In an email sent Saturday to the college community, [Mary Lu] Bilek said her retirement stemmed from a cringe-worthy remark she made at a personnel committee meeting in November. The group was discussing an open position for associate dean at the time. Bilek said that when she dropped the “slaveholder” reference, she was taking the blame for a hiring proposal some colleagues thought would have a “disparate racial impact.”
“In a misguided effort to draw an analogy to a model of reparations in order to place blame on myself, as Dean, for racial inequities at our school, I thoughtlessly referred to myself as the ‘slaveholder’ who should be held responsible,” Bilek wrote. “I realized it was wrong the minute I heard myself say it and couldn’t believe the word had come out of my mouth.”
Bilek went on to write that she apologized immediately at the meeting “and have since apologized without reservation to the faculty.”
“I am still shocked at what I said and have begun education and counseling to uncover and overcome my biases and further understand the history and consequences of systemic and institutional racism,” she wrote....
She was trying to take blame, but she's not as blameworthy as a slaveholder, so the analogy to a slaveholder taking blame, was... was what? She was taking blame for something racial — disparate racial impact — but disparate racial impact is much less bad than slavery, so in making the analogy, she was exaggerating her own blame. Then, she got blamed for that exaggeration, and she reacted by canceling herself — firing herself into retirement — which is another dramatic exaggeration. The original offense was to exaggerate, the exaggeration was then exaggerated, and in response to the exaggeration, she performed an additional exaggeration.
It's a perfect storm of self-dramatization. But I don't have the inside view, only Bilek's reaction. I can only attempt to imagine how the other people at CUNY School of Law behave.
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101 comments:
Sounds to me like she was going to retire anyway but wanted to get one last virtue signal in and go out like a martyr and a hero.
If a master satirist —say dead white male Jonathan Swift— had come up with this scene, he could not have done a better job.
Creighton men’s basketball coach told the team, after a bad loss, that everyone had to “stay on the plantation.” Big drama. Calls for his firing or resignation. He supposedly offered his resignation, but I don’t believe it.
One game suspension. But the team moved on and we won yesterday.
All this is nuts. He misspoke. No one thinks he is a racist. The players want him to coach. He actually asked them.
Who would ever say anything at all in a personnel committee meeting? You can only go wrong.
The Age of Hyberbole
I read a book this week with a long chapter on Roman slavery. But the words slave, owner, master, slaveholder did not appear. A footnote explains why. To avoid “the language of (white) supremacy”. The circumlocutions “enslaved person” and “enslaver” were used. So perhaps that is now the de rigeur fashion, and “slaveholder” is too passive a term, insufficiently attributive of blame.
Note also the irony of that “(white)” since the vast majority of the slaves in the Roman Empire were white.
She could have knelt before the law school to commit seppuku, but some people content themselves with half-measures.
This kind of a "speech-code" seppuku is not a good luck for academia.
Serendipity :)
What a dope.
in order to place blame on myself, as Dean, for racial inequities at our school
Genes are responsible for racial inequities, not deans and not racism.
Get me to a nunnery! - Mary Lu Bilek
"She could have knelt before the law school to commit seppuku, but some people content themselves with half-measures."
I thought of seppuku as I was writing the post. That's the way to show true commitment. Otherwise, it can be fakery. Retiring is a pretty ordinary thing to do, but you *can* retire dramatically.
I am still shocked at what I said...
Mary Lu has got to stop drinking the Hyde formula.
Freeman:
Seppuku would have been a cultural appropriation for which she would never get to apologize, so definitely out of the question.
“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt.”
Idiocracy wasn't supposed to be a how-to manual.
This is all becoming a bit confusing. The cannibals are eating themselves.
I'm getting sick of eating so much popcorn.
"Retiring is a pretty ordinary thing to do, but you *can* retire dramatically."
When you reach a certain age, and have certain assets, it is no longer possible to "resign", or to "quit". Your cessation of employment is retirement.
"Seppuku would have been a cultural appropriation for which she would never get to apologize, so definitely out of the question."
Yep, out of the question, what would the Asian students think?
She needs needs to self-abort.
Ann!
Don’t give the libs any ideas!
The pathway of self-abasement is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.
"Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied." Wikipedia
"I am still shocked at what I said and have begun education and counseling ...".
These people have convinced themselves that Truth is a known commodity, and that they and their ilk have it in their power to dispense it. She believes that by discussing herself with some fellow over-educated nitwits, she will improve the World. How could anyone ever have entrusted someone so utterly clueless with a responsible position?
[I] have begun education and counseling to uncover and overcome my biases and further understand the history and consequences of systemic and institutional racism
Does anyone actually believe this? She might better study some Scott Adams to learn about appropriate analogies.
