November 20, 2016

"The trouble began" the morning after the election, when the principal of West High emailed the teachers: "Please be positive and strong and teach the heck out of our kids today."

That's from paragraphs 17 and 18 of a NYT article, featured on the front page, titled "At Iowa High School, Election Results Kindle Tensions and Protests."

The first 16 paragraphs are about election-related speech at the Iowa high school. A 15-year-old girl who wears a hijab says she was bumped into and told "Go back home" by "a boy she barely knew." (Near the bottom of the article, we learn the boy says he didn't say that.) Another girl says she saw students chanting "Trump" when they walked by black students. And 2 girls who identify as conservative reported that other students were looking at them the wrong way and not treating them as equals.

Did the principal's email cause the problem? I've read the rest of the article, and I don't see the basis for the insinuation that teachers reacted to the principal with some sort of outrage at the instruction to "be positive." We hear of 2 teachers who talked to each other about the "Go back home" incident, wondering what they could do.

The Friday after Election Day and again the following Tuesday, students walked out of class in protest. The Friday protest is described in the NYT as marching and sign-carrying. The second one is described as sitting on the floor at the entrance of the school and wearing duct tape over their mouths.

It's hard to figure out what to think when the story is presented in an impressionistic fashion like this. The writer, Julie Bosman, seems, as one might expect, sympathetic with the protesting students and the distraught teachers. There are incidents that are reported as reports. We don't know if they really happened or happened exactly as reported. 2 students bumped into each other. Was that an accident, followed by some loose talk? Or was it deliberate harassment and part of a pattern? Protests ensued, but was it because of what students thought happened in that incident or was it because many of the students wanted to protest the election?

This feels like another one of the post-election stories about how the losing side is very emotional and justified in its anguish and the winning side is taking advantage in an evil way. That's the template. So I'm wary of the material that's being scraped together to fit the template.

That reminds me, I wanted to write a post about the "fake news" problem.

74 comments:

Paco Wové said...

I live elsewhere in Iowa, and stories about various sorts of ethnic trouble in Iowa City's schools are nothing new.

Otto said...

"So I'm wary of the material that's being scraped together to fit the template."
No sh*t red rider, what gave you your first clue.

Greg Hlatky said...

All "hate crimes" and incidents, especially those in an educational setting, against Identity groups are fake until proven otherwise.

Sydney said...

A similar tactic was used after 9/11. We had a proliferation of stories in our local newspaper about people being mean to Muslims. I always suspected they were fake, or if not outright faked, at least exaggerated.

Gahrie said...

This feels like another one of the post-election stories about how the losing side is very emotional and justified in its anguish and the winning side is taking advantage in an evil way.

OMG...you mean the media is still biased and trying to support the Democrats and attack the Republicans?

This is my shocked face.

This is what you get when children grow up getting participation trophies and never learn how to lose.

iqvoice said...

Isn't the ultimate motivation behind any of these things just to get outta class? Maybe I'm an old fart, but that was the unifying desire behind the majority of disruptions when I was in high school.

Oso Negro said...

It would be nice to see the winning side commit just one outrage on the order of, say, Oakland. Just to give the titty-cissies something real to whine about.

Quayle said...

I'm shocked! shocked! to find out that a hierarchical power play is going on in a high school.

PB said...

What do you expect from a fake news outlet?

Humperdink said...
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Humperdink said...

The more the left reacts like a collection of babies, the more the people who voted for Trump reluctantly will feel vindicated.

This will be fun to watch as the lefties become more unglued.

In the immortal words of Flounder: "Oh boy, is this great!".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arZdeg_fL-I

MayBee said...

Yes, I'd love to hear more from you on the 'fake news' problem.
This kind of story does seem like an offshoot of the same kind of thinking.

mesquito said...

Remember when the murder of four Americans in Libya was described as a harsh movie review? That was pretty fake.

David Begley said...

The real story here is the indoctrination of liberalism in high schools and how poorly educated these kids are today. Maybe they should be required to read that 8,000 word piece on race that Althouse blogged yesterday. Maybe the facts on Trump and race should be a examined before these kids walk out. And the Left should be ashamed of themselves for frightening these kids.

