Bad Medicine
I’ve previously mentioned the taxpayer-funded race hustler Dr Caprice Hollins, whose efforts to empower black Seattle school pupils included dismissing grammar and foresight as “white values” and expectations thereof as “cultural racism.” Rather than encouraging “students of colour” to articulate their thoughts, to be responsible and plan ahead, like everyone else, we must, said Dr Hollins, see people as “racial beings” and “teach [children] to view the world through a racial lens.” But we mustn’t correct their grammar and spelling, or expect them to turn up on time.
Similar sentiments were voiced, in a somewhat boggling way, by Dr Riyad A Shahjahan, a professional educator at Michigan State University and a “social justice theorist,” who wants us to believe that people with brown skin are mystical and exotic, akin to leprechauns, and, unlike white people, “inhabit [their] bodies fully.” Dr Shahjahan also denounces expectations of attentiveness and academic competence, and even punctuality, as racist and oppressive. We should, he says, embrace “embodied pedagogy” and “disrupt Eurocentric notions of time.”
With such deep and incontestable thinking in mind, it may not be surprising to learn that the Writing Centre at the University of Washington, Tacoma is exploring similar avenues. The Centre, the stated goal of which is to “help writers write and succeed in a racist society,” aims to improve the life chances of brown-skinned students by encouraging them to give employers the impression that they’re incapable of mastering even rudimentary grammar:
An “antiracist” poster in a college writing centre insists American grammar is “racist” and an “unjust language structure,” promising to prioritise rhetoric over “grammatical ‘correctness.’” The poster, written by the director, staff, and tutors of the Writing Centre, states, “racism is the normal condition of things,” declaring that it permeates rules, systems, expectations, in courses, school and society… The Centre pledges to “listen and look carefully and compassionately for ways we may unintentionally perpetuate racism or social injustice, actively engaging in antiracist practices.” “We promise to emphasise the importance of rhetorical situations… in the production of texts,” announces the poster. “We promise to challenge conventional word choices and writing explanations.”
The Writing Centre press release - which, according to one of its authors, Dr Asao Inoue, took “over a year” to write, despite its brevity – tells us that language is “constantly changing” and it is therefore, allegedly, “difficult to justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate.” Instead of becoming proficient in the structure and expressive possibilities of the national tongue, students – brown ones – should “become more critical” of “unjust language structures.” Apparently, the way for minority students to flourish as writers is to dismiss any criticism of their prose, and any attempt to improve it, as a racially motivated “microaggression” and an “oppressive practice,” and thus proof of “an inherently racist society.”
In short, then, students with brown skin needn’t be articulate, verbally self-possessed, or precise in their thoughts. And that ungrammatical job application, the one enlivened with incomprehensible sentences and lots of inventive spelling, will do just fine. And by the time the real-world consequences of this “social justice” posturing become difficult to avoid, Dr Inoue will have been paid – and be merrily exploiting the next batch of suckers.
Thank goodness these enlightened people are here to help.
Higher education is turning into a madhouse.
Higher education is turning into a madhouse.
Well, it’s strange, to say the least, to see so-called educators, self-styled champions of “social justice,” functioning more as saboteurs. In that, if you were spiteful and wanted to undermine the practical life chances of black students, and leave them resentful, unskilled and racially fixated, and heavily in debt, it’s hard to see what you’d do differently.
The Writing Centre press release – which, according to one of its authors, Dr Asao Inoue, took “over a year” to write, despite its brevity
It took them over a year to write 495 words? Jesus Christ.
It took them over a year to write 495 words?
It must be all that shimmering prose. It’s the only explanation.
It must be all that shimmering prose. It’s the only explanation.
Or affirmative action in action.
This bullshit won’t stop until it ceases to be a well-paid career choice.
One wonders whether these professors reject the Eurocentric notion of time in their own professional lives.
P.S. David, I hate to microaggrieve you, but there’s a preposition missing before “inventive”.
Standards or ‘social justice’. Pick one.
I hate to microaggrieve you, but there’s a preposition missing before “inventive”.
Well spotted. I was, er, testing your powers of observation. Obviously.
“Each year, the entry requirements for undergraduate programmes are reduced, meaning we get a high number of students who are almost illiterate.”
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/college-illiteracy-growing
As our host would say, ‘not entirely unrelated’.
