YOU KNOW, STUFF LIKE THIS MAKES ME WONDER WHY WE EVER BOTHERED TO END SEGREGATION. IT’S JUST SO STRESSFUL BEING IN AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENT WHERE PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT FROM YOU. NYU librarian laments ‘fatigue’ from ‘presence of white people.The link goes to a Campus Reform report on this blog post by a black librarian named April Hathcock. From the actual blog post:
If you could send these stories back to 1964, would we even have a Civil Rights Act? Or would most of America have knocked itself unconscious from the massive face-palming.
I’m an introvert, an over-achiever, and an over-joiner, so I’m always faced with having to be conscious about taking breaks, saying no, and engaging in other forms of self-care. But when you combine that with 5 days of being talked at, over, and through by folks in a profession that’s 88% white…well, let’s just say I hit my limit.See? She's raising the problem I call "civility bullshit."
Its been 5 straight days of being tone-policed and condescended to and 'splained to. Five days of listening to white men librarians complain about being a “minority” in this 88% white profession–where they consistently hold higher positions with higher pay–because they don’t understand the basics of systemic oppression... Five days of having “nice white ladies” tell you to be “civil” and “professional” when you talk about the importance of acknowledging oppression and our profession’s role in it.
Even with well-meaning white people, friends even, it’s been exhausting; the fatigue is still there. Five days of having white colleagues corner you to “hear more” about the microaggressions you’ve suffered and witnessed, not because they want to check in on your fatigue, but because they take a weird pleasure in hearing the horror stories and feeling superior to their “less woke” racial compatriots.Hathcock is describing her personal experience as a black woman and — it's important to see — an introvert. It's difficult for introverts to do conferences and tp need to talk so much with people, even at a 2 or 3 day conference. But this was a 5-day conference! The hell! I'm not even sure I'm that much of an introvert, but after 3 days, I'd be running off and hiding in my room as much as possible, just because it's a 5-day conference. I can't imagine how bad that would feel, if, on top of the sheer difficulty of relating to other people for 5 days straight, I was continually having interactions that focused on something about me that puts me in a small minority, and I would be at my wit's end if those interactions entailed efforts to restrict how I talk, especially if I believed that my style of speech came from my emotional connection to my minority status and other people were advising me to rein it in.
April Hathcock's statements make complete sense to me. And I don't see how it undermines the arguments for banning race discrimination that there are going to be some negative experiences in a mixed-race environment. It seems really wrong to say: We gave you the integration you said you wanted, so don't complain about how you're treated now that we stopped excluding you.
In this light, you might want to read: "A Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell: Revisiting Brown v. Board." Excerpt:
I’m really examining the social science at the core of [Brown] and saying that the social science argument that the court made was wrong—or at least was painfully and tragically incomplete....Here's Gladwell's podcast on the subject.
The court, for its own peculiar reasons, wanted to claim that black people, as a result of segregation, had suffered a kind of grievous and catastrophic psychological injury. And I’m sorry, that’s just not true....
[T]o draw the sweeping conclusion that the court did—that unless black kids can sit next to white kids in a classroom they can’t get an education—is nonsense!...
AND: Maybe it's time, once again, to read "Caring for Your Introvert."
Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate?....
Posts
159 comments:
Thank you, Obama. You did good.
April Hathcock, a Scholarly Communications Librarian at NYU, recently attended the annual American Library Association [ALA] conference in Chicago, a trade conference for people in the library profession.
Oh, here is the problem. These people went there to discuss their profession, not attend a racial consciousness-raising session. She clearly wanted to discuss how un-woke these people were and get them on the right program.
I can see how that would be exhausting to her, having to try to change the entire focus of the profession's annual conference like that. Even the most extraverted person would find their failure to do so exhausting.
So Malcom Gladwell thinks SCOTUS got the social science cited in Brown wrong. Any other wrongly decided case? How about declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant?
Black Librarians Matter!
I'm an older introvert. I've learned not to share as much as April. The internal world of an introvert is best shared alone, or with a very limited select group of trusted individuals who can be trusted to keep their mouths shut.
In this facebook culture, this is a lesson many have yet to learn. Never forget that hell is other people.
Fatigue is the worst ailment your situation gives you? Thats not even stay home fromschool stuff
The black lives matter movement is about to exhaust the white goodwill that drove the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King asked for the right to be free and treated as an equal.
It has been years since that was what those who consider him a saint have demanded.
What we have now are the children and grandchildren of Malcolm X..
Jeez, I am fatigued with all this victim fatigue.
"Oh, here is the problem. These people went there to discuss their profession, not attend a racial consciousness-raising session. She clearly wanted to discuss how un-woke these people were and get them on the right program."
Wow. I think you need to read her words again and read them carefully!
I like the explanation that the experts these days are women, and this affects society's brain. It goes feelz.
It's the behind-the-scenes newsbabe effect.
Then there's feedback onto other women, and weird blog ladies come out openly, not realizing that it's just a woman thing that they go through.
See? She's raising the problem I call "civility bullshit."
Yes, but should could be raising it for self-serving reasons. If she was being uncivil and unprofessional, and being properly called on it, then she is engaging in civility bullshit bullshit.
I read her words but they didn't make enough impression for a wow.
It's more of a what is she whining about scan. I pick up microagression.
If I get bored at a conference I leave, myself.
SCOTUS went off on a tangent in Brown, as they had done in a different way in Dredd Scott and Plessy. The social "science" in Brown was window dressing to support a decision that should have been based on based on natural law and simple morality as well as empirical observation--namely that American blacks were treated as second-class citizens. It was past the time to end legal enforcement of racial segregation.
We are still struggling to deal with the consequences of the flawed rationale used by SCOTUS in Brown, which led directly to the dubious practice of racial discrimination through affirmative action, the purpose of which is to benefit white students by assuring the presence of black students in selective institutions. (Don't mention the Asians!)
You're saying she's tired of affirmative action? Or wants more of it but in another form?
Purity is so hard to achieve in dealing with blacks, if you're a SJW.
"If she was being uncivil and unprofessional, and being properly called on it..."
There's absolutely no way to know what she sounded like. I'm just going on her words, and I am giving her the sympathetic reading that I give to anything I take the trouble to read. I also look for the flaws, but I can't find it here.
I, personally, found myself speaking in a different tone in some professional settings, and I believed I had something of value to contribute, but there was social pressure to sound like other people, to exclude the emotion. I enjoyed learning the word "tone-policing" from Hathcock. I think that does go on and it's a power move.
It might help some of you to understand what I'm talking about it I observed that the political establishment has been trying to tone-police Donald Trump. The #1 thing I like about him is his form of expression.
My guess is that she's not as smart as the other people and it's stressful to keep up. But that's just playing the odds.
It's really easy to send the message that you don't want to talk about SJW crap, if she puts her mind to it.
Fat black racist with a sinecure complains about white people.
Details at 11.
She said: "Five days of having white colleagues corner you to “hear more” about the microaggressions you’ve suffered and witnessed, not because they want to check in on your fatigue, but because they take a weird pleasure in hearing the horror stories and feeling superior to their “less woke” racial compatriots."
It sounds like other people, people who like to consider themselves "woke," are using her to extract stories against other people they consider less "woke." She got tired of all that. They were pushing her to talk about microgressions, tiring her out
It took me a minute before realizing Instapundit always does his instapunding in caps. The caps are nothing peculiar to this invidious topic.