We had at least two high school walk outs here in Omaha. But not at the high school with the largest Hispanic population.

traditionalguy said...

The agreed propaganda narrative du jour seems to be that winners are bullies for winning.

But shaming winners for winning is not as much fun as the group loser chants pretend that it is. It is self defeating.

Etienne said...
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Quayle said...
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Quayle said...

Let's see: Mormons have been a part of American scene now since, when....1825, then were run out of Missouri in 1838 after govenor Boggs issued the exterminating order, then basically got constructively kicked out of the rest of America in 1846 after their leader was shot in jail by a mob, then even after putting more than 1500 tough-travel miles between them and the U.S. were invaded and "suppressed" by Johnston's army in the Utah War of 1857, then had their chosen form of marriage made illegal by Congress in 1862, then became subject to arrest and imprisonment (and many were) after congress passed the Edmunds act of 1882, then had their church legally disbanded and its property seized by law passed in congress in 1887 and which wasn't restored until the SCOTUS' ordered it in Mormon Church v. U.S., 136 U.S. 1 (1890).

And likely during Romny's run one or two Mormon kids in the country were bumped in the hallway. But even more, at that time the endearing phrase "magic underwear" was thrown around even in supposed major publications.

I don't recall the New York Times having an issue with any of the above - any of it. For a lot of it they were a full-on cheerleader.

Now suddenly they are in full alarm mode. Someone said something about a headscarf! Trump is Hitler! His suporters are Nazis. A wave of intolerance has been unleashed.

Pikers - all of 'em.

I actually rather feel sorry for our new religious immigrants and neighbors. They're missing out on the full American welcome wagon treatment.

tim in vermont said...
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tim in vermont said...

the New York Times has made it clear that they are in the business of promoting a 'narrative,' in other words, they are engaging in a rhetorical exercise, not a logical or empirical one. One of the most powerful tools of rhetoric is omission.

tcrosse said...

Martin Mull once described Show Business as High School with Money. So that helps explain the great Show Biz Tantrum over Trump.

narciso said...

bosman got the ferguson story wrong, in part fir relying on the crump/ Julian provided witness.

Sebastian said...

"This feels like another one of the post-election stories about how the losing side is very emotional and justified in its anguish and the winning side is taking advantage in an evil way. That's the template." Yeah, just like the last two times, when the losing side was very emotional and staged all these walkouts and accused the winners of ridiculing the crosses they were wearing and MSM reporters stopped by to portray the losers sympathetically to fit their template. Or wait, is the template actually to help progs and hurt cons, by any means necessary?

Lewis Wetzel said...

This is the kind of thing that happens when NPR (the teacher's favorite -- makes them think that they are intellectuals) instructs its presenters to refer to alt.right as a "white nationalist" group, but does not instruct its presenters to refer to BLM as a Black nationalist group.
http://ethics.npr.org/category/memos-from-memmott/#2915

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Unwitnessed incidents without corroborated evidence are all made up. They're pure political fabrications.

I'll pay attention to and give some credence to all reported incidents with independent witnesses, physical evidence and some independent evidence that the perpetrator(s) are actually Trump supporters.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

No proof needed. Just narrative and feelz.

Paddy O said...

As my wife noted, high schoolers are often horrible to each other. They're not really the best mirror of society.

Saint Croix said...

I wanted to write a post about the "fake news" problem.

I think it's a very good article for a high school newspaper.

Oh wait, it's the NYT.

Michael K said...

The NY Times has already abandoned its resolution to report news honestly, or whatever "Pinch" said the other day.

The left is crawling into its hole and pulling the hole in after themselves.

Electing Ellison will finish the job.

Brand said...

That reminds me, I wanted to write a post about the "fake news" problem.

Isn't what this post (and most posts about NYT articles) is about?

MayBee said...

It is kind of amazing that adults across the nation are being asked to get spun up about some drama in an Iowa high school.

