Today’s Word Is Symbolism

The mural was designed by the feminist artist collective When Women Disrupt
So edgy.

Above, art.
Some background on the, um, installation here and here. Apparently, the piece was “sponsored by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment.” Which is a thing.
The portraits beneath the slogan are okay – not outstanding, but competent. (Though I’m now wondering if they’re self-portraits, which would make things even more telling.) But any aesthetic quality is rather soured and undermined by the slogan and accompanying blather – about “institutionalised and everyday systems of power and representation that reinforce racism, patriarchy, and inequity” – and the general pretence of victimhood. All while basking in one of the most cossetting and woke environments in human history.
And if racism and misogyny are, as claimed, rampant in what amounts to a leftist fiefdom, what does that say about leftism and the people it attracts?

Whenever the left talk about ‘Having a Conversation’ about a subject, it seems to mean: ” Shut up while we lecture you.”
p.s David, I can’t seem to post comments on your blog using the Brave browser. I’ve had to revert to Chrome (spits on floor). Anyone else experienced this?

Whenever the left talk about ‘Having a Conversation’ about a subject, it seems to mean: “Shut up while we lecture you.”
Absolutely, it’s a signature dishonesty. Our intersectional ladies blather about “dialogue” in much the same way that other race hustlers claim to want “an honest conversation” about race while constantly narrowing the range of observable facts that you’re permitted to acknowledge. Which is to say, the one thing they absolutely do not want is an honest and realistic conversation. What they want is deference on an indefinite basis.

“Alison Trope”?
I know. It’s almost too perfect.

Everything they say is a lie.
Pretty much.

The irony is there probably are some inherent privileges to being white
I think you are in danger of allowing the progressives (as is their wont) to redefine the more usual meaning of privilege as a statutory or legal right to that of an advantage or benefit, thus making it sound more menacing. Of course there are advantages to being white – you can more effectively synthesize vitamin D in temperate climes for example.
There are no privileges in my country for being white however, now we (yes we) have done away with slavery.
Please report to the de-programming box.

Yet, when someone else wanted to spark some dialogue with a counter-protest exhibit of sorts, that was quickly removed.
Well, yes – and so it should have been in my opinion.
While scotch-taping up the handwritten message “White Male Privilege Is A Myth” is not nearly in the same league as throwing red paint all over the sign and/or mural, or setting fire to it, etc. it is nevertheless a form of vandalism if it was pasted right next to the DISMANTLE WHITENESS AND MISOGYNY ON THIS CAMPUS sign (as seems to have been the case in fact).
It can’t be all that surprising that it was therefore taken down, surely?
I cannot agree with student commentator Shauli Bar-On’s argument that:

If the true intention is to initiate conversation, then USC should have allowed this poster to stay up alongside the mural regardless of whether or not the faculty agree with its message.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it seems quite clear that the Dismantle Whiteness ‘installation’ is both nasty and gratuitous as well as devoid of anything even remotely approaching creativity or original thought.And past experience also tells me I have every reason to believe that anything resembling actual dialogue or an exchange of views resulting from the ‘installation’ would be the absolute last thing the When Women Disrupt collective had in mind.
But even so, mild as it was in terms of vandalism, there are better and more appropriate ways of addressing this than graffitoing it.

I think you are in danger of allowing the progressives (as is their wont) to redefine the more usual meaning of privilege as a statutory or legal right to that of an advantage or benefit….
The redefinition of “privilege” is designed to serve a greater purpose. Progressives believe that all humans are fungible and that success in life is merely the result of random chance. Individual virtue plays no role whatsoever. Further, what we define as “virtue,” is now declared a “privilege” and lumped in with those things which truly are random accidents of birth/genetics, i.e. one’s skin color, body type.
The Left then shifts the goal posts by declaring that Privileges have a moral component which necessitates the holders feel guilty about possessing them, even though they’re supposedly the result of random chance.
The purpose of all this is to allow the Left to redistribute–in the service of fairness, naturally– the fruits of their declared privileges to those without.