Whining about tone policing isn't going to work at all.
"You're saying she's tired of affirmative action? Or wants more of it but in another form?"
The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people. State that theory to a white proponent of affirmative action and watch how guilty they look as they launch into denial.
"It took me a minute before realizing Instapundit always does his instapunding in caps. The caps are nothing peculiar to this invidious topic."
I know. He's been yelling at us for 15 years!
I sometimes retype things to avoid the all-caps, but this one was so long, I didn't want to do it.
Hey... we're tone-policing Instapundit.
She acknowledges her introversion right at the beginning to make clear this is not about being an introvert - it's about race. Introversion is deliberately flagged as a red herring in her distress so I'm not sure why you're harping on it. Like her 'splaining colleagues, it's like you're not listening to her.
My own take is that she might finally have the slightest inclination of what it's like to be a conservative in academia but not really - at least her stress was over in five days.
CAGE: You don't talk much.
RITA: I'm not a fan.
CAGE: Of talking?
RITA: Not a fan of talking. No.
CAGE: You know you eventually do talk to me. It's usually around Lyons. You tell me about the time you went there with your family. Your brother got lost.
RITA: I've never been to Lyons.
CAGE: You tell me your middle name. Peyton.
RITA: That's not my middle name.
CAGE: You find your brother in the arcade, by the way.
RITA: Well, maybe I made it all up just to keep you quiet.
CAGE: But you do talk to me.
- Edge of Tomorrow: Live, Die, Repeat
If black people designed affirmative action it would be the same.
It benefits the people in charge, who are a mixed lot.
Tone policing keeps it going.
rhhardin said...
My guess is that she's not as smart as the other people and it's stressful to keep up.
That's what affirmative action is all about; she confuses D-Day with Dunkirk:
"Were there no POC soldiers who landed at D-Day cuz that #Dunkirk movie is looking white af."
The comments are funny.
(HT Sailer.)
That's the most serious critique of affirmative action? Not that affirmative action is racist policy?
Affirmative action can have a philosophical basis: if society is systemically bad to blacks, then maybe we can fix society by helping blacks get ahead.
Affirmative action has become a standard, though: if my business or college could suffer, I'd better get more blacks and women in this place. That hurts whites and men.
I don't understand how people who profess MLK principles don't get the basic inequality involved in affirmative action. It seems like a willing disbelief.
If you don't like conferences, always work with somebody who likes them. They can go instead.
Questions black librarians hate to get asked...
"Can you recommend a good Toni Morrison book?"
"I bet you know this! Who was the author of "Precious?"
"I'd like to read something by Web Du Bois."
"Are they any good young black authors right now?"
"I just finished reading several books about Hispanic Culture, and now I want to know more about the Black Experience. Are there any good books like that?"
"I was looking for this novel about a black girl in the Inner City -- do you know the author's name?"
I know, I know: Jane Austen was White. Is reading her now the wrong thing to do?"
"I bet you get asked a lot of questions about black writers, right?"
I am Laslo.
Of course, I think Althouse should front-page that.
I am Laslo.
Imagine a 5 day conference where everyone is an introvert.
For me, it would be like a family reunion. Not so bad actually.
"Five days of having white colleagues corner you to “hear more” about the microaggressions you’ve suffered and witnessed
How did they know she had suffered or witnessed about microaggressions ?
Are they psychic or did she tell them all?
Librarians are probably the most leftist people on earth, with the possible exception of social workers.
The ALA is as leftist as the Modern Language Association.
With nonotechnology, we can detect microagressions.
But with superaggressors it might be possible to find the fundamental things making up a microagression, quirks with various spins and colors.
The 88% white jumped out at me.
Obviously biased.
In a society where race didn't matter the profession would only be 86.3% white
John Henry
Bob Ellison said...
I don't understand how people who profess MLK principles don't get the basic inequality involved in affirmative action.
King favored affirmative action, so there's no inconsistency there. That one semi-plagiarized speech that people like to quote was an aberration, not his actual stance.
Without more details about these conversations and the context in which they ocurred, it is hard to say if she has any valid complaint. I checked her bolg post, but it doesn't give any more information than what Ann quoted. It did, however, contain a picture of her conference badge that listed her preferred pronouns as "she/her/hers." So at least she probably did't suffer the brutal microagression of someone using the wrong pronoun when referring to her in the third person.
AA: And I don't see how it undermines the arguments for banning race discrimination that there are going to be some negative experiences in a mixed-race environment.
It depends on what you mean by "banning race discrimination" and what you mean by "negative experiences in a mixed-race environment".
It seems really wrong to say: We gave you the integration you said you wanted, so don't complain about how you're treated now that we stopped excluding you.
Life is short, Professor. Most people have other interests in life than raceraceraceracerace, and don't enjoy being bullied and lectured at by bores and thickies. I, for example, will put a great deal of effort into segregating myself from the sort of people who insist that no one be allowed to disagree with their premises re "systemic oppression".
In this instance I do have some sympathy with the author, because it's my understanding that the class of librarians comprises the shitlibbiest of shitlibs, people with a fair claim to being the world's Most Annoying White People. I find it plausible that they are the annoying assholes that Hathcock makes them out to be. On the other hand, Hatchcock appears to be a garden-variety "woke" shitlib herself, whose bread-and-butter is tedious grievance-mongering. If she's better than the professional company she's obliged to keep, she'd probably find the company of "racist" whites more amiable.
Librarians have come a long way from SHHH! Maybe the quiet introverted librarians should retake their community from the obnoxious talkative busybodies. Oh, right, they're introverts.
BTW, anyone interested could have picked up Gladwell's refreshingly anti-CW ideas about Brown years ago, from Steve Sailer.
Amadeus 48,
Exactly. Robert Bork (Robert Bork!) argued that the social science in Brown was all bunk, and that SCOTUS immediately demonstrated this by proceeding to desegregate all manner of things that had nothing whatever to do with whether black kids played more with white dolls, &c., citing only Brown as precedent. Obviously the ruling principle was just that segregation, as such, was wrong. Though Bork put it somewhat differently: He argued that the better part of a century showed that "separate but equal" never was, that separate invariably meant unequal, and therefore it ought to be ended, full stop, rather than perpetually pursued through a welter of individual suits over this or that "colored" water fountain, &c.
Hathcock, not Hatchcock.
I’m really examining the social science at the core of [Brown] and saying that the social science argument that the court made was wrong—or at least was painfully and tragically incomplete.... [T]o draw the sweeping conclusion that the court did—that unless black kids can sit next to white kids in a classroom they can’t get an education—is nonsense!
Welcome to the club. Some of us in Con Law 101 were pointing that out decades ago. It was always quite insulting and condescending for the Court to rule that blacks could not learn unless surrounded by white kids.
But that was the argument put forth by Thurgood Marshall -- rather than arguing the obvious of a color-blind Constitution, that the law cannot protect one equally if it first asks what color you are, as he should have -- he and the Court preferred to further belittle blacks, making the Court and society even more color (and class) conscious.
No wonder we are where we are.
Shut up and shelve books. And for the love of God do it right. Try try try to learn what is fiction from what is not. Get woke to that.
I agree with Kevin.
