Defining Diversity, Whitesplaining Edition.

Who, me? I'm diverse, I swear!via YouTube.

Who, me? I’m diverse, I swear! via YouTube.

On Saturday, two days before the national celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., Knoxville state Rep. Roger Kane opined that just because the Tennessee General Assembly is mostly white and male, that does not mean it’s not diverse.

Sigh. Here we go. Again.

“Women have actually gone down and minorities have gone up,” Kane said, talking about UTK enrollment. “Well, that’s just trading spaces. It’s really not creating diversity.”

Right. Women and minorities have absolutely nothing at all to do with diversity, no. It’s all about the white guys.

“If you look at this panel, that’s in front of you, we look rather homogeneous. But we’re incredibly diverse! We really are,” Kane said of the 12-person panel that consisted of 10 white men, one white woman (Sen. Becky Duncan Massey), and one African-American man (Rep. Rick Staples).

Insert a slight, nervous laugh here. Kane continues on in his diversity definition.

“You see me as a white, middle-aged man. But my mother’s Jewish, my father’s Catholic, and I’m a Baptist. Does that not make diversity?” Kane asked. 

Not really. It means you have a mixed religion background.

“I grew up in Houston, probably one of the most diverse towns you will ever see,” Kane said, accurately, mentioning the city’s large Chinese, Vietnamese, gay and black populations. “And that’s the school I went to. Does that not add to my diversity? But you see me as a white, middle-aged man, that’s all you see. But we’re so much more than that!”

People see a white, middle aged man because that’s what is there. Living in a high diversity town and going to a high diversity school doesn’t change the fact that you’re a white man. Diversity is not about personality or character traits.

Kane continued digging his hole, saying that UTK’s diversity office — which the Legislature defunded last session — doesn’t really show the true diversity on campus, because a lesbian Filipina only defined herself as that and not also as “a woman, she’s college-educated, she’s funny, she has black hair — those are all diversity things.”

“She had forgotten all of those things because in her strive to be diverse, she had honed in on two things, and that’s it,” Kane ended bitterly.

Oh for…yeah, no. Being a woman, a lesbian, and Filipino all matter when it comes to diversity. Once again, this is not about personality or character traits. I’m pretty sure you don’t get to count hair colour as a “diversity thing”.

These are the conservative white men who are in charge of education all over.

Via Nashville Scene.

Potential Grizzlies.

Waving Grizzly gif on Twitter.

Waving Grizzly gif on Twitter.

Betsy DeVos’s hearing veered straight into the absurd, citing potential grizzlies:

However, nothing quite caught the flavor of how poorly her hearing went than her response to Sen. Chis Murphy (D-CT) who asked her, “Do you think guns have any place in or around schools?”

After saying the availability of guns should be “best left to locales and states to decide,” Devos replied to further questioning on guns on campus by adding, “I will refer back to Senator Enzi (R-WY) and the school he was talking about in Wyoming … I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

Ms. DeVos is not only singularly lacking any qualification to head up the Department of Education, she’s not exactly stellar in the thinking department. She did note she had a bleeding heart:

If the question is around gun violence and the results of that, please know that my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.”

Buuuuuuut…potential grizzlies, man! I’m hearing Cheech & Chong in my head. The twittersphere erupted over the potential grizzly bears.

Mo Gaffney

✔ @mogaffney

So DeVos won’t say guns don’t belong in schools. Except says yes when grizzlies are near. How many grizzly adjacent schools r there?

*

Adam B. @AllThingsBooks

“We need guns in schools because of grizzly bears.” You know what else stops bears? Doors.

*

Sarcasticsapien @Sarcasticsapien

I’m confused. Betsy DeVos wants to bring God into schools but also guns because I guess God isn’t powerful enough to stop grizzly bears.

*

Gary @mrgaryhuang

I must REALLY live in a liberal bubble. I didn’t think grizzly bears were even remotely a problem in public schools.

More Tweets at Raw Story.  Also covering this story, Think Progress.

Word Wednesday.

words

Demagogue

Noun.

