It’s strange and sudden. The problems have been here all along, but now we’re seeing this pattern of unrest on campus…with both a good and bad side. The bad side is that racists are doing their thing, but the good side is that people are fighting back.
At Harvard this morning (ironically, in light of these comments here, where Harvard is presented as the shining beacon to which all minorities are drawn), it was discovered that someone in the night had strolled down a hallway lined with portraits of the tenured faculty, and put black tape slashes across certain faculty members faces: only and all of the minority faculty. That’s chilling. And that’s exactly the feeling that these cowardly bigots always try to instill, just like the KKK: be afraid to be here.
Amid ongoing racial tensions across US and Canadian campuses, a Facebook page entitled ‘Illini White Student Union’ (IWSU) surfaced – saying it sought to “organise against the terrorism we have been facing from Black Lives Matter activists on campus.”
…the IWSU told its members: “Feel free to send in pictures you take of any black protestors on the quad so we know who anti-whites are.”
Black terrorism is any group of black Americans daring to demand the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that is promised to everyone in the declaration of independence…which was written by the same bunch of guys who apparently thought a black person was only worth 3/5 of a white person, so maybe the white dudes are right, and the black students are expecting more than they should. No wonder the precious White Students are complaining!
But I’ve visited the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. It’s not exactly a center of seething hatred against white people…I think I met a scarce few black students there at all, so I’m not sure why the white students would feel so endangered.
The next several years promise to be interesting ones, with the Republican party in its death throes and the country’s demographics changing. I fear they’re going to get uglier before they get better, though.
I feel optimistic. There is a lot of privilege slithering in our societies. In the last years a lot of it has been brought to wider attention, straight in the face of those with more privilege (I am one).
Many are changing their attitudes, some are outright rejecting it. But less and less can avoid it.
The fact that the racism of many is showing off, it’s because they can’t pretend anymore that all is well, they can’t hide, they are called to defend their privilege in public.
There is so much to do, and so many who paid a high personal price, but the trend is good.
Also, gotta love how “terrorism” is the new meaningless scare word.
@F.O. we were just discussing that in the Paris thread & how Penny L was refusing to engage with the fact that the definition of terrorism is one thing, but what gets called terrorism is quite another.
I’m going to have to look up what antiracist students are doing to combat this shit at Harvard and Urbana–Champaign.
UIUC grad (’15) here, I can confirm the U of I is indeed a safe space for white people. Sad to see students there perpetuating racial division and animosity. Social justice isn’t a zero sum game: someone petitioning for equality and recognition of basic humanity isn’t someone who wants to take away yours.
Phew!
If this is an exact quote, it’s rather telling. Somehow they’ve slipped from “supports Black Lives Matter = antiwhite” to “being black while protesting = antiwhite.”
One thing that bugs me a bit: The people who wrote the Declaration of Independence (and Constitution) did not believe a black person is worth 3/5 of a white person. They believed that a black person was worth 0/5 of a white person, but that a white person who owned a slave was worth 1.6 of a white person who didn’t. The 3/5 compromise was specifically meant to settle whether white people should get more representation in Congress at the expense of black people who were universally agreed to be not people at all.
Good point.
Just a correction the 3/5 compromise did not say a Black person counted for 3/5 of a person for the sake of representation to Congress but that a Slave counted for 3/5 of a person for the sake of representation to congress. Free Black persons were counted has full 1/1 persons for the sake of representation to Congress. Of course since over 90% of Blacks were slaves in 1780 that still meant that most Blacks were “represented” by the 3/5 rule.
Of course it was rather painfully obvious to many in the USA that the effort of Slave owners to have Slaves count has 1/1 in terms of representation was perceived for what it was; a naked power grab for disproportional representation. Because the very same Slave owners would still have undisputed power to treat their Slaves has property. The response, quite reasonable, was if Slaves are property then how can they count has persons for the sake of representation to Congress? As mentioned above the 3/5 clause was a compromise that the Slave owners got by means of what can only be called blackmail. The result was a distorted system of representation that allowed one section to have disproportionate influence.
Ah, the old “egalitarian” ploy where demonstrating racial privilege to whites that makes those whites uncomfortable is a form of racism. The whites really need to check their privileges, but I’m not very hopeful that it will happen. Too many are comfortable with the present institutional racism, as they are scared to compete on a truly level playing field.
Being an alumnus of the toolshop that called Hahvahd “that school up the street” (aka MIT), still baffled that the student population of Harvard would resort to defacing portraits of POC professors. As protest to BLM? or to present a faux “false flag” (falsely accusing the BLM advocates of doing a false flag operation)
While I applaud UI for “waking up”, lament HU for proudly advocating staying asleep. Leading me to use HU as the exemplar for answering the OP title question with, “No, look at Cambridge”.
re @7, @9:
The 3/5 clause in the Constitution can be spun in any direction desired, so risks being a massive derail. As I understand it.
Interesting if it was a separate thread, but a derail in this thread
I read a response to the cowardly hate crime at the Harvard Law School, by a Harvard faculty member (not sure exactly if she is one of those at HLS; but probably works elsewhere at Harvard) which is now getting some publicity. It begins:
The entire post is here.