Progressives believe that .. success in life is merely the result of random chance.
Sure. When they’re not believing it to be the result of malign oppression.

Incidentally, I also do crock-pot recipes!
I’ve switched almost entirely to the Instant Pot. Who has that kind of time?

there are better and more appropriate ways of addressing this than graffitoing it.
Yeah, but fires can spread.

Everything they say is a lie.
Including the words ‘and’ and ‘the’.

it is nevertheless a form of vandalism if it was pasted right next to the DISMANTLE WHITENESS AND MISOGYNY ON THIS CAMPUS sign
Expressing disagreement in proximity to what you disagree with is vandalism? Really?

there are better and more appropriate ways of addressing this
The third item here seems relevant. Because apparently, on many campuses, it’s not okay to be white, and saying so, even as a bit of trolling, some gentle and belated pushback, is “racist” and “hateful.” Something to be “investigated” by campus bureaucrats.

It rather baffles me when leftists talk about ‘White Privilege’ in countries where white people are the majority. It’s as if the real problem they have is that white people have any power at all. When you look at the definitions of ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Patriarchy’ given next to the display, what they’re actually describing is Western Civilisation. If that’s what they really have a problem with, I can point them to any number of countries they’re free to move to.

Expressing disagreement in proximity to what you disagree with is vandalism? Really?
Yes, really.
Is this form of “Expressing disagreement in proximity to what you disagree with” in any way acceptable to you? Or this perhaps?
Because to me those forms absolutely are not.
Of course, sticking up that handwritten note is hardly in the same league as those two examples.
But that was precisely why I was careful to point out that it was “mild” and “not nearly in the same league as throwing red paint … or setting fire to it, etc.”.
But if you choose to ignore that and only see and react to the word “vandalism” as if I had made no distinction, then you are clearly misinterpreting what I was saying.
Such as?
Making a formal complaint to the USC authorities would be a start for one. Alerting the alumni would be another.
I’m not sure why.
Although we can never really know what someone intended, the aim of posting that particular message in that particular place makes it hard to imagine what other purpose the hand-written note might have had other than to upset the apple cart as it were.
For instance, I would be very, very annoyed to turn up at the National Gallery in London one morning only to find that members of a collective such as When Women Disrupt had got there before me and had plastered Post-it notes with messages such as “Rubens was a rapist!” or “Velazquez was a white male capitalist whore!” or whatever – not on the works, but only in proximity to them – and otherwise not damaging the actual paintings.
I also don’t think it would come as much of a surprise to anyone if the gallery attendants removed them.
And yet that College Fix piece asks the question:

Guess which one is still up? If you said “Dismantle Whiteness,” you are correct.

Although that question is rhetorical, they do seem to be generally of the opinion that it should have been left up and that there is something amiss that it was taken down.
I suppose it touches on a broader issue, i.e., at what point normal proprieties are inadequate, and one has to play by rules not altogether dissimilar to one’s opponents’, who seem to have the enthusiastic backing of the institution and use it as a fiefdom.
All of that.

the youngest spent the last year trying to decide on a college
Perhaps the youngest would be better advised to seek out a trade school. Less expensive, more useful, and far less likely to propagandize.

Perhaps the youngest would be better advised to seek out a trade school. Less expensive, more useful, and far less likely to propagandize.
I don’t disagree. The “problem” is, his achievements have been difficult to ignore, such that they outweigh any “privileges” he might have. My out-of-pocket expense for his first year will be less than $100. He earned it; he should have the right to do what he wants with what amounts to his money.
Of course, he knows that if he loses the scholarships, or if his degree fails to lead to gainful employment, that’s it. I refuse to borrow money for clown-school or remodel my basement so he can live there rent-free and “find himself.”
It’s amazing how firm parenting can focus the mind of one’s children. It’s worked for the older two, so he knows we mean business. One more and our work is done.

Facts are racist and oppressive. We need fact-free honesty!
[And we’re halfway there, already. Sigh]

I know. I’ll write them a stern letter. That’ll show ’em.
Yes, it will.
Remember ‘Mizzou’?

