In progressive academia, that blueprint of utopia, it appears there’s some unrest:
Black and Latino student groups at the University of Florida recently protested a plan to house their organisations in one building, saying it would erase and marginalise their black and brown bodies and their cultures at the predominantly white institution.
The university had revealed plans for a U-shaped building that would accommodate both organisations:
The two groups would each get their own wing of the building and simply share a walkway and elevator.
Sounds swanky.
But members of the Institute of Black Culture and the Institute of Hispanic-Latino Culture expressed fury at the plan.
You see, being so pious, and so very, very special, they mustn’t endure proximity to the wrong level of melanin, what with the risk of contagion and a loss of specialness. A student organiser of the protests, Daniel Clayton, said,
My main complaint to the University administration… is that we are not taken seriously at all. It is not appropriate to dismiss student concerns as being ludicrous.
However, inevitably, university administrators have been cowed by the usual histrionic rumblings and have agreed to build the immensely tolerant groups two entirely separate buildings. And with equal inevitability, the students are now insisting that the new buildings, the cost of which is unclear, should be “visibly distinct from the rest of campus.”
Oh, and responding to the suggestion that the protests may have been a tad self-indulgent, Mr Clayton added:
He then went on to compare his “struggle” for more deluxe office space with that of Martin Luther King and the suffragettes.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 08:23
. . . . . . They get a building, their own building?!?!?!
Posted by: Hal | August 30, 2017 at 08:29
“visibly distinct from the rest of campus.”
You mean, like one painted black and the other a dark tan?? Surely they jest!
Posted by: Frenchie77 | August 30, 2017 at 08:57
'k, and aside from that overall reaction of Um . . . . wow. . . .
Sooooo, once upon a time there was Mathematics, and it was good, and it takes the top four floors of the building, and a few other places.
And in time, Mathematics did begat Statistics, and Statistics can be found on the third floor of the building . . .
And in time Mathematics did also begat Computer Science, which one time was somewhere around the fourth floor of the building, and which has since moved a bit past where the electrical engineering people went to, or something like that.
. . . I'm absolutely all for one having one's own area that is completely separate from all others, and I and my neighbors are quite happy with the recent departure of a noted idiot.
. . . But an idea that comes to mind does involve being utterly--and demonstrably so---certain of who one is, following which one just doesn't give a damn who the next person is, the next person will be perfectly content to have the same view . . .
Posted by: Hal | August 30, 2017 at 08:59
Cover the façades of the buildings in shower tiles. It's been done.
Posted by: Ted S., Catskill Mtns., NY, USA | August 30, 2017 at 09:09
It is not appropriate to dismiss student concerns as being ludicrous.
He's not really helping his own case.
Posted by: Alice | August 30, 2017 at 09:18
Splitters!
Posted by: ACTOldFart | August 30, 2017 at 09:27
[T]he students are now insisting that the new buildings, ... should be “visibly distinct from the rest of campus.”
They really couldn't be screaming "Look at me! Look at me!" any louder. I predict a pair of architectural monstrosities that, a few years latter, will be denounced as separating black and brown bodies from a predominantly white campus.
Posted by: Atempdog | August 30, 2017 at 09:29
Here’s what I have to say to everyone that says this matter was over-the-top: FUCK YOU.
It's a shame most university administrators don't have the guts to say that back to these snowflakes.
Posted by: Mike | August 30, 2017 at 09:48
He then went on to compare his “struggle” for more deluxe office space with that of Martin Luther King and the suffragettes.
But if you put them in the same building they'd just be arguing over which group is more oppressed.
Posted by: [+] | August 30, 2017 at 10:05
But if you put them in the same building they’d just be arguing over which group is more oppressed.
I wonder exactly how much indulgence it will take - how many absurd demands met, how much bureaucratic prostration and expense - in order to make the students’ claims of victimhood seem untenable even to themselves. I mean, is there an upper limit, a point at which it becomes embarrassing, or does the psychodrama just go on forever?
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 10:10
Somewhat related and touched on in an earlier thread:
“Bourgeois values can help minorities get ahead,” says law professor.
Cue the outrage bus.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 10:30
But if you put them in the same building they'd just be arguing over which group is more oppressed.
