The Mind (?) Of “A Pioneering Diversity Officer”
[NOTE: This has been cross-posted on the National Association of Scholars site.] As the Chronicle of Higher Education reported recently, William B. Harvey was the first person ever appointed to the position of vice president for diversity and equity at the University of Virginia, a job he held from 2005 to 2009. A recognized expert […]
Berkeley Bake Sale!
Yesterday the College Republicans at Berkeley (yes, Virginia, there are some Republicans at Berkeley) sponsored an affirmative action bake sale (different prices based on the race or ethnicity of the buyer). The purpose of the young Republicans was to call attention to the inequities inherent in treating people differently based on race and to protest […]
The Return Of Fenster Moop
Here is how I began a March 2004 post advising readers to Troop Over To Fenster Moop: I’ve just added Fenster Moop to my rather scrawny blogroll. That means (well, duh!) that I find Mr. Moop an observer both perceptive and entertaining, and I encourage you to check him out. Practicing what I preached, I […]
Obama Gives A Fiery Campaign Speech Against … Bull Connor
Speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus Saturday night “[l]ike a minister preaching to a restive choir,” Minister Obama instructed his parishoners that You can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop…. Through the mud and the muck and the driving rain, we don’t stop. Because we know the rightness of […]
Post- Post-Partisan Obama And The Confederate Races Of America
Two years ago Politico longingly recalled the Democratic convention of 2004 and the Democratic Party’s swoon for Barack Obama, who thrilled millions of people hearing the young state senator for the first time with words that set his image as a dazzling unifier in an age of mean and divisive politics: “Yet even as we […]
Left Wing Humor: The Nation On Double Standards
When I refer to “left wing humor” I know you must think I’m joking, but I’m not. The left can be funny … just not intentionally. For an exceptionally, unintentionally humorous example, see Melissa Harris-Perry’s recent article in The Nation on Obama as a victim of liberal double standards. Harris-Perry, a political scientist at Tulane, […]
Base Politics
Two striking articles that appeared yesterday frame what may be our choice in the next presidential election. Both are concerned with base politics, in both senses of that word: initially referring to a politician’s choosing to excite and energize his most enthusiaistic supporters rather than reach out to “moderates,” but also implying that such politics […]
UPDATE!
My Sept. 16 post, A Racially Restrictive Pipeline?, has been updated.
David Brooks Is A Sap
Normally I wouldn’t call someone a sap, even someone wrong and, well, sappy as often as David Brooks. But calling him a sap is not an insulting slur; it is a hearty endorsement of his column today, which begins: “I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap.” The remainder of the […]
Student Palestinian Group Regards Opposition As Bias
Still at the University of Virginia (I say “still” because of my immediately preceding post)…. Beta Bridge on the UVa grounds serves as a traditional and accepted canvas for political sloganeering. Students paint (and re-paint and re-paint) messages of support or opposition to whatever or whomever strikes their fancy. Last week Students for Peace and Justice […]
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