On Aug. 6, Ottawa’s Capital Pride released a pro Palestinian statement which likely garnered considerably more attention than its authors imagined it would. The statement vaguely attempted to call out all intolerance, including antisemitism, but could not hide the fact that it was itself decidedly antisemitic, though that irony was obviously lost on Capital Pride.
Screw that. No prisoners.
Nietzsche can help us understand the phenomenon of self-abasement.
My X feed has recently been flooded with parodies of the “White Women for Kamala” Zoom call, where a kindergarten teacher turned social media influencer “gentle parented” a group of white women, explaining that “our BIPOC sisters have tapped us in as white women to step up, listen, and get involved this election season.” Among many ridiculous and troubling elements of the call—Democrats now support separate but equal political gatherings?—one particularly glaring aspect was the kind of self-flagellation on racial grounds that has gained widespread adoption since at least the publication of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility.
“As white women we need to use our privilege to make positive changes.” What privilege? All this tells me is that liberal white women think they’re better than me. The condescension is nauseating. https://t.co/chu5phLI4u
— Adele Scalia (@AdeleScalia) July 29, 2024
Given the Olympics are up and running, it’s fitting to reflect on how the image that cartoonists most often use to show that women and ethnic minorities have a disadvantage is one of the hurdles.
The illustrations recur: Of women and people of colour literally having to jump over more and higher hurdles than white people or men to reach victory in their fields, particularly politics.
A businessman worth around £200 million is seeking planning permission to fly a flag reading “woke-free zone” outside his company’s headquarters.
Alex Lovén, 36, came under fire for erecting the anti-woke flag outside the Net World Sports base on the Wrexham Industrial Estate.
Canada’s Dalhousie University Medical School has taken down portraits of its former “old” and “white” deans because they are “no longer representative of the school’s student body.”
According to Do No Harm, Dean of Medicine David Anderson announced the move in a mid-July message regarding the school’s “Valuing People” initiative.
h/t KT
The opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics were deeply offensive to Christians around the world. Numerous people from across the denominational spectrum have described this event as blasphemous and even demonic.
However, I would like to say something to the non-Christians who may be uneasy about the opening ceremonies but cannot quite explain why. Perhaps the opening ceremony bothers you, but you’re not quite ready to align yourself with its Christian critics.
For several years, activists and self-styled “advocates” have been attempting to change the way we speak about social problems like homelessness, drug addiction, crime and unsocial behaviour.
The intention is clear: to remove stigma and any overt suggestion of personal responsibility. The new names are meant to reorient our thinking so that we understand that the real causes of misfortune to be societal or systemic. If a word has shameful connotations, that seems to be enough to warrant change. The goal here is to refrain from describing anyone who could plausibly be identified as a victim as having any personal responsibility for their own fate.
Is anyone else bored of ‘queering’? Everything’s getting ‘queered’ these days. We’ve had ‘Queering the Curriculum’. ‘Queering the Arts’. And my personal favourite: ‘Queering Palestine.’ This entails academics ‘unpack[ing] the multiple intersections of queer politics and the Palestinian struggle’. Hot tip for these profs: if Hamas ever invites you to discuss your theories, don’t agree to meet them on the high floor of a building. ‘Queering the Pavement’ is the only thing they’re interested in.
I haven’t watched the Olympics in years because it’s such a scam.
It wasn’t barbarians at the gates that caused the downfall of one of the world’s greatest empires but the uncivilized savages within that led to the slow decline of Rome.
The glory that was Rome eroded with the weakening of its culture, its institutions and its way of life. How could the empire exist when the people could no longer define what it meant to be Roman?
Bullies aren’t only in school playgrounds.
Manitoba school trustee Paul Coffey has been under fierce attack since his presentation Racism Anti Racism Nice Until It Isn’t during an April 24 Dauphin-based Mountain View School Division (MVSD) board meeting.
The British Empire should be taught to school pupils like Nazi Germany, curriculum guidelines state.
Guidance created by school support organisation The Key and offered to teachers across the country provides tips on how to make the history curriculum “anti-racist”.
Teachers are advised to present the British Empire to secondary pupils like Nazi Germany, as a power that “committed atrocities”.
Pupils should also not be taught about the balance of “good and bad” aspects of Empire, the guidance states.
Pickering city officials steeled themselves. They watched as a line of people filed into council chambers to support Lisa Robinson.
Since her election in October 2022, the rookie councillor has opposed Pride events and denounced Black History Month. But when councillors try to speak out against her, and rein in what they feel is a growing distraction, Robinson’s defenders get louder.
The mayor received an email from a resident, who suggested he could face a public hanging. Two councillors say they were followed home after meetings by people they believe are Robinson supporters.
Almost £1.5 million in taxpayer funding has been awarded to a research project that aims to “decolonise” folk singing.
Taking place at the University of Sheffield, researchers “will take an unflinching look at the white-centricity of folk music repertory, performers and audience by conducting fieldwork to shed light on long-standing vernacular singing practices of ethnic minority cultures in England”.
They then hope to “increase accessibility to the folk club scene and take the first step in a process of decolonisation within the folk music canon”.
We’ve become all too accustomed to hearing about Britain’s ‘decolonisation’-obsessed museums removing certain exhibits from display. Usually, it’s a portrait of a slave trader or a painting that depicts black or brown people in a dehumanising manner. But now something more absurd is taking place in the name of decolonisation. Museums are removing exhibits because they claim that certain cultural groups either don’t want certain objects to be seen, or they have superstitious beliefs about the objects in question.
A leading Scottish school is facing a backlash after its head girl was replaced with a boy in what it claimed was an inclusivity drive.
Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire has scrapped its positions of head boy and head girl and replaced them with two gender neutral “captains” who are elected by other pupils.
Under the system, two of the three male candidates secured the posts, at what is one of Scotland’s best performing schools, while none of the four girls who put themselves forward were chosen.