We have a tag for “civility bullshit”. Do we also have one for “apology bullshit”?
I read and reread the Post article, and I can't for the life of me figure out what she did wrong -- even by the lights of the Woke.
My best guess is that the S-word has joined the N-word a word you just can't say. I do recall that you're not allowed to refer to two electronic components as "master" and "slave."
A great essay in Spiked, kinda related https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/19/the-tyranny-of-lived-experience/
You are entrusting your offspring to be educated by some of the most foolish and confused people our nation has to offer,... and placing them and you deep in debt to do it. Genius!
Serious Question
Are Liberals Mentally Stupid? Or, are they such Racists that they just can't help themselves?
The crazies are now on the way down the toilet. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
Real seppuku should be employed here. There is no other solution for this kind of bullshit.
If you think you are a racist and claim to be contrite about it, prove it. I will settle for you giving all your money away to some poor black child from Mississippi. Otherwise, fuck off.
the-tyranny-of-lived-experience
I misread that as "the-tyranny-of-livid-experience".
CUNY Law isn't a very good school.
Shit, Althouse beat me to it.
She could have knelt before the law school to commit seppuku, but some people content themselves with half-measures.
Good ‘un! My first thought was of the Benedictine monk, Peter Damian, who in his effort to become closer to God became a flagellant and whipped himself into a frenzy of mortification of the flesh...repeatedly. That’s called ‘doing the work’ among the zealots.
- Krumhorn
I'm sure she'll get a lucrative law firm posting in order to increase diversity at the firm. Her CUNY web page reeks of opportunity if she wishes it. https://www.law.cuny.edu/faculty/directory/bilek/
"Freeman, Seppuku would have been a cultural appropriation for which she would never get to apologize, so definitely out of the question."
Lucien wins the thread- I don't care how many comments show up below this one.
It's fun to watch liberal academics -- supposedly our society's smartest people -- humiliate and destroy themselves because of nonsensical thinking.
I have to admit, when I first looked at the blog post headline, I read it as CUNT law school dean. Does this make me a bad person?
Liberal academics have to denounce themselves -- just as Galileo had to denounce himself.
Between @900 and 1900 about 100 million black Sub-Saharan Africans were sold into slavery. By other black Sub-Saharan Africans via mostly Arabian middlemen.
About 90% went east with about half dying along the way. The half that survived were generally worked to death within 2 years.
@10mm came west, mostly to South America and the Caribbean. Fewer tha 1mm came to what is now the us. The US was the only place in all history where the slave population increased by birth.
Slavery is a horrible thing. It I s slow murder, perhaps even crueller. It is a stain on our country's history.
But rather small potatoes in both quantity and cruelty compared to the rest of the world.
Yet somehow we must accept all the blame in the world.
Fuck that.
John Henry
Lord help anyone who goes to the City University of Northern New York.
where does it end?
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/03/u-san-diego-law-prof-thomas-smith-harshly-criticized-chinese-govt-now-faces-false-claims-of-ethnic-bias/
>>Creighton men’s basketball coach told the team, after a bad loss, that everyone had to “stay on the plantation.”
What an idiot! How could he say something so stupid? The correct phrase is "Stay on the reservation."
Indians (feather, not dot) everywhere are offended.
Performative White Liberal Guilt is tricky, always at risk of over-the-top self-parody, creating the suspicion among the Woke that one is intentionally ridiculing the whole thing.
Last Night i was watching a film about Fergie Jenkins, my Favorite Cub of all time
It was called King of the Hill, and is on the National Film Board of Canada website
It was filmed during the '73 and '74 seasons, which i Remember. Go Cubs Go!
It mentioned (of course) that Fergie was Canadian.
And they mentioned that Canadians had played in the Major leagues, since the 1880's. But, that in 1883 another Cub, manager and 1st baseman Cap Anson had forced the league to remove ALL Canadians by stating:
"My team ain't going to play Any team that has them Canuncks on it"
And THAT was the end of Canadians playing in the Major Leagues until Jackie Robinson started for the Dodgers in 1947.
ACTUALLY, while Fergie IS Canadian; it wasn't Canadians that Cap Anson wouldn't play against, it was blacks. And it wasn't Canucks that he called them, back in 1883...
If was a word that i can't even allude to here; or our Professor will delete my post.
But, on the National Film Board of Canada website listed above; they Use that word, and it sounds EVIL and Atrocious. If they'd covered it up and said
.......Cap Anson used a naughty word.......
it would have seemed minor (or, at Least minorer than it was).
Sometimes, you have to hear things to hear How Bad they are. We're Losing This
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Anson#Racial_intolerance
If the school is worthy, it must now go after the other faculty members who heard her say those words but did not immediately rip her to shreds and scatter her bones across the campus. The world will not be safe until every last elite academic is drawn, quartered and fed to the dogs. I offer my services to help in any way I can.
In Burbank, there is a large concentration of Armenians. Lovely folks, but they like outdoor parties playing ethnic music loudly. My friends who live there will discuss the Canadians who had a loud party the night before. You can safely say that in public without having to self-cancel.
- Krumhorn
“I realized it was wrong the minute I heard myself say it and couldn’t believe the word had come out of my mouth.” People say dumb stuff. All people. You wouldn't want to live in a world where no one is allowed to say any dumb stuff, ever.
Well, it seems like some people do want to live in that world. Dumb people.
Although it's amusing to see the torpedo (Captain Tupolev) circle back (Jen Psaki) and bag another elite lib, there's not enough time to rid ourselves of this menace before the country completely implodes.
these people are too stupid to work at a fast food joint.
Maybe I could have them dig a ditch or three.
Nah, probably too weak.
What to do with these troublesome clerks?
Maoist self criticism. It's the coming thing.
Accurate perspective on race is completely lacking in today's left.
Give her a break. Ricky Nelson ruined her life back in '61 and she never got over it.
"self-dramatization"
A LOT of that going around today.
Thanks a LOT social media.
Why it’s almost as though these people are slaves to their own ideology.
Who would actually want to work in academia these days?
Humperdinck What makes you think there would be Asian students there?
The World Turned Upside Down.
And no. Not the Broadway Hamilton version.
https://youtu.be/gudxXs85R_w
A slave to fashion. The fashion of woke.
but disparate racial impact is much less bad than slavery
Slavery isn't bad, and disparate impact isn't bad.
Slavery was an excellent system before the free market - you hit the guy on the head and take his stuff, as an economic model. Then it's better to enslave the defeated enemy than to kill him, beyond that, again as an economic system. The defense costs are high in such a system but it worked.
The free market made a slave contribute more to society working in his own interest than as working as a slave, and the reason for slavery ended. It hung on with unsupportable reasons for a bit ("intrinsically a slave race") but the Western invention of the free market ended it for a better economic system.
Disparate impact is a result of statistics. The race with the lower average IQ doesn't do as well as the race with the higher average IQ with nothing happening to evidence it to anybody at the individual level.
Diversity [dogma] and flagellation.
My high school is increasing its wokeness level to astounding, according to the alumni magazine. That'll bring in the bequests, they figure.
Slavery was an excellent system before the free market - you hit the guy on the head and take his stuff, as an economic model.
That's the way that many African societies diversified, including the neighbors of the ancestors of the trans Atlantic slaves. For that, and purposes of retributive (e.g. Hutu vs Tutsi) and redistributive (i.e. equalization) change. #NoJudgment
I don't care about American slavery. I'm not responsible for crimes committed centuries ago.
A cytokine storm of checking one's privilege. RIP to her career. Thankfully, many of us have herd immunity. The youngest of us have priority for vaccination.
If only we could attack this with the moral force of war!
“ Humperdinck What makes you think there would be Asian students there?”
Ok, student (singular).
I think Jim Jones was ahead of his time. He could have had a lot more adherents from today's left. It's hard to get out of a cult.
Spiros Pappas : “ I'm not responsible for crimes committed centuries ago.”
The prime evidence of guilt is denial of guilt.
Perry Mason she ain't.
well prog idiots like the one that was on the times editorial board, yang, yung tomato tomatoe, she left her seed pods everywhere,
"10mm came west, mostly to South America and the Caribbean. Fewer than 1mm came to what is now the us. The US was the only place in all history where the slave population increased by birth.
Slavery is a horrible thing. It I s slow murder, perhaps even crueller. It is a stain on our country's history.
But rather small potatoes in both quantity and cruelty compared to the rest of the world.
Yet somehow we must accept all the blame in the world."
Perhaps the legal principle of "Deep Pockets" is at work here
Well, she did accidentally out that academia, at least above the undergraduate student level, operates on a slaveholder pattern, in which academics, grad students and such serve and serve at the pleasure of the university under the overseer deans. Should one fall out of favor, it is expected that the individual will be driven from the "campus", denied positions on other "campuses" and even have efforts to ensure that the "fallen" cannot come together to coordinate with academics from adjoining "campuses".
Yeah, deans and professors really aren't suppose to reveal the similarities with past institutions.
“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself."
"He loved Big Brother."
Hope for the sake of cushioning her swoon she was drinking Nolet's Reserve.
We are being n-worded to death. Sow the wind...
actually more like syme in 1984, who wasn't sufficiently nimble as a minitrue drone,
Do you think any corporate (or law firm) HR people are making a note (not in writing, of course) to avoid hiring anyone from CUNY Law?