Fernandinande said...

Great photo: "Children should be seen and not heard."

Greg Hlatky said...
All "hate crimes" and incidents, especially those in an educational setting, against Identity groups are fake until proven otherwise.


A safe rule of thumb is "Video with audio or it didn't happen."

Lewis Wetzel said...

I am gaining more respect for Trump.
Sessions is a great pick. If confirmed he can shut down the illegal immigrant traffic just by enforcing current law. This will make his base happy, and put congress on notice that they are going to have to choose between the US Chambers of Commerce immigration plan, or following the laws congress made.

narciso said...

They never intended it as such, they are confusing the shadows on the wall, with real life.

rhhardin said...

The news is the point. It keeps the desired story in front of everybody's eyes.

When the MSM finally gets regarded as soap opera and not news, it will finally not matter.

In the meantime, it's the Jessica in the well, Princess Di, story that's all there is.

Luke Lea said...

Racialism (i.e. playing the race card) is an elite strategy to divide and rule the electorate by interpreting all conflicts through the lense of race rather than class. Race divides, but class unites, class being the one thing working-class whites, browns, and blacks (i.e., the vast majority of all racial groups) have in common. We were hoping Obama would get us past race into a post-racial world. Ironically, if Trump's election is any guide, he may have done so by overplaying the race card in a country in which there is vanishingly little genuine racism. At least this is the way I am interpreting the current situation.

rhhardin said...

I've gotten tired of replacing failed hard drives (3 minutes) and reinstalling XP (4 hours), drivers, data from backups. There are no longer any interesting problems encountered, just drudge work and poorly designed software.

Mark said...

A 15-year-old girl who wears a hijab says she was bumped into and told "Go back home" by "a boy she barely knew." (Near the bottom of the article, we learn the boy says he didn't say that.)

It is rather curious that there are reports of the exact same thing happening in multiple places in recent days. In particular, I've seen stories of women/girls in hijabs in many places all over the country being bumped into or otherwise harassed and told to leave or to take off their hijabs. The details of the stories are all practically the same, as if they were all following from the same script.

Sam L. said...

If I have to read the NYT, I select my "How to read Pravda, Tass, and Izvestia" mode first.

harkin said...

Wow - the liberal press was introspective for about 48 hours.

Then they resumed their careers as "democratic operatives with bylines" as Glenn Reynolds says.

rhhardin said...

The trouble began ought to be a contest.

rhhardin said...

"Little did he know" would be a similar contest to "The trouble began."

Fernandinande said...

rhhardin said...
I've gotten tired of replacing failed hard drives (3 minutes) and reinstalling XP (4 hours), drivers, data from backups

I just replaced my dying HD with an SSD, but being Linux rather than Winos, it consisted of copying the OS's from a USB backup (4 minutes X 2), and a few minutes of fiddling.

There are no longer any interesting problems encountered, just drudge work and poorly designed software.
The new-as-of-a-few-days-ago Amazon TV interface for a series is awful and it's probably Trump's fault.

cacimbo said...

There are dozens of video of violent leftists rioting in Portland. There is video of a white man being beaten while blacks shout Trump at him in Chicago. There is video of a man being beaten in CA for daring to wear a "Make America Great Again" hat. Another Trump hat wearer in NYC filed a police report after he was choked and beaten on the subway for wearing his hat. On Bloggingheads "Glenn Show" Mcwhorter acknowledged a white teacher he knows who votes Democrat was surrounded by her black/brown students accusing her of voting Trump. A good friend of mine who is white, was surrounded by Chinese/Hispanic co-workers screaming in her face. The presumption being that based on her skin color she was a Trump voter. She told them "you don't know how I voted." This was in an employee only area of a major Hotel chain located in Brooklyn. She was petrified for her safety and felt admitting voting Trump would have resulted in them jumping her. Documented violence is all being done by the left. This does not fit the narrative so media has resorted to elevating high school squabbles into national news. Meanwhile, we are told of the dangers of"fake news." They are desperate to hide reality.

lrh said...

