Don’t Oppress My People With The Way You Walk
From the world of campus wokescolds, where innovation never ends:
The opinion editor of the Northwestern University’s student newspaper recently published an article asserting that white people walk awkwardly on sidewalks because of their internalised racism.
The editor, Kenny Allen, who is black, is quite confident on this point.
Laying out the claims by University of Richmond sociologist Bedelia Richards for determining “whether one’s university is racist” — such as which groups feel most “at home,” whose “norms, values and perspectives” are legitimated, and “who inhabits positions of power” — Allen concluded that “White people” meet most of the criteria.
A shocking twist. Feel free to gasp.
People at this predominantly White school would not move out of our way on the sidewalk. This was one of many reminders that diversity does not mean inclusion at NU.
Sadly, and perhaps oddly, no particulars or examples are offered to support this claim. Despite the alleged ubiquity, Mr Allen shares no damning anecdotes of obstinate white people failing to accommodate the brown and downtrodden-by-default. Apparently, we are to accept as obvious, as beyond question, that any such failures of politeness and spatial reciprocation are exclusively the fault of white people, on account of their being white, and therefore oppressive. Indeed, we’re told that pavement users of pallor are actually re-enacting “the rules of Jim Crow,” which “required Black people to yield to White people whenever possible.”
Many White people walk around campus having unknowingly absorbed this particular facet of White supremacy, and the leaders of the institution do little to make us believe that White supremacy is something worth challenging in the first place.
That the cultivation of a chippy, racially paranoid attitude may itself increase the likelihood of pavement collisions and general frustration, and be a self-reinforcing phenomenon, is a possibility that has seemingly eluded Mr Allen, who instead directs his energies to bemoaning the “violent feedback” to his pronouncements. A violence that includes gentle mockery and, it would appear, demurral of any kind.
Readers who now feel an urge to rethink how they walk on pavements – in order to inhibit their seething racism and dreams of racial dominion – should, however, temper any hope of overcoming their innate wickedness:
This is not to say that giving people space in public is a way to be anti-racist;
But of course. Damnation is eternal.
the sidewalk question is just one way in which Black people are made to feel unwelcome. This is to say that essentially every aspect of our society, including the way we physically move through space, has been shaped by a racist legacy. Uprooting that White supremacy requires both recognising its scale and disrupting it however it shows up.
Yes, first we must disrupt walking, and then everything else.
Update, via the comments:
Readers may wish to ponder the ways in which victimhood, even laughably pretentious victimhood, can be flattering and seductive to a certain kind of person. For instance, the temptations of victimhood as a ready-made identity, an all-purpose excuse, not least for the young and credulous on a modern campus. Say, on a campus where tuition is a mere $78,000 a year, where those sufficiently brown are favoured in admissions, and where a pantomime of being oppressed confers a certain leverage and unearned deference, albeit from those equally pretentious.
Having been mocked for his unargued assertions and casual racism, Mr Allen is now complaining that people, presumably white ones, “don’t want to engage” with his unargued assertions and casual racism. The truth of his claims is, he says, “obvious.” An attitude that would, I suppose, explain the lack of evidence or any reciprocal standard, and the apparent disregard for any expectation of such. However, perhaps a few atoms of sympathy are in order. It occurs to me that if your immediate environment is one in which race-based claims aren’t subject to challenge or scepticism, even when sweeping and rather dubious, it must be quite unnerving to encounter these things for the first time. 
I’m not sure what the worst part of that video was. The crazy lady or the crazy spectators. They can see she’s the problem and still they hector the police…
Notice the state of the neighborhood: security grates or roll-down steel shutters on all the windows. This is a place where you can expect to be burglarized or robbed by the locals unless you take extreme measures to protect yourself.
Theodore Dalrymple has repeatedly observed that poverty does not cause crime, but rather the reverse: criminal behavior cause poverty. The bystanders are only marginally less stupid than the woman. But we can be certain that they will all complain endlessly, all their lives, that they are victims.
extra-crispy cod and curry sauce. ]
Probably better than creamed chipped beef on toast.
Actually, the local chippy is quite good, as chippies go. You can phone in advance for fish fried to order. A wide selection of, er, side dishes. They even have fairly posh bags.
#Classy
Probably better than creamed chipped beef on toast.
You were in the service?
[ Sudden hankering for extra-crispy cod and curry sauce. ]
Now I have a craving for fish and chips. And the restaurants won’t be serving lunch for hours.
They even have fairly posh bags.
You mean they haven’t already been used?
You mean they haven’t already been used?
No, they’re quite respectable. When they first appeared, the locals were terribly impressed.
That reminds me, David: I’ve heard that curry shops have largely replaced fish and chip shops in England. To what extent is that true? Do you have a clear impression of what percent shift?
I’ve heard that curry shops have largely replaced fish and chip shops in England. To what extent is that true?
My impression is that they coexist quite happily. But I don’t patrol the nation’s streets of an evening monitoring these things.
To clarify, what I read was (more or less) that, say, 50 years ago fish and chips shops were everywhere and were perhaps the top choice for fast takeaway food, but that today there are more curry shops than fish and chips shops, because Brits have happily embraced that culinary import.