1. A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.

2. (in ancient times) a leader of the people.

verb (used with object), demagogued, demagoguing.
3. To treat or manipulate (a political issue) in the manner of a demagogue; obscure or distort with emotionalism, prejudice, etc.

verb (used without object), demagogued, demagoguing.
4. To speak or act like a demagogue.

1640s, from Greek demagogos “popular leader,” also “leader of the mob,” from demos “people” (see demotic ) + agogos “leader,” from agein “to lead” (see act (n.)). Often a term of disparagement since the time of its first use, in Athens, 5c. B.C.E. Form perhaps influenced by French demagogue (mid-14c.).

Demosthenes: A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.

Demosthenes [to the Sausage-Seller]: Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing. -The Knights, Aristophanes.

 

The peculiar office of a demagogue is to advance his own interests, by affecting a deep devotion to the interests of the people. Sometimes the object is to indulge malignancy, unprincipled and selfish men submitting but to two governing motives, that of doing good to themselves, and that of doing harm to others. … The motive of the demagogue may usually be detected in his conduct. The man who is constantly telling the people that they are unerring in judgment, and that they have all power, is a demagogue. – The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper.

We Want Idiots!

Joyner

Rick Joyner.

Rick Joyner declared on the most recent episode of his “Prophetic Perspective on Current Events” program that the Common Core educational standards amount to “treason.”

“Common Core goes to a new level of evil,” he said. “I cannot imagine any sane person wanting that garbage to be taught to our kids. Now I will say this boldly: This is treason. Maybe not intentional treason, but it’s ultimate effect, impact, will be to absolutely destroy America, make us incapable of competing or maybe even surviving in the world to come.”

Common Core is “abominable,” Joyner said, which is why he is “so thankful that we have got a president who understands” its dangers, predicting that Trump “will do something to probably help fix it faster than anything else he can do.”

Well yes, Trump is out destroy education, given the whole Betsy de Vos business, but to declare common core as treason? Please.  So what’s it going to be then, no standard at all? No standards for learning, no standards for schooling, no standards for jobs? Destroying America? Oh my yes, why education results in pesky people asking questions! Those meddling kids!

I expect this is about the incredibly bad system of vouchers, so we will end up with little to no public education, and only people with money will be able to actually educate their children. Everyone else? Eh, I’m sure the rethugs want a sea of idiots for a number of reasons. I’d be willing to bet the number of secular homeschoolers is about to increase.

Via Right Wing Watch.

Word Wednesday.

words

Footle 

Noun. Intransitive verb, footled, footling.

  1. To talk or act foolishly.
  2.  To waste time: trifle, fool.

Footling

Adjective.

  1. Lacking judgment or ability: Inept <footling amateurs who understand nothing – E.R. Bentley>
  2. Lacking use or value: Trivial <footling matters>

v.”to trifle,” 1892, from dialectal footer “to trifle,” footy “mean, paltry” (1752), perhaps from French se foutre “to care nothing,” from Old French foutre “to copulate with,” from Latin futuere, originally “to strike, thrust” (cf. confute). But OED derives the English dialect words from foughty (c.1600), from Dutch vochtig or Danish fugtig “damp, musty;” related to fog (n.).

“It was a unique machine. By the time of his last try, Marc had grasped the point of it: you had to make up a question in your head, then consult the oracle. He had hesitated between ‘Will I get my medieval accounts finished in time?’ which he found too footling, and ‘Is there a woman somewhere who will fall in love with me?’, but he didn’t want to know if the answer to that was no, so he had finally opted for a question which didn’t commit him to anything: ‘Does God exist?’.  – Dog Will Have His Day, Fred Vargas.

‘Man Up’.

I came across this wonderful response to the phrase ‘man up’ thanks to Wisconsin senator Steve Nass, who is all manner of bent over a course at UW-Madison: “Unpacking Masculinity At UW-Madison” and seeks to address the ways “media, hook up culture, alcohol, violence, pop culture” create expectations of masculinity.

Sen. Nass was terribly alarmed, and fired off an email:

Sen. Steve Nass, a frequent UW System critic, sent an email to his fellow lawmakers on Wednesday entitled “UW-Madison Declares War on Men and their Masculinity — Not a Joke.” The email accuses UW-Madison of being part of a national liberal effort to rid male students of their “toxic masculinity.”

