Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Purge bad teh juju.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Because we can’t have nice things, at least when they are produced by “pale penis persons”, a museum director was induced to quit his job because he wouldn’t preclude the possibility of the museum acquiring work by said “pale penis persons”.
“Until last week, Gary Garrels was senior curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). He resigned his position after museum employees circulated a petition that accused him of racism and demanded his immediate ouster.
“‘Gary’s removal from SFMOMA is non-negotiable,’ read the petition. ‘Considering his lengthy tenure at this institution, we ask just how long have his toxic white supremacist beliefs regarding race and equity directed his position curating the content of the museum?;
“This accusation—that Garrels’ choices as an art curator are guided by white supremacist beliefs—is a very serious one. Unsurprisingly, it does not stand up to even minimal scrutiny.
“The petitioners cite few examples of anything even approaching bad behavior from Garrels. Their sole complaint is that he allegedly concluded a presentation on how to diversify the museum’s holdings by saying, ‘don’t worry, we will definitely still continue to collect white artists.’
“Garrels has apparently articulated this sentiment on more than one occasion. According to artnet.com, he said that it would be impossible to completely shun white artists, because this would constitute ‘reverse discrimination.’ That’s the sum total of his alleged crimes. He made a perfectly benign, wholly inoffensive, obviously true statement that at least some of the museum’s featured artists would continue to be white. The petition lists no other specific grievances.”
At least that museum director wasn’t threatened with physical violence and death, unlike this student.
“Adrianna San Marco [said] … the administration has ignored her plea to respond to physical threats made against her, by identifiable Syracuse students and alumni, in the wake of her recent column in LifeZette.
“This is in stark contrast to the university’s prolonged and far-reaching response to purportedly racist graffiti found in a residence hall last fall.
“In January Syracuse pledged to suspend students accused of ‘Bigoted vandalism’ and remove them from campus while their conduct cases go forward.
“The university’s radio silence for three weeks represents ‘a refusal to work with me – to work with any conservative student,’ San Marco said in a phone interview last week.
“‘I’m not the only [student] who sent emails’ notifying the administration of death threats and other promised violence for expressing conservative views: ‘They haven’t responded to those students either.’”
Well, that’s what she gets for using proper English grammar, right?
“The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules.
“…
“One of the initiatives is described as ‘incorporating “critical grammar” into our pedagogy.’
“It is listed as one of the efforts for Rutgers’ Graduate Writing Program, which ‘serves graduate students across the Rutgers community. The GWP’s mission is to support graduate students of all disciplines in their current and future writing goals, from coursework papers to scholarly articles and dissertations,’ according to its website.
“Under a so-called critical grammar pedagogy, ‘This approach challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard “academic” English backgrounds at a disadvantage,’ the email states.
“‘Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them w/ regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on “written” accents.’”
TTFN.
