I've been slow to post the last few days not because nothing is going on but because too much is.
Website for the May 2 Student Strike.
May 2 Student Strike video. (NOT the racist video which made use of the same imagery but substituted vile racist language, defended Hitler, and called for use of baseball bat and lynching against blacks. I believe that video is no longer easily accessible online.)
Latest DE coverage of racist video.
Philosophy students continue sit-in demanding reinstatement of hire in Africana/African-American philosophy.
The May 2 student strikers are very articulate, and I am sympathetic to most of their points. They are certainly not wrong, in my view, to suggest that tactics beyond polite conversation with administrators and others in power may be required to shake up the status quo in higher education--which is more a slippery slope toward complete denial of access to the poor and minorities than a stable situation in any event.
I watched the racist video. It is astoundingly, openly, vilely racist. There's no coded language or argumentation--no rhetoric about special treatment of minorities, affirmative action hurting whites, police being handcuffed by post-Ferguson worries, etc. It's just an open call for violence against blacks in defense of white supremacy. I have to believe that it is more a sick effort to grab attention than a representation of any view with any significant hold on campus or the broader community. This does not mean it shouldn't be loudly condemned. I condemn it, and plan to be part of a anti-racism teach-in currently being planned for May 2.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
4 comments:
I will review and post comments as quickly as I can. Comments that are substantive and not vicious will be posted promptly, including critical ones. "Substantive" here means that your comment needs to be more than a simple expression of approval or disapproval. "Vicious" refers to personal attacks, vile rhetoric, and anything else I end up deeming too nasty to post.
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I've only heard very small bits and pieces of the teach-in on Monday. Where might we find more information? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDetails are still in development. I'll post more when I know more.
DeleteThe Carbondale Times has a story on this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.carbondaletimes.com/042716may2
There is also a letter responding to your piece in the Southern Illinoisan. I do not know if it is in their online version.
-Mike Sullivan
The response column is here. The headline given by the SI is misleading: the column's author has already left. My column is really an effort at a call to arms, to save Carbondale; the respondent has already left (not that I blame her for doing so).
ReplyDelete