“Our friends at UW-Madison, not happy enough with labeling ‘whiteness’ as a societal problem, now are attacking another social ill …, Men and their masculinity,” the email says.

“The supposedly underfunded and overworked administrators at our flagship campus have scrapped (sic) together enough dollars to offer a six-week program open only to ‘men-identified students,” the email goes on. “In short, the highly paid leaders at UW-Madison now believe that Wisconsin mothers and fathers have done a poor job of raising their boys by trying to instill in them the values and characteristics necessary in becoming a Man.”

The email concludes by encouraging legislators to reform the UW System in the next state budget.

What Sen. Nass misses entirely is that a lot of young men are seeking paths through all the baggage hanging from the concept of masculinity so that they can be themselves, in happiness, in pride, and in security. Why that would be awful, when toxic masculinity is right there, after all, it’s worked for thousands of years, right?

I visited the course site, and it all looks good to me, I wish such courses were all over the place.

Via Associated Press and Raw Story.

Word Wednesday.

Minatory

adjective.

1: menacing; threatening.

1525-35; from Late Latin minātōrius, from Latin minārī to threaten. “Expressing a threat, 1530s, from Middle French minatoire, from Late Latin

minatorius, from minat-, stem of minari “to threaten”.

“Now Molly put an arm about its neck, and she kissed it again, this time on the long flat cheek, and yet again, on the heavy supraorbital bone, and she looked up and past it, and into Yattuy’s face, and her expression slowly changed from the utmost tenderness that she had shown to the Beast, to a grim minatory glare; gone was the fond lover, and in her place was this stern and vengeful queen.” – Throne of Darkness by Douglas Nicholas.

A Desperate Need for New Material.

Trent Bennett (Malvern Hig School).

Trent Bennett (Malvern Hig School).

Facebook, Oh Facebook XIV. A Science teacher in Arkansas has been saying nasty things about President Obama and the First Lady. You won’t need three whole guesses to figure out the nature of the remarks. Parents aren’t terribly pleased with Mr. Bennett.

Parents want an Arkansas teacher out of the classroom after he compared Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee — and then called the president a “spider monkey.”

Trent Bennett, a science teacher at Malvern High School, apparently made the comments on his personal Facebook page, reported KARK-TV.

One post refers to “Michelle Obummer … America’s First Chimp,” and the teacher then doubled down on his racist comments when a Facebook friend questioned him.

Bennett described the First Lady as a “nasty chimp,” and he called President Barack Obama a “spider monkey.”

He also complained about “monkeys” rioting after the police shootings of black Americans, and said protests during the American Revolution era were more valid because they were over taxation.

Chimps. Monkeys. You’d think a science teacher would have at least gone with ape, but I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Mr. Bennett doesn’t believe humans are apes. Anyroad, this comparison is as old as the hills and beyond tiresome. All you bigoted asswipes, you are in desperate need of new material. Good luck finding any, I have noted over the years that bigots aren’t terribly creative. Too much brain atrophy.

School officials have launched an investigation into Bennett’s social media activity, which they described as “inappropriate” and “insensitive.”

Parents and civil rights activists say Bennett should quit or be removed from his job over his comments.

“Someone like Mr. Bennett that has his mindset and believes this, has no business molding the minds of children that will lead us into the future,” said Rizelle Aaron, president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP. “If the allegations are true, he needs to resign, if he doesn’t, then the NAACP will do everything we have legally to make sure he is terminated.”

Here’s hoping this creep does get kicked out. He has absolutely no business around children, with that amount of poison leaking out of him all over the place.

Via Raw Story.

Word Wednesday.

Categorical.

adjective

  1. without exceptions or conditions; absolute; unqualified and unconditional:
    a categorical denial.

  2. Logic.

a. (of a proposition) analyzable into a subject and an attribute related by a copula, as in the proposition “All humans are mortal.”.
b. (of a syllogism) having categorical propositions as premises.

