Knowing this is thoughtcrime…
Tag: racism
Ivy League University Offers Rock Climbing Class — No White Students Allowed
Cornell University was offering a racially-segregated rock climbing class for their students physical education — but no white students allowed.
The physical education class, “BIPOC Rock Climbing,” was originally slated to be restricted to “people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color.”
After Campus Reform reached out the university for comment about the discrimination, the course description was edited to state that the class is “designed to enable Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color underrepresented in the sport of rock climbing to learn the sport and to feel included and supported.”
The original listing for the course, set to begin during the Spring 2021 academic semester, was archived and can be viewed here.
Amid protests against racism, scientists move to strip offensive names from journals, prizes, and more
For Earyn McGee, terminology matters.
McGee, a herpetologist, studies the habitat and behavior of Yarrow’s spiny lizard, a reptile native to the southwestern United States. The University of Arizona graduate student and her colleagues regularly pack their things—boots, pens, notebooks, trail mix—and set off into the nearby Chiricahua Mountains. At their field site, they start an activity with a name that evokes a racist past: noosing.
“Noosing” is a long-standing term used by herpetologists for catching lizards. But for McGee, a Black scientist, the term is unnerving, calling to mind horrific lynchings of Black people by white people in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. “Being the only Black person out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of white people talking about noosing things is unsettling,” she says. McGee has urged her colleagues to change the parlance to “lassoing,” which she says also more accurately describes how herpetologists catch lizards with lengths of thread.
McGee isn’t alone in reconsidering scientific language. Researchers are pushing to rid science of words and names they see as offensive or glorifying people who held racist views.
Smith College fails to defend their own employees after false accusations of racism
Smith College, an elite college in Northampton, Massachusetts, failed to defend its working-class employees against false and damaging accusations of racism levelled by a teaching assistant, The New York Times reports.
The story began when Oumou Kanoute, a black teaching assistant at the college, was found eating in the Tyler house dormitory cafeteria, which during that summer was off-limits to students as it was being used for a children’s summer camp.
Kanoute was approached by a cafeteria employee named Jackie Blair, who informed her that the cafeteria was off-limits to students at the time. This caused Kanoute to go to the dormitory lounge, which was also closed to students for the summer, where she was noticed by a janitor.
The janitor, who has been advised to call campus security if he sees someone trespassing, decided to give them a call. “We have a person sitting there laying down in the living room,” he said to dispatchers. He did not mention her race.
When security arrived, the officer recognized Kanoute as a student and had a brief conversation with her. Kanoute expressed her discomfort with the situation, saying she felt threatened, and the security guard apologized for bothering her.
That evening, Kanoute took to Facebook to lambast a number of college employees as racists. “It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith, and my existence overall as a woman of color,” she wrote.
Smith College president Kathleen McCartney immediately apologized for the incident without conducting an investigation or contacting the accused employees, and put the janitor who called security on leave.
The actions of both Kanoute and McCartney stunned the employees. Ms. Blair, who did not call security, had her name, picture, and email included in the post. “This is the racist person,” Kanoute wrote.
That’s confusing…
Citing Racial Inequities, Boston Public Schools Suspend New Advanced Learning Classes
A selective program for high-performing fourth, fifth and sixth graders in Boston has suspended enrollment due to the pandemic and concerns about equity in the program, GBH News has learned.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended the one-year hiatus for the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, saying the district would not proceed with the program for new students next year.
“There’s been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address,” Cassellius told GBH News. “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education.”
New students will be admitted in the fourth grade by standards to be determined at the school level, according to a BPS spokesman.
There will be no new students admitted in the fifth or sixth grades, the spokesman said, but those already in advanced work will be allowed to continue.
Virginia school system cancels Dr. Seuss, citing racial ‘undertones’ in writings
Celebrated American children’s author Dr. Seuss is now considered too controversial for one of Virginia’s largest school districts, a new report reveals.
For over two decades, Dr. Seuss’s birthday has been celebrated in schools as Read Across America Day — a day dedicated to the importance of reading and literacy. The day falls on Dr. Seuss’s birthday in honor of the impactful author, whose books have helped countless children learn to read across the globe.
But folllowing pressure from activists, Loudon County Public Schools is reportedly dropping the annual Dr. Seuss celebration.
“Realizing that many schools continue to celebrate ‘Read Across America Day’ in partial recognition of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, it is important for us to be cognizant of research that may challenge our practice in this regard,” Loudoun County Schools said in an announcement reported by the Daily Wire.
“As we become more culturally responsive and racially conscious, all building leaders should know that in recent years there has been research revealing radical undertones in the books written and the illustrations drawn by Dr. Seuss,” the school district continued.
Learning for Justice, a liberal education advocacy group, was reportedly behind the pressure campaign against the celebrated children’s author. The organization pegs itself as a group that seeks “to uphold the mission” of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, according to their website.
I Took An Anti-Racist Training Workshop For Parents. Here’s What I Learned.
The push for “anti-racism” is moving beyond the classroom. School districts are now insisting that parents spark conversations about race and gender at the dinner table, at the movie theatre, and when their child is browsing the internet.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the nation’s most affluent areas, parents of elementary-aged children were encouraged to participate in a “caregiver” training program on “anti-racism.” The program was run through Ashburton Elementary School in the Montgomery County Public School district.
The session lasted about an hour and was run by a “restorative justice” advocate hired by the school district.
Ashburton Elementary is far from the only school to host these programs, be it for teachers or children, or parents. In fact, Ashburton Elementary’s Principal told parents that teachers and children have been engaging in “anti-racism” activities for months now.
I attended the elementary school’s anti-racist training workshop for parents. It was run by Greg Mullenholz, the school’s principal, and Yael Astor, a “restorative justice instructional specialist” who works for the district.
Wait…These Are the Top Three Concerns for Democratic Voters? Yes, It’s Insane.
It shouldn’t shock us, but here we are again, folks. We can think Democrats can’t be this dense, but they always find ways to amaze, don’t they? If you could guess what the top three issues Democratic voters are most concerned with what would you pick? Climate change? The economy? Taxes? Nope. It’s Trump supporters, white supremacy, and systemic racism. I’m not kidding. We’re facing job losses and a stagnant economy that will remain stuck in the mud if this minimum wage hike passes in the COVID relief bill. And Democrats’ top concerns are issues that won’t help a single person in America. It’s selfish. It’s detached. It shows that these people really don’t have a care in the world. It must be nice. Only the financially secure and the privileged can say they’re really, really worried about people with differing political views.
Why Are Whites Being Blamed For Attacks On Asians Carried Out By Minorities?
There’s been a rise in attacks on Asian-Americans in recent months, especially the elderly. This is true. Statistics confirm it.
But when it comes to perpetrators of recent acts of violence against Asian-Americans, it’s hardly white supremacy that’s to blame. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an immigrant from Thailand who lived in San Francisco, was brutally assaulted on video by Antoine Watson, a black 19-year-old.
Many attribute the 2020 uptick to the xenophobic rhetoric of Biden’s predecessor; former President Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “the China virus,” blaming the country for the pandemic. In doing so, Trump followed in a long American history of using diseases to justify anti-Asian xenophobia, one that dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries and has helped to shape perception of Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners.”
Blaming the rise in physical assaults by whites on Asians because of the pandemic and Trump using the dreaded “Chinese virus” as a reason to hate doesn’t make any sense. This is especially true since almost all the attacks on Asians have been carried out by members of minority groups.
Hellbound and Down 
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