Here is another article where April Hathcock details what a hard difficult job it is to "fight whiteness" and her goal - "we can wash away our white librarianship in blackface." Sound like her only objection to racism is which group she perceives is on top.
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/lis-diversity/
What is the purpose of an annual conference for librarians?
Michael: Shut up and shelve books. And for the love of God do it right. Try try try to learn what is fiction from what is not. Get woke to that.
Ha. In recent years I've noticed a significant increase in shelving errors in public libraries. (The catalog says it's there, but it ain't.) I've been devising my own system for predicting where an item is likely to be, based on common shelving errors. Usually more efficient than requesting a search from the people who mis-shelved the item in the first place.
Insty's 8:33 post looks more interesting to me, but then I'm not into strong black women.
It seems really wrong to say: We gave you the integration you said you wanted, so don't complain about how you're treated now that we stopped excluding you.
You know, Ann, half of history is men trying to get women to stop complaining.
it's always get a kind of mental record skip when I want to use the word invidious as it is commonly used in Spanish and not as it is more commonly used in English ((of an action or situation) likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others) w/o necessarily resting on the envy part.
It is as if in English the envy is silent.
Is envy, the grass is always greener, an oversimplification of the race question?
I never hear the question posed that way.
(Granted maybe my hearing is not very good.)
Or is the question itself racist?
A better question yet... are there any questions (?) racist per say?
Who knows?
You see? that's the problem with racism, there is never a racist around when you need one ;)
The consequence of writing a blog - just writing - creates this type of material. You have an idea or feeling that rambles in your head. Once you say "hey I'm going to write about this", you are inclined to explain, or justify a thought. For many people that stretches their skill set and the results can be something like this. smh lol
to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others is not a good thing to do, but if it happens you aren't in big trouble. But if it is said you are envious...
I guess it has something to do with secularization. Envy is too Cristiano.
"April Hathcock" sounds like a perfect name for a tranny.
It seems really wrong to say: We gave you the integration you said you wanted, so don't complain about how you're treated now that we stopped excluding you.
Is that really the response? My biggest beef is that now we have given you the integration you demanded, you have decided you want to re-segregate from a position of privilege.
Women only gyms and showings of Wonder Woman.
Black student unions, and dorms.
If segregated institutions are just fine for women and Black people, why is it evil for White men?
I was raised to ignore race and have truly lived my life that way, but I am beginning to feel a bit like a fool.
And what kind of job can send someone off to a 5 day conference?
Sounds like a job that is more make work than real
So Malcom Gladwell thinks SCOTUS got the social science cited in Brown wrong. Any other wrongly decided case? How about declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant?
How about a human fetus is not a person?
The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people.
Really?
So you're fine with the whole "discriminating against people based on the color of their skin or gender" thing? I think the most serious critique is you don't end racism by promoting racism.
I am sure that the five days included a day on condemning climate change deniers, two days on general Social Justice matters, two days on gender fluidity with two or three elective sessions on books.
Stressing the importance of equality among the races, in all spheres of the common good, above and beyond everything else, could be offsetting our psychic suppression mechanism which is tasked with allowing for the overwhelming inequality of all things.
Rebel without a Cause
"...The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people..."
That is a good critique but I think the first and strongest critique is the "counting by color" argument, where rights are protected or ignored based on first asking what color you are. Quotas are there; they just aren't talked about. This hypocrisy and deceit is not only disgusting and wrong; they are exhausting. This librarian is tired of having to track the exact percentage of whites and blacks (and browns, reds, yellows, and so on) and having to track the exact allocation of guilt and painful solicitude being awarded to each of her colleagues? There is a simple solution. But there is no money in that solution.
I could similarly rant about how uncomfortable such a venue would be for me. It wouldn't be about race, but could be about a number of other irritating things. This is the problem with race relations, some people see everything unfortunate or uncomfortable as cause by racism. Similarly, some see everything as caused by sexism, and I admit, I fall into that one often myself. When I have a disagreement with a woman, I tend to knee jerk assume it's because she's female and I'm not. Sometimes that is at the core of it, but often it's not. Confirmation bias is insidious and powerful. It takes real effort to overcome it.
It was always quite insulting and condescending for the Court to rule that blacks could not learn unless surrounded by white kids.
It is just as insulting and condescending for the Court to rule that Whites cannot learn unless surrounded by non-White kids...which is the Court's current rationale for Affirmative Action at schools.
The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people.
Really?
So you're fine with the whole "discriminating against people based on the color of their skin or gender" thing? I think the most serious critique is you don't end racism by promoting racism.
However, having said that it is true that the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action have been White women.
0bama and BLM used up the remaining white Goodwill. That's how we get Trump.
Librarians at a conference sounds like an insufferable event for all. I am sure the attendees are in their best "know it all" mode.
To be fair, the real power behind school integration did not come until after James Colemans massive studies (Coleman report of 1966) of "peer effects". That kicked off the main battles in the decades-long integration wars.
It really is true that educational outcomes can be improved somewhat if kids are embedded in a high-performing peer group.
However, caveats, this requires a peer group of sufficient size, a critical mass, a large majority of high performing kids - precise parameters re positive peer effects vary a lot IIRC. This is very rarely achievable though, and accepting some lower proportion where there is no such dominant peer group can be worse than useless. And, further, the positive effects apply only to a subset of the "minority", and in any case only somewhat narrow "the gap".
Subsequent studies mostly confirm Colemans findings, with the above substantial caveats, which Coleman tried to use to correct what he and many others saw as crude overreach in school integration processes, which very shortly after his report were taken over by politicians and the legal system, entirely sidelining empirical analysis. The language of the issue became that of civil rights, not of process improvement.
She's got a blog? She's not an introvert.
I didn't read the article, but my guess is that she has led a comfortable life and enjoys a comfortable position in life. This is true in the context of America but her comfort level is especially dramatic when compared to that of other women in the world. I don't think it would ever occur to her that she's got a good deal. Such an admission would be betraying the trust of all her forebears who died in chains. I suppose she has some grievances that I have never endured, but she has also enjoyed some privileges and comforts that have not been my lot in life. Her resentments strike me as self indulgent.
"I can't imagine how bad that would feel, if, on top of the sheer difficulty of relating to other people for 5 days straight, I was continually having interactions that focused on something about me that puts me in a small minority and I would be at my wit's end if those interactions entailed efforts to restrict how I talk, especially if I believed that my style of speech came from my emotional connection to my minority status and other people were advising me to rein it in"
This is the experience of conservatives in many professional and social situations. Of course, not all of us adopt a style of speech that comes from an "emotional connection" to our minority status, and the rein-it-in advice is often implicit, but if any such situation would put us at our wit's end, we'd be pretty strung out most of the time. Anyway, the real scandal is that librarians sit around conferencing for five days at public expense.
"It seems really wrong to say: We gave you the integration you said you wanted, so don't complain about how you're treated now that we stopped excluding you." Who's saying that exactly? Did any of the nice ****libs at the conference say any such thing? Of course, had I been there, I might have said something like: wait, so you didn't want "integration" and being judged by the content of your character, and al that sh**, you actually wanted to continue bitching about race, and about how you are not getting the goodies you deserve, and how colorblindness is just racism in another form? You mean, that integration shtick was just a sham?
"In this light, you might want to read: "A Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell: Revisiting Brown v. Board." Excerpt:
I’m really examining the social science at the core of [Brown] and saying that the social science argument that the court made was wrong—or at least was painfully and tragically incomplete...." My God, wasn't that obvious to anyone on first reading?
