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.
a white, female art teacher… 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,
Just realized this clown *works in department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.*
Just realized this clown *works in department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.*
And where I’m assuming dissonance is pretty routine.
But then, the whole thing reads as an expression of racial neurosis and pretentious degeneracy.
Button pushed. I kinda wished there would be an Earth-Shattering Kaboom as a result.
Button pushed. I kinda wished there would be an Earth-Shattering Kaboom as a result.
My phone does go ping, if that’s any comfort. There’s also some vibration. And bless you, sir. When spending the weekend with friends or relatives, may your cereal choices not be limited to some kind of bowel-regulating bran product.
It’s a crime when a black student cuts a teacher’s hair, but perfectly fine youthful hijinks when lily-white, ultra-privileged, cismale Mitt Romney forcibly cuts the hair of a fellow prep school inmate.
Got it.
Aren’t children brought up with manners any more? How to eat with a knife and fork? How to be polite with please and thank you et al? If not, why not?
“life experiences and cultural knowledge,”
Hmm. Methinks said known things might be less than useful for civilization at large…
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.
Clearly professor Stabler was not assaulted often enough or with sufficient ferocity. Mug him again!
To quote John Derbyshire:
Got it.
Adam, you’ll have to work harder to demonstrate that anyone here approves of bullying when done by white kids. Furthermore, you are invited to research Romney’s history to see whether he ever assaulted a teacher.
Epidermal melanin content doesn’t matter; the quality of one’s character does. Bring back the stocks and rattan, yesterday if possible.
And thank you Adam for the straw man argument – f*ckwit.
Just realized this clown *works in department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.*
Switched to a bullsh*t “studies” department because he was a failed artist and an inferior teacher of art?
And thank you Adam for the straw man argument – f*ckwit.
Methinks poor trolling Adam is one of the one-and-done drivebys. Sad little creature.
One reads articles such as these, and the arguments contained within, and one wonders if the oh so painfully, pretentiously woke authors actually subscribe to the stereotype that a group of young urban black teens act like a troop of chimpanzees, and furthermore that they can’t help it but behave that way. Reading the descriptions of the mindless, vicious, dominance-asserting behavior, even carefully couched in postmodernisms and woke-speak as they are, the thing reads like a nature documentary. All humanity, dignity, and agency is taken away from these kids, and the descriptions of their behavior, while written in fancy politically correct terms, boils down to “chimps gonna chimp”. No wonder the woke feel so damned guilty all the time – they are the real white supremacists and they know it. They don’t believe that black people have any control over their behavior, or can even develop control, and need excuses made on their behalf for the bad behavior. It’s all Whitey’s fault – the magic words that make it all better.
lily-white, ultra-privileged, cismale Mitt Romney
I’d say he was closer to oyster-white but I think you’re ploughing the wrong field if you think decrying people based on their sexuality or skin tone is going to impress anyone on this site.
Ya fucking bigot.
Aren’t children brought up with manners any more? How to eat with a knife and fork? How to be polite with please and thank you et al? If not, why not?
No. Embarrassed as hell to say this but not even in my own family. Due to circumstances with my niece having a dance competition, my father, nephew, and I were batching it for a night during my father’s last visit to see them before passing away a couple months later. I take 7 year old nephew and Dad out to breakfast the next morning and had a little conflict with nephew trying to get him to eat his pancakes with a knife and fork. Once he had said implements in his hands I was shocked to see quite clearly that he was not familiar with using them. This AFTER I had had to tie his shoelaces for him before we left because he didn’t know how. My sister and I had quite a conversation about this later. The thing is my parents were rather strict about manners and such. Not relative to how they themselves were raised but, as I came to understand from long conversations with dormmates and such in college, strict relative to how most parents of the 1970’s taught their kids.
It’s a f***d up world out there and has been f***d up for quite some time now. Generations even. See this article…or ‘Adam’ for that matter.
WTP “trying to get him to eat his pancakes with a knife and fork
How does he eat the pancakes ? Do you have pictures ? I’m reminded of the mashed potato scene in “A Christmas Story”.
How does he eat the pancakes?
If he’s anything like my feral relatives he wouldn’t otherwise eat pancakes.
Since either
1) They’re not fast food*
2) They require cooking.
3) They would require leaving the house.
*can be ingested without the use of cutlery.
my feral relatives
Band name.
I’ll confess that there have been camping trips where I’ll take a flapjack off the griddle, smear some butter and jam on it, then fold it up and eat it like some sort of sad breakfast taco.
But that’s only on canoe trips through the wilderness, where we live like savages. (The upside is that I can drink bourbon with my breakfast and nobody bats an eye.)
Leaving the metric football match yesterday afternoon, I had the good fortune to cross a busy street behind a drunk wokeling. Said wokeling took it upon himself to declare to all within earshot that “IT’S A GOOD THING WE HAVE AGENTS OF THE STATE ARMED WITH LETHAL WEAPONRY TO MAKE SURE WE CAN CROSS THE STREET!”