They want an angry, frustrated and excluded group to use as a vanguard for their revolution. Blacks will do nicely.
I’d laugh at this more if I wasn’t envisioning a world with a “ban the employment cover letter” movement. After all, if grammar is racist, then cover letters are just an invitation to judge potential employees by racist standards.
It must be all that shimmering prose. It’s the only explanation.
I’d also guess that their press release, such as it is, is intended as a sort of manifesto.
One surmises that the work was that of a committee, composed of the kind of “crab bucket” personalities you might imagine, each one intent upon leaving her or his own glorious imprint. It must have been a tortuous drafting process.
It must have been a tortuous drafting process.
Given that these are people who are evidently proud of the fact it took them “over a year” to cobble together 495 words of evasive and question-begging claptrap, it’s hard to argue with that.
Dear God, it’s almost funny.
I’d laugh at this more if I wasn’t envisioning a world with a “ban the employment cover letter” movement.
Weeeellll . . . do note that tactically that’s sort of already present given the ability to use the internet as a resume firehose . . . Those receiving three to four digits of applications for any one job opening have to then figure out some other way of culling through the hipsters vs the actual applicants who can do the job.
One more time:
And yet these predatory mediocrities dare to think of themselves as the good guys.
Apparently, the way for minority students to flourish as writers is to dismiss any criticism of their prose, and any attempt to improve it, as a racially motivated “microaggression” and an “oppressive practice”
– and people’s refusal to buy their writing, or inability to understand it, would be called? Pretty sure the market will weed-out this mess on its own; sad that people’s {i.e., the writers’} lives will once again be destroyed by unforeseen (though obvious) consequences and bull$h1t teachers.
Of course – silly me – the only ones who’ll understand their literary efforts will be their fellow struggling-artistes. “Preaching to the choir”, anyone?
– Oh and – “In short, then, students with brown skin needn’t be articulate, verbally self-possessed, or precise in their thoughts.” This statement, properly rationalised as equally-applicable to people with white skin, can’t be called ‘racist’ or even ‘suppressing-equal-opportunity’, as it calls to-mind a certain Ms. Penny.
I’m sure you can think of others as well…
It took them over a year to write 495 words?
They’re giving the students a standard to aim for.
“It took them over a year to write 495 words?”
They were probaby supposed to deliver it 364 days earlier, but their principles required them to “disrupt Eurocentric notions of time”.
Eurocentric notions of time
Somebody has never worked with French, Spanish, or Italians. Nor have they been married to a Russian.
So, what then is the explanation for other languages such as German, where Bavarian children are taught from the earliest grades that their home dialect is not acceptable in an academic setting? Rather, instruction is accomplished in the High German dialect of Lower Saxony and students are expected to write and converse fluently in same if they wish to succeed in German society. Heaven forbid that social mobility and success have a correlation to one’s ability to communicate in the lingua franca.
We’ve been here before, of course. When we learned that correcting spelling and punctuation errors creates “an unsafe environment for students of colour.”
It’s already corrupted college debate as in the third item in this Elsewhere, https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2014/05/elsewhere-125.html
I’m surprised only that it didn’t start in English Comp. (do they teach that anymore?) before moving to debating and not t’other way around.
And lest any Brits feel superior, we have our own attempts to lower standards in the name of fairness.
Ah, I see the We’ve been here before, of course is from 2013 while the Elsewhere is from 2014 so the rot did start at the root before moving on to the branches.
Reading their statement is enough to give anyone with a decent standard of English, inherent or otherwise, a blinding headache. I believe Jonathan (10:02) is correct in his assessment that this nonsense will only stop when it ceases to be lucrative.
“people’s refusal to buy their writing…”
Will be met with scolding, lecturing and demands for taxpayer subsidization of their “work”.
It’s already corrupted college debate as in the third item in this Elsewhere
Blimey, I’d forgotten about that.
Behold, “social justice” jive.
I’m surprised only that it didn’t start in English Comp.
Oh, it did.
The shift began a couple of decades ago, when the classic form of an argumentative essay, i.e. introduction with a coherent thesis, several paragraphs with supporting evidence followed by an acknowledgment and rebuttal of contrary views and supporting evidence and ending with a strong conclusion affirming the thesis was deemed “problematic.” Then came the shift to so-called “expressivist” composition where the writer’s feelings and personal experiences became the sole measure of competence. Add in composition teachers’ “content envy” in only teaching classical rhetoric and not more “meaty” topics, and suddenly Composition 101 turned into “Social Justice Topics and Grievance Cataloging” in short order.
