Please Stop Objecting To The Assault Of Your Person
Robert Schmad spots more Clown Quarter contortion:
An assistant professor at Appalachian State University recently argued that enforcing behavioural standards in public high schools is rooted in racism and unfairly affects Black students. In the article “‘Press Charges’: Art Class, White Feelings, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” [assistant professor of art education, Dr] Albert Stabler writes that the desire to punish students for violating school rules, especially when the police are involved, is the result of “the overvaluation of White feelings.”
The article, which you can poke at here, contains many wonders, generally of a kind only the woke can conjure into being. It begins with the obligatory confession of innate wrongness – i.e., “I am a white teacher” – and includes much gushing about non-white students’ “life experiences and cultural knowledge,” before which our educator is eager to prostrate himself, and which have apparently resulted in Dr Stabler’s own “learning and growth as a person.” Particulars on this point – the deep insights of teenagers – are, alas, unclear. And amid the gushing, there are notes of disharmony:
There were many students who regularly received in-school and out-of-school suspensions for what were perceived as disruptive actions.
Not actually disruptive, you see. Merely perceived as disruptive. For no reason whatsoever.
While my classroom materials and my dignity were sometimes damaged by rambunctious behaviour, more dire consequences were regularly enacted on students by school officials (not to mention parents).
We’ll get to some of that “rambunctious behaviour” in a second.
“In… schools,” we’re told, “the desire to punish is racialised,” and “white people’s feelings often have outsized consequences on People of Colour.” The example given to illustrate this alleged phenomenon is of a white, female art teacher – Dr Stabler’s immediate predecessor – who “was said to have wept at the end of every school day” and who pursued assault charges against a black student who forcibly cut said teacher’s hair. This assault, presumably intended to humiliate the woman and assert dominance over her, is passed over with remarkable ease by Dr Stabler, as if the “white feelings” of the teacher, and the implications of such behaviour – and its accommodation by leftist educators – were unworthy of exploration.
Apparently, hearing that your immediate predecessor was harassed and assaulted, and reduced to tears on a daily basis – by the same teenagers you’re hoping to teach about art – couldn’t possibly be a warning sign, or have any informational content, beyond a belief that those indulging in the disruption, harassment and assault must be steeped in “cultural knowledge,” and obviously oppressed, and therefore deserving of further latitude.
As the new teacher hired to replace her, I also dealt with feelings of frustration, humiliation, guilt, and anger. On the occasions when I reported infractions to parents or administrators, I too played a regrettable role in the consequences my students received at school and at home.
He’s so sorry for having dared to complain about classroom misbehaviour and vandalism, and for being targeted for humiliation. All those “white emotions” we shouldn’t care about.
Other examples of students displaying their “cultural knowledge” – and “kinetic” creativity – include the punching of a white male teacher, who subsequently agonised over whether to press charges, and which prompts Dr Stabler to deploy the euphemism “interpersonal conflict.” Our terribly caring educator also briefly mentions threats made against him personally by students, an atmosphere “fraught with aggression,” and the “second-hand trauma” of the violence he “witnessed and heard about.” “In no way do I consider violence a trivial matter,” says he. And yet it seems one shouldn’t complain about such things or expect the perpetrators to face the customary consequences. On account of their magic blackness.
Much of the remaining article is the standard and wearying contrivance, complete with begged questions and references to Foucault, and lynching, and with the words behavioural issues deployed in scare quotes. The roles of personal responsibility and stable, two-parent families are mentioned, fleetingly, in passing, and only to be dismissed. We do, however, hear many buzzwords, few of which are unpacked, thereby retaining an aura of profundity and unassailable self-evidence. Among them, “white supremacist violence,” a term that seems to include any and all attempts at policing; a reluctance to live among people who, shall we say, encounter the police routinely; and even complaints about repeated and aggressive classroom disruption.
Regarding which, Dr Stabler suggests an obvious and fool-proof remedy – i.e., further, more concentrated fretting about “white people’s abuse of power” – sins that apparently include being insufficiently pleased by an impromptu forcible haircut, and complaining about being punched. Being a “white art teacher,” it turns out, “requires getting over ourselves,” and “understanding that our feelings matter a great deal less than the lives of the young people we have taken it upon ourselves to care for.”