Freshman enrollment at the Columbia campus, the system’s flagship, has fallen by more than 35 percent in the two years since.
The university administration acknowledges that the main reason is a backlash from the events of 2015, as the campus has been shunned by students and families […]
Tyler Morris, a white student from St. Louis, said he was afraid of being stereotyped as a bigot if he went to Missouri. So he decided to go to Missouri Valley College, “just down the road” in Marshall.

Any institution that makes it a priority to denigrate the larger part of its population while that population has alternative options open to it is not an institution that is very likely to survive, let alone thrive.

… there’s something heartening about seeing the Mao-lings who’ve disrupted an event being loudly mocked and out-chanted …
Oh, don’t get me wrong – I’m no Ghandi. I am certainly not against pushing back in the face of brazen thuggery. Tolerance has a limit, for sure.
And I am absolutely not defending the message of the original ‘installation’ (as I said above, it is “both nasty and gratuitous as well as devoid of anything even remotely approaching creativity or original thought”)
It’s just that I think there is a significant difference between removing a cheeky sign from a work where it does not belong and, say, the many instances of flyers advertising events (for e.g. Cassie Jaye or Ben Shapiro) that have been posted with permission in public places being torn down – sometimes literally seconds after going up by some malcontent creepily stalking the bill poster. That is something that has happened on a number of occasions as I’m sure you’re all too aware.
I think I’m just trying to point out that there are so many actual instances of people with differing viewpoints being roundly abused and/or silenced that I just don’t see the removal of that particular sign as being all that significant in the scheme of things.

..the many instances of flyers advertising events (for e.g. Cassie Jaye or Ben Shapiro) that have been posted with permission in public places being torn down..
If the poster of the flyer had torn down the installation, you’d have a point. They didn’t, they just put up a handwritten note of dissent next to it.
It’s ironic that when a display put up by the self-styled #WomenWhoDisrupt is um, disrupted, in the mildest way possible; pearl-clutching ensues.

the masterful trolling of the “It’s okay to be white” flyers.
Saying ‘it’s okay to be wh*te’ is ‘disturbing’.
https://twitter.com/OrwellNGoode/status/987003039843340288

On my last visit to Cuba, I was struck by all the graffiti I saw everywhere.
Of course, it was all universally pro-Castro/pro-government/pro-revolucion, rather neatly painted, and clearly refreshed frequently, given that the sun and salt air had failed to fade it appreciably.

Saying ‘it’s okay to be wh*te’ is ‘disturbing’.
Given the chosen locale, and other incidents, they could be seen as having unwelcome connotations – unlike the campus campaigns, which were clearly a dig at “privilege” shaming culture. I suspect other, less savoury parties have hijacked the slogan.

Hi Sam,
The hair, the Soviet-style eyeglass frames, the stupid pout—can’t they come up with a little variety?

Well I do not know about your side of the pond.
Here in the colonies it is war memes, dick pics, and boobs on display.
Seems proper. Everyone posing with what passes for a weapon.
I am getting on in years, and could use a new hat. Or a swordcane, whatever.
Frontier fashion. Protective.

Karl, welcome to the Small Appliance Alliance!
Veterans please pass the word about the elderly gent; he wants to talk to another survivor and, since he’s 96, if there IS another survivor the quicker we find him the better.

The hair, the Soviet-style eyeglass frames, the stupid pout—can’t they come up with a little variety?
It’s a special deal. They get ’em wholesale.

Workers were shown smiling. Soldiers and partisans were uniformly grim faced. It depends whether the portrayed person is looking at the future or dealing with the past.
The East German national anthem had that pattern, taking turns between the “turned towards the future” theme (strings, new harvests, children playing, the world rebuilding itself), and the “crushing the remains of our evil past” theme (marching boots). It’s a beautiful, stirring anthem – listen to too much of it, and you too will know that there are deep and noble reasons for drinking ersatz coffee and spying on your neighbors.

ZZG,
…you too will know that there are deep and noble reasons for drinking ersatz coffee and spying on your neighbors.
Now playing at a college campus near you!