. . . . Oh, a building isn't needed for merely that.
Posted by: Hal | August 30, 2017 at 10:42
Seeing as it's a university and all, I presume these will be smart buildings, yes? With remote control locks?
Posted by: Hopp Singg | August 30, 2017 at 11:49
They don't want to share a building?
F***ing racists.
Posted by: Charlie | August 30, 2017 at 12:03
Conspicuously absent in this drama are Florida taxpayers, whose money the university administration is charged with spending wisely. And I infer that the complaints solely concerned sharing space and not that the space itself was inadequate to meet the needs of the organizations. As Hal alludes to above, the fact that numerous academic departments undoubtedly share buildings, wings or floors of buildings without incident, yet two "institutes" designed to accommodate students' extra-academic interests fight like cats and dogs, tells you everything you need to know about modern academia. I think professors in Gatorland need to start assigning more homework.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 12:06
"...or does the psychodrama just go on forever?"
Apparently David is unfamiliar with the Second Law of Thermodynamics..
Posted by: virgil xenophon | August 30, 2017 at 12:10
Daniel Clayton, a student member of No La IBCita, told The College Fix via email that the U-building design “erases our own mark on this campus and we get absorbed into ‘the Gator Nation’ without ever feeling a sense of home.”
Maybe it is just me, but perhaps they would have a "sense of home" if they got involved in the larger community rather than self-segregating. The best thing colleges could do for these idiots is prohibit off campus housing, and turn the dorms into squad bay barracks to make everybody live together, and replace the RAs with former Drill Sergeants/Instructors.
Meanwhile, somewhat related in the world of identity politics, some people are never satisfied, and to help ensure you are properly Woke™ and not thinking ungood wrongthought, The Social Justice Wiki. [Warning, some of the worst HTML in the world there.]
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 30, 2017 at 12:30
...should be “visibly distinct from the rest of campus.”
My suggestions:
The new Institute of Hispanic-Latino Culture :
and, of course, the new Institute of Black Culture:
Posted by: Jonathan | August 30, 2017 at 12:32
So if third time is enemy action, what is it when the same dang thing happens even more often?
*cough*italics*cough*
Posted by: jabrwok | August 30, 2017 at 12:43
https://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/05/educational-edifices.html
http://takimag.com/article/hogwash_101_steve_sailer/print
Posted by: Spring Sonata | August 30, 2017 at 12:51
Not giving me a castle is oppression!
Posted by: MC | August 30, 2017 at 13:26
The building for blacks should be a kraal, while they should do an adobe hut for hispanics... Should save on costs!!!
Posted by: Dis | August 30, 2017 at 13:28
[Warning, some of the worst HTML in the world there.]
Given the subsequent avalanche of italics, now fixed, I could make some deeply snide remark at this point.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 13:28
Have you ever seen those indulgent middle-class parents in the supermarket having endless conversations with their toddler children about what they want for dinner? They are everywhere in the UK. This is where shit like this starts - indulging their every fucking whim and once they get to college it is too late - the first brush with the real world and they have a psychotic episode. These people are the future.
Posted by: Rob | August 30, 2017 at 13:28
[Warning, some of the worst HTML in the world there.]
Wow. Is the HTML over there actually on fire...?
But isn’t the incompetence and lack of care so wonderfully apt?
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 13:41
Given the subsequent avalanche of italics, now fixed, I could make some deeply snide remark at this point.
Indeed, and I would deserve it.
I will make a note to myself, though, never to end a comment with an italicized statement, as it will always appear correct in the preview.
I will also now report to the Scold-O-Mat.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 30, 2017 at 13:46
...middle-class parents in the supermarket having endless conversations with their toddler children about what they want for dinner...
American humorist Fran Lebowitz once wrote a piece giving advice to teenagers. One of her admonitions was something along the lines of, "Complaining about how oppressive your parents are is bad form. More so when your mouth is full of the standing rib roast they paid for."
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 13:47
I will make a note to myself, though, never to end a comment with an italicized statement...
Sort of like ending a sentence with a preposition. Evidence of bad breeding, what?
