Here’s a tale for those who’ve wondered what happens when two Designated Victim Groups – both accustomed to deference – collide. Specifically, “Indigenous faculty members” at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the black Dean of the university’s social work department.
At the centre of the conflict is Kathy Hogarth,
That would be our aforementioned black Dean and self-styled “radical.” A radical who invokes the “burden” of her unspecified “trauma,” who works “in the name of resistance,” and whose melanin-related grumbles include “the system of white mediocrity,” onto which her paler colleagues allegedly hold with “a vice grip.” One can only hope that Dr Hogarth’s “trauma,” whatever it might be, was at least partly soothed by the $200,000 salary.
Professors in the faculty of social work had some pre-existing grievances with Hogarth: they found her untransparent about hiring decisions and said she had a generally uncollegial attitude.
I’m assuming that includes using social media to publicly badmouth colleagues based on their race. All that “white mediocrity.”
But it was at a faculty retreat in September 2022 that the showdown between Hogarth and the Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) social work faculty came to a head.
Since you ask,
The IFS describes itself as a distinct programme within the faculty that is based on Indigenous “traditions, languages, and territorial protocols.”
In short, magic brownness.
The IFS asked to participate in the retreat remotely because its members were still scared of contracting COVID, but Hogarth had a preference for the department’s members to appear in-person. Hogarth allowed the IFS team to participate remotely in the morning, but said the afternoon session was not conducive to virtual participation… The IFS team said they experienced feelings of “confusion and exclusion.”
It’s perhaps worth keeping in mind that the claims of emotional injury – and the subsequent escalation in rhetoric, which we’ll get to – started with a question of whether attendance via a Zoom call was ideal at a retreat intended to “foster community.”
With outcry, the in-person faculty attendees created a new Zoom link for the IFS to participate in the afternoon session, and Hogarth “relented,” though she did not apologise.
Still, everyone’s happy now, right? Time for some collegial bonding.
The IFS team… claimed Hogarth’s “exclusion” of them was “an act of anti-indigenous racism” and “colonial violence.”
Ah, maybe not.
Hogarth later recounted in a report that the faculty were “rowdy” during the retreat, interrupting her and challenging her decisions, and that they wrote phrases like “less colonialism” and “less bullshit” on the end-of-day feedback notes. Hogarth interpreted this as “implicit racism.”
Shots fired.
Following the retreat, Hogarth sent out an email to the department faculty and senior leadership,
Before we venture further, you may want to pour a large one.
As one of less than a handful of Black Deans in Canada, I cannot divorce my Blackness from my leadership identity. The experiences of colonialism are embedded in my DNA. The enactment of colonial violence on my Black body is unrelenting.
And suddenly, we’re in the realm of opera. Capes are a-flutter. The dry ice will be billowing any minute now.
After being bloodied and bruised at the Faculty Retreat, and nursing the bloodiness of the day, I was forced to dry my tears, put a smile on my face and go welcome a new cadre of students to our institution. And I ask, how can I do that with integrity after witnessing and experiencing such violence at the hands of social work ‘professionals’? Yet, I had to be strong because that is what is expected.
Dr Hogarth was being strong, you see. Stoical. Not drama-queeny at all.
As a leader, and more so as a Black woman leader,
Yes, she has all the medals. See how they catch the light.
there is always a justling for power. I saw that. I saw the subtle and not so subtle attempts at destabilising, the micro-invalidations, and the micro insults. Anti-black racism was as real and alive as it has ever been on Wednesday. As painful as it is, I am naming that.
She suffers, heroically, and yet she pushes on, also heroically.
This accusation of racism – particulars of which were not forthcoming – was followed by an appeal to take the high road, to abandon “toxicity,” and to forge a “healthy community”:
I will not join the toxic. I will not engage in the violence. Those are not negotiable. I challenge you, both perpetrators of violence and bystanders, to do better.
Alas,
Days after Hogarth’s email, the tenured faculty sent the higher-ups of Laurier a petition to have Hogarth removed as dean, claiming a “crisis of leadership.” The petition was endorsed “with the unanimous support of all 16 tenured faculty of the Faculty of Social Work (FSW).”
And,
The professors wrote that Hogarth’s… email had been “extremely distressing.”
So many feelings. We’re going to need more tissues. And louder music.