And so, rather than relying on expectations of reciprocation or any norms of civilised behaviour, white teachers must disregard their “white feelings” – a euphemism for dignity and physical safety – and fret about the browner, more important feelings of their assailants and tormentors, the people who wish to dominate and degrade them. On grounds that thugs and budding sociopaths will be morally improved by being granted ever-greater indulgence and race-based exemptions from normal consequences.
Such are the convolutions of wokeness.
We’ve been here before, of course. More than once.
If there’s no classroom discipline – if the students can’t hear what you’re saying, or can’t settle down to work without distraction – then no learning of the subject matter can take place. This goes for nice progressive teachers too (or especially).
On the other hand, if the classroom is a lab for perfecting white dhimmitude, this is like a visit to Xerox Parc in 1978 – the future is here already, it’s just not widely distributed.
In the dhimmitude model, the white teacher shouldn’t attempt to establish authority over his students if they’re nonwhite. Instead he should toady to them, reinforce their resentment against other white people in the hope that he’ll be seen as one of the good ones, and cultivate an attitude of gratitude, humility, and quiet submission for any disruption that does take place.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/013604.html
Wow! My white fragility detector blew its chip! I’m sending it back to eBay and upgrading to the Kendi-X Edition. Guaranteed to hold up under 10,000 cycles of white supremacy.
Here’s how I imagine David in his full-length fur pimp coat.
(Thanks to Daniel’s Gaming Blog for the Mars 2 Pro recommendation)
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/013604.html
From that link:
I believe Shelby Steele has noted and deplored this pathological cult of racial victimhood.
The prevalence of this attitude adds risk even to contacts with educated and accomplished blacks, as John Derbyshire noted in a cautionary essay:
The white supremacy the Woke see around every corner is their own, not the KKK’s.
That!
https://web.archive.org/web/20110101222320/http://martynemko.blogspot.com/2009/06/white-teacher-speaks-out-what-is-it.html
I demand restitution for that mental image.
David has a strict policy. No Refunds! Credit Note Only!
The 8 Most Wildly Irresponsible Vintage Toys
Speaking of miserablist cunts – check out the Financial Times celebrating the UK’s end to COVID restrictions!
Here’s how I imagine David in his full-length fur pimp coat.
Looks like soap. All you need is a rope and you’ll be rolling in the greenbacks.
David Thompson Pimp-Coat Soap-on-a-Rope. If it weren’t so creepy rubbing your body with it, I might buy it myself.
Your ninnyhammer output subsystem appears to be fully operational.
Will the Olympic Wokeness Wankery Games be held at Ninnyhammer?
I can’t help but wonder how “Adam” found his way into this joint (or this neighborhood).
My God, soon they’ll be eating baked beans on toast. Peppa Pig, a Pandemic Favorite, Has American Children Acting British
I can’t help but wonder how “Adam” found his way into this joint (or this neighborhood).
Instapundit occasionally links to David’s blog, and some of Insty’s commenters are a scurvy lot.
Insty’s commenters:
(BTW, you can buy Don Maitz’s art over the internet.)
Governor, try dunking your folded pancake
in your bourbon.
Nom-nom-nom-nom.
folded pancake
Breakfast restaurant name.
folded pancake
Breakfast restaurant name
Sounds like crepe.
*lets self out. Gingerly. *
Is “Wankery” a synonym for “Chicken Choking”? If so, yes. If not, not sure.
Forced haircutting is a tried and true humiliation technique. When they start doing it to your people, the time to fight back has already arrived.
But then, the whole thing reads as an expression of racial neurosis and pretentious degeneracy.
That.
That.
Well, it’s fairly clear who has the hang-ups about race, a neurotic fixation with the subject. The mental and moral contortions, the condescending assumptions, and the variables so carefully avoided, are hard to miss.
As noted in previous, very much related posts, given that many teachers are themselves parents with families of their own, and therefore first-hand experience, you’d think they might understand the consequences of exempting children from expectations of reciprocation, and from pretty much all norms of civilised behaviour.
Yet on they go, adamant and twitching.
Adam, July 19 20921 -and when they can’t eat with their mouths closed, preferring to imitate cement mixers, with sound effects.
That.
Our scrupulously progressive Dr Stabler – “nearsighted cis white man” – tells us that, “our feelings matter a great deal less than the lives of the young people we have taken it upon ourselves to care for.” And by “our feelings,” he means the dignity and physical safety of other white teachers. And by extension, teachers generally.
