Caliban’s Mirror
Several faculty members at Pitzer College recently discussed launching an “investigation” of a student paper for accurately reporting a student’s public comments about “cultural appropriation.”
These comments here, about the chest-crushing oppression of seeing white people wearing big hooped earrings.
Professors and administrators at the Claremont Colleges took to public Facebook posts to vent their frustrations, proposing free speech limits on campus and an “investigation” to shut down the conservative student journal.
Because that’s what grown-ups do now. At least on campus.
“We have a serious problem with the Claremont Independent bullying young women of colour and illegally posting their emails, exposing them to violence,” Suyapa Portillo, an Assistant Professor of Chicano-Latino Studies at Pitzer College, recently posted to her public Facebook page.
Quoting verbatim public comments – comments that were directed at the entire campus via the Student Talk listserv and sprayed onto a wall - is now “bullying” and “violence,” apparently. At least on campus.
“This is dangerous, irresponsible slander and [is] unacceptable. The minute one of our women of colour students feels unsafe on campus ALL of our students of colour and faculty of colour are unsafe. #STOPBullying #TitleIX #ShutItDown #StopHate.”
“Shut it down,” she hashtags, seated proudly on a pile of non sequitur. Because accurate and undisputed quoting is, via some unspecified mental contortion, now to be regarded as slanderous and hateful, and a mortal threat to every brownish person within a ten-mile radius, and thus something to be stopped.
At least on campus.
there doesn’t seem to be a ‘swim-up’ bar.
See? That’s exactly the kind of hardship that forces students to fund their Spring Break trips to Cabo with student loan money.
. . . Less-than-backslash-I-greater-than . . .
Err, possibly as the emphasis, “Less-than-backslash-i-greater-than” . . . not I, which is a different character and thus not recognized.
I try to remember to do so, but it seems a couple weeks or months ago one of us was able to fix someone else’s screw up and thus might be able to fix our own in some manner without bothering The Boss.
Right. One comment, leading to the next comment, where the actual text of the second comment starts with “Less-than-backslash-i-greater-than” and thus shuts off the italics from the previous comment.
Angry Studies. Just say no.
What’s a desi-Kenyan when it’s at home?
I ended up here somehow.
This account’s Tweets are protected.
Only confirmed followers have access to @ClaireLockard’s Tweets and complete profile. Click the “Follow” button to send a follow request.
It’s nice to know they are looking out for our safety. Stupidity is a micro-aggression (okay, an endless series thereof) too.
“and yet the solution eludes me”
Could this be a consideration?
such dramas and spluttering aren’t rare aberrations, but routine events
Have you seen this open letter from the McMaster’s University President’s Advisory Committee on Building an Inclusive Community (PACBIC) yet?
[T]he concept of freedom of speech has most often been mobilized to protect specifically counter-hegemonic ideas, ideas that actually challenge, rather than reiterate, the status quo. Freedom of speech was also not conceived as a means to protect normative ideas from contestation by marginalized communities, but to protect those whose speech might actually contest normative or nationalist ideals from censure, punishment, or retaliation by state forces. There is nothing rebellious or revolutionary about insisting on the naturalness of the (now long debunked) gender binary or of what Dr. Peterson describes as the “biological fact” of sexual difference neatly categorizable as ‘male’ and ‘female’ (a “fact” subjected to intense critique, questioning and reconsideration by numerous scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and even the biological sciences for several decades now, which demonstrates the limited extent of Dr. Peterson’s knowledge on this subject, since he seems either entirely unaware of this body of literature or else unwilling to engage with the challenge it poses for his own arguments).
Can you credit the gall of it?
I know I can’t. I no longer believe that they think anyone is stupid enough to actually believe this mockery of an argument, this sham justification which permits them alone the right to say what they want, when and where they want, with absolute impunity, while simultaneously demanding that others be forbidden that very same right.
If I had any patience left for this hateful nonsense, I would be embarrassed. The flimsiness of the veil they are trying to cover their obscene grasping at power with is rank with dishonesty.
They are fooling no one with this (except perhaps some naive and idealistic students who sincerely think they are doing the right thing). But while no one is fooled, there are more than a few who are intimidated into silence by them out of fear – a silence which they are choosing to interpret as tacit agreement (but in their heart of hearts they must surely know that this is capitulation, not assent).
Peterson’s highly appropriate response.
except perhaps some naive and idealistic students who sincerely think they are doing the right thing
You give them more credit than I would. Judged by their actions, they are not good people.
Judged by their actions, they are not good people.