Behold, “social justice” jive.
Hey… knock a self a pro, Slick! That gray matter backlot perform us DOWN, I take TCB-in’, man!
(As a side note, Al White approached the idea of jive as an independent language in Airplane! quite seriously. Spent weeks researching pidgins to make it more realistic – which the quoted claptrap is… not)
Also, the title of this thread has placed a seed of Bon Jovi in my head. Curse you, Thompson.
Al White approached the idea of jive as an independent language in Airplane! quite seriously. Spent weeks researching pidgins to make it more realistic – which the quoted claptrap is… not.
Sadly, the videos have since been removed, but at the time it was quite extraordinary to behold. The hyperventilated jabbering was, intentionally, difficult to comprehend and totally unmoored from the ostensible topic, and so its failings only became fully apparent after several gruelling attempts. Despite being called a debate, it was just a barrage of bald assertion and random buzzwords, and lots of flailing about and barked profanities, and crap about being “an authentic nigga,” with little discernible logical structure or constraint. For great stretches of time, minutes on end, it was actual gibberish, even by the dismal standards of “social justice” blather.
I wish I’d transcribed more of it.
The Centre, the stated goal of which is to “help writers write and succeed in a racist society,” aims to improve the life chances of brown-skinned students by encouraging them to give employers the impression that they’re incapable of mastering even rudimentary grammar
I bet the most racist place they’ll ever see is the Writing Centre at the University of Washington, Tacoma.
I bet the most racist place they’ll ever see is the Writing Centre at the University of Washington, Tacoma.
If I wanted to witness some in-your-face racial bigotry and hysteria – racism that was blatant, institutional and openly celebrated – one of the first places I’d look is the nearest Angry Studies department.
Such is progress.
So any discipline that challenges any minority student at any time is now, by definition, racist.
Got it.
This is how you create functional illiterates who are nonetheless Affirmative Actioned into universities. Once there, they are thus unable to succeed anywhere BUT the Angry Studies.
I see what these hucksters are doing.
Sadly, the videos have since been removed
Behold the power and the glory:
https://youtu.be/fmO-ziHU_D8?t=40
Behold the power and the glory
Well done, that man.
I suppose the thing is, if what you’ve internalised in class is self-flattering, self-dramatising garbage that isn’t likely to withstand even elementary scrutiny, then it doesn’t much matter if its regurgitation is incoherent and incomprehensible. All the better, in fact.
.. then it doesn’t much matter if its regurgitation is incoherent and incomprehensible. All the better, in fact.
I believe the intention is not to baffle and confuse the audience and judges: it is to humiliate them. The two ‘Debaters’ know perfectly well that they’re spouting complete gibberish, but no-one dares to call them out. Instead, they swallow it down and beg for more.
If ‘people of colour’ are mystical, exotic, and superior in all ways, why has every country in Africa turned into a shithole once they gained independence?
but no-one dares to call them out.
If so, wouldn’t that be an example of “black privilege”?
I denounce myself.
If so, wouldn’t that be an example of “black privilege”?
Obviously there can be no such thing as ‘Black Privilege’, as Black People are at all times and places oppressed by White People.
I denounce myself.
Report for re-education.
Suppose you were a white supremacist who was trying to create a nefarious plan to keep disadvantaged minorities in their place. But of course you can’t be obvious about; people would immediately see what you’re about. You have to make it look like you’re trying to help minorities even as you are crippling them.
It might look a lot like the current progressive political agenda.
Instalanche.
Everyone look busy.
Instalanche.
[ Combs hair frantically, looks in vain for tie. ]
What about the white debater who not only used the same style of pidgin gibberish but interspersed his wisdom snatches of bad music?
If I were a student I would turn in an old Mr. Dooley essay and claim that was the speech of my people.
May I pick a nit? In the USA, the word is “center,” not “centre.”
Privilege = intelligence, and the underprivileged deeply resent it.
In the USA, the word is “center,” not “centre.”
Yes, I had fathomed that. But I don’t live there.
“May I pick a nit? In the USA, the word is ‘center,’ not ‘centre.'”
That’s a pretty racist nit. Check your privilege.