The Off Topic Topic

[Razgovory]

The specific failings of Mr. Wolfe I am not familiar with.

It's interesting the different coverage that's going around on this. Raz obviously read something entirely different than what popped up on my news feed.

First off - in the coverage I came across - the initial complaints were about people using outright racist terms and, in one incident, using feces to draw a swastika in a dorm bathroom.

Secondly, the protests were about the president's lack of leadership in responding to those events.

Finally - the reporting I came across claimed that there was only action on this after the football team got involved. The hunger strike and protests had not moved the administration at all, but the football team's declaration that they wouldn't play got a response in two days.

Ah well, I suppose it's another example of the difference in reporting from the different sides in the culture wars.

Well, I live like 30 minutes from the campus, so I may have slightly different perspective.  The people using the racist terms were never identified and the incident happened on a public street.  There was also an incident where someone threw a bottle at someone from a bar, though I think that might have been a gay thing rather then a racism thing.  Throwing things at people is certainly illegal, though I don't think drive by insulting is.  In either case this is not something the school can do much about.  The shit artist, is more something the school can do something about, but they still need someone to identify to punish (The Picasso of Poop has been dong this for a while now, and it's thought to be aimed at Jews rather then blacks).

The Football strike probably had more to do with the resignation but then the food strike, but the food strike was mentioned several times as a reason.  I'm generally left on these cultural issues, but there is something unseemly about demanding an administrator humiliate himself on public television, admit that he is a force of oppression and white privilege and then resign in favor of someone chosen by a diverse group a staff, students and faculty (that is to say black).  I simply reject the notion that the a person can't hold this office unless they are black.

Some of the organizers were members of the Fergusson crowd, and I can't help but get the feeling they want a victory here to make up for their defeat in North County.  Originally this was protest about undergrads losing health insurance and planned parenthood losing funding on campus.  These issues are more tangible then the school being founded prior to the civil war.

[Josquius]

I've been watching a lot of Vice stuff on youtube lately. Some really interesting stuff. This one was cool, about bride kidnapping in central Asia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKAusMNTNnk

[Syt]

Hm, apparently someone tried to log into my Facebook account from Taiwan.

[Josquius]

Has anyone ever been genetically tested?
This 23 and me thing does seem cool.... but so expensive- especially considering their main profit is in the database they're building.

[jimmy olsen]

Has anyone ever been genetically tested?
This 23 and me thing does seem cool.... but so expensive- especially considering their main profit is in the database they're building.

Just wait a year and it will be a lot cheaper.

[garbon]

[The Brain]

using feces to draw a swastika in a dorm bathroom.

Disrespectful swine!

[Valmy]

Some of the organizers were members of the Fergusson crowd, and I can't help but get the feeling they want a victory here to make up for their defeat in North County.  Originally this was protest about undergrads losing health insurance and planned parenthood losing funding on campus.  These issues are more tangible then the school being founded prior to the civil war.

Yeah there are a whole bunch of different issues coming together.

Damn I hope UT students do not try this kind of thing. We have enough enemies in this right wing state as it is.

[Josquius]

Has anyone ever been genetically tested?
This 23 and me thing does seem cool.... but so expensive- especially considering their main profit is in the database they're building.

Just wait a year and it will be a lot cheaper.

Same is true for a lot of things though. :p
Hope there is a significant drop in this case. I'm not sure.

[Ed Anger]

Call the cops if you hear bad words. Sheesh.

[Jacob]

Well, I live like 30 minutes from the campus, so I may have slightly different perspective. 

Ah I see. Thanks for sharing your perspective from up close.

[Valmy]

Three thoughts on the cop thing:

1st if speech is considered violence and aggression then of course you need the cops to regulate it since preventing those sorts of things is their job. What a wonderful slippery slope that will be.

2nd This is a pretty moderate response on the surface. There will be no criminal activity but if you want to be a student there don't go around shouting racial slurs at other students.

3rd This seems abusable as hell given how touchy some people are.

[Ed Anger]

Three thoughts on the cop thing:

1st if speech is considered violence and aggression then of course you need the cops to regulate it since preventing those sorts of things is their job. What a wonderful slippery slope that will be.

2nd This is a pretty moderate response on the surface. There will be no criminal activity but if you want to be a student there don't go around shouting racial slurs at other students.

3rd This seems abusable as hell given how touchy some people are.

#3 is how it's gonna be used. With all the triggering and the safe spaces these babies need now to survive.

Hell, the Yale babies can't stand halloween costumes. CALL THE FBI

[Valmy]

Hell, the Yale babies can't stand halloween costumes. CALL THE FBI

Yeah that was horrifying. College Activists are coming out in favor of university policed censorship is bizarre.

[garbon]

On the other hand, I did like this that was written by someone at Yale.

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/11/03/wilson-unintended-consequences/

In my freshman year, a group at Yale decided to hold a party. The theme was "gangstas." They dressed up in clothes they thought would be found in the inner cities: baggy shorts, backwards baseball caps and white T-shirts. Some even did their hair in their best imitations of black hairstyles. I only came to know about this because one of the partygoers had borrowed a pair of my basketball shorts for the event. In trying to dress up as "gangstas," they were actually dressing up as so many black kids I had seen all my life on the playground, growing up in school and here at Yale. They had dressed up as my family and my friends. They had dressed up as me. They had equated gang members with normal black youth. Regardless of whether or not they intended to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of black people as criminals, after the party they were able to take the stereotypes off. Some of us will have to wear them for the rest of our lives.