As for me, I've been guilty of the rogue italics sin a time or two. Rather than submit to the henchlesbians' discipline, I go into self-imposed exile for the remainder of the comment thread. The fact that the exile is accomplished in a villa overlooking Lake Lucerne is none of your concern.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 13:56
Complaining about how oppressive your parents are is bad form. More so when your mouth is full of the standing rib roast they paid for.
It has occurred to me that a wise parent would compile a small but suitably vivid collection of news stories involving real tragedy and hardship – reports involving limb loss, human trafficking, etc., ideally with graphic photos – and file it away on stand-by for the inevitable teenage pouting. It could then be deployed along with a reassurance that, “These people were actually having a terrible time. Alas, not having the latest phone or most radical pair of trainers doesn’t count. You, my beloved child, are merely whiny and obnoxious. Hopefully, this will pass.”
Though I’m not a parent myself and can’t vouch for its effectiveness.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 13:57
As for me, I’ve been guilty of the rogue italics sin a time or two.
Don’t think I haven’t noticed.
[ Fondles laminated dossier of overflow italics incidents. ]
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 14:00
Give both groups square brick or stucco sided buildings with no windows on the first floor. Soon all of the first floor walls will be covered with murals of hard working black and hispanic people in vivid colors ..... along with various revolutionary mottos and other graffiti.
Eventually these markings will fade, the paint will peel, and new graffiti will be somewhat lost in the mass of paint. Garbage will accumulate and grass and weeds will grow in the sidewalk. There's your "distinct" buildings.....
Posted by: David in Michigan | August 30, 2017 at 14:06
Have you ever seen those indulgent middle-class parents in the supermarket having endless conversations with their toddler children about what they want for dinner? They are everywhere in the UK.
Yes.
Posted by: Tim Newman | August 30, 2017 at 14:12
From Tim’s article:
Absolutely. A phenomenon no doubt exacerbated by single parenthood, especially single motherhood. And as with Tim, it’s all quite alien compared to my own upbringing. I’ve seen the pathetic comedy of the 20-minute supermarket negotiation, and the continual interruptions, and the exquisitely fussy eaters, and the children who demand a certain kind of plate and who rage if they don’t get it. I’ve also seen, first hand, what happens when you’re tasked with child-minding a seedling whose been nurtured in this way.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 14:28
Conspicuously absent in this drama are Florida taxpayers,
Conspicuously absent from this Florida taxpayer's, and University of Florida alumni's, radar is this story itself. Nothing on the morning TV news nor the drive-time radio. Granted, I don't read the local fishwrap and I have cut back on drive-time radio lately due to tiresome GOPe-loving BS even on the "conservative" stations. One thing for certain, UF proper has seen the last dollar from me. The alumni association is hanging by a thread.
Posted by: WTP | August 30, 2017 at 14:40
I attended somewhere that was highly... experimental in its architecture. Part of having a school of architecture on campus. Yet, in each new fanciful (and frankly mad) new design over the years, it was *demanded* that an element be included to harmonize with something else on campus.
Is their desire for a separate (but equal?) enclave an admission against interest, that they realize neither they nor their grievance-mongering actually belong on campus? I daresay.
It rather is, if a review has already revealed them as ludicrous. Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Everyone can't determine their own legitimacy, or Emperor Norton really was the head of San Francisco. Actually that may be a bad example.Posted by: Sporkatus | August 30, 2017 at 14:45
You, my beloved child, are merely whiny and obnoxious.
I can't find the pundit now who responded to his preteen daughter's whines of it's not fay-er with "You're growing up white, middle-class and female in the wealthiest, freest nation in the world. You had better hope to hell things don't start getting 'fair' for you."
Posted by: Daniel Ream | August 30, 2017 at 14:49
@Daniel Ream
My youngest will turn 18 in a few weeks. The other night, I handed him his Selective Service registration and we went over it as he filled it out. In the process, I commented that 17 year old Americans are the most free individuals in the history of humanity. Consider: most of them are completely taken care of by their parents with food, shelter, clothing and so forth. They can drive and have access to transportation when they need it and generally when they want it. Their parents function as the grand ATM for gas and burgers and school t-shirts. For those like my son, they have two parents who've been married for thirty years and are concerned and involved in making sure he grows up to be a decent human being.
