Strange doings at the University of Sydney.
The University of Sydney has suspended Prof Barry Spurr over emails in which he called the prime minister, Tony Abbott, an “Abo lover”, Indigenous Australians “human rubbish tips” and Nelson Mandela as a “darky”.
Don’t tell me let me guess – he was using those insults “ironically” – right? He didn’t mean them literally, it was just a performance, a many-layered meta-joke. Right?
Spurr, a poetry expert, was a specialist consultant to the federal government’s national curriculum review looking at English from foundation to year 12.
The emails, first obtained by website New Matilda, have seriously damaged the review’s findings, with Labor calling them “tainted” and the Australian Education Union saying the review had been exposed as “an ideological waste of time from the start”.
In a series of emails over two years sent to senior academics and officials within the university, Spurr wrote that Abbott would have to be surgically separated from his “Siamese twin”, Australian of the Year and AFL star Adam Goodes, who is Aboriginal.
He said the university’s chancellor, Belinda Hutchinson, was an “appalling minx”,’ while other women were described as “whores”. He used terms such as “mussies” and “chinky-poos”.
Ironically. Obviously he’s far too sophisticated to use them non-ironically. Right?
The national curriculum review, released this month, largely accepted Spurr’s recommendations regarding the teaching of English. He had asserted in his report to the review that “the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on literature in English in Australia has been minimal” and advised a greater emphasis on the western literary canon.
Spurr had not responded on Friday, but has said previously the emails were part of a “whimsical” game with another person to outdo each other in extreme statements and were not meant to be taken seriously.
Aha! – there it is. Toldja.
Spurr was a well-known conservative critic of the national curriculum before his appointment to review English. In 2010 he contributed to a critique published by the the libertarian think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.
In his chapter, Spurr was scathing about the curriculum proposed by the former Labor government. “An empty generosity is proposed, bloated with ramifying detail and long on windy rhetoric, an obesity of the mind: short on nourishing, intellectually-bracing substance. It is the educational equivalent of fast food.”
…
Spurr’s expert advice to the national curriculum was influential, with most of his recommendations accepted in the final report. He criticised the emphasis on Aboriginal texts, saying the “the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on literature in English in Australia has been minimal and is vastly outweighed by the impact of global literature in English, and especially that from Britain, on our literary culture”.
Could that be partly because people have always said global literature in English is more important so let’s just ignore Aboriginal literature? It’s a bit circular you know. “We can’t have more women involved because look around you, there are no women here, so obviously women don’t participate, so we can’t ask them.” Repeat repeat repeat, and apply to all other kinds of people you also don’t want to invite.
H/t Omar.
If Spurr was joking then why is nobody laughing?
Two years?!
And noöne could be arsed to set him right or blow the lid on this? Now that’s the real scandal.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/20/barry-spurr-further-leaked-emails-reveal-detail-of-attack-on-adam-goodes
Update – further emails appear to demolish the “ironic” defence
It’s really really hard to be Andy Kaufman. Trying to do it is a mug’s game. Claiming you were trying to excuse some crapola you’ve been caught at is stupid. That makes Spurr a stupid mug.
The collected works of Barry Spurr (first folio; abridged) are at:
.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/19/transcripts-partial-works-professor-barry-spurr-poet-racist-misogynist
The joke defense might work well if it was a one-off, in a private conversation, with explicit context. Still kind of douchey, but not necessarily indicative.
@ Tom Goodfellow:
Yeesh, the lede indicates this guy isn’t very interested in self-education:
Depression and a disability? How outmoded.
As a back story: the national curriculum was set through a long process by the previous Labor govt and finalised a couple of years ago. The aim was to bring all states onto a single curriculum, which has never happened here. The Liberals (remember, conservatives in Oz) always complained it had too much focus on Indigenous Aussies, Australia’s relationship with Asia and sustainability (the horrors!). They complained long and hard about it’s left bias. Conservative PM Howard once remarked the left had a ‘black armband’ view of history because of the recognition of some of the harm done to aboriginal Australians (someone else described Howard’s view of history as the ‘white blindfold’ approach – which I consider an apt description).
So, as soon as the Liberals took over last year they announced review of the curriculum to remove this lefty bias. I am the opposite of surprised to see this racist & sexist rape apologist is one of the educators they decided to consult.
@Omar #5:
Thanks (I guess) for the link, even though it made me sick to my stomach. In one hideous email in particular, an unidentified friend says:
Barry Spurr’s reply is oh so wretchedly familiar:
That’s some weapons-grade vile, right there, not only from the man himself but from his unnamed friend. “As one does”? “As one does”?!! I sure hope the Queensland Police are trying to track down and talk to the female acquaintances of Barry’s buddy; to me, that one phrase sure looks, at the very least, like a monstrously casual attitude toward the commission of sexual assault.
@7 kage,
“I am the opposite of surprised to see this racist & sexist rape apologist is one of the educators they decided to consult.” Yes, I’m not surprised either, although the odious professor is nearly off the scale, what is baffling is his apparent luddite belief that the Net is private.
The fact is that the Abbott government is, nasty, vindictive and reactionary.
The Australian government is made up, essentially, of tea-partiers, and have been commissioning “independent” reviews by screeching ideologues
left, right,and centerand further right. I’m half surprised they haven’t brought Ken Ham on the curriculum review, but perhaps they will now Spurr is on the nose.Spurr is now suing the New Matilda for revealing the emails.