Theodore Dalrymple has repeatedly observed that poverty does not cause crime, but rather the reverse: criminal behavior cause poverty.
Argh, I should have written “tends to”, because there are no absolutes: Some people will resort to crime because they are poor, but mostly it’s the other way around.
Theodore Dalrymple has repeatedly observed that poverty does not cause crime, but rather the reverse: criminal behavior [tends to] cause poverty.
The assumption that poverty causes crime – often mouthed by people who’ve never been poor or lived in a rough part of town – always struck me as rather glib and insulting to anyone who’s ever been short of cash yet somehow managed not to break into the neighbours’ houses or engage in an evening of stabbing and car-jacking. The habitually criminal tend to make choices, and to have personalities, that result in poverty – common traits including poor impulse control, low IQ, and pathological selfishness.
Well said, David.
From the Wikipedia page for Theodore Dalrymple:
“Poverty does not explain aggressive, criminal and self-destructive behaviour. In an African slum you will find among the very poor, living in dreadful circumstances, dignity and decency in abundance, which are painfully lacking in an average English suburb, although its inhabitants are much wealthier.”
Theodore Dalrymple has repeatedly observed that poverty does not cause crime, but rather the reverse: criminal behavior [tends to] cause poverty.
Not entirely unrelated.
Not entirely unrelated.
David, in light of your wide-ranging and detailed explorations of so many social dysfunctions, you could name your blog “Not Entirely Unrelated”. Not saying you should, but the idea makes me smile.
Not entirely unrelated.
From that link:
I would welcome a societal shift away from escaping antisocial people in favor of expelling antisocial people.
… extra-crispy cod and curry sauce…
Curry sauce ? What sort of new age fusion barbarity is that – worse than putting cheese on it which is specifically named as a Crime Against Humanity by The Hague.
…creamed chipped beef on toast.
More fancy talk. Shit On A Shingle, as served in the finest of MKTs and mess halls (or DFACs as they fancy themselves nowadays so as not to offend the sensibilities of the younger set).
Shit On A Shingle, as served in the finest of MKTs and mess halls
That was what I immediately thought of when I read “creamed chipped beef on toast”.
In other news, this may be a harbinger of pandering–“adapting” Tolkien so as to never confuse or offend East Asians: “As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen.”
I would welcome a societal shift away from escaping antisocial people in favor of expelling antisocial people.
Again, not entirely unrelated.
And Ms Williams’ pieties, mouthed from a safe distance, are not at all uncommon among her ‘progressive’ peers.
while on his way to Anger Management classes.
That newsman should win an award for keeping a straight face while delivering that closing.
Not entirely unrelated.
One of the things which drew me to this place was how quickly the regulars stuck a knife in the claim that “poverty and affluence are two sides of the same coin.” It’s astonishing and depressing that so few people understand a basic concept like “if nobody does productive work, there is no wealth.” Finding an oasis of such people was a welcome relief.
50 years ago fish and chips shops were everywhere and were perhaps the top choice for fast takeaway food, but that today there are more curry shops than fish and chips shops
I thought the kebab shop was king. The number of kebab shops is almost equal to Chippies and Curry shops combined.
Thanks, Steve.
From the “he dindu nuffin!” files, here is another example, courtesy of the Huffington Post, of the pathologies that cause poverty: Family of thug angry with good samaritan who shot him
The family members of a robbery suspect that held a store employee at gunpoint in Alabama are lashing out at the Good Samaritan who shot him and stopped the robbery.
Adric White, 18, was shot five times after he allegedly tried to hold up a Family Dollar store in Mobile on Nov. 12.
…
“If [the customer’s] life was not in danger, if no one had a gun up to him, if no one pointed a gun at him – what gives him the right to think that it’s okay to just shoot someone?” a relative, who wished to remain anonymous, told FOX10. “You should have just left the store and went wherever you had to go in your car or whatever.”
But when the suspect pulled out a gun at about 5:30 p.m., the Good Samaritan did too.
“He had the gun to his head. He had him on his knees,” said the Good Samaritan, who wished to remain anonymous. “I drew my gun on him and I said ‘Hey don’t move.’ At that point he swung around and before he had a chance to aim the gun at me I fired. I didn’t want to shoot him.”
(end quote)
I’ll go on record that the entire family are feral beasts and should be treated as such. Unfit for civilization. What’s more, they are the true face of Black Lives Matter.
Uh-oh, where did my comment go? David, could you please rattle the spam filter?
Actually, mess halls were called DFACs in the early 1980s.
As the HHC XO of an armor battalion stationed in Erlangen, FRG, I had the wonderful extra duty of Dining Facility Officer.
David, could you please rattle the spam filter?
Freed.
Thank you, David. I wonder if my error was to put two links in a single comment. Wouldn’t it be nice if spam filters would log the reasons that comments were flagged?
Unfit for civilization.
As we’ve seen many times, some people appear to be incapable of shame.
Again, pathological selfishness. Whereby other people exist as little more than prey, from whom things can be taken. As if robbing people at gunpoint, putting them in fear of losing their lives, were on the same moral plane as being in someone’s way in a supermarket aisle.