In short, they have immense privileges with minimal responsibility.
Sadly, most do not realize how lucky they are.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 15:00
The thing that concerns me is the day they graduate and become my co-workers, or my boss, or perhaps even worse running the country.
It's laughable now while they are in college, but just how much of this will be dragged into the real World and forced on the rest of us.
Posted by: Triumphant Ape | August 30, 2017 at 15:11
@WTP
Forgive my using the current SJW conversational gambit, but, speaking as a Mizzou alum, I feel your pain.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 15:16
Anyone remember Quonset huts? They certainly would be distinctive and architecturally different from the rest of the campus. Two upvotes for me!
Posted by: Adam | August 30, 2017 at 15:48
Anyone remember Quonset huts?
Too nice, it is Florida, so Southeast Asia Huts are more than adequate, plus the students can enjoy the bonding experience of putting them up themselves. Burn barrel latrines optional subject to local codes.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 30, 2017 at 16:00
Yeah, thanks for that RS.
And...seeing this called out in Sporkatus post:
now insisting that the new buildings, the cost of which is unclear, should be “visibly distinct from the rest of campus."
There is a building there, possibly renamed by now but in my day was known as General Purpose Building A (aka GPA), that I think fits the bill. Ugly POS that only a bureaucrat could love, so it is rather distinctively different. Impossible to find one's way around in it. Freshman would disappear in there. I had a theory that D.B. Cooper lived on the top floor. But it definitely sticks out for being a big brick blockhouse. Few windows. I think this would be a perfect location for these groups. Close to the commons area (Plaza of the Americas) where all the freaks and hairys gather. Hardly any windows, so little chance to get offended by what goes on outside. Sure they'll piss and moan about it. But it will work for the rest of us. UF administration does that and they're back in my good graces.
Posted by: WTP | August 30, 2017 at 16:06
My alma mater was built when 'brutalism' was en vogue in architecture. They've been planting large trees in front of the buildings for decades.
Posted by: Daniel Ream | August 30, 2017 at 16:16
and, of course, the new Institute of Black Culture:
LOL
Posted by: sH2 | August 30, 2017 at 16:58
Finally, a competitor to EverydayFeminism...
https://wearyourvoicemag.com/identities/race/name-iconic-duo-white-feminism-white-liberalism
Posted by: champ | August 30, 2017 at 17:52
Finally, a competitor to EverydayFeminism...
Funny how it always ends with a shakedown. And of course the author of the article links approvingly to this high-minded operation.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 17:58
https://mobile.twitter.com/foldedfish/status/900448330479783940
Captain Kirk drummed out of Nerdvana because guy who played him 50 years ago is guilty of badthink.
Posted by: Pogonip | August 30, 2017 at 18:04
@WTP
I spent a substantial chunk of my college time in a place known as the "General Classroom Building" or "GCB" with the same sort of aesthetic. During my last year of graduate teaching, they moved all the grad students there from our offices in an old brick house that had somehow remained unmolested on campus. The worst part about the move was we all had to cram into one small office in an internal hallway with a) no natural light and b) no place to hide the dorm fridge we used to keep our beer. [Insert "frowny face" emoticon here.]
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 30, 2017 at 18:51
This deals with the attempt to train RAs -- the students chosen to actually supervise & ride herd on fellow students in dorms.
How dare these fragile females have their indoctrinated victimology challenged!
Burn the witch!
Posted by: Darleen | August 30, 2017 at 19:21
So these idiots are demanding their own ghettos.
This will not end well.
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 19:30
Sporkatus: "My suggestions: The new Institute of Hispanic-Latino Culture...and, of course, the new Institute of Black Culture"
Where *did* you find that hilarious Ancient Egyptians picture?
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 19:34
How much does it cost to build an outhouse?
Outside of New York City that is.
Posted by: aelfheld | August 30, 2017 at 20:06
So these idiots are demanding their own ghettos.
I hear there's been some pressure to get the U.S. out of Gitmo. Maybe we could create PoCistan there for them.