No, not good people at all. Sociopaths and psychopaths looking for any excuse to dominate and abuse others. The vile Maoist “Red Guards” were also “students”.
Can you credit the gall of it?
Oh, it’s an awful lot of preening for a short letter. But what else did you expect? It’s who they are.
It’s also worth noting how the McMaster administrators, the ones who trumpet their imagined moral and intellectual superiority, carefully avoid addressing anything remotely approaching Peterson’s actual position on the subject, which isn’t about transgender people per se, but about abusing the force of the state.
Such is their mental heft.
…carefully avoid addressing anything remotely approaching Peterson’s actual position on the subject
— “insisting on the naturalness of the (now long debunked) gender binary…”
“Debunked”? By whom???
— “a “fact” subjected to intense critique, questioning and reconsideration by numerous scholars in the humanities, social sciences…”
Oh, the intensely rigorous “humanities and social sciences”. In other words, less than nothing substantial.
— “and even the biological sciences for several decades now”
[ citation please ]
this sham justification which permits them alone the right to say what they want, when and where they want, with absolute impunity, while simultaneously demanding that others be forbidden that very same right.
Exactly right, Nik.
First world cargo cults, well funded.
Better in the real world. One must learn to the proper phrasing and material handling to create market demand for cheap knockoffs.
And so it goes.
neal,
A classic Iowahawk tweet that never gets old:
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/761642049254793216
Why for all they tell us how strong and brave these people are they are always so amazingly weak and fragile that even the slightest of slights are enough to destroy their precious psyches?
Let’s all try not to crash the front of the queue. I’m sending a handful of McDonald’s coupons and a voucher for ten percent off a front-end alignment.
R. Sherman,
I agree with one of the commenters: someone needs her diaper changed.
Let’s all try not to crash the front of the queue.
Apparently, mocking the standard of Ms Damasio’s “socio-political discourse” threatens her very existence, albeit in some unspecified way. And if she blocks you or insults you or ignores you, you should be paying for that too. On account of her melanin levels. Because she’s a “femme of colour creative,” and so you owe her just for being.
Again, I wonder which came first – the politics or the personality?
I unapologetically demand that men & white womxn pay me because they consume intellectual, emotional & creative labor 24/7 w/o my consent.
Ms Damasio’s pettishness and near-pathological self-absorption must be a considerable drain on the forebearance and good will of every one who encounters her. So that probably cancels out that debt.
Off topic I know but I just wanted to share…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbuluDBHpfQ
I just wanted to share…
I’m pretty sure I’ve been to that club.
This blog’s down-the-rabbit-hole quotes and links are broadening my education in ways I never imagined! Today, I learned:
femme
A (traditionally) feminine woman. Mainly used to refer to a feminine lesbian, and especially a feminine lesbian who is attracted to masculine, or butch lesbians.
desi
Derived from Sanskrit. Means “one from our country”. Usually refers to people from India, Pakistan, & Bangladesh. For Indians/Pakistanis/Bengalis abroad, it mainly identifies a fellow Indian/Pakistani/Bengali.
Alas, I don’t foresee much use of this new-found enlightenment in real life (i.e. sane) conversations.
I’m pretty sure I’ve been to that club.
I’m pretty sure I’ve been thrown out of that club.
Again, I wonder which came first – the politics or the personality?
Or did her pregnant mother have a crack habit, loath as I am to suggest an excuse for her behaviour?
I’m pretty sure I’ve been to that club.
And I’m quite certain you made a blog post about it. {o_O}
Clang-clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang!
I just wanted to share…
I’m pretty sure I’ve been to that club.
Clive James, Postcard From Paris, starting at 14:50 and going to 17:14 . . .
Alas, I don’t foresee much use of this new-found enlightenment in real life (i.e. sane) conversations.
I live near the part of the Greater Toronto Area that’s been aggressively colonized by immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia (and my girlfriend is an Uzbek who is ethnically Bengali, Arabic and a bit of Chinese).
I find it interesting that despite the massive religious and political conflicts in their countries of origins, here in the GTA they tend to socialize with each other and self-segregate, seeing themselves as a homogeneous group within the larger Canadian culture.
They don’t use the word “desi”, however. That seems to be reserved for white hipsters and the few Westernized young SJW Indian women. The older generation refers to others in their enclave by their specific country of origin; in a shocking display of racism, the younger generations just refer to each other as “brown”.
< /i >
In other news, Stephen Merchant wouldn’t have been my first (or fifth or…) choice to play Caliban, but he does a fine job in Logan.