I inquired of the wokeling if he really believed the police were out to serve as nothing more than crossing guards, noting that the number of panhandlers, pickpockets and drug dealers was considerably lower than average. (I may also have stared pointedly at the burnt-out remains of the FootLocker standing before us as a reminder of last year’s unpleasantness.) I also asked him if he celebrated every sports victory with an impromptu political demonstration, and whether this was the appropriate time and place for such shenanigans.
Our brief interaction ended with me telling him to be careful what he wished for. “Why’s that, old man?”
“Because no matter what you think, this neighborhood will always be protected by armed men. If it’s not the cops, it will be residents like me. If it’s not people like me, it will be warlords and crime bosses. I don’t think you’ll like the results.” At which point I ducked into the socialist gay bar, which really blew this kid’s mind.
I’d like to thank this community for helping me sharpen my thinking and my arguments about this stuff, to the point where I can argue it spontaneously on the sidewalk with strangers. (My wife just wishes I would hold my tongue.)
I’ll take a flapjack off the griddle, smear some butter and jam on it, then fold it up and eat it like some sort of sad breakfast taco.
I’m surrounded by barbarians.
my father, nephew, and I were batching it
Wait a minute, last time I heard that term I had to think of Jeffrey Toobin.
How does he eat the pancakes ? Do you have pictures ?
Yeah, a no on the pictures. As you may surmise, I’m not the most optimistic about our society’s future, even back then (Dad died in 2007), but that situation so demoralized me, to see such a thing, a kid whom I just recently related was engaged enough a year earlier to be a bit of a PITA curiosity wise about Dad and I assembling a BBQ grill, that I lacked the usual humor to video it. He was eating them with his hands. Though saying these two things now in the same context, it is a bit of a wonder as to why he had curiosity about assembling a grill but not about wanting to eat with utensils like everyone else. I still blame his father…mostly.
Wait a minute, last time I heard that term I had to think of Jeffrey Toobin.
Yes…baching. Which now typed properly (?) looks like we were whiling away the evening listing to 17th century baroque music. But then bach-ing…f it…never mind…
Apropos of nothing … anyone have recommendations on texting/browser spellcheck apps?
Also, hats off to Gov. Squid for speaking up. Bless you, Sir!
Also, hats off to Gov. Squid for speaking up. Bless you, Sir!
Hear, hear!
WTP, I offer the following not to brag (who knows just how much of how a given kid turns out can be laid at the feet of parents, after all) but to point out the variability involved, and maybe to restore some of your hope in future generations. My 4-year old daughter, despite the expected occasional lapse or tantrum, gets angry if we don’t let her load the dishwasher, and demanded I teach her how to use the vacuum last week. Yesterday, unprompted, she vacuumed the carpeted portion of the first floor to a fairly high standard.
Also worth considering is the tendency of youth to rebel against their upbringing. Paradoxically, this might work in our favor given the current state of affairs.
sad breakfast taco
Another band name.
I’m surrounded by barbarians.
“Gangsters have stolen my secret recipe for egg salad. And not only that – they kill, they maim and they call Information for numbers they could easily look up in the book.”
My 4-year old daughter, despite the expected occasional lapse or tantrum, gets angry if we don’t let her load the dishwasher, and demanded I teach her how to use the vacuum last week.
It is, I believe, quite normal for young children to want to learn how to do what the adults do, for the pleasure of learning and to demonstrate their competence and increasing autonomy. Adults can, of course, derail this with the wrong sorts of feedback and examples.
My 4-year old daughter, despite the expected occasional lapse or tantrum, gets angry if we don’t let her load the dishwasher, and demanded I teach her how to use the vacuum last week.
Careful, someone will accuse you of indoctrinating your girl to grow up to be a Stepford wife.
Though, be thankful she’s not a tomboy.
This is a common tactic, seen more and more as the unraveling continues. Let’s call it WYPOT, or the “look at those dastardly White People Over There!”.
“Systemic Racism” in systems wholly controlled by left-wingers for generations, and usually heavily black to boot. “White people’s feelings” decried by white emotional incontinents teachers, 95%+ of whom vote for everything left of Mao. Also, of course, blacks murdering blacks at alarming rates in black-run Chicago/Detroit/Atlanta/etc is buried under the noise of activists shouting racism and handing out flails to the goodwhites living in the safe outer suburbs, so that they may atone for their badthoughts.
It’s all part of the strangely effective tactic of banging enough pots and pans so that few notice – are, more importantly, are not inclined to notice – who actually runs the kitchen.
Battered teacher syndrome?
Battered teacher syndrome?
If only he’d been given a free emergency whistle.
Though, be thankful she’s not a tomboy
We have to keep reminding her that not everyone wants to see whichever insect or amphibian has most recently fallen into her muddy clutches.
The phenomenon you allude to is of concern to my wife and I. She was very tomboyish and a bit of an awkward misfit growing up, and believes that were she a teenager now she very well might be facing pressure to “transition.”
I’m surrounded by barbarians.
Yes, but cheer up, little steps for little feet, the new batch will at least be eating beans on toast with their hands.
If only he’d been given a free emergency whistle.
Reviewing that comment thread, I have to ask, David: Did you buy that full-length fur pimp coat?
Did you buy that full-length fur pimp coat?
Wearing it now. Weather be damned.
Though, be thankful she’s not a tomboy.
That was a painful read, Darleen. I was and still am a tomboy, and had I been born now instead of during the Nixon administration, I’d be on blockers before you could blink. I confused my religious mother who knew how to deal with stereotypical girly girls but not the little tomboy she had. But aside from having to wear a skirt in public, and all the housework for chores (although after some complaints and the younger brothers getting older, we all had to do housework) my parents didn’t force the issue.
It seems to me that the ones who hold most firmly to the Big Bad Stereotypes and cram everyone into their narrow confines, be it black people’s behavior and capabilities as in the OP, or gender behaviors and preferences as in Darleen’s link, are not the white supremacists and the religious fundamentalists as much as the BLM types, the Woke apologists, and the Trans mafia. The latter groups have the culture in their grasp right now, while the former have their little pockets of influence, but not much reach beyond that. The white supremacy the Woke see around every corner is their own, not the KKK’s.
Wearing it now. Weather be damned.
Just as well. That blogging thong just wasn’t you.
I was and still am a tomboy
I was born during the Eisenhower admin and, despite today’s young believing that the late 50s early 60s were nothing but a hotbed of Patriarchal Sexism with women consistently abused by males everywhere, I had the kind of childhood freedom (including being a tomboy) that many of today’s adults could only dream of – or be terrified of.
I climbed trees, sat on the roof, played baseball in the street … during the summer it was outside after breakfast to be on my own, no adult supervision (ok, moms were home so scraped knees and elbows could be patched), until dinner time. Dad taught me how to hammer a nail and throw a punch.
I wore dresses to school and church, but couldn’t wait to change into “play clothes” as soon as possible.
I never considered myself as anything other than a girl and being a tomboy was accepted as just another phase of a girl’s childhood.
I never considered myself as anything other than a girl and being a tomboy was accepted as just another phase of a girl’s childhood.
I do wonder what fraction of the trans industry are “merely” opportunistic grifters and what fraction are monsters bent on harming to children for their own depraved reasons. I suspect that extremely few are only in it for the money.
That blogging thong just wasn’t you.
I demand restitution for that mental image.
I never considered myself as anything other than a girl and being a tomboy was accepted as just another phase of a girl’s childhood.
For a little while, when I was very young, I wanted to be a boy, but I think that had more to do with the easy life my baby brothers led than any kind of identity crisis. Once I learned about biology, I realized that was never going to happen, and from then on I was just a girl who liked boyish things. Why are gender and color stereotypes good if the “correct” groups are trying to shove us into them, but definite wrongthink if anyone else brings it up?
I never considered myself as anything other than a girl and being a tomboy was accepted as just another phase of a girl’s childhood.
Just as only the winners write the histories, only the whiners write the memoirs.
By which I mean, there are plenty of people raised in fundamentalist households, Catholic households, two-parent families, working-class families, suburban and rural families, who didn’t see anything wrong with it, enjoyed as contented a life anyone can in a world full of sin and struggle, had no desire to flee to the cities, adopt alternative lifestyles, or write books extolling their unique struggles against [insert straw-man arguments here].
It is interesting that wokies like this one never consider that black kids in parochial or charter schools are perfectly able to behave and do their homework. They simply deny it.
It is interesting that wokies like this one never consider that black kids in parochial or charter schools are perfectly able to behave and do their homework. They simply deny it.
From what I’ve seen, many would say not that it is impossible, but that it is a cruel and arbitrary imposition, an unjustifiable false-consciousness used to fit them into their inescapably subordinate role in the white-supremacist power structure.
So still swivel-eyed lunacy, but with more rhetorical cushion.
https://www.cracked.com/article_19481_the-8-most-wildly-irresponsible-vintage-toys.html
Mention of the young lady wanting to use the dishwasher and vacuum cleaner put me in mind of this enjoyable article and item 4 in particular (although in these more enlightened times young girls can have just as much fun as their brothers with the junior Atomic Energy Lab et al).
It is interesting that wokies like this one never consider that black kids in parochial or charter schools are perfectly able to behave and do their homework.
Which is why the Left is particularly hostile to any deviation from publik skools. They need black youth to keep their place in their hierarchical universe.
I’m surrounded by barbarians.
Well, it’s a very nice truck… underneath the mud.