Posted by: jabrwok | August 30, 2017 at 20:07
"Here’s what I have to say to everyone that says this matter was over-the-top: FUCK YOU."
He's not just a Person of Color. He's a Person of Choler.
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 20:12
How dare these fragile females have their indoctrinated victimology challenged!
They aren’t so much students as absurdly reactive hysterics. Walking tangles of emotional wreckage. And utterly unfit for a world in which factual correction, even polite disagreement, is always a possibility.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 20:24
"[Fondles laminated dossier of overflow italics incidents.] "
I had assumed that your white Persian cat would get in the way.
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 20:42
"absurdly reactive hysterics"
Red Guards...of Color.
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 20:43
@pst314: Jonathan's post with speculative fiction Egypt, not mine. I do endorse it, of course.
Might try a reverse image search.
Posted by: Sporkatus | August 30, 2017 at 21:13
Where *did* you find that hilarious Ancient Egyptians picture?
I've got a million:

Posted by: Jonathan | August 30, 2017 at 21:46
Hah! Thanks, Jonathan. Does that explain where the Ancient Egyptian Superbeings went to or where they came from?
Posted by: pst314 | August 30, 2017 at 21:53
Does that explain where the Ancient Egyptian Superbeings went to or where they came from?
A lot of it comes from NoI and Yakub.
Posted by: Farnsworth M. Muldoon | August 30, 2017 at 22:02
We wuz Kangz!
Posted by: JerryC | August 30, 2017 at 22:04
Not to rain on your parade Jonathan, but why would the IBC appropriate the architecture of a people with a Euro-Turkish heritage?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4555292/Study-mummies-reveals-Turkish-European.html
Posted by: Steve E | August 30, 2017 at 22:13
A lot of it comes from NoI and Yakub.
I believe the fashionable term is “cultural appropriation.” Or just eye-widening bonkersness. See also Nuwaubians.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2017 at 22:16
Or just eye-widening bonkersness. See also Nuwaubians.
I'll see your Nuwaubians and raise you a photograph of King George III (don't try to bamboozle me with the fact that he died before photography was invented), and bump that with the real Shakespeare.
Posted by: Farnsworth M. Muldoon | August 30, 2017 at 22:38
To be fair, making it that shape would contain the commons.
I would factor in landscaping and shrubbery, to contain the perfection of that field of battle. Perhaps a maze, or three. Everyone in the moat!
Factor in for slope. One must have drains that can process overflow.
Posted by: neal | August 30, 2017 at 22:56
I am fully on board with their demand for two separate distinct buildings. One additional suggestion is that the university installs locks that lock from the outside so they can stay in their building and leave the rest of us alone.
Posted by: Keltos | August 31, 2017 at 00:25
hahahaha.... every parent's dream, every offspring's nightmare
Posted by: Darleen | August 31, 2017 at 01:15
See also Nuwaubians.
Not to overlook The Nation of Gods and Earths, also known as Five-Percenters, and practitioners of 'Supreme Mathematics'. (I became aware of this particular sect when the athlete Queen Quedith Earth Harrison made the US Olympic team. She has 22 siblings or half-siblings, including brother God Goldin Zig Zag Zig Allah Harrison).
Move along, nothing to see here.
Posted by: Trevor | August 31, 2017 at 01:18
"One additional suggestion is that the university installs locks that lock from the outside so they can stay in their building and leave the rest of us alone."
Reminiscent of medieval ghettos, not that these deranged racialists are likely to know anything about that.
Posted by: pst314 | August 31, 2017 at 02:11
The Nation of Gods and Earths, also known as Five-Percenters...
Oh yeah, them. "Hip-Hop superstar" and ridiculously-overpriced champagne impresario and Obama-pal Jay-Z (or did he change it again?) may not actually be a member, he just likes to wear their garish "bling".
I've often wondered what would happen if the "Five-Percenters" had a ::cough:: meet-up with the "One-Percenters".
Posted by: Spiny Norman | August 31, 2017 at 02:26
","
[ Place where necessary. ]
Posted by: Spiny Norman | August 31, 2017 at 02:27
I wrote about black women and Sims' gynecological tortures 20 years ago. Wearyourvoice writer is way late.