“Unfortunately, the toxic and violent climate at the FSW as a result of Dr Hogarth’s actions have deeply impacted morale, weakening our sense of belonging and community, and have negatively impacted faculty members’ wellbeing.”
And then, inevitably, the big guns boomed:
“The anti-Indigenous racism enacted by the Dean is in itself completely unacceptable. Under no circumstances should any faculty member be intentionally excluded from participating in collegial meetings, especially a meeting designed to foster community and engage in planning,” read the faculty petition.
A second letter from the Indigenous faculty, sent to the university’s senior executives, continued the tearful thundering:
“We have recently experienced colonial violence and anti-Indigenous racism at the hands of our Dean… During our remote participation, she was actively violent towards the IFS team as witnessed by our FSW colleagues.”
Again, particulars of this “violence,” indeed “colonial violence,” remain oddly mysterious. We are, however, told that the Zoom meeting was “harmful and humiliating,” a “marginalising experience,” and “resulted in the team feeling unsafe in the workplace.”
I’ll spare you the full letter, which goes on to invoke the “aggressive and assaultive” properties of Dr Hogarth’s email, albeit in oddly non-specific terms, followed by a demand for a change in leadership “effective immediately.” Apparently, Dr Hogarth’s presence no longer enables the “meaningful decolonising” that the faculty regard as their Holy Mission.
Despite the competing feats of Olympic-level hyperbole, two formal investigations by the university uncovered no evidence of racism or indeed violence, whether colonial or of some other kind. However, the social work department – this bastion of “equity,” “diversity,” and “decolonisation” – was described in one of the reports as an intimidating and hostile workplace, with one witness favouring the phrase,
cliquey, scary, and tense.
In the wake of the dramas above, Dr Hogarth has relocated her talents, and her radicalism, to pastures greener:
Hogarth currently chairs the Canadian Military Colleges Review Board, a position to which she was appointed by Defence Minister Bill Blair in December 2023. Hogarth is now in charge of deciding if Canada’s two Royal Military Colleges should continue to exist, and if so, what their curriculum should look like.
So, nothing to worry about there.
Wilfrid Laurier University and its farcical employees have of course been mentioned here before.
Mean girls.
It does seem to be a recurring pattern.
Previously in the world of colliding victim groups.
Why does anyone take these people seriously and give them $200,000 a year jobs?
It’s a progressive fiefdom. An environment teeming with the pretentious, the dishonest, and the neurotically status-conscious, and in which the Progressive Pecking Order is dutifully observed, and where affectations of victimhood are currency.
I suppose the question is, how could it not be obnoxious and pathological?
I attended WLU in the ’70’s and the department of social work was joke even then. I cut all ties (alumni donations, etc.) with WLU decades ago when they started gender specific postings.
Why does anyone take these people seriously and give them $200,000 a year jobs?
If you live in Canada the answer is obvious, although I’m sure it can be a bit mystifying to outsiders.
Canada has a massive, massive inferiority complex when it comes to the US. Canada has been described as the US’ annoying little brother, who always wants to tag along and do exactly the same thing his older brother is doing, but differently, because we’re totes not the same as the US at all.[1]
Despite having a completely negligible number of black residents prior to 1990 (~0.2%), despite being the endpoint of the Underground Railroad, despite never having had legal slavery from the day we began existing as a country, we’ve imported this racial neuroses from the US so we can show how we’re exactly the same as the US but better.
We have our own legitimate racial issues here – ignoring the Injun grifters for a moment, the question of how to deal with what is essentially a conquered people is complicated. But as is often quoted, the demand for racism exceeds the supply.
[1] “There is no difference between Canadians and Americans and the surest way to demonstrate this is to point this out to a Canadian.” ~ Pierre Berton
And suddenly, we’re in the realm of opera. Capes are a-flutter. The dry ice will be billowing any minute now.
I think you’re onto something. The drama here is Wagnerian in scope. Have we ever met a more heroic figure than Kathy Hogarth? Cue the thunder and lightning.
[ Offstage, wobbles metal sheet. ]
Among the ironies, the accusations of being merely “performative.”
As opposed to… er…
It’s Canada, your vision of the not too distant future.
[ Visualizes some sort of social justice super-collider. ]
The drama here is Wagnerian in scope
As is Hogarth herself. Would it be uncharitable to note that “indignant fat black woman” seems to be a kind of stereotype?
