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John Adams Blog

The blog of The Antient and Honourable John Adams Society, Minnesota's Conservative Debating Society www.johnadamssociety.org

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Teaching about Race: Common Mistakes of White Professors

This quote is from an ad for a teaching workshop at a local educational institution.
Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up.

"Teaching about Race: Common Mistakes of White Professors
Race is a reality that Whites can no longer say applies only to the “Other,” and White Supremacy (the ideology and practice that holds that White is the norm and Whites are the “natural” authority in any organization or community) is something that some Whites have only recently come to acknowledge and challenge on a wide basis. A desire to teach about race, reduce racism, and honor diverse races, heritages and traditions is now extolled as a worthy project, indeed a necessity, for White teachers in many disciplines.

As many Whites who have tried this know, such teaching is fraught with contradictions and missteps, ending up with teachers themselves being accused of racism, and raw emotions being exposed in ways that cause some teachers to vow never to try this again. This workshop will examine 10 common mistakes White teachers make in teaching about race. Some of them are basic (excusing oneself from complicity in racism, saying you understand oppression, asking a student to give the “Black,” “Asian” or “First Nations” perspective). Some are more subtle, such as the danger of repressive tolerance (appearing to open up a curriculum whilst simultaneously closing it down)."

Blogger ReTorte said...

Reminds me of a short essay I wrote during my freshman year of college about how races claiming oppression really are far more racist than their white counterparts could ever be making the same statements with only the specific race title (black, asian, white, etc.) changed which earned me a D+ from my College English Professor then the older, wiser spin-off of the same thesis for Social Psychology which I believe earned that same grade... Hmmmmm..

Apparently pointing out other race's racist behaviors are fighting words in the struggle against eliminating oppression and racism.

1:46 AM, December 03, 2007  

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Who's the Sexist?

I was down at St Olaf last week to speak for my candidate, and Ember Reichgott Jung was there speaking for hers. She kept using the term "woman of substance." Do you ever hear the phrase "man of substance?" I felt I should scuttle on out of there, back to the safety of my apron and feather-duster.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Senator Normy Klobuman?

I used to dismiss as short-sighted the people who grumbled that there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between our two major political parties. However, after reading the Nov. 9 Pioneer Press piece claiming credit for securing more federal funds to prioritize additional rail-based transit systems, I can see how someone could say that now about our state's United States Senators. When both of them voted to override the veto of the "stuffed pork chop" water projects bill that emerged from conference committee over 50% larger than either the House or Senate pre-conference versions, it was further evidence for those who fail to see any significant difference in the campaign platforms or votes by our two U.S. Senators.

The only ways anyone could tell which Senator wrote the Pioneer Press piece would be by the references to an amendment passed last year, and to successfully lobbying Bush Administration officials. Yes, it was Norm, but after the Bush connections can no longer be mined, he will be either indistinguishable from our junior Senator, or will be at a disadvantage if anyone other than Giuliani becomes President.

If I were into conspiracies, I would have to consider the possibility that shadowy political consultants secretly extracted DNA samples from our two Senators after the last election, mixed them in test tubes, allowed for the creation of one male and and one female offspring, installed microchips into each of them with detailed voting instructions, and found a way to accelerate their aging to the point where both of the offspring are now acting as U.S. Senators in place of their genetic parents.

A more plausible explanation is that our senior U.S. Senator from Minnesota is a political chameleon the likes of which we have never seen here before. If he is able to sell Giuliani as a trustworthy leader for fiscal and social conservatives, we will know that our senior Senator has an almost supernatural ability to to transfer those chameleon-like powers to others as well.

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Blogger Scribbler de Stebbing said...

My blog's reading level is Junior High. Is that something to brag about?

6:26 PM, November 18, 2007  

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