Posted by: QuintAmpersandJessel | August 31, 2017 at 05:29
Muldoon, that picture site claims Henry VIII was a (black) Moor. Just...what?
Posted by: QuintAmpersandJessel | August 31, 2017 at 05:36
every parent's dream, every offspring's nightmare
I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to learn that person has a B.A. in Neuroscience.
Posted by: Daniel Ream | August 31, 2017 at 05:46
Oh yes: KTVU anchor: 'I experienced hate firsthand' at Berkeley rally
---Frank William Somerville (born March 19, 1958) is an American journalist.[1] He anchors the five-o'clock, six-o'clock, and ten-o'clock news hours at KTVU in Oakland, California. Somerville has received three Emmy awards at KTVU, including one for best on-camera news anchor.
Posted by: Hal | August 31, 2017 at 07:37
Frank William Somerville (born March 19, 1958) is an American journalist.
That article seemed extremely...simple to me. I ran it through some readability tools and confirmed what I suspected:
Readability Consensus
Based on 8 readability formulas, we have scored your text:
Grade Level: 4
Reading Level: easy to read.
Reader's Age: 8-9 yrs. old (Fourth and Fifth graders)
Posted by: Daniel Ream | August 31, 2017 at 08:25
Frank William Somerville (born March 19, 1958) is an American journalist.
I’m reminded of a scene in Friends, where Joey is dimly and very slowly registering some incredibly obvious fact, while a frustrated Chandler shakes his arms about and says, “Get there faster.”
Posted by: David | August 31, 2017 at 08:50
... keep in mind that they were yelling at me and their words were filled with venom, anger, hate and intolerance......It was sad to see.
The feeling when you realise commies aren't the good guys:
Posted by: Jonathan | August 31, 2017 at 09:42
I like that wearyourvoicemag has comments; something Everyday Mentalism misses. Sadly they require facebook. Oh yeah and almost all the comments seem to be from aggrieved loons shouting down those who dare to disagree. A POC has spoken and white people infected with original sin must listen quietly and respectfully to zer deranged, self indulgent wibblings.
Posted by: MC | August 31, 2017 at 11:36
Not to rain on your parade Jonathan, but why would the IBC appropriate the architecture of a people with a Euro-Turkish heritage?
It's really just memetic warfare, mocking revisionist Afrocentric 'historians' who believe that the Ancient Egyptians were black, contrary to all the available evidence.
Posted by: Jonathan | August 31, 2017 at 12:19
Frank William Somerville (born March 19, 1958) is an American journalist.
Were 'woke' eight-year-olds a thing in the 60s? 'I grew up in Berkeley. I marched in anti-war protests during the sixties.'
Posted by: Trevor | August 31, 2017 at 12:29
Reader's Age: 8-9 yrs. old (Fourth and Fifth graders)
IOW, pretty advanced for the Bay Area crowd.
I wrote about black women and Sims' gynecological tortures 20 years ago.
Regarding that article, to say it is hyperbolic is charitable. Developing a procedure that had never been done falls in the category of experimental (see below), but other than that slaves likely didn't get a chance to turn down the procedure, it was hardly Mengelian as the author seems to purport. Aseptic procedures were unknown, and even after Semmelweis' observations in 1847. The mark of a surgeon back in the day was how filthy his frock coat was and how quickly a procedure could be performed, not on his results or morbidity and mortality rate.
A spoon ?
Retractors developed from that are still in use.
Anaesthesia for anyone was rare due in no small part that dosing was guesswork, and the practice was not widely accepted even in England until Queen Victoria was given it for the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853. It was not until the late 1800s that anything resembling scientific anesthesia was commonplace.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 31, 2017 at 12:48
https://wearyourvoicemag.com
Wear your voice? (Wut?)
We ar your voice?
Weary our voice?
Posted by: Sam | August 31, 2017 at 13:05
Weary our voice?
Like much of the content, it’s not well thought-out. But it is fascinating, in a dismaying kind of way. “Queer activists are using magic as a resistance,” proclaims one headline. “Healing and communing with our ancestors,” says another. “White mediocrity,” we’re informed, “is violence,” and “all white people are socialised to be racist.” White people have apparently “ruined” the word woke. “Nine steps for cleansing before the lunar eclipse.” Oh and, “Eight witches and healers of colour to follow online.”