"The court, for its own peculiar reasons, wanted to claim that black people, as a result of segregation, had suffered a kind of grievous and catastrophic psychological injury. And I’m sorry, that’s just not true...." Peculiar reasons, eh? Careful about that word, Gladwell.
"[T]o draw the sweeping conclusion that the court did—that unless black kids can sit next to white kids in a classroom they can’t get an education—is nonsense!..." And this, in the most celebrated case in recent US history. So much for the notion that American law promotes a search for "truth."
In other words, Gladwell is right, the social science, such as it is even today, is at once both more uncertain and more subtle, in critical ways, than both the law and politicians want to consider.
Also, very important, AFAIK the entire field of empirical educational research on these matters is crippled these days. There is a shutdown, since the early 2000's, of true original, open-minded research as Coleman and his milieu were up to. It may be part of the general decadence and corruption of the academic side of the social sciences, or, my ugly suspicion, that the establishment in that area realizes that the truth, should it be irrefutably discovered by thorough collection of data and adequate analysis, will lead to politically unfortunate conclusions.
This doesn't read like an account likely to be accurate. She views life as a race war. She desires special consideration..but it has to be in HER designated form and flavor.
"they take a weird pleasure in hearing the horror stories and feeling superior to their “less woke” racial compatriots."
Hmm..
" I take a weird pleasure in telling the horror stories and feeling superior to my “less woke” racial aggressors."
FIFH
What's with the conference badge? Pronoun list? "Anti-librarian"?
Unstable.
I once had a black female professor whose entire worldview was about race. She wore her hair super-short, dressed in Afrocentric clothing and discussed race ad nauseam. The subject of the class had nothing to do with race or diversity but she made it the topic of every lecture. One female student had the temerity to suggest that we should all be 'color blind'. Boy, the prof went off like Vesuvius at that one!
Buwaya suggests: It really is true that educational outcomes can be improved somewhat if kids are embedded in a high-performing peer group.
And the outcomes for the high-performing peers?
There are male librarians? I don't think I've ever seen such a rare species.
So this lady spent five days screaming and snarling at everyone around her about racism? I'm not quite as sympathetic as Prof. Althouse seems to be. If you want to be a loud obnoxious insulting bore, that is your right. My right is to avoid you. I also have a right to advise others to avoid you.
I understand if you don't appreciate the results.
"Oh, here is the problem. These people went there to discuss their profession, not attend a racial consciousness-raising session. She clearly wanted to discuss how un-woke these people were and get them on the right program."
Wow. I think you need to read her words again and read them carefully!
Challenge accepted! After reviewing the complete conference schedule for the ALA event, I retract my statement.
Here is the problem. These people went there, not to discuss their profession, but to have a racial consciousness-raising session disguised as a professional conference. She got tired of everyone patting themselves on the back for discussing inclusiveness and asking for examples from her they could use with their un-woke peers, while simultaneously asking her to watch her tone.
These are some of the sessions available at the 2017 annual conference FOR LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS:
Everybody's Everyday Work: Diversity and Inclusion Foundations
Task Force on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Meeting (PLA)
Beyond the 'Racial Stalemate'
Spectrum Institute: Creating Community as a Form of Resistance
Cultural Proficiency for Library Leaders
ALA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Implementation Working Group Meeting
Social justice in libraries: social work roots and the progressive library mission
Sound Learning and Diversity: Audiobooks As Advocates for Cultural Authenticity
Growing Readership Through Diversity
African-American Studies Librarians Interest Group
Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Technical Services
Integrating Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement: The Human Library at Penn State University
Our Voices: Strengthen Your Collection with Diverse Narratives
Reaching In to Reach Out: Examining the State of Inclusivity Across Libraries, Archives, and Museums
2017 ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair
Diversity: Why it Still Matters
And these are in addition to those specifically put on by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association:
BCALA Joint Commitee Meeting (Membership, Professional Development and Affiliates Committees)
BCALA International Relations Committee
BCALA Literacy Awards Committee
BCALA Executive Board Officers
BCALA Executive Board Retreat
BCALA Recruitment and Professional Development Committee Meeting
BCALA Fundraising Committee
BCALA Marketing and Public Relations
BCALA Literary Awards Committee
BCALA President's Program
BCALA Interest Circles
Now THAT'S Progressive!
this requires a peer group of sufficient size, a critical mass,
In a related (I'm sure) development, "Gifted" Programs for children in elementary school have pretty much been eliminated.
the truth, should it be irrefutably discovered by thorough collection of data and adequate analysis, will lead to politically unfortunate conclusions.
This is why there are riots when Charles Murray tries to speak.
That is why there is no research, except a few religious group reports, on the effects of gay parenting on children.
I'm left handed. Most people go through life without even thinking about their hand dominance, but if you're left handed, you are far more aware of it, especially when playing baseball. I was tall and left handed, and people immediately stereotyped me as a first baseman. How little the world knows. I looked like a first baseman, but I had the soul of a shortstop........The way the game is played, a left handed shortstop would be at a tactical disadvantage, but that's not an argument against left handed shortstops but rather against the way the game is played. Since one out of eleven people are left handed, wouldn't it be fair to play one out of eleven games by reversing the polarities of the field, i.e. third base becomes first base. Such a rule change would allow left handed shortstops to realize a fraction of their true human potential and, moreover, give right handed people an awareness of the misery they have afflicted upon their brethren. Perhaps left handed people might be allowed four strikes in payment for past afflictions. There's something sinister about the rules of baseball, but such rules were not made by the left handed.
If the high-performing peer group is sufficiently large, no ill effects, or actually not a matter of interest in most such studies. But "sufficiently large" means a large majority. I dont know whether that can be precisely defined.
As for negative peer effects, that is certainly likely, it has been observed in some studies. Interestingly it has not attracted much research attention.
The last really good stuff on peer effects was being done, and compiled, by Caroline Hoxby, then at Harvard, now at Stanford, but she's not doing that anymore.
MikeR said...So this lady spent five days screaming and snarling at everyone around her about racism?
--
How are you arriving at that? She's talking about the burden of having be..civil..around her aggressors.
"...The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people..."
Can you think of a single American institution or practice to which that juvenile "critique" does not apply?
I'd rather be a black person in a white dominated society than a Luo person in a Kikiyu dominated society.
"Systemic oppression." Is that something that happens to librarians in democratic, western societies? Or is it what is done to gays in Muslim societies? I need a more nuanced definition of 'oppression.'
"Challenge accepted! After reviewing the complete conference schedule for the ALA event, ..."
I salute you, Kevin.
Assuming Ms. Hathcock read the conference schedule before registering, it seems to me she wanted to spend five days wallowing in race grievances. If, in the actual event, she found it tiring, well that's how many of us feel every day living in the society you progressives have built.
Good point about the substance of the conference.
Speaking professionally, such a ridiculous obsession with matters that are at best tangential to the substance of the industry being discussed is quite a condemnation of the field.
Is there something actually interesting happening in the library biz? I suspect it is a dying industry.
Well, I'm an oppressed minority. I'm a regular user of my local library and I like to read good history books.
Sadly, our SJW librarians don't really care about books, they care about leftism. So, they've been systematically getting rid of all the old history books - "too white" and "Too conservative" and either not replacing them, or substituting new, crappy, PC ones.