It’s astonishing and depressing that so few people understand a basic concept like “if nobody does productive work, there is no wealth.”
This. Well, this and the similar idea that wealth is a static thing such that for one person to become wealthier, another must become poorer. Such is the stupid underlying much of what I learned even in my AP history classes in school. Many, many professors teaching today, even some conservative…”conservative” types, will still assert this. Lately they do it in more dressed up convoluted sophistry.
If there is ONE thing that I think would do the most to change the world and put a break on soooo much of the leftist idiocy that we see today, it would be an effort to address this ignorant misunderstanding. If even half the money spent on conservative…”conservative” political campaigns were instead redirected to evangelizing the proper understanding of wealth and where it comes from to the general public it would do far more good than attempts to implement free market policies from political power down, as seems to be what most conservatives…”conservatives” seem to want to do. Because they’re not interested in real change. They’re far more interested in advancing their own popularity, image, and especially power.
Same here. And the closest H Salt is 9 miles away.
shot five times after he allegedly tried to hold up a Family Dollar store
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/013959.html
When a woman came to place a candle outside the shop, J.B. angrily kicked it across the pavement.
Good for him. No tears for dead vermin.
Link to original NY Post here.
At the grocery store, I have noticed that men are much quicker to get out of your way when you need to pass them in the aisle. In other words, women are more oblivious or rude if you will.
Northwestern U is indeed full of rich kids who are probably rude but they are rude to everyone. The paranoid woke assume that any rudeness is about race, when rudeness is ubiquitous.
… extra-crispy cod and curry sauce…
*turns and walks away wordlessly, disappointment etched on face*
ccscientist: “At the grocery store, I have noticed that men are much quicker to get out of your way when you need to pass them in the aisle.”
In public settings I take care as a male to ensure that I do not enter the personal space of any woman or child given the current mantra that all women must be believed if they claim sexual assault and also the popular notion that all men are potential sexual predators, paedophiles and rapists. I will, if women are blocking an isle in a super market, reverse course and take the long way around to avoid coming close to the women. It’s for the same reason I would never go near a young child who appeared to have wandered off from its parents at a shopping centre or other public venue even though I was once a teacher and was well used to managing children in my professional care in public. Long ago I also decided I would never render direct assistance to any lone [young] woman whose car had broken down in the country – I simply do not trust [young] modern women at all. I might stop 50 yards down the road and ask if help was coming, but that’s all. I would not go near the woman. There have been far too many false claims brought against men just trying to help women.
For instance: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7339691/Woman-falsely-accused-Good-Samaritan-sexual-assault-jailed.html
At the grocery store, I have noticed that men are much quicker to get out of your way when you need to pass them in the aisle. In other words, women are more oblivious or rude if you will.
If I recall correctly, women tend to have less spatial sense than men, and do less well at geometry. (Am I right, or is my memory faulty?) I have speculated that this might explain that obliviousness.
For instance: “>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7339691/Woman-falsely-accused-Good-Samaritan-sexual-assault-jailed.html
5 months in prison is far too short a sentence. It should have been the same as a rapist’s sentence.
given the current mantra that all women must be believed if they claim sexual assault
There are women who are now dead to me because of their advocacy of that evil doctrine.
women tend to have less spatial sense than men, and do less well at geometry
Well there’s that old saw of them mistaking 4″ for 8″ all the time…
A handy concise checklist to check your privilege.
“Well there’s that old saw of them mistaking 4″ for 8″ all the time…”
I have always believed that this is the basis for sizing/labeling in the women’s fashion industry.
given the current mantra that all women must be believed if they claim sexual assault
In my book, that poor guy’s wife is a POS, too.
For instance: “>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7339691/Woman-falsely-accused-Good-Samaritan-sexual-assault-jailed.html
Why is his face plastered on the page, very clear, but she is blurred?
“Why is his face plastered on the page, very clear, but she is blurred?”
I can only presume she is considered a shy, retiring and helpless bint who must be protected from and does not deserve to be victimised by the System, i.e. The Patriarchy – male bastards all. [She’ll be doing all her own car repairs for the rest of her life.]
I will, if women are blocking an aisle in a super market, reverse course and take the long way around to avoid coming close to the women.
Oh, screw that! I’m more than happy to give them a loud and bored-sounding s’il vous plaît to encourage them to wake up from whatever label they’re squinting at or whatever Tiktok they’re watching. I’ve found it to be amazingly effective — the volume and tone demand immediate attention, but it’s French, so I’m obviously a classy guy.
I’m not one to talk about “one simple trick” or “this amazing lifehack,” but having discovered how well this works, I’ve never looked back!
I’m not one to talk about “one simple trick” or “this amazing lifehack,” but having discovered how well this works, I’ve never looked back!
And in other regards as well. May the Lord bless you and keep you and shine His countenance upon you!
It occurs to me that if your immediate environment is one in which race-based claims aren’t subject to challenge or scepticism, even when sweeping and rather dubious, it must be quite unnerving to encounter these things for the first time.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” 🙂
I guess Genesis was right, the only thing about us is the way that we walk.