The Psychology Of “Social Justice” Is A Thing To Behold
Want to thwart the life chances of black students? Then hey, become an educator. Say, a professor of Medieval literature at the City University of New York:
In an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed, Dr A W Strouse argues that colleges should support “greater linguistic diversity” and “affirm and embrace” language differences among students, such as the use of slang and African American Vernacular English. Affirming students’ use of non-standard English is important, he says, because students who speak nonstandard English may feel discouraged if called out for it.
Correcting errors of spelling and basic grammar can, we’re told, “make students feel bewildered, hurt, or angry.” Yes, personal growth can do that, especially when overdue.
“Already, scholars of rhetoric believe, as the consensus view, that instructors should not try to change their students’ speech patterns,” Strouse writes. “In the classroom, students shut down in the face of pedantry because they hate when bossy teachers tell them how to talk, especially in cases in which bourgeois white teachers dictate ex cathedra about what speech is ‘correct.’”
Bourgeois white teachers. No prizes for guessing where this is going. And it occurs to me that whether speech patterns are ‘correct’ may depend on whether you’re being understood, or sufficiently precise – say, in class. Or on whether you’re employable.
Further, he declares that the academic norms that privilege standard English should be suspect, because they can justify the judgment of “people’s intelligence based on dubious standards.”
Well, if you’re an employer and trying to thin a pile of job applications, repeated errors of even simple grammar and spelling are, inevitably, going to be a big help, given their tendency to correspond with, and thereby signal, both carelessness and intellectual imprecision. If someone is apparently too distracted to proofread their own job application, that’s unlikely to inspire great confidence. However, Dr Strouse has foreseen this practical problem and proposes a bold, if unorthodox, solution:
When asked why he believes it’s important to embrace and support alternative types of English, especially those that are typically frowned upon in the workplace, Strouse said employers shouldn’t dictate how their employees speak. “The workplace has way too much power and should not be allowed to determine something as fundamental as how we speak,” he declared. “People need to tell their bosses, ‘Fuck you.’”
And a long and satisfying employment history will no doubt follow.
You see, Dr Strouse is – in his mind, at least – “dismantling linguistic racism.” And he’s doing this using minority students as his little foot soldiers. How very brave of him. And that ungrammatical job application, the one enlivened with incomprehensible sentences and lots of inventive spelling, will do just fine. Because by the time any sufficiently credulous students have pinned their hopes upon it, it won’t be his problem.
A few months ago, following this related item on the Writing Centre at the University of Washington, Tacoma, where grammar is dismissed as “racist” and an “unjust language structure,” I said:
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.
Evidently, all this woke posturing requires sacrifice. Specifically, spending money on an education that leaves its supposed beneficiaries sounding uneducated.
Readers with an academic bent will be thrilled to hear that Dr Strouse’s dissertation is titled Literary Theories of the Foreskin. This work of tremendous cultural and intellectual heft “investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organises literary experience.” It also, apparently, “demonstrates that, within the school of preputial poetics, the male anatomy queerly embodies the plasticity and multiplicity of rhetoric.”
And in the notes to which, we find,
Why do San Pellegrino cans come covered in a thin film of aluminium? This superfluous skin is, for me, a preputial stylization. It is the redundant foreskin that ornaments the phallus. The can’s design, with its Mediterranean palette, evokes the zest and the flare that we attribute to Latin culture — the passionate eroticism that we ascribe to Latin men. Pellegrino’s metallic foreskin is the objet petit a of circumcised, Protestant America’s mad desire for uncut, Roman Catholicism fleshiness.
So yes, your children should be seeking out career advice from him.
Wouldn’t it be nifty if Clarence Thomas wrote his opinions in Gullah?
Inevitably, Dr Strouse tells us what it is we need to do. We, he says, “need to think critically about the conventions that govern academic speech.” Well, okay. But what about the teenagers who haven’t mastered even basic standard English and who are excused from even trying, for fear that any correction will upset them? How “critically” will they be thinking – say, about their employment prospects? While Dr Strouse is revelling in how exotic and ethnic his classroom sounds, and how incredibly “woke” he’s being, are his students, and others like them, narrowing their options in the job market? Unless it turns out that in the real world every employer wants their company’s memos and public literature, and their customer interactions, to include lots of double negatives, unfinished words, mispronunciation, mangled tenses, and dropped auxiliaries.
Oh, and aks instead of ask. That always looks professional.
Evidently, all this woke posturing requires sacrifice. Specifically, spending money on an education that leaves its supposed beneficiaries sounding uneducated.
So. Much. That.
So. Much. That.
Well, if a common impression given by “African American Vernacular English” is of imprecision and parochialism, and of someone not in full possession of their own thoughts, as Dr Strouse acknowledges, then it seems an odd thing to encourage in class, at a university. Why would someone spend a small fortune on an education that leaves them sounding uneducated? (An impression, incidentally, that Dr Strouse evidently tries hard to avoid regarding his own ostentatiously educated, and therefore statusful, self.)
But sounding cartoonishly ghetto is the way to get ahead, apparently. For other, browner people.