And of course, every historical subject needs diversity. Go to the WW2 section, and you'll find a book on women/blacks/hispanics/Gays in WW2. But no books on Midway, Iwo Jima, Leyte Gulf, Dunkirk, Kursk, or Bataan!
People are acutely aware of [class] diversity (e.g. race, sex, economic), not because we appear or achieve differently, but because it has become an institution for political progress, social status, and individual oppression.
buwaya said...
To be fair, the real power behind school integration did not come until after James Colemans massive studies (Coleman report of 1966) of "peer effects".
Coleman said the main influence or predictor of a kid's performance was his family's SES (or income, or education, in various places), not peer effects. Of course it turns out that "parenting" per se has little effect on a kid's personality or intelligence, less than peers and the rest of the environment, and what used to be considered parenting effects are genetic effects (Pinker) - kids inherit their intelligence and personality - and school ability - from their parents.
So Coleman turned out to be correct, that family generally had more influence than peers, but for the wrong reason: it's family genes, not family environment.
And where I live, blacks are all successful and just one minority out of 4. There constant whining about racism get eyerolls from the East Asians, whites, Hispanics, and Indians/Pakistanis.
Older whites, however, still think of Blacks are their special pets.
Oh..I bet this was special...and difficult for an introvert. My..the endless burden. Fight on.
Anti-Racism & Doing the Work, A Fireside Chat
PALA invites you to join April Hathcock in a conversation about anti-racist work in libraries. Hathcock is a Scholarly Communcations Librarian at NYU and a lawyer who has written and presented extensively on anti-racism and intersectional feminism in LIS.
"Let's sit in dialogue about the ways that we have been, are doing, and plan to do antiracist work. While you are invited to come and sit comfortably with me, make no mistake, this talk will be no passive affair. Like antiracist work itself, our time together will be marked by engagement and reflection on the issues of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy. We're going to be open and honest and active. It's the only way to make effective change in our world. Are you ready?"
How many people here worked with black people, day after day, who were no farther from you than 30 feet, but most of the time within 6-10 feet from you, week after week, who you talked with, took your lunch break with, drank beer after work with, month after month, who when they switched the "racism" button on, made life miserable to the Asians, Whites, Indians, and any other racial group I missed, year after year after year?
I had come to the conclusion a long time ago, that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to satisfy their "injustices".
One more thing... it's time to close down the Indian reservations.
Fernandinande,
Thats not the only thing Coleman said. His research covered many topics, not just the SES. He did come up with significant peer effects, that was the big justification for every desegregation initiative in the late 60's-1970's.
Who goes to Wednesday at a 5 day conference (unless you're one of the unfortunate ones giving a talk that day)?
I completely sympathize with her. I'm all niggered out.
At the fireside chat, I picture April tossing "white" authored books into the fire.
When she gets done fixing libraries, she should tackle the oppression in the field of plumbing.
""Let's sit in dialogue about the ways that we have been, are doing, and plan to do antiracist work. While you are invited to come and sit comfortably with me, make no mistake, this talk will be no passive affair. Like antiracist work itself, our time together will be marked by engagement and reflection on the issues of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy. We're going to be open and honest and active. It's the only way to make effective change in our world. Are you ready?"
Kind of hard to reconcile this with her expression of fatigue. Maybe she needs to hang another tag on her badge indicating her mood: "Race talk welcome / Race talk not welcome.".
"Were there no POC soldiers who landed at D-Day cuz that #Dunkirk movie is looking white af."
Still, they're good for a laugh now and again.
Original Mike said... Maybe she needs to hang another tag on her badge
--
"Attention Whore"
AllenS . Yup
Whenever the Facilitator asks a question of the Group, and says "There are no wrong answers", you can be sure that there are, indeed, Wrong Answers.
William said...
I'd rather be a black person in a white dominated society than a Luo person in a Kikiyu dominated society.
********************************
Ditto with being a Tutsi in Rwanda, where the national anthem starts, "Tu-tu-tutsi, good -bye!!"
I am in the odd position of reading a lot of comments here about someone I respect quite a bit. April was the Valedictorian at my high school in my graduating class.
We attended a small FL high school where the walls were carpeted and color coded for three ringed sections. The AP and advanced courses were in the hallways with Blue and Red carpeted walls. The remedial, vocational and ESL classes literally took place in hallways with brown carpet on the walls. (That Carpet would be removed in 1998 during the summer or our sophmore year, because there was mold behind it). Our senior year, the school had it's first white homecoming queen in something like a decade, though this had more to do with vote split dynamics than demographics.
A lot of the comments here are assuming the worst of April, because they are viewing a slice of her world view, admittedly self chosen. But I can tell you she is razor smart, hard working and famously organized (I am not surprised she is working in a library setting). I am actually happy to see she has come so far.
Kind of hard to reconcile this with her expression of fatigue. Maybe she needs to hang another tag on her badge indicating her mood: "Race talk welcome / Race talk not welcome."
LOL! Can the rest of us get one too? Or are they only available to non-whites?
Maybe white people could just get a special "woke" sticker to let everyone know how down we are with equality.
It could be in the shape of a six-pointed star, or something.
"These people went there, not to discuss their profession, but to have a racial consciousness-raising session disguised as a professional conference." This is yet another example of how conservatives, if they were as sensitive as non-conservatives, in many professional and social situations would be at their wit's end before they even started.
"But I can tell you she is razor smart, hard working and famously organized..."
So, someone who has no need for the race mongering industry. What's she doing there? Perhaps an indication of how corrosive this whole thing has become.
"I am actually happy to see she has come so far." Of course, it raises the question, why would a skilled, accomplished, upwardly mobile black woman nonetheless engage in the usual self-regarding racial bitching? (I do excuse it in part: that conference probably would have driven me to my wit's end, too.) At what point will black professionals have come "far" enough that they will stop that spiel? Or might the case at hand just possibly indicate that no distance is far enough?
Kevin said...Maybe white people could just get a special "woke" sticker to let everyone know how down we are with equality.
--
Reminds me of those buttons that say: "Straight, but not narrow"
Maybe "White, but not Right" would be a good seller.
In '64, everyone would say this is a lie.
@Sebastian: I suspect that it's not about how far any individual goes, and more to do with their perception of why others haven't similarly come far.
I am in the odd position of reading a lot of comments here about someone I respect quite a bit.
Wow! Thanks so much for your insights.
We don't know April. Or Trump. Or Bret Easton Ellis. Or Chuck. Or Inga. Or Bad LT. Or Drago. Or even Ann or Meade for that matter.
It is unlikely we will know anyone who is ever discussed here. Were we to use that as the criteria for commenting, Ann's comment threads would routinely stop at zero.
All we can do is take what we see in the world and reflect it back to help others see what we see. And out of the myriad of reflections, perhaps some patterns of truth arise.
I know of April what she chose to put out in the world about herself. No article of any length can truly do a person justice.
I made several comments today. I did so as an introvert, as someone who has attended industry conferences, as someone who has been pushed into unwanted race talk, and as someone who has gone into situations with a set of expectations which were completely destroyed by others in the room. It was on those grounds that I felt some ability to comment on April's situation.
There are a thousand other characteristics which April and I don't share, but others may bring to the table. Ann brought her experience as a woman, and challenged me to rethink my earlier opinion. You brought your experience as a classmate.