Though it seems to me that a person’s willingness to gratuitously punch someone, or grope them, in an attempt to dominate the classroom, or to humiliate others by forcibly cutting their hair and reducing them to tears, or setting their hair on fire, as mentioned here, is precisely how one determines whether that person’s wellbeing is of any importance at all.
“Peppa Pig, a Pandemic Favorite, Has American Children Acting British”
Jolly good. Operation Empire is proceeding as planned.
Anyway, think about it… what would you rather have: woke Commie kids, or, “Boston-based Tess Darci says that her 4-year-old daughter, Cecilie, sounds like ‘a little lady’ thanks to the show. ‘She says ‘lovely’ and ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ all the time.’”
… given that many teachers are themselves parents with families of their own, and therefore first-hand experience, you’d think they might understand the consequences of exempting children from expectations of reciprocation …
A public school teacher speaks:
I love my job. I love my students. I love my school!
And I’m sending my kids to a private school anyway.
I know this is going to sound hypocritical, but this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made – as a parent and as a teacher.
Yes, that’s going to sound a lot like a chef telling you that they never eat at their own restaurant.
I’ve heard plenty of that from friends and neighbors – even some family members.
But you know who I never hear those kinds of comments from?
My fellow public school teachers.
They understand perfectly why this kind of decision is made, and it’s made a lot more frequently than most would ever expect.
[ … ] A little more than 21% of public school teachers have children K-12 currently enrolled in private schools right now.
My italics.
One in five public school teachers send their children to be privately educated.
If that isn’t a sign of something rotten in the state …
Admittedly, that post (Why I’m a Public School Teacher But a Private School Parent) is basically an advert, but the following, from The Atlantic, isn’t (or not intentionally so).
The writer explains that although he’s spent “the last four decades exclusively at public schools—either attending them, coaching at them, or teaching at them” he nevertheless decides to have his own child educated privately.
I am, however, concerned about the general culture at public schools — at least at the ones I’ve seen — of disengagement and compulsory learning. So …
Note, he is an English teacher in a public school.
… when it comes to my daughter, I opt to invest a little more—to ensure she’s immersed in a community where it’s acceptable, and even admirable, to show natural enthusiasm for knowledge. I trust this particular private school, one that was created by like-minded parents, will best set her up for success. After all, numerous studies corroborate what teachers and parents have always observed: A student’s habits and beliefs are significantly affected by his or her friends.
The italics are mine.
Wonder what cutting a lock of a female teachers hair with a pair of scissors suggests based on that.
Well, you know, apart from an evident proclivity for psychopathic disdain for others.
Oh, if that’s what we’re doing…
I want to upvote this.
Our scrupulously progressive Dr Stabler – “nearsighted cis white man” – tells us that, “our feelings matter a great deal less than the lives of the young people we have taken it upon ourselves to care for.”
Significantly, the only “young people” that Dr Stabler only cares about the punks and thugs. The peaceful and studious ones do not matter to him.
Oh but those ones are the privileged ones, though, and don’t need his attention and support as much as the ones who wreck everything for everyone else.
Maybe what he’s really trying to say is “Please don’t target me”.
I want to upvote this.
But note our educator’s sly evasions, the practised euphemisms. As if objecting to repeated insults and humiliation, and to being violently assaulted, were merely a matter of one’s own inordinate sensitivity and a failure to consider the much more important feelings of one’s assailant. And as if ever-greater indulgence and imperviousness to normal consequences will do anything but inspire more of the same, only with more daring and inventive sociopathy.
It would be awfully nice if Dr Stabler, and all the other Dr Stablers, of which there are so many, could see just how pernicious and corrosive, how morally deranged, their worldview is.
Jolly good. Operation Empire is proceeding as planned.
Prepare my fleet of galleons. We sail at dawn!
[ Pauses. Reads readiness report. Leans that crews are utterly unready, having spent the last year gobbling junk food while trolling Instapundit. ]
We sail next month!
It would be awfully nice if Dr Stabler, and all the other Dr Stablers, of which there are so many, could see just how pernicious and corrosive, how morally deranged, their worldview is.
I expect most of them do see just how harmful their worldview is, and that harm is their revolutionary goal.
