Good News Q&A

~ Clarissa

And to close out the day on a spot of good news from a reader:

This is brilliant, and I support this strategy completely. We need to play these bastards like a violin because they are neoliberal and annoying.

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Published by Clarissa

26 thoughts on “Good News Q&A”

    1. I always wonder, don’t gay people get tired of always being presented through their sexuality in every context? I would murder anybody who referenced my sex life in a professional context. In the same way, I don’t want anybody to reference that I’m an immigrant, or my race, or anything that is my actual professional achievement.

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        1. Neoliberalism puts everything on sale. Its organizing principle is “markets in everything.” Judge for yourself if making your sex life part of your job resume qualifies.

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            1. Ok, let’s pretend we don’t know that the best way to get promoted if you are white is to announce that you are “queer.” Let’s also pretend that business schools don’t offer endless workshops for gays in leadership like the ones I recently described. Let’s pretend that straight men of very minimal achievements haven’t made fortunes by suddenly coming out as women.

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              1. LOL, you do realize that is gender, class and employment, and possibly be education, related. Men measure, and have a strong natural instinct to protect. Think about the feminist Bud Lite and Gillette fiascoes, the hundred of millions of dollars lost. Most functional men have ignored years of feminization, of suicidal empathy, of “woke” ideology, of policies that protect/advantage “marginalized” groups at the expense of the societal safety ;-D

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              2. I was at a meeting today trying to discuss my plan to move our Italian courses from online into face-to-face format. One of the attendees interrupted and went on a long rant about how some of our students are savages because they have never seen a black person. Not only do I have no idea how this is relevant to my Italian courses, I also find the story very unbelievable because… what?

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              3. “they have never seen a black person.”

                Is this person… projecting?

                I thought you said your college was largely working class kids.

                ethyl

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              4. I have no idea what this is even supposed to mean. Have they never been to Walmart? To the movies? To the mall? We are 20 minutes away from St Louis. We aren’t lacking in sightings of black people. This is truly the last problem on our long list of problems.

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              5. “…some of our students are savages because they have never seen a black person.”

                LOL, damn, then I was a savage until grade 11 ;-D

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            2. “I was a savage until grade 11”

              oi, keyboard got me, posted before typing complete.

              What percentage of boys do you reckon are *not* savages until at least grade 11?

              ethyl

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              1. Fair enough, most of us were only partially civilized at that age, but we got a student from Jamaica in grade 11 — until then we somehow had to get by with no blacks ;-D

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              3. I think people are missing the point. Why is this an interesting topic at all? Why speak of it at an utterly unrelated meeting? What is the point?

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              4. It’s like your previous comment (not gonna go get it) where you noted a colleague giving something a glowing review, and then admitting in private that of course it was crap, but that the glowing praise was expected.

                It is interesting for the illustration of the culture of blatant lying in academia. This is not talked about enough.

                ethyl

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              5. This is a source of great frustration to me because I can’t comprehend or anticipate this form of social signaling. I get stuck on wondering, but why do they say it if it’s so obviously untrue? On some level, I understand that it’s social signaling but since I don’t do social signaling myself, I get very confused. I open my mouth to communicate information. My brain doesn’t fully grasp how often people make noises for completely different purposes.

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              6. ethylmethyl

                “…the culture of blatant lying in academia.”

                Well, if I understand what Clarissa is saying, maintaining in-group solidarity has become more important than the truth. 

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  5. “Why speak of it at an utterly unrelated meeting?”

    It sounds to me like a new academic virus…. it’s not about seeing Black people, but _seeing_ them (that is understanding historical trauma, interacting systems of oppression etc).

    Be on the watch (as it were) for others to start prattling about seeing minorities…

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    1. I’m annoyed because I had a limited amount of time to solve an important problem. I’m stepping down as Chair, and I really wanted to get this done before that. The colleague who derailed the meeting with the rant about black people was the only other person at the meeting who completely supported my initiative. We had talked about it for months. And just when I’m starting to press the point, using the evidence I gathered, she butts in with this utterly unrelated and unnecessary crap.

      I don’t even care anymore. Let them continue as before. I’m moving on.

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      1. She doesn’t actually support your initiative. She just rocketed off on a completely unrelated performative tangent so she wouldn’t have to support you in front of other people.

        ethyl

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