I can say that your experiences didn't change my viewpoint. My comments were of her actions and statements, and of the larger world in which we live, never her intellect or her character. I'm sure that may not have come across. It's easy for criticism of something to be taken in a larger context.
However, I'm sure April was similarly commenting on her interpretation of the actions and statements by those she met at the conference, not their intellect or character. I'm sure someone reading her story, who stopped her in the hall to ask about her experiences and then read about it in April's article, for example, might also take her criticism personally.
I don't think April would have meant that either. She was simply reflecting what she saw and how it affected her, as only she could. That's really what we're all trying to do.
Reminds me of those buttons that say: "Straight, but not narrow"
Maybe "White, but not Right" would be a good seller.
I think "Sorry for unconsciously oppressing you" would be preferred by the white people handing them out.
A lot of the comments here are assuming the worst of April, because they are viewing a slice of her world view, admittedly self chosen. But I can tell you she is razor smart, hard working and famously organized (I am not surprised she is working in a library setting). I am actually happy to see she has come so far.
Most of the people here don't know and don't care about who April is personally and have no interest in engaging in ad hominem attacks against her as a person. Most of the comments are directed instead entirely toward the ideas that have been asserted.
" I suspect that it's not about how far any individual goes, and more to do with their perception of why others haven't similarly come far."
Perhaps the greviance crowd and their enablers bear more than a little responsibility for that.
So, someone who has no need for the race mongering industry. What's she doing there? Perhaps an indication of how corrosive this whole thing has become.
"the whole thing" is really the issue. People who don't want to hear it won't be there. And people who do often have their own agendas with who they let speak and what is acceptable to say.
The whole thing is wrongheaded, and I would say ill-designed, except that it seems to be benefiting exactly the kinds of people who designed it all.
If equality is what we seek, then it is with equality we should act. Everyone should be treated equally.
If diversity is what we seek, then it is with diversity we should act. Everyone will be treated in accordance with their diverse situation.
What is being missed is that diversity is being used as a dog whistle for some super-duper form of equality. And there is no super-duper equal. There is only equal or not.
buwaya: "...empirical educational research on these matters is crippled these days. There is a shutdown, since the early 2000's, of true original, open-minded research as Coleman and his milieu were up to...". I agree. "Mismatched" is a recent effort to show how affirmative action hurts the kids it purports to help, and when the authors sought data on admissions by institutions and how it correlated with the subsequent success of the students, they were denied access and given the classic run-around.
Schools dominated by liberal policies (which is pretty much all of them) are just running plantations where they can grow their virtue-signaling like evil weeds.
"The whole thing is wrongheaded, and I would say ill-designed, except that it seems to be benefiting exactly the kinds of people who designed it all."
It's distressing.
Re D-Day and Dunkirk.
Interesting and amusing. I am again watching on Netflix (episodically) my favorite old movie, "The Longest Day" (my favorite since it came out and my dad took us to it at the ok
old Gaiety theater in Ermita, Manila. Loved it ever since. My second favorite is the old British "Battle of Britain" film. Yes, I'm strange).
There are, I just noticed, a couple of scenes (in "The Longest Day") of GI's getting into landing craft to assault Utah/Omaha. A few are black. There were no US black units assaulting the beaches in 1944. These scenes were filmed with 1959-60 era US troops, post-integration, a quite different army than in 1944. The rest of the US scenes correctly have no black soldiers. "Saving Private Ryan" is also historically correct in this way.
As for Dunkirk, as far as I know there were no Indians there, but there may well have been a very (very, very) few black British soldiers as British units were integrated, in that way, if the black persons were British residents. Whats much more likely would have been French North African soldiers, as the First French Army had three complete North African (1e DIM (Moroccan), 2e and 5e DINA (North African - Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian) divisions, and some other units besides. Most of these would have been in the pocket at Lille, but some remnants and miscellaneous units certainly got to Dunkirk.
Ms. Hathcock's little screed is blissfully free of any actual examples.
You know, maybe “nice white ladies” were telling her to be “civil” and “professional” because she was being unnice, uncivil, and unprofessional.
BUWAYA
History this and history that. Put some goddamn black soldiers in Dunkirk and in Omaha beach! Or else the librarian will say Shsss real loud.
History this and history that. Put some goddamn black soldiers in Dunkirk and in Omaha beach! Or else the librarian will say Shsss real loud.
And be sure that the next Doctor is a woman. Because, you know, sex is entirely interchangeable.
Then again, it's science fiction.
And because we need ideology and politics in EVERYTHING, even in our mindless entertainment.
"Is there something actually interesting happening in the library biz? I suspect it is a dying industry."
My middle daughter has an MLS from UCLA and was working on a PhD until she decided she did not want to be an academic,
She is a lefty but has recently (after she passed 30) decided she wants to make money and have a nice life rather than be a victim.
She has been all over the world and, if anyone has been "privileged," she is one.
The library science thing is evolving into IT but probably not fast enough. I think they are all lefties but a few, like my daughter, are interesting. She learned Arabic to work on a PhD in the Andalusian period of Spain.
She is now heavily into art and has a very good job doing archivist work for a world famous artist.
buwaya said...
He did come up with significant peer effects, that was the big justification for every desegregation initiative in the late 60's-1970's.
I guess these could be called significant, but they're still pretty small compared to other differences:
The Power of Peers
"How does the makeup of a classroom influence achievement?
By Caroline Hoxby"
Summary: (1st # is "points" on TAAS, avg score about 30)
black-white diff = 4.7 = 1.6 stddev (!)
white-asian diff = 1.3 = .44 stddev
"small" peer effect = 0.092 = .03 stddev
large(maximum?) peer effect = .676 = .23 stddev
The biggest peer effect was about half the Asian/white difference and one-seventh of the black-white difference, so pretty secondary. (And that 1.6 stddev difference is unusually large, is normally about 1.)
The other thing is that these peer-effects are zero-sum, so when the boy benefits (slightly!) from having more girls around, more girls also suffer from having the boy around.
Older whites, however, still think of Blacks are their special pets.
All of us? My, my.
Lord I hope this is in jest. Else you are one sick/twisted/stupid/bubble confined/bigoted/hateful/warped beyond straightening, etc. puppy.
The most serious critique of affirmative action, in my view, has always been that white people designed it and it can be presumed to have been done for the benefit of white people.
It might not be the most serious critique, but it is the likeliest to give it's supporters pause. I shall remember to use this.
Buwaya surmises: As for Dunkirk, as far as I know there were no Indians there, but there may well have been a very (very, very) few black British soldiers as British units were integrated, in that way, if the black persons were British residents. Whats much more likely would have been French North African soldiers, as the First French Army had three complete North African (1e DIM (Moroccan), 2e and 5e DINA (North African - Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian) divisions, and some other units besides. Most of these would have been in the pocket at Lille, but some remnants and miscellaneous units certainly got to Dunkirk.
Yes, Middle Easterners were often referred to as 'blacks' by the Brits. And, alas, sometimes 'wogs'.
Yes indeed, the "peer effect" is small.
That, btw, is also in line with Coleman.
And if you investigate Hoxby you will find a good bit else on peer effects. Its quite interesting if you break down further on various other studies. For instance, strong indication that best results are when you SELECT higher-performing black kids and stick them among white peers. Lower-performing black kids don't benefit. And those who suffer worst from negative peer effects are potentially high performing black kids.
