scherer’s evasiveness and dislike of being questioned about his own pronouncements have been noticed before:
An intellectual for our times.
I’ve always thought the best way to respond to being accused of committing a “microagression” is to offer a microapology.
“An intellectual for our times.”
How very true. If you want to be horrified still further, have a look at this about Sustainability (I think it deserves a capital, in the circumstances).
And isn’t it intolerably non-inclusive (as well as sexist and ageist) of Mr Scherer to refer to “the young men and young women who work in my office”?
“Scherer, who earns $50,500 a year in taxpayer dollars”
As ever, follow the money.
And folk still wonder why the sizeable and ever-burgeoning victim/grievance industry is so irresistibly prominent these days….the key word being “industry” of course.
That, coupled with the cynical realisation reached by many overly ambitious yet modestly talented chancers that there’s scant profit in being an ‘also-ran’ talking sense when you can talk total bollox instead and potentially garner financially lucrative notoriety as a consequence – a shamelessly vapid phenomena amplified considerably by the advent of social media, and indeed the internet itself of course.
Ah, good times. Probably.
Scherer, who earns $50,500 a year in taxpayer dollars
I’ve updated the main post so that readers can fully appreciate the immensity of his talent.
Using the phrase “third world” to describe third world countries is a microaggression because it “reinforces heirarchical [sic] attitudes towards nations around the world, [and] establishes Westernized (industrialized) countries and cultures as the ‘standard’ upon which to measure national well-being or economic status.”
If not in the West, where would little sunshine rather live? Where else could he get paid fifty grand a year for this bullshit? Does he think he could get away with his crap in Congo, Somalia or Sudan? How about Liberia or Chad?
You may recall from ‘Happy Days’ that UW-Milwaukee is where Richie Cunningham matriculated after graduating Jefferson High. Imagine my disappointment that “Sit on it, Potsie!” was not included in the list of verboten microaggressions.
Meanwhile, across town, UWM’s rival Marquette University has retaken the PC Games lead by firing a 69-year old fully tenured professor for a blog post that upset the tender sensibilities of one his sensitive cryptofascist students:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/stripping-a-professor-of-tenure-over-a-blog-post/385280/
How about Liberia or Chad?
Tsk. How dare you question Mr Scherer’s posturing with realism and perspective. Bad dog.
his sensitive cryptofascist students
By ‘sensitive’ I think you mean ‘opportunist and vindictive’.
In my experience, the longer a person has been exposed to the Clown Quarter of academia, where the left has its fiefdom, the less likely it is they’ll be capable of realistic discussion on any number of subjects, or more generally, of autonomous mental activity. Prolonged exposure seems to foster a mix of vanity and dogmatic reactiveness. A blunting of the senses.
Now you’ve done it, DT. You’ve drawn out the lurking Iowahawk. Mostly a seasonal predator in these parts, I think.
I had to polish my shoes and slip on a tie.
Marquette University has retaken the PC Games lead by firing a 69-year old fully tenured professor for a blog post that upset the tender sensibilities of one his sensitive cryptofascist students
The vast majority of the Atlantic’s readers appear to agree with the firing. Some even think the grad-student instructor should sue for libel.
>>facepalm<<
Their goal is not to make criticism of the political aims of SJWs forbidden, but to make it impossible. I recall a book on that…