Have we ever met a more heroic figure than Kathy Hogarth?
I give you Stacie Abrams.
Again, indignant fat black woman.
What’s actually unrelenting is the “woke” jargon. If these grifters were forced to eschew such jargon they would be rendered mute–not only because of their long-baked-in habits of speech but also because they do not have the intelligence and education to actually think.
The experiences of colonialism are embedded in my DNA. The enactment of colonial violence on my Black body is unrelenting
In a similar vein, she thinks she has problems, this guy has problems.
This is brought to us by Gay Catholic Priests – both a band name, self writing joke, and a skit cut from Kentucky Fried Movie – who evidently want to remake God and all else divine in their image, which seems sort of backwards.
I am also not sure what “trans autistic” means – “trans” who is autistic, an autistic pretending to be normal, or vice versa? Alas, I don’t have a scorecard, can’t tell the players without a scorecard.
Neither Shiva nor Mohammed were available for comment.
*(no, I didn’t make that up)
Time for a Social Justice Kitten:
[ Offstage, wobbles metal sheet. ]
[Thompson and his minions enter stage right. The violence of their snickering and snorts of derision brings Hogarth to her knees.
“Has anyone suffered as I have?” she cries as she implores the Norse Gods to destroy them.]
This thing writes itself. All we need is the music!
It’s difficult to overstate the extent to which the progressive mindset seems to hinge on a kind of weird racial neurosis. As noted here many, many times.
Most of the faculty are female.
I’ll bet most of them are psychopaths…and the rest are malevolent in other ways.
Speaking of psychopaths, how could the entire field of psychology have failed to notice that female psychopaths are as common as male psychopaths? Was it for ideological reasons, like those behind the failure to recognize the existence of left-wing authoritarianism? Or are these PhD experts just stupid?
What is this ‘we’, monkeyboy? Normal men have been noticing these monsters since time immemorial.
Well, yeah. How could “smart” academics have failed to notice what “stupid” guys in the neighborhood pub know all about?
I am so sick of assholes running everything.
Embrace the power of “and”, but yes.
I get so tired of that embrace.
[ Metal sheet wobbling intensifies. ]
Perhaps the solution is to build a culture intolerant of assholes: The left has worked very hard to persuade (or bully) us into tolerating and accepting evil people.
These people talk like Scientologists rattling on about “thetans” and “clear” and “KSW” and whatnot. Only this cult, rather than paying for copies of Dianetics, make six figure salaries and are treated as “scholars” and “experts.”
[ Wanders off in search of bigger, louder metal sheet. ]
I would just like to point out that the “colonial” experience for any black person was 160 yrs ago, so no one alive today experienced it. The Jim Crow era in the US ended 60 yrs ago, and one could in fact be proud of a country that has made so much progress (2-term black pres and all that).
Not to mention there was never really slavery in Canada.
Pulling out all this “racism” BS is just a way for the untalented to have power.
This is so that they are difficult to push out of the way.
Another crash at the intersection of Designated Victim Groups, via Althouse: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/02/it-is-not-clear-if-or-how-fight.html
Like a recent mass shooter from Ecuador, the biology of the person in question is still not clear, but it appears that a bullied student developed transness, apparently of the non-binary sort, and then decided to pick a fight with the bullies in the ladies room by throwing water at them (probably XX then, as those new XY women fight like men). All combatants walked out of the restroom, but later the trans ended up dead. The usual suspects are up in arms at this example of Trans Genocide. Except the bullies were Sacred Black People. So I wonder how much traction this will get.
Is this in any way linked to the high price of tuition?
Would that be the guanine?
Given the obvious lack thereof.
The mating cry of the micro-intellect.
And how often is the taxpayer funding these morons?
Is this in any way linked to the high price of tuition?
I’m going with “yes”, given the staggering number of admin types in a university compared to faculty, or even students (I forget where I read it – Insty? – that one university had 1 admin per 4 students or some such ridiculous ratio). And admin types tend to make much larger salaries than faculty types. Plus all those new Deans of DIE need staffs of DIE, and understaffs of DIE, and then on top of that there are individual DIE admins and Offices of DIE embedded in all the colleges and departments too – it’s quite the racket.
What is ‘justling’?
A variation of jostling.
Interesting. I thought it a mis-spelling.