Yes the "Fake News" head fake needs follow up but there is a second track to study. You know the first. Media giants, legacy news people are horrified to have to share the stage with anyone else especially non-elites with disconfirming evidence.

But the second is to follow the money. Twitter, Facebook, every news website are all frantic for revenues. Gatekeeping, creating chokepoints, restricting competition, these are the tactics from playbook of "bad" big businesses. If they can join with the cry bullies and the bureaucracy to control and restrict they can make their money the old fashioned way... holding down competition and keep communication expensive again.

Quaestor said...

“It’s showing solidarity and unity,” Wala Sidding, a junior, said of protests at the school. “It’s showing that we’re not going to tolerate all this bigotry that’s happening.”

Which doesn't include attacks on Trump supporters, I'm sure.

JAORE said...

"The writer, Julie Bosman, seems, as one might expect, sympathetic with the protesting students and the distraught teachers."

That - as one might expect - tells me the NYT has lost Ms. Althouse as a reader that buys in.

Fernandinande said...

More Trump voters creating "denigrating" situations:

Monkey incident sparks clashes in southern Libyan city of Sabha, 16 dead
...
"The monkey pulled off one of the girls' head scarf, leading men from the Awlad Suleiman tribe to retaliate by killing three people from the Gaddadfa tribe as well as the monkey, according to a resident who spoke to Reuters.
...
"There was an escalation on the second and third days with the use of tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons," the resident told Reuters by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the denigrating security situation."



Virgil Hilts said...

I'm from Nebraska, and Iowa (Trump by 9%) has always confused. Trump won surrounding prairie/ farm states by 25%(NE), 21%(KS), 19% (MO), 30%(SD), 20%(IN), 30% (KY). Iowa is even whiter than NE. So what gives? 538 tried to explain it a few years ago with liberal superiority analysis. I prefer to think that Iowans are just kind of clueless. Idea for license plate a few years back - "Iowa, gateway to Nebraska!"

Ipso Fatso said...

Virgil Hilts:

My guess is that the Iowa map looks a lot like the Illinois map. Meaning, the urban areas such as Des Moines, Quad cities (yes I know that only 2 of them are in Iowa but they are pretty reliably D)and Cedar Rapids trend D while the rest of the state votes R. Given that Iowa is largely rural those D votes are concentrated and potent while the R vote gets spread out.

I'm from Illinois, Chicago and Cook County infects the state with over a million D votes every election with the attendant political dysfunction that follows. Just a guess, for what it is worth.

Static Ping said...

My takeaways:

1. I do not trust the New York Times. At all. They are not an impartial news organization and frankly are, at this point, less reliable than The National Enquirer. I believe they would lie to me and even when they tell the truth they will spin the facts to mislead. If given the choice I would read political party press releases given at least they are honest about their biases and, on the whole, probably have better fact checking.

2. Having begrudgingly read the article, this is a clear and obvious attempt to provide a biased narrative. I mean, seriously, high school? High school drama is not noteworthy at all. If it was, the local newspaper would be a weekly tome to cover it all.

3. Assuming the story is accurate, which I do not concede given the source, this looks like the normal fruits of political correctness. Those that are praised for their victim status are advertising their victim status, real or imagined. Those that use politics as a substitute for religion are acting like the apocalypse is upon us and are searching out for sinners to condemn. And those that have been determined to be acceptable targets of PC culture are not taking well to be dumped upon and the victim-oppressors are shocked - shocked - that treating other people like crap may have consequences.

4. What really concerns me is the overwrought reaction to this election in some circles. If these people make up any substantial part of the population and are not just some loud "look at me" minority, we will have a civil war. There is literally no way to reason or compromise with irrational fundamentalists with an eliminationist goal. It's inevitable and horrifying. Given the media is untrustworthy, I don't know what the current situation is. When they said voters were motivated by fear, the fear was not irrational.

Greg said...

If you remember the old Adam West Batman series, the evil lair was always on a slant. Trump tower = evil lair to NYT

Gahrie said...