3.

a. of, relating to, or constituting a category.
b. involving, according with, or considered with respect to specific categories.

  • categorically, adverb.
    Origin: Late Latin categoricus, from Greek kategorikos, from kategoria. (1588)

“We already have. He recognised Perrault. After that, he’s categorical: no one went up until you did.” – The Frozen Dead, Bernard Minier.

Word Wednesday.

words

Agathokakological.

adjective ag·a·tho·kak·o·log·i·cal \¦a-gə-(ˌ)thō-ˌka-kə-¦lä-ji-kəl\

Composed of both good and evil. From Ancient Greek ἀγαθός ‎(agathós, “good”) and κακός ‎(kakós, “bad”).

There may be an opposite fault; for indeed upon the agathokakological globe there are opposite qualities always to be found in parallel degrees, north and south of the equator.– Robert Southey, The Doctor, Etc.

Purple Prose and Intellectual Pedophiles.

Lance Wallnau.

Lance Wallnau.

Lance Wallnau is on another tear, this time, about college, specifically, college professors. He indulges in some terrible purple prose in his attempt to get across just how really, truly, oh for realz, evil they are. Really.

Wallnau, an early and vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is a leading advocate of Seven Mountains dominionism, the idea that Christians are to “do whatever is necessary” to take control of all aspects of the culture in order to implement the will of God throughout the world. One of the “mountains” that Christians needs to gain control of is “the university mountain,” Wallnau said, “because the professors are the factory foremen that are shaping the mind of the next generation.”

Wallnau lamented that radicals from the 1960s went into academia and have spent decades warping the minds of students, which is why conservative Christians continue to lose battles in the culture war.

Sigh. The ever present culture war. No, this is about Christians constantly attempting to retard any and all social progress, and to stomp on the idea of social justice. This is about wanting those mythical 1950s back, where you pretend everything was just great. There’s always noise being made about all the awful secularists, and the awful atheists, and the awful nones, and so forth, but very little about all those other Christians. People like to say that getting atheists to agree on something is like herding cats (which isn’t difficult at all), but the same applies to Christians. The various denominations of Christianity go on and on and on and on. They don’t agree with one another. Within that incomplete list, there are a fair number of Christians who would, and will be ardently opposed to your stance, Lance. Those would be Christians who think social progress and inclusivity is a good thing. You don’t want to win a culture war, you want to crush all dissent, and crown yourself the Jesus King.

“Anything we do regarding abortion, prayer, marriage,” he said, “anything we do that doesn’t get into the educational narrative that is affecting the minds of students will be lost within eight to 10 years because you’ve got gatekeeper priests, there are priests of Baal at the top of the university mountain, poisoning the minds [of young people.] They’re like intellectual pedophiles molesting the virgin territory of your children’s imaginations.”

Last time I looked, most people in college are legal adults. I have to wonder if you went to college, Lance, because professors don’t get to treat class time as “hey, free time, I can pontificate about whatever I want!” They have to teach a class, and their personal views aren’t a part of that. As for poisoning the minds of actual children, I don’t think we need to look much further than religion, do we?

Via Right Wing Watch.

Word Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday is a popular thing for a lot of WordPress bloggers. I do love photography, but I also love words, so I’m going to do Word Wednesday. Just because. If you have a word you’d like featured, drop me a line (email is on the sidebar). All languages are happily accepted.

Esurient.

adjective.
1. hungry; greedy. 2. greedy; voracious.
Derived Forms:
esurience, esuriency, noun.
esuriently, adverb.
1665-75; < Latin ēsurient- (stem of ēsuriēns, present participle of ēsurīre) hungering, equivalent to ēsur- hunger + -ent- -ent.

adj.

1670s, from Latin esurientem (nominative esuriens), present participle of esurire “to be hungry,” from stem of edere “to eat”. Related: Esurience ; esuriency.

“My bear charm was fully charged and I felt completely restored, albeit dreadfully thirsty and a bit esurient.” – Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearne.

No DAPL: Oren Lyons Speaks Out.

2

Oren Lyons is a faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and a longtime international indigenous rights and sovereignty activist.

Accompanying article at ICTMN.