The sad thing for the Dr Stablers of the world is that the ferals will still come for him — and come without a shred of remorse or guilt — no matter how much he prostrates himself at their feet.
Even the most heartfelt cry of ‘But I’m on your side!’ won’t save the cowering righteous at all.
“I, noble art teacher, must protect these spirited youths from oppressive and unjustifiable discipline.”
The true racism is the liberal belief that being violent, disruptive, destructive, and physically intimidating to fellow students and teachers is an acceptable cultural norm–somewhere in the world, apparently–and thus must be indulged and even celebrated.
The “school to prison pipeline” is a lie. School merely provides convenient access to a fledgling thug’s first victims. A captive audience, so to speak. It’s really the “fatherless home to prison” pipeline.
The true racism is the liberal belief that being violent, disruptive, destructive, and physically intimidating to fellow students and teachers is an acceptable cultural norm–somewhere in the world, apparently–and thus must be indulged and even celebrated.
And where did liberals get this idea? From Marxists. Liberals rarely originate ideas. Mostly they regurgitate ideas dreamt up by communists and fascists.
the only “young people” that Dr Stabler only cares about the punks and thugs.
That’s a bit of a harsh (but accurate) portrayal of the Oakland Raiders, no?
*oh… that Stabler*
One in five public school teachers send their children to be privately educated.
My wife taught 2nd grade at the local public school. You know, the school everyone said was good and is a selling point for the area.
We are burning through savings to send our kids to private school.
Once you’ve seen the beast up close, where no amount of propaganda or inertia can hide it’s deep, persistent structural problems you cannot subject your child to it.
ever-greater indulgence…will do anything but inspire more of the same, only with more daring and inventive sociopathy.”
And all students involved – thug and enthusiastic scholar alike – will not learn anything except perhaps anger, resentment, and hopelessness in the shadow of “the system”. These students’ subsequent failure will be used as examples of Western racism and justification for more corrosive policies. Their bitterness will be molded and directed towards political goals that serve the very people who failed them.
Rinse and repeat.
These students’ subsequent failure will be used as examples of Western racism and justification for more corrosive policies. Their bitterness will be molded and directed towards political goals that serve the very people who failed them.
Yes, but they are also “art” students in a SJW focused curriculum. The failure and such was already baked in.
It’s really the “fatherless home to prison” pipeline.
I do sometimes wonder if the aggressive, active ignoring of this fact isn’t a form of crimestop. It’s obvious this is the problem but if you acknowledge the problem, you then have to grapple with the fact that there’s no effective solution. Even if a morals campaign similar to that among the 19th century Irish were implemented right now and were instantly effective such that no more black children were ever born into broken homes, there’s still a massive underclass of feral blacks that likely cannot be reformed. The Irish priests who drove the assimilation of their people had the threat of hellfire and damnation to work with and it still took a hundred years for the Irish to settle down. I don’t think there’s anything similar at play in America’s black communities.
Their bitterness will be molded and directed towards political goals that serve the very people who failed them.
Not entirely unrelated…
Their bitterness will be molded and directed towards political goals that serve the very people who failed them
Hmm. This must be a completely new phenomenon in human history, right Mr Santayana?
After WWII, the french often shaved the heads of female collaborators.
Yes, cutting someone’s hair is a pretty violent act.
cutting someone’s hair is a pretty violent act.”
Well, there is a gun shop near the hair cuttery over in Spring, TX…
Yes, cutting someone’s hair is a pretty violent act.
…but also a little funny. When not used as a punishment for traitors, anyway.
Well, there is a gun shop near the hair cuttery over in Spring, TX…
Texans are so cute when they think they so radical. Meanwhile, in the north Georgia mountains…
https://shop.brasstown.biz/
Meanwhile, in the north Georgia mountains…
We prefer such shops in town, thanks. More convenient that way.
…but also a little funny. When not used as a punishment for traitors, anyway
As a general rule, men’s identity and self-image are not inextricably tied to their hair. Forcibly cutting/shaving a woman’s hair is much more traumatic to the victim, which is why it’s been used so frequently for that purpose. Not even the USMC requires its female recruits to get the high and tight in boot camp.
We prefer such shops in town, thanks. More convenient that way.
Heh. Well good for Texas. Of course we also have a backup McCayesville location. Gotta get the t-shirt though. “Prozac or pistols. Dispensing happiness”