Aug
29
2024

Say It Ain't So, Robin!

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Jeff Maurer finds his worldview disintegrating: It’s Hard to Accept That Robin DiAngelo Might Not Be the Intellectual Giant We All Thought She Was.

This week, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Robin DiAngelo may have plagiarised parts of her PhD thesis. The accusation is compounded by the fact that some of the scholars who lodged a complaint against DiAngelo are not white, and DiAngelo has been adamant that white people should credit the work of non-white people. It’s a stunning charge that indicts the credibility of one of America’s most beloved and admired intellectuals.

I, for one, am shattered. Say it ain’t so, Robin! How could the modern-day Socrates who uncovered profound truths like “the everyday is the primary site of the signification of Whiteness” and “racism is raining down on us 24/7, and there are no umbrellas” be a faux-intellectual hack? How could the oracle who revealed that racism is everywhere and nobody knows it, except we all know it, but we never talk about it, except that we talk about it constantly in the lucrative book-and-guest-speaker circuit that made her a millionaire, be a fraud? It’s almost as if in the panicked moments after George Floyd’s death, America groped desperately for someone — anyone! — to provide answers, and DiAngelo happened to be in the right place at the right time, so we elevated her to guru status even though she’s obviously a garden-variety midwit charlatan. It is almost like that!

I’m left feeling unmoored. I’ve tried to live my life according to DiAngelo’s principles. I always view actions through the lens of race, even though I also know that racialized thinking is the source of all inequality. I acknowledge non-white people’s dignity by treating them as racial avatars with no agency who are perpetual underlings in a world in which white people are the Undisputed Masters Of The Universe Forever. I fight institutionalized racism because I’m obliged to do so, but it’s pointless, but I have to, even though I can’t, but I must raise my consciousness, even though my consciousness can never be raised, but I have to do my part to build a better world, even though a better world is impossible and frankly I should really just shut the fuck up (while not remaining silent). This is how I’ve been living — could the author of this sterling moral code possibly be full of shit?

Short answer: yup.

Also of note:

  • But you should keep it handy in case you need it later. Where was Kat Rosenfield when I could have used this advice? What School Didn’t Teach Us: You Need to Lose Control.

    There’s a scene I love, toward the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, after the adventure is over and ordinary life has begun anew: Our heroes, Frodo and Sam and Pippin and Merry, are drinking at the local pub, when Sam spots a girl across the room who he’s admired from afar all his life. Something flickers across his face, equal parts desire and determination; this is his moment, his destiny.

    But before Sam makes his move, he does one more thing: He throws back his pint.

    This moment is good because so many of us recognize it. Many of our best and bravest moments start with a shot or two of liquid courage. And yet, contemporary narratives about young people and drinking are all markedly and overwhelmingly negative. Optimizers warn that alcohol is an addictive poison, activists cite the link between drinking and sexual assault, and young celebrities who might have once made headlines for partying can instead be found touting the benefits of sobriety.

    Kat is pretty convincing that the overly-sober youngs need to lighten up a bit. Or a lot.

  • Hitting the target. The College Fix reports on my alma mater: Caltech boasts ‘diversity’ efforts result in 50 percent female class.

    The California Institute of Technology’s incoming class is 50 percent female for the first time in history, sparking concern from one legal expert about a focus on gender parity initiatives rather than merit.

    A profile of the undergraduate class of 2028 highlights the students’ “gender diversity,” showing 50 percent of the students are male and 50 percent are female. The profile also breaks down the class by students’ race, financial aid awards, and home state or country.

    There's speculation in the article that the ladies are being admitted under looser criteria than are the dudes. Maybe, maybe not. Later, the article links to a graduation analysis, and the graduation rates for guys and gals are pretty similar.

    The racial "balance" on the profile page linked above doesn't have a lot of evidence that Caltech is doing the quota thing. 41% of the incoming class are Asian! Another 17% are "nonresident alien"; it's a safe bet that a chunk of them are Asian too.

    I think my class (1973) had 4 women. And they were all great.

  • Will censoring the Internet protect kids? Senator Rand Paul answers that burning question: Censoring the Internet Won’t Protect Kids.

    If good intentions created good laws, there would be no need for congressional debate.

    I have no doubt the authors of this bill genuinely want to protect children, but the bill they've written promises to be a Pandora's box of unintended consequences.

    The Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, would impose an unprecedented duty of care on internet platforms to mitigate certain harms associated with mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.

    While proponents of the bill claim that the bill is not designed to regulate content, imposing a duty of care on internet platforms associated with mental health can only lead to one outcome: the stifling of First Amendment–protected speech.

    KOSA is currently stalled in the House, after passing in the Senate. But it was a squeaker! 91-3!

  • Throw out your Boars Head. I probably would have heard about this if I still watched TV news: Massive nationwide meat-linked outbreak kills 5 more, now largest since 2011.

    Five more people have died in a nationwide outbreak of Listeria infections linked to contaminated Boar's Head brand meats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

    To date, 57 people across 18 states have been sickened, all of whom required hospitalization. A total of eight have died. The latest tally makes this the largest listeriosis outbreak in the US since 2011, when cantaloupe processed in an unsanitary facility led to 147 Listeria infections in 28 states, causing 33 deaths, the CDC notes.

    Well, that's scary. Something the Federal Government was supposed to protect us from. But now seems relegated to updating the body count.

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