As with Everyday Feminism, the tone of which it mirrors almost eerily, it’s obstinately dumb, a mix of pretentious grievance and empty-headed woo. You could think of it as another snapshot of how a ‘progressive’ and identitarian education can deform people, mentally, and make them absurd.
Posted by: David | August 31, 2017 at 13:16
[E]mpty-headed [W]oo.
Band name sorted.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 31, 2017 at 13:58
WHY FAT HUMANITY IS NOT GOVERNED BY FUCKABILITY.
Thank goodness we've finally answered that question.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 31, 2017 at 14:04
She chose… poorly.
Posted by: David | August 31, 2017 at 14:13
Back in the day it was Ho Chi Minh, but times change even if ideology and ignorance don't.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 31, 2017 at 14:14
an academic background in Media Studies, Women’s & Gender Studies, and African American & African Diaspora Studies
3 swings and 3 misses.
Posted by: rjmadden | August 31, 2017 at 14:17
6 Medicines to Protect Our Communities From Police.
Right-O. Carrying around something that looks suspiciously like marijuana is always a good plan to keep police away.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | August 31, 2017 at 14:37
Seems suitable.
Posted by: Squires | August 31, 2017 at 14:45
On the subject of afrocentrism, the classicist Mary Lefkowitz' books - which go back to the early nineties - are quite interesting. Many of them relate to the theories of the charlatan Martin Bernal, who claimed that Ancient Greece was colonised by Egypt, but that this fact was obscured by racist Europeans. Naturally Bernal's ideas were taken up the afrocentrists. In opposing them on historical and factual grounds, the (soft-left) Lefkowitz was exposed to (often anti-Semitic) abuse.
Her Wikipedia article talks about one such incident with the ludicrous Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan here. I remember reading about that incident - which took place in 1993 - and thinking how exotic and strange it was. It seems like it could happen anywhere now.
Posted by: Charlie Suet | August 31, 2017 at 14:47
Twenty-five or so years ago I had a friend who only ever dated fat girls. He had two reasons. The first was, as noted in the article, most guys don't go for them so he had his pick. The second was because they treated every time like it might be the last time, and as such were quite willing to please.
I judged him until I realized how much time, energy, and money I spent per partner compared to him.
Posted by: SumDumGuy | August 31, 2017 at 15:16
3 swings and 3 misses.
Something tells me we may be revisiting this publication at some point in the future. I’m tempted to poke it with a stick right now, but there’s ephemera to compile and I’m halfway through a Sapphire & Steel audio drama.
And I’ll thank you not to judge me.
Posted by: David | August 31, 2017 at 15:32
And I’ll thank you not to judge me.
Easy to ask with the henchlesbian back-up. It's like a Godfather movie around here.
Posted by: R. Sherman | August 31, 2017 at 15:38
From the SEA Hut construction manual linked upthread: But no matter how easy erection may seem, always read and follow the instructions.
Wise words.
Posted by: Governor Squid | August 31, 2017 at 16:03
Mary Lefkowitz
There is video on line of an alleged 'debate' about Black Athena, in which Lefkowitz and a colleague (whose name I can't recall) face Bernal and the comically pretentious old fraud John Henrik Clarke, the professor without a high school diploma, whose opening remarks are to inform us that he debates only his intellectual equals, 'everyone else I teach'. Needless to say, the Lefkowitz side conducts itself with unfailing politeness and scrupulous honesty, no mean achievement in the face of an obviously restless and hostile audience of ignoramuses under the 'moderation' of one Utrice Leid. It's grimly educational - all the grimmer in hindsight knowing that the stupidity is now more widely disseminated and firmly entrenched.
Posted by: Trevor | August 31, 2017 at 16:37
Car tries to ram President Trump's motorcade in Springfield, Missouri:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yqa5PUViPo
Weakest assassination attempt ever?
This, apparently, is the creature who did it:
Claimed her 'brakes failed'.
Posted by: Jonathan | August 31, 2017 at 17:56