"It's a perfect storm of self-dramatization"
Yes, but what it dramatizes is an utterly abased self, cowed by prog hegemony.
and risk getting cancelled themselves,
Racism and and sexism are ego defenses that losers use to protect themselves from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.
Example -- Former Teen Vogue editor Alexi McCammond was fired for racist anti-Asian tweets. She claimed that an Asian TA was kneecapping Black chemistry students at the Univerity of Chicago. The reality is that she sucked at chemistry.
Perhaps the legal principle of "Deep Pockets" is at work here
Of course that is the issue. Does anyone think Ghana or Benin is going to pay reparations for the millions of slaves they sold? Like "Climate Change" this is a money making scam.
Found: The Fourth Stooge! And she's a doozy.
"Found: The Fourth Stooge! And she's a doozy."
Oh, boy. She isn't on a pale horse is she?
Ken B said...
I read a book this week with a long chapter on Roman slavery. But the words slave, owner, master, slaveholder did not appear. A footnote explains why. To avoid “the language of (white) supremacy”. The circumlocutions “enslaved person” and “enslaver” were used. So perhaps that is now the de rigeur fashion, and “slaveholder” is too passive a term, insufficiently attributive of blame.
Note also the irony of that “(white)” since the vast majority of the slaves in the Roman Empire were white.
************
I ran into a YouTube video about ancient Greeks a few months ago that had to do the same thing. The narrator couldn't say "slave", so he had to resort to "unpaid workers" or other ridiculous circumlocutions.
It's really, really stupid. I can't wait to tell the first person who tries to pull that shit on me to FOAD. Ditto with the pronoun bullshit.
(and,as with the Romans , the Greek slavers and enslaved were almost entirely Caucasians. It takes a certain kind of historical imbecility not to know that every race has engaged in slavery at one time or another. Thomas Sowell does a great job dealing with the topic in "Black Rednecks and White Liberals". )
She had to burn the witch to save the witch...
Wholelota
It’s as if they think “slave” is a pejorative, an endorsement of the servitude. I guess it’s some sort of pseudo scholarly kayfabe to pretend the s word was like the n word, really though just a way of calling attention to themselves. “See how much *I* disapprove of slavery, much more than you do” . The inability to separate slavery from race is revealing IMO.
wasn't it just YESTERDAY, that someone here was asking if it was Still okay to use the "ess-word"?
Sorry! it was all the way back to Friday!
Time flies, when you're banning words
DanTheMan said...
Freedom is slavery.
Wait, are we still allowed to use the "s" word?
3/19/21, 8:17 AM
To echo KenB: It is peculiar the way that we assume slaveholder means white and slave means Black. Are people not aware that the very word "slave" means a Slavic person, since they were the first group to come in for large scale enslavement in Europe?
According to an old saying I made up, the further out the outliers lie, the further out the inliers can lie without being outliers.
IOW, a real whack job can be normalized and made to seem harmless without moving a millimeter if someone even wackier comes along.
I suspect that, if this Dean is far enough out, even without being the Finnisterre of academia, she's covering for a bunch of nutcases.
This Dean is a stupid cuny.
Hmm, off by a few letters.
“Wait, are we still allowed to use the "s" word? “
Abraham Lincoln used the word “bondsman” for a slave owner, that’s probably more poetic.
---It's a perfect storm of self-dramatization. [AA]
Good line. The inevitable consequence of our overly affluent, atomized lives. Soon we'll be nice, simple fodder for the CCP troops.
Canceling and premature retirement really won't do it anymore, time to introduce public seppuku.
Abortion. Self-abortion. Cancellation. Self-cancellation. Sure, why not.
Wait! time out!
Serious (REALLY REALLY Serious!) Question
We CAN still use the phrase "Wage Slave", though.. Right?
I mean, we're All Marxists here
I’ll tell you how the thingies that run CUNY Law School work: they recruited terrorists including Eleanor Raskin after Raskin participated in the Greenwich Village Townhouse Bombing and was later caught with her apartment full of explosives and bomb-making materials intended to kill police in New Jersey. Not despite her terrorism: because of it. Now their law faculty are trying to free David Gilbert, who murdered two police officers and a security guard. They run the biggest anti-police law clinic in the country. To get admitted or hired you have to demonstrate your hatred of police. Haywood Burns and the openly communist NLG worked or work out of CUNY Law.
The self-cancellation by the president is the only slightly amusing thing to come out of CUNY Law in four decades.
Boo fuckin hoo. She retired a little earlier than she’d expected. STFU and enjoy your taxpayer and tuition funded pension
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