I tried posting a quote from a long worthwhile post by a Harvard faculty member that is now doing the rounds on Facebook, but I think the comment disappeared straight into the filter. If you have a minute to check, PZ, #comment-984104 might be worth salvaging from the bin, but if not – I encourage people to go looking for Eve Ewing’s thoughts on Facebook.
I’m still naïve enough that at first I thought the white student union formed to protest terrorism against black students.
Sigh.
Pacal, thanks for your input at #9. It’s useful commentary & appreciated. But when you say the 3/5 compromise was wrought by blackmail, I think the word you want is extortion. But “blackmail,” makes an excellent pun, context considered.
Oh, hey, y’know I was so into riffing off Adam James’ dry wit about safe space for white people that I forgot (or failed to notice) that Adam James’ graduation year is THIS YEAR.
Congratulations, Adam James!
@Duczech, #14
Ditto. I was expecting some crazy white people ally student group to to patrol campus with black/minority/solidarity affirming slogans and black slashes painted across their faces and was about to exclaim “Oh us white people, don’t we look cute when we try!”
Racism, it always lets you down. =(
I suppose there’s the same mechanism at work that makes men feel outnumbered by women once they reach 1/3 in terms of numbers, speaking time, etc. When there’s suddenly 3 black faces among 10 where there used to be none, they feel like three white people have been cheated out of a position.
And they’ll be absolutely sure, against all evidence and reason, that the black students are less qualified. AND claim that they are “liberals” who can’t possibly have any prejudice. See the thread below that PZ referenced at the beginning of this post.
On that note, I’ll just toss out a link to White Fragility. Here’s a small taste:
So, before, minorities who made too much noise about the discrimination they faced were dismissed for making too much of a fuzz, being too aggressive and not using the right tone…Now they get labeled terrorists…
Causing some degree of discomfort to white people: terrorism.
Holy fucking shitballs batman….
Dianne
Point in case: a muslim woman won a British baking contest and the racist go batshot crazy
Because there’s no way she could have been better than the other contestants.
The white guy with super duper qualifications, now that’s something we can all believe in. The brown woman with adequate qualifications, not so much…
P Z Myers,
You are a lying sack of shit. Nowhere in that thread was Harvard is presented as “the shining beacon to which all minorities are draw.” What was presented was a single instance when we tried to hire an African American and he turned us down for Harvard–and a series of general statements lamenting that when we do get a minority applicant it is hard for us to compete against big R1s who have way more in money, prestige, etc to offer. The only virtue attributed to Harvard, in that one instance, is that they, like the rest of us, would love more diversity on the STEM faculty.
I don’t think you possess a shred of decency, integrity, or for that matter, competence.
You don’t possess a shred a decency yourself. You come off as somebody who thinks all people of color, women, etc, are less competent/qualified than white men. Your only hope to not appear as a bigot is to quit playing your paranoia card. I don’t think you can do that.
Dammit, the Republican party has supposedly been in its death throes since at least 2006, yet they still control Congress. I’ll believe it when I start seeing it.
Rey Fox:
Related concept: http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/cheney-iraq-insurgency-not-in-last-throes
Bill Buckner:
Says the man arguing that minorities are gettin’ all the good jobs, proven exclusively via anecdote.
And they weren’t even real anecdotes, just hypothetical anecdotes of the “sort of thing that happens”.
Gilliell:
Thanks for the spoilers to American audiences! (Kidding, I actually think people get too worked up about spoilers.)
Seriously, though, are they so surprised that Muslim people can bake unpronounceable French pastries better than a typical British Christian? Or do less of a botch job on American-style baking?
gmacs – ‘typical’ (white) British people aren’t Christian. Just saying.
Pen – I know, but I’d have way too many parenthetical clauses in the post if I said “Christian (or intellectually-elevated, noble, Western atheists)”. Also, my language skills fall apart when I overtax my snarkdrive.
Does anyone know if there’s a good source for understanding this kind of “lone wolf” style of racist action? There’s an interesting parallel in these kinds of racial intimidation/hate crimes to the shift in Islamist terrorism from hierarchical organizations to affinity networks.
I was just wondering if the tape across the faces stunt could have been (1) to point out how few people of color were on the faculty and (2) to show how even those token people are often erased? I.e., more of an advocacy for more people of color in the law school faculty?
Thanks Crip Dyke! I’m excited too – I can finally cash in on my lucrative Philosophy degree! I have a feeling the job offers are gonna start rolling in any minute now…
Harvard ‘black tape’ vandalism brings law school’s controversial past to fore:
(My added emboldening.) For feck’s sake, even in the first half of last century, Royall’s brutally would have been unacceptable.
anteprepro (#27) and dianne (#28),
Where did Bill Buckner argue that? I read the whole (other) thread and I don’t understand how his comments can be interpreted to mean this.
Good news: The White Students Unions are largely fake.
sff9 @36,
Bill Buckner repeatedly equated advocacy of a diversity program with establishing a “white men need not apply” policy.
This is nonsense on multiple levels and was soundly refuted but Bill Buckner seems to have scurried away without addressing this point.
Well, not any diversity program; he said this about a hypothetic diversity program in which any minority would always be ranked above any white man. Anyway, I agree that his comparison does not hold since there are not enough minority candidates (as you argued in the thread), but he was not “arguing that minorities are gettin’ all the good jobs” (and the anecdote about Harvard is unrelated to this part of the thread).