The thing about peer effects, was that is was an actual, measurable, mostly reproducible effect, at a time when there was nothing else at all that could move the needle. There still isn't anything known that closes the gap quite as well as peer effects, small as those are.
It was once thought that governance changes (school choice, charters) or engineered curriculums (DI, etc.) could also do it. But actual test results show little sustained gain into high-school. This is why Diane Ravitch went to the dark side.
And of course everything the left has tried has crashed much more spectacularly.
Everyone is pretty burned out about closing the gap, because everything has been tried, and it has all failed.
Look out for those "nice white ladies". They're barracudas.
I wonder how many know the origin of the term "WOG?"
The British colonials had been referring to many natives as 'ni**ers" and were told they must refer to their colonial charges as
"Worthy Oriental Gentlemen."
"And those who suffer worst from negative peer effects are potentially high performing black kids. "
These are the kids I think could benefit from vouchers.
Not to put them in majority white schools, by the way.
My former high school in Chicago is now all black and has a 96% rate of graduates going to college. It is private and in a blue collar area. The parents are coming up with the tuition and that current account rate is also about 95%.
A load of crap. Just someone else trying to get attention. Damn tired of being called racist because I'm white. Do your job proficiently and no one will have a problem.
"In recent years I've noticed a significant increase in shelving errors in public libraries. (The catalog says it's there, but it ain't.) I've been devising my own system for predicting where an item is likely to be, based on common shelving errors. Usually more efficient than requesting a search from the people who mis-shelved the item in the first place."
You assume the librarians did the shelving. Usually not. We rely on volunteers because we are short staffed due to county budget cuts: those part time jobs, usually students, were eliminated years ago. Also, patrons try to be helpful and reshelve, usually because they've changed their minds three or four shelves down and stick the book where they happen to be standing at the time because obviously we have people who go around checking on things like that.
"Is there something actually interesting happening in the library biz? I suspect it is a dying industry."
Condescension noted. And no. Not dying. Still here.
Thanks, Kevin, for the research, the insight and the humility.
Just goes to show how ripe the library industry is for automation.
Robots won't bitch about race unless they are programmed to.
Hmmmm, that seems to already be happening...
My first real job (after paper boy) was shelfing books at the local branch library. Then I moved up to driving the delivery truck between the branches..
April H. @AprilHathcock 9h9 hours ago
Replying to @AprilHathcock
She tried really hard to sound professional but her white supremacy was showing all over the place.
3 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
April H. @AprilHathcock 9h9 hours ago
In other news, got a bunch of work emails while on vacay from a right-wing Barnard student doing a piece on me & my "racist" race fatigue. đŸ˜’
Deb said...
"Is there something actually interesting happening in the library biz? I suspect it is a dying industry."
Condescension noted. And no. Not dying. Still here.
--
How is that condescension?
Michael K reports: The British colonials had been referring to many natives as 'ni**ers" and were told they must refer to their colonial charges as
"Worthy Oriental Gentlemen."
Maybe so but the term WOG was never used with respect.
Ann writes:
"And I don't see how it undermines the arguments for banning race discrimination that there are going to be some negative experiences in a mixed-race environment"
Because the argument of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement was the moral argument that it is wrong to treat people differently, or to judge them, based upon their skin color.
Which makes the librarian writing the post a racist pig and an evil human being. because she is constantly judging people based on the color of their skin.
If the answer is "it's perfectly fine to judge white people negatively because of their skin color", then the 1960s Civil Rights movement was a fraud, and every single law that came from it should be junked.
This is how you got Trump, and this is how you get the alt-right. Because if anti-"white" racism is ok, then all racism is ok, and it's time for "white" people to start aggressively protecting themselves from racist non-whites, which, BTW, means "the Democrat Party is the enemy of White People".
That's not the world I want. But it's a far better, far more moral, world where "racism" is only "wrong" when it hurt "minorities"
Libraries seem like they are of vastly diminished significance, and I speak as a devoted library-haunter. But not in the last decades.
Not only are they much less useful for commercial purposes, they are much less useful also as technical resources, and I dont just mean in the IT industry. You can get a grad degree in most engineering without ever darkening a library doorway.
Many F1000 firms used to have company libraries - they started getting rid of them 20 years ago, they are now quite rare.
And the old mainstay of public libraries, kids reading, thats dying out fast.
"All of us? My, my."
How did you hallucinate that, moron? I suppose if I wrote "men are taller then women" you'd think I was asserting every single man on planet earth was taller then every single woman.
Ever hear of a "generalization"? Look it up, Google is your friend.
Oh, and maybe my post *related* to the previous post.
That I even responded shows how bored I am. Don't waste my time in the future. And please spare me the trollish "Why so angry?" response.
@Matt, sorry but her "Dunkirk" comment pretty much killed any benefit of the doubt I might have been inclined to give her.
Unlike in WW I, where the British Army brought a lot of Indian units to fight in France (just look at the names on the Menin Gate some time), in WW II the Indians mostly fought in other theaters - Malaysia, Burma, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Singapore, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Somalia and Hong Kong, among others.
"You can get a grad degree in most engineering without ever darkening a library doorway."
Yes - by accessing online resources and databases provided by the university or public library.
"And the old mainstay of public libraries, kids reading, thats dying out fast."
This is absolutely not true. That *is still* the mainstay of public libraries, especially keeping kids engaged in reading during summer. Public libraries are constantly promoting reading activities for children: story times for kids from toddlers on up, reading groups, summer reading programs (it is the busiest time of year), supporting public school required reading - there are many activities and programs to encourage kids to read and to use the library.
The saying, "The wogs begin at Calais" (implying that everyone who is not British is a wog), appears to date from the First World War but was popularised by George Wigg, Labour MP for Dudley, in 1949 when in a parliamentary debate concerning the Burmese, Wigg shouted at the Conservative benches, "The Honourable Gentleman and his friends think they are all 'wogs'. Indeed, the Right Honourable Member for Woodford [i.e., Winston Churchill] thinks that the 'wogs' begin at Calais."
Notable because it was not the conservative Churchill who said "the wogs begin at Calais"; it was a liberal, possibly not that different from those SWPL cat ladies besetting Ms. Hathcock, imagining what was going on in the conservative's evil caveman mind.
I'm with you, Deb! Kids love books and so do many adults. I find most public libraries very popular and with little available parking.
Well, the British did have three Indian divisions in Italy, 1943-45 - 4th, 8th and 10th. The Italian front had an amazing human zoo, on both sides. The 4th was sent to Greece in late 1944 - Indians in Greece, fighting communists mainly, who ever thought of that?
Thats about as close significant parts of the Indian Army ever got to France in WW2.
However, a very overlooked fact which I didn't know - there were Indians at Dunkirk! Four mule companies of the Indian Army Service Corps (Indian version of the RASC) were part of the BEF. I guess someone thought mules would be useful in the trenches, as in WWI. That would be something under 500 Indians.
And there were also Indians (and Ceylonese/Sri-Lankans!) in France, and Belgium too, 1944-45, as the British merchant crews often had large numbers of lascars, i.e. Indian, mainly Tamil sailors. Many of these were in vessels stopping at the critical logistical ports of Cherbourg or Antwerp.
There are a lot of odd bits of WW2. It really was a World War.