What really concerns me is the overwrought reaction to this election in some circles. If these people make up any substantial part of the population and are not just some loud "look at me" minority, we will have a civil war

As I have said before, the last time the Democrats were this hysterical, Lincoln had just been elected. Secession took place before Lincoln took office.

Karen said...

http://www.vulture.com/2016/11/michael-shannon-is-on-an-anti-trump-rage-tour.html

If the New York Times had its way, this would be the kind of people running the country.

tim in vermont said...

"Little did he know" would be a similar contest to "The trouble began."

I was thinking that a great way to end your writing of fiction for a given day would be to write one of those cliche phrases as inspiration for the next scene. Not use it, but just leave it there in the draft to send your mind in a new direction. I am making a list.

LYNNDH said...

Today's Denver Post was the same. The left "feels" frighten, and there were stories about harassment of Hispanics, Gays and LGBT people. I have my doubts. But "they" do not understand that people like me would have "felt" frighten by a Hillary win. Of course our "feelings" would not have been valid, right? I mean no new gun laws, white people would not have been called racist because they are white, men would not be called rapist because they are just men? Now of course being a white, male, educated BA/MA when educated meant educated) I am a redneck, uneducated racist, woman-hating, Nazis.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Very emotional" is something liberals do all the time. In an affluent society, ideology probably has less to do with environment or intellect, and more to do with the ease with which one was toilet trained.

Owen said...

Mark @ 9:17: "...The details of the stories are all practically the same, as if they were all following from the same script."

One hypothesis would be, Ministry of Truth sent out a memo. The more economical hypothesis is, one bogus story hits the media mainstream and every other hysterical wannabe borrows whatever is best, to construct similar look-at-me claims. The atmosphere of moral panic, and the collapse of forensic standards of proof, allow all this stuff to burn out of control. Ideally it consumes itself with little collateral damage but in fact I worry that it will reach a critical threshold.

Sad!

Big Mike said...

Trump looks more overweight in the unslanted picture.

Seeing Red said...

Now if they'd keep the duct tape on until they graduate.

Martin said...

On November 3, and with considerable reluctance, I decided that Clinton represented the bigger threat to peace and American constitutional government, so I would hold my nose and vote for Trump.

Everything the left and the mainstream media has said and done since about 10:00 pm on election night convinces me that I voted correctly, and while I am still watching closely, I no longer consider myself a "reluctant" Trump supporter... the alternative is proving themselves too hideous for words.

Sal said...

So, people all over the US are talking about some school kid who bumped into another school kid (wearing a hijab) and told her to "go back home". And it only maybe happened. That's almost as bad as a college kid at a Halloween football game wearing a mask of the President and a noose.

tim in vermont said...

Suggestion from CNN as to how to spot "Fake News"

Did you know there is actually an International Fact-Checking Network (which Mantzarlis leads)? And that it has a code of principles? The code includes the ideals of nonpartisanship and transparency, among others. Sites like FactCheck.org, Snopes and Politifact abide by this code, so if you see a debunking there, you know you're getting the real deal.

LO FUCKING L!

Jupiter said...

Static Ping said...

"There is literally no way to reason or compromise with irrational fundamentalists with an eliminationist goal."

In the last few years, the Democrats have largely stopped pretending to seek a working compromise with their fellow citizens. They have begun to openly express their intention to seize and retain power over the territory of this nation by altering its demographic composition. They have not yet drawn the evident conclusion, which is that "ethnic cleansing" is a faster and easier approach to the same goal. Not openly, anyway.

Achilles said...

We don't want the women forced by male muslims to wear a hijab to go home. We want the men who force them to wear hijabs and beat them to go home.

TBlakely said...

The left has a well documented penchant for fake 'hate' crimes. I figure the vast majority of reported Trumpers hate crimes are fabrications to further the 'narrative'.

Fernandinande said...

LYNNDH said...
Today's Denver Post was the same.


"Amber Timmons, a transgender woman[sic], woke Wednesday morning to find graffiti covering her Nissan SUV on Nