If Columbo were anime. You’d watch and you know it. (h/t, Script Doctor) || Today’s word is indignity. || London scenes. || Rutherford splits atom, Shanghai. || Have you swallowed your molecular tweezers? || Troublesome minority. || I think it’s fair to say mistakes were made. || A UFO sightings map. || Shrooms. || Cannabis bonsai. || Made of bananas. || He does this better than you do. || “Live your life” with a Bluetooth-enabled animatronic tail. || Love in unlikely places. || Repurposed piano. || Japanese jazz. || Confection of note. || And finally, an obliging bird.

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.

You see,

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.

We don’t deserve their insights.

Also, stealing is, like, totes radical. 

“They/them. 22.”

Update, via the comments:

With the above in mind, some candidates for woke non-binary barista de-escalation.

And here’s a challenging, though increasingly common, scenario.

In you go, love.

It would, I think, have the makings of a compelling reality TV show. With preening, mouthy woke-lings encountering the realities they’ve so carefully ignored. The subsequent tears and meltdowns could constitute a drinking game.

We’ve touched on this before, of course.

And yes, open thread. Share ye links and bicker. 

Further to this lively exchange, a new form of “violence” has been conjured into being: 

Or, “Yes, you pretend what I tell you to pretend, but I can still tell that you’re pretending.”

Or, “Your perceptions are still your own and this outrages me.”

Update, via the comments:

Salon scenes. || Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Today’s word is inadvisable. || Try before you buy. || Beneath Birmingham. || Beverage of note. || Bookstore of note. || At last, a TV series binge-viewing commitment calculator. || Nocturnal sights. || Pit stop. || Pattern detected. || Always respect the media. || Tiny township. || Think quickly. || Elephant seals, Antarctica. || Evergreen observation. || Not entirely sure what’s happening here. || One for the CV, I think. || Shadows in the sky. || Fox watching. || The thrill of car park security footage, parts 3 and 4. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || The fish transportation solution you’ve always dreamed of. || And finally, festively, a party project. Do try this at home.