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Only a ginger can call another ginger âgingerâ.
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But more seriously, theyâre trying to eliminate all action against discrimination, and (because fascists live in backwards land) theyâre doing it saying that anti-discrimination efforts are discriminatory. And by âeliminateâ, I mean not just to stop doing it, but to scrub all information about it, all research, all documentation, all history. Theyâre working on not just undoing but unexisting the Disability Rights movement, the LGBTQI+ rights movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the Womenâs Liberation movement.
They are re-imposing segregation, on the basis that desegregation is racist. They are removing women from the workplace and public participation on the basis that gender equity is sexist. Theyâre going to remove all accommodations for disabled people because itâs impractical and just plain common sense.
Theyâre making exclusion, humiliation, and shame core to public policy.
Iâm pretty sure they donât mean to include prejudice against redheads and the left-handed in that, but theyâre not going to weep about it.
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Archive link so that you donât have to sign up for spam to read the article:
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Towards the end they discuss the role of University presidents and how they used to be expected to speak out in favor of the university being a key institution of democracy, and how now, theyâre expected to talk about self-preservation⌠honestly, the post-great recession put them in that position. It probably go deeper than that, too. The far right has been attacking âwokeâ universities for a while, and as the funding for colleges has dried up and/or been privatized, theyâve already been trained to think of themselves as acting like a university is a business. I think this probably cuts across the âprivate-publicâ distinctions, as the major private unis need to think about their endowments and growing it, while public universities, are seeing the need to push up tuition costs at a time when fewer students can afford to pay it (forcing them to go deep into debt just to get a BA). That led to freezes on new lines for tenured profs, in favor of more adjuncts or more grad students teaching. Over worked adjuncts or inexperienced grad students are less able to give students the education they deserve. So, this made colleges and universities easy pickings for this movement to come along and gut them more easily.
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Three days ago, the New York Post reported that Hunter College was looking to hire a scholar in Palestinian Studies. The job ad read: âWe seek a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality.â
It took less than a New York minute for Governor Hochul to order the job listing taken down and for CUNY leaders to comply. According to Hochulâs office, âHateful rhetoric of any kind has no place at CUNY or anywhere in New York State.â The hateful rhetoric in question? These words and phrases: âsettler colonialism,â âgenocide,â and âapartheid.â
If this a person studying these historical phenomenon cannot be hired at CUNY, if a job advertisement mentioning these historical phenomenon cannot be posted at CUNY, itâs safe to say that it probably wonât be long before any course examining these phenomenon cannot be taught at CUNY.
Letâs be crystal clear about what this means. First, any Palestinian voices and history mentioning these phenomenon will be taken out of the curriculum. Second, any anti-Zionist Jewish voices and history mentioning these phenomenon will be taken out of the curriculum. But, third, it also means that any Jewish Zionist or pro-Israel voices and history that mention these phenomenon will also be taken out of the curriculum.
Let me give you a concrete example.
My wifeâs grandparents were refugees from Nazi Germany who fled to the United States in the 1930s. After they died, my wife went through the trove of Judaica they had kept in their possession, some of which my wife now has. One book in our library now stands out: An original edition of A Palestine Picture Book, published by Schocken in 1947, featuring photographs by Jakob Rosner for the Jewish National Fund.
The book has stunning photographs of Palestine, pre-1947.
It also has stunning text. Here are some example:
"It is barely forty years since the large-scale Jewish colonization of Palestine was begun. Despite natural and political handicaps, Jewish colonization, once begun, continued.â
âLong a barren waste, it has been transformed by Jewish settlers into a place of fertile fields and green gardens in a generationâs time.â
âOrange plantations now cover thousands of acres of the once water-starved coastal plain in dramatic contrast with the parched tracts of soil where colonization has not yet begun.â
âFrom Lake Chinnereth the Jordan flows through a wide valley studded with new and thriving Jewish settlements.â
âThey have devoted their life and labor to the one aim of developing their settlements into strong and efficient units. Many of the new agricultural colonies are either.â
ââŚand landscaped prospects of the permanent settlementâŚ.All collective settlementsâŚThe fully developed settlementsâŚthe collective settlementsâŚSome settlementsâŚespecially settlementsâŚA number of settlementsâŚbrought upon a settlementâŚfathers and mothers of the young settlers, left Europe to join the settlementsâŚWhen a settlement is foundedâŚin every settlementâŚreproduces the work of the settlementâŚâ
Virtually every page is a reference to colonies, colonists, settlers, and settlements. Put the words together, and what do you get? A concept and a text, written by Jews, that Governor Hochul, the leaders of CUNY, and the leaders of Hunter College have decided is hateful rhetoric that has no place at CUNY.
Please grasp the irony: In the name of protecting Jews against anti-Semitism, we have the governor of New York and the chancellor of CUNY, neither of whom is Jewish, prohibiting the teaching of a text, written by Jews, published by Jews, featuring photographs taken by Jews for the Jewish National Fund, owned by my wifeâs Jewish refugee grandparents, now owned by my Jewish wife.
The words censorship and academic freedom and McCarthyism and authoritarianism donât even begin to describe the reality of what is happening here: Jewish texts banned by non-Jews in the name of the Jews. Itâs like a fable out of Kafka or a short story by Babel or a novella by Roth. Iâd suggest we adopt one of those readings instead, but maybe it wonât be too long before they are banned, too.
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Good to see that suppressing academic freedom is an issue that has bipartisan consensus in the US.
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Where is my Angry emoji!
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The Department of Education launched a first-of-its-kind website, âEndDEI.Ed.Gov,â just hours before a deadline warning institutions to end discrimination or they will be subject to federal funding consequences.
It would be a damn shame if this was flooded with spam and bullshit, now would it not?
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It may be fixed by now, but I saw that you could upload hundred of MBs as an attachment. Shame if they ran out of drive space.
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Fuck him, fuck this administration, fuck this timeline. GAAAAAHHHH!!!
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So much respect for the constitution and the bill of rights!!! /s 
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This is really bad and the Texas Legislature is gearing up to give away our tax money to schools like this.
Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually
. . .
Board members have voted to increase Cavazosâ pay or other financial benefits in 14 of their 24 meetings since 2021.
In one instance, the board granted Cavazos a bonus of $20,000 after taxes for every month that he continued to work for the district. The increase, described as a âretention incentive,â bolstered his take-home pay by an additional $240,000 annually.
. . .
Board members defended their decision to dole out repeated bonuses to Cavazos, including payments totaling roughly half a million dollars to fully reimburse a withdrawal he made from his retirement fund in 2018 for a âpersonal emergency.â
What kind of âpersonal emergencyâ costs $500,000 and why doesnât a man making over $870,000 a year not have his own damned money to pay for it?
They even pay for his car.
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If they knowingly helped subsidize him in bribing a crime victim, say, that becomes a legal quagmire.
Oh wait, no, I forgot: theyâre all allowed to break any rule they want now. The first Trump Administration wasnât quite so lawless, so whatever Cavazos did then still needed some level of cover.
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It strikes me that if people are really interested in what this going to look like, they should look to whatâs been happening to the humanities and social sciences for the past⌠decade or more?
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Oh, a lot longer than that. Predates Reagan, even.
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