Brown-skinned students are basically just props in some narcissistic drama, and their practical life-chances are to be sacrificed.
For “social justice.”
It’s more sinister than that, I suspect. These students are being sacrificed not only on the altar of political correctness but also on tbe altar of revolutionary potential. The aim is to create an unemployable, unstable, entitled and angry underclass that will help the left to drag down capitalism and western civilisation.
The purpose of language is communication. Communication requires clarity, and clarity is achieved by following the established conventions of grammar and spelling. Dr Strouse surely knows that, yet cynically promotes Babel – for the Revolution, Comrades!
. . . Ever since, Strouse has been attempting to create a kind of faggy, Christian mysticism . . .
Something which has quite already been done by others, and possibly earlier, Next suggestion?
Since 1979, the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence have been doing a high volume of community charity work, on a world-wide scale—including London, Manchester, Sussex, and Edinburgh—Where yes, there are the occasional questions of Um, are these real nuns??!?!?
The observation is made that;
More regular nuns go out among the public and do community support.
The Sisters go out among the public and do community support.
More regular nuns do charitable works and fundraising.
The Sisters do charitable works and fundraising.
More regular nuns take vows of chastity and obedience.
The Sisters do charitable works and fundraising.
And when needed, the Sisters are always happy to give a blessing;
In the name of the father,
—Daddy!!!
In the name of the son,
—Daddy’s Boy!
and in the name of the holy spirit of Harvey Milk, go forth and sin some more, Amen, Awomen, and Alll the rest . . .
The aim is to create an unemployable, unstable, entitled and angry underclass that will help the left to drag down capitalism and western civilisation.
Bingo.
As for Dr. Strouse’s thesis, my wife grew up speaking a rustic form of lower Bavarian, which bears only a passing acquaintance with standard German. Beginning in kindergarten, she was instructed in “High German” and continually corrected until perfection in the country’s lingua franca was second nature, though she still uses her mother dialect among family. Even as a little kid, she was constantly informed that mastery of standard German was necessary to be a productive, successful German citizen. As you might imagine, she finds Dr. Strouse to be an idiot of the first order.
Oh, and BTW, she has a Ph.D. in English and has volunteered her time to teach ESL to immigrants who would be sorely chapped if she failed to correct their pronunciation and grammar. They understand their success in the U.S. is predicated on being able to communicate effectively.
It is the redundant foreskin that ornaments the phallus.
Redundant? I dunno, sounds like you need to be a complete prick to get a job in some places.
Maori-level “body art”
Maori tattoos are awesome.
On a big fucking Maori.
Otherwise they are bloody awful.
It’s notable how many of the people advocating that people shouldn’t have to learn to use standard English invariably seem to have attained their well-paid and often enviable positions in life mainly through the use of… standard English.
Such as The Times’ Oliver Kamm.
Oh, and aks instead of ask.
Heh. My Nigerian colleagues used to say that.
Thank you, Mr R Sherman,for your endorsement of my opinion that:
The aim is to create an unemployable, unstable, entitled and angry underclass that will help the left to drag down capitalism and western civilisation.
From here – in East Anglia, not far from the home of John Winthrop (Groton), first governor of Massachusetts, I send you greetings!
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Clearly a heretical order. Thankfully here in the UK we have the real thing.
Is there any chance we could invite Dr. Strouse to a production of My Fair Lady, so that he might experience an epiphany that this language thing has nothing to do with skin tone and is hardly a new phenomenon? It’s musical theater, and a lead character calls himself “professor” in it, so one hopes the setting would not be too alarming for the good professor.
Of course, should he fail to be sufficiently enthusiastic, I’m not opposed to letting him watch it Clockwork Orange style.
They understand their success in the U.S. is predicated on being able to communicate effectively.
Here in the UK one of the joys to be encountered on television is an ad campaign by one of the major retail banks proud of the potential profits they spend on socially worthwhile projects. The ads feature recent graduates of the British education system, apparent native English-speakers, talking of their acquisition (thanks to the bank) of something called ‘Lahf Skills’ which as far as I can gather is the arcane knowledge, hitherto denied to ‘urban’ youth and evidently beyond their capacity to imagine, that in order to obtain employment under a white supremacist patriarchy it is necessary first to apply for a job and then at interview try not to suck one’s teeth too aggressively. Or something.
Dr Strouse would be thrilled.
and then at interview try not to suck one’s teeth too aggressively.
Heh. I’ve only ever seen them with the TV muted. Though I still got enough of it to wonder, “Don’t these teenagers have parents?”
“Don’t these teenagers have parents?”
Or teachers? Or common sense? Or any faculties that would enable them to work out how the world works?
Dr Strouse is – in his mind, at least – “dismantling linguistic racism.”
They’re really reaching for excuses to call people racist.
Clearly a heretical order. Thankfully here in the UK we have the real thing.
Oh, my, that is good.
See also, and then later.
When asked why he believes it’s important to embrace and support alternative types of English, especially those that are typically frowned upon in the workplace, Strouse said employers shouldn’t dictate how their employees speak. “The workplace has way too much power and should not be allowed to determine something as fundamental as how we speak,” he declared. “People need to tell their bosses, ‘Fuck you.’”
“Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty,” “meaningless,” or “dishonest,” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.” ~~Robert Heinlein
Or teachers? Or common sense? Or any faculties that would enable them to work out how the world works?
Judging by the public-place-and-cop-car-shitting of Occupy, et al, even toilet training might be asking too much these days.
“People need to tell their bosses, ‘Fuck you.’”
BTW – insubordination comes in many forms … IOW “fuck you” without even using those words will result in discipline.
A manager who doesn’t manage isn’t doing the conscientious staff any favors.
Uni complications.
If Dr Strouse’s literature class included, say, an Italian or German student, a pale one, who spoke English as a second language, I wonder if he too would be spared any upsetting correction – for fear that it might result in bewilderment and rage. Would our enlightened educator allow the student to make obvious and repeated blunders, and as a result impede any refining of his skills? Or does the affirming and embracing of “linguistic diversity” depend in large part on the student’s melanin levels?
Hal, dear boy,
I wear a velvet-collared coat, like the chap in the cartoon. I also wear a tie. Tradition is important.
I wonder if he too would be spared any upsetting correction…
Well, I for one, made sure my wife got rid of the annoying habit of mispronouncing “schedule.” Eventually, she got it. It became, “sKedule, because this is ‘Merica, dammit.”
It’s worth noting, in response to Black Ball above, that the most significant High Court decision that was the genisis, so to speak, of Aboriginal land rights in Australia is predicated, in a more fundamental way than even the word “predicated” suggests, on their ruling that Australia was not invaded. Leftists see no issue with both leveling terms of abuse (i.e. “invaders”) AND raking in money based on a decision that entirely contradicts their abuse. And so it goes.
Hi R Sherman
Does Mrs. Sherman have a copy of British English From A to Zed? It gives all the American equivalents.
The aim is to create an unemployable, unstable, entitled and angry underclass that will help the left to drag down capitalism and western civilisation.
Exactly, the Marcuse “political correctness” strategy. It’s all about pandering to these underclasses while planning to rule them and everyone else.
What else do you think the $15 minimum wage campaign is for?
What really keeps wages down is taxation that eats into profits.
What really keeps wages down is taxation that eats into profits.
Wages don’t eat into profits?
“People need to tell their bosses, ‘Fuck you.’” A. W. Strouse, PhD
Not everyone has tenure, you homosexual.
Wages don’t eat into profits?
No, wages are what you spend in order to make profits.
No, wages are what you spend in order to make profits.
Then you can’t have any complaints about an across the board, mandated for all businesses, declared minimum wage . . . . unless you want to acknowledge that yes, wages, and taxes as well, both take away from the profits . . . .
Went through the good Doctor’s CV (you’re welcome) and found the following:
“Ph.D., English, CUNY Graduate Center, 2017
Dissertation: ‘Literary Theories of the Foreskin'”
“Peer-Reviewed Articles
‘Macrobius’s Foreskin’
‘Getting Medieval on Graduate Education: Queering Academic Professionalization’
‘Misogynists as Queers in Le Livre de la Cité des Dames'”
Among plenty of other “peer-reviewed” masterpieces.
Special thanks to Marcuse, Adorno, Benjamin, etc. without whom there would be no Dr A W Strouse.
Among plenty of other “peer-reviewed” masterpieces.
What’s remarkable, I think, is the extent to which academia’s Clown Quarter is populated by supposed adults who seem emotionally and psychologically arrested somewhere in adolescence.
Then you can’t have any complaints about an across the board, mandated for all businesses, declared minimum wage . . . . unless you want to acknowledge that yes, wages, and taxes as well, both take away from the profits . . . .
That’s quite the leap. While I wouldn’t say that wages are significantly/determinably kept down because taxes eat into profits, wages are impacted by an overburden of taxation. The more the government eats into a society’s seed corn, the fewer the jobs and the higher the cost of goods. Those impacts do disproportionately affect those on the lower end of the wage scale. An across the board, mandated for all businesses, declared minimum wage hurts workers and businesses for a variety of reasons. One of which being that wages are spent to make profits. The point is more relevant in a dynamic, growing industry/business relative to more visible, more static sectors of an economic system. In the latter, wages are more of a drag on profits, yes.
I think it’s fair to summarize the whole of Strouse’s academic career with the simple three word sentence, “Ha, ha, penis“.
“Ha, ha, penis”.
Basically, a more contrived version of schoolboys adorning their geography books with badly drawn cocks.
I think it’s fair to summarize the whole of Strouse’s academic career with the simple three word sentence, “Ha, ha, penis”.
Hmmm. Somehow I didn’t get the impression of his having been a U.S. Marine . . .
2017 PhD? The date of his degree tells that Strouse is not a Professor in the academic hierarchy. He is such only in colloquial usage where anyone standing in front of a classroom of college students is a “prof”.
Now, Strouse has to earn his tenure by impressing his department. My bet is that his article precisely tracks the views of his department chair.