The French military also was an interesting lot, always. It wasnt just the Foreign Legion that got a human miscalleny.
For instance, it was a batallion of Tahitians-New Caledonians (Batallion d'Pacifique, also known as the batallion d'guitaristes due to their abilities with the instrument) that carried out the critical assault that broke the German defences of Toulon. These were already veteran soldiers, having served since 1940, notably at Bir Hakeim, Libya, in 1942.
The regiments of Algerian tirailleurs included, apparently, a good number of Latin American recruits; and Leclercs Armored Division, that took Paris, had units flying the flag of the Spanish Republic.
There are an infinity of weird details of WW2.
Given the title of this post I seriously thought Althouse had some comments on a new Laslo character. Imagine my disappointment.
The people of the British Isles fought the war, obviously. Well, other than the Republic of Ireland, though many Irishman fought in the British, Canadian and American militaries.
But the fact remains that the British EMPIRE fought the war - in a way that was quite unlike WW I where large contingents of Empire troops were simply raised and brought to France to fight in the trenches. Although the Raj ordered India to join the war, the Indian Army was manned by over two million volunteers - the largest volunteer army of the war. Until America came into the war, Canada and Australia kept Britain fed, and Canada did much of the hard, unglamorous work of keeping the sea lanes open, fighting the U-boats in the cold, unforgiving North Atlantic. South Africa did most of the heavy lifting in Sub-Saharan Africa. Australia sent most of her army to North Africa, and then had to face the Japanese almost naked. Eight hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, troops from all over the Empire were battling the Japanese in Hong Kong.
Without America, the Allies could never have opened up the Western Front in Europe. Without the Empire, Britain would have died waiting for America.
Just one last bit of weird -
There was a Mexican Air Force squadron, flying P47's, providing close air support to units of the Philippine Army (against Yamashitas last redoubt) in Luzon, 1945.
I tried to Google April Hathcock...
But it kept just coming up "Did you mean 'Black Cocks.'"
It makes perfect sense to you that you would blame people for being a different color? That's what she's doing. Forget introvert. How do you know her claim is true? How do you know you can accept her characterization? What does that matter? She's not talking about an impulse or reaction provoked by an introvert's suffering and later rethought and regretted. She's saying this NOW, later, after editing.
"With all deliberate speed...." This decision was handed down just prior to my entering the first grade and here we are still coping with this issue as I turn 69 years old this year. The saddest story I heard was from a black security guard at the West L.A. VA Hospital when I took my Father there after he had a seizure at 2 AM. The guard told me he would have to leave at 4:00 AM, get his children out of bed, dressed, and ready for school. He lived in South Central L.A. He would then drive them to Western Ave where he would position one on the Southbound side of the street to catch the bus to San Pedro where she went to Elementary School. He would position the other one on the Northbound side of the street where his son would catch the school bus which went to Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley. The streets were deserted at that hour, but he had to wait until the buses from both directions arrived to make sure his children were safe and got on the right bus. That was his lunch hour after which he would return to work. Then, in the middle of his sleeping hours, he would have to drive back to that location and wait until both buses returned with his children. There was a perfectly good elementary school near his home, but his children lost the lottery about who stays and who got bused. This poor man bore a terrible burden for something that was supposed to benefit his children. The children were burdened with 2 hours of wasted time per day riding on the bus. Of course, the demographics of the city of Los Angeles changed as white families moved to Ventura, Orange, and San Bernardino County to get away from the LAUSD. I always think about that man whenever someone tells me about some government plan to improve the lives of "the people." And it also doesn't surprise me that black people are fed up and blame whitey for this misery that was supposed to improve their lives. People who know me will be surprised to hear this from me.
Deb: You assume the librarians did the shelving. Usually not. We rely on volunteers because we are short staffed due to county budget cuts: those part time jobs, usually students, were eliminated years ago. Also, patrons try to be helpful and reshelve, usually because they've changed their minds three or four shelves down and stick the book where they happen to be standing at the time because obviously we have people who go around checking on things like that.
Fine, Deb, the librarians don't mis-shelve the books. Though we do have part-time students working at the local library, and I doubt that they're less likely to mis-shelve the books than the mainly retiree volunteers. I'll also grant that patrons these days are probably more likely to sloppily re-shelve books any which way. (But I'll stand by my assertion that tracking down mis-shelved books myself is generally faster than requesting a search.)
If you think complaints about mis-shelving are petty and unfair, there are more substantive ones against modern librarians. What's with letting your profession go full-SJW? Even at local county/city libraries the programming choices/propaganda level is just grotesque.
Politicized librarianship is an absurdity, aside from being flat-out unethical for publicly-funded institutions. Don't blame the volunteers and budget cuts for that screw-up. (Though the choice to politicize what should be an a-political job may be correlated with disinclination to fund.)
Getting buttonholed by colleagues for 5 days and made to gibe testimony about minor personal racial suffering is terrible and fatiguing.
Getting subjected to 12 or 16 years of schooling where people in power (like this librarian) insist that white people are evil and should be made to atone for their evils ways, well, that's what white people deserve. Suck it up, whitey. You don't get to be exhausted by having to hear the same racial tirades over and over again. Any of you who object are racists, straight up.
Five days.
Richardsson, I, too, was thinking of the busing fiasco. One of the craziest ideas to have ever been implemented.
Racism is everywhere. It is the norm. It is the foundation upon which every white colonializing country was built. It doesn’t matter if you’re not American, not Southern, not mean, not old, not conservative. Racism is the fertile soil upon which white supremacy grows. And white supremacy is like ivy. It is everywhere, it is hard to uproot, and it grows fast.
White people are so intent on treating racism like it’s an anomaly, a disease, rather than realizing that racism is the default. White people, by virtue of their race privilege, are racist. All of them. Everyone. It is how white privilege exists and continues to persist. It is a painful reality, I know, but a reality nonetheless.
It’s also important to note that this ubiquity and inevitability of racism exists on both the systemic and individual level. Yes, we live in a society beset by systemic racism. But that doesn’t absolve individuals of the role they play in and the benefits they enjoy from their own individual racism. Racism is both macro and micro; it’s all over the big picture and in every tiny detail, too.
The only way we will ever truly dismantle white supremacy and dig up the manure of racism in which it grows is if we all face this truth: Racism is the foundational default and all white people are guilty of it. There’s no getting around it.
I can see why she's perpetually fatigued. But I did note from some other of her blog entries that she revels in planning and attending events like the Untold Histories Unconference and the Race Matters: Libraries, Racism, and Antiracism conference. She's quite bubbly about those events and the many contacts she makes. Doesn't sound introverted at all.
She also has some advice for white folks who have come to gentrify neighborhoods of color:
5. Don’t call the cops!!! Obviously, if there’s a real emergency, you do what you gotta do. But if you see an unfamiliar black or brown man sitting on your stoop, you may want to back off. Chances are, he lives in your building and you just don’t recognize him because…white supremacy. Whatever it is, just ask yourself, “Would I want to phone the cops if I were living in a white neighborhood right now?” Then examine your honest response. For anything. Because you think you smell weed or you hear your neighbors music or it sounds like someone’s arguing outside…just take a moment to reflect. And realize that, again, there’s a huge amount of violent, racist historical and present context that makes inviting the cops into your new neighborhood for any old thing not a great idea.
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