[ Visualises The Three Stooges. ]
There’s some difficulty with differentiating exactly who all the staff at these US “universities” are and what they might do, so you get a range of recorded ratios.
For “managers” The Chronicle of Higher Education records a maximum of 62 per 1000 students.
For staff, whatever they are, you get some places that have 3 staff per student according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (I know, I know – that’s not how you spell “Centre”)
But Statistica has an article boasting about the 1-to-1 ratio of students to staff at one place! So go figure. As the Yanks have it.
For some reason, the word best raised an eyebrow.
More fake jobs for stupid people.
Always proud to see Canada in the forefront of these dystopian shit shows.
Ronald Reagan liked to tell a joke about a weeping bureaucrat at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Asked what was wrong, the man lifted his tear-stained face and said “My Indian died!”
Not even the East German Stasi managed to achieve that ratio.
As wack as that sounds, and there is no doubt that there has been an increase in straphangers/patient contact people, it depends on who they are counting as “staff”.
OHSU has a medical, dental, and nursing school, and a typical med school alone in all four years will have on average 4-500 students.
If they are counting all the basic science professors, attendings, all the residents, all the nurses, all the lab, radiology, and other ancillary people across the teaching hospital and clinics, 1:1 wouldn’t surprise me.
OTOH, if they mean 0.9 students/seatwarmer, there is a problem. OTOOH, a Department of Useless and Angry Studies at 1/1 would be a football bat of extraordinary magnitude.
Yes. That was my alma mater U of Florida. I’m no longer a fan. I can’t think of a traditional land grant college that hasn’t gone at least somewhat stupid. Some of the smaller schools maybe but the admin/student ratios are getting worse virtually everywhere. Similar to corporations or anything else the useless can get their/them fingers into,
Cluster B University.
Rarely more applicable…
“Miller, would you call this a herd, a gaggle, or a flock of assholes?”
“I would call this a United Nations of assholes.”
Speaking of psychological dysfunction in academia, how many universities have been changing their mascots to be less “scary”? I’ve heard of a few that are no longer “vikings” and “trojans” and “warriors” but am unclear how much of this is going on.
See Tom Lehrer’s “Fight Fiercely Harvard”.
Mom of the Year.
Whether it’s real or a skit, it’s vile.
There should be a Circle in Hell for the people who hired these fake scholars.
and then decided to pick a fight with the bullies in the ladies room by throwing water at them (probably XX then, as those new XY women fight like men).
It was a fight among co-chromosomals in their own chromosomal bathroom, a fight which could just as easily have taken place in the canteen or the gym class, but the bathroom angle is being amplified to suggest that the death was caused by these heartland bigots whose schools don’t allow confused girls to use the boys’ bathroom.
Canada’s military academies are fooked…
Is Wednesday anti-black racism day?
Swap the races and what would happen?
Well, it’s interesting that Dr Hogarth’s stream of racially obnoxious tweets was only hidden when the story of her clash with the Indigenous faculty members was covered in True North, and readers outside of her academic milieu might see them. Until that point, her racist social media outpourings had apparently been deemed acceptable among her terribly progressive academic peers, and were possibly regarded as a credential of some sort.
[ Fearing Stephanie’s wrath, compiles tomorrow’s Ephemera. ]
My problem is that every time I hear someone accuse someone else of colonialism, I immediately picture the fellow on boxes of Quaker Oats and I start giggling.
I gave up being a serious person for Lent and it’s going swimmingly.
Ephemera compiled. Stand down red alert.
[ Fearing Stephanie’s wrath, compiles tomorrow’s Ephemera. ]
Chuckles softly and maniacally, whilst stroking the head of one of her hench Weimaraners.
Mom of the Year.
Only a contender, today’s entrant says, “Hold my
beerinfant”.The black faces of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Cream of Wheat are gone. The Land O Lakes Indian girl is gone. But the Quaker Oats man remains. No wonder he’s smiling.
I sometimes wonder if further research will show that psychopathy is more common among women than men.
Always a sign you’re over the target.
Well, again, I think it’s fair to ask why her social media proclamations were visible for so long to her colleagues and employers, and seemingly went unchallenged, yet were deemed unsuitable for a wider audience. An audience less likely to be cowed by her pretence of magical blackness.
On which a great deal seems to rest.
He’s not the only one smiling.
So many questions – does this guy remain because he appears to be yte despite his ancestors conquering, colonizing, raping, and pillaging all over the Americas?
Is he an illegal alien and therefore a protected class?
Does he actually have a Brown Body and should therefore be banished with the other POCs?
He actually looks like Elon Musk, is this a psyop?
Also not erased: Juan Valdez.
Sooner or later they’ll demand the removal of Charlie the Tuna.
Sooner or later they’ll demand the removal of Charlie the Tuna.
Probably as he is oppressed by the very hwite Gorton’s fisherman, whose fishing is not at all sustainable.
I have a hankering for fish pie.
This has been today’s food-related announcement.
Slightly off-topic but just read this essay. It addresses the following questions: After all the progress of feminism, why are women progressively less happy? Why are women the most vocal supporters of trans rights even when it conflicts with their own? Why do we no longer know what a “woman” is?
The author suggests that in spite of the victories of feminism, there is still a gap that cannot be bridged. Women will never be equal in sports or manual labor. Women genius’ are not abundant now that they are equal. Women still bear the burden of having a child. This all seems unfair to the modern feminist. The response has been to turn away from the very idea of biological womanhood. Thus the drastic rise of teen girls declaring themselves non-binary or seeking to become male. etc.
The irony is that the male genius is not a happier person, even if admired. Historical biographies make that very clear. Fewer and fewer people work on oil rigs and such. Male success in the work world is often at the expense of a balanced life. But read it for yourselves.
A year or so ago, I would have said skit. Now? Real.
“Progressive” is a clue.
from the link:
She sounds like someone with serious emotional problems.
Proverbs 9:10
I sometimes wonder if further research will show that psychopathy is more common among women than men.
Sooner or later…
Actually, I recall reading somewhere that sociopathy (not psychopathy) was seriously underdiagnosed and that as much as 20% of the population could be benign sociopaths.
Then again, I note that there’s not much daylight between the Munchausens-by-proxy we’re seeing with moms of “trans” kids and tiger moms, dance moms, cheerleader moms, soccer moms, etc., etc.
The phrase “victimhood olympics” is often called a “dog whistle” by the perpetually offended, but here we have a rare example of actual competitive victimhood.
It’s remarkably similar to the fights that second-graders had at recess that were broken up by the teachers.
The difference is that second-graders learned from their mistakes.
Biology is destiny. Nature always bats last. Women face an immutable wall when they’re unable to bear children. The possibility of motherhood, raising your replacements, and bonding with a husband is over. After that, it’s a high chance of loneliness and wine boxes, and venting on dating sites.
I’ve been binging on “Dating Delusions” on YT lately, and while the host can be extremely annoying, it’s a fascinating look at women declaring their Ls.
A memorable aphorism. Gregory Benford has used it in several of his novels. I don’t know who said it first, only that the first documented instance is in the early 1960’s.
This all seems unfair to the modern feminist. The response has been to turn away from the very idea of biological womanhood. Thus the drastic rise of teen girls declaring themselves non-binary or seeking to become male.
Childhood sexual abuse can only explain so much, and I like this theory for explaining the social contagion effect. Let me expand it a bit, though.
Women believe what they told by other women. Neurotic teenage gilrs want to become men because they’re told by other women than men have all the power.
Men believe what they see with their own eyes. Neurotic teenage boys want to become women because they see that women have all the power.
I have exactly as much evidence for this theory as the activists have for their “born that way” argument.
This process has been going on at least since the 1970’s. I have known numerous feminists who insisted that there were no natural differences between men and women–not in strength and endurance, not in cognition, not in personality. Nature is not forgiving to those who deny nature.
We seem to keep having these “consequences of denying nature” snafus.
I, personally, would change “three decades” to “six decades”…if not more.
After that, it’s a high chance of loneliness and wine boxes, and venting on dating sites.
And cats.
And once the mob of cats arrives, the smell keeps away all but the craziest humans.
Mom is looking for group approval and whatever social media fame she can get pimping out her toddler as “queer”. A new variant of toxic stage-motherism.
[ Clock ticks over. Hits refresh. ]
Dammit, how long do data packets take to get across the Atlantic?
Well, it’s about time.
…
Heh. Exactly. Ream is on a roll today. Only to get run over by Friday Ephemera. Cest le vie, or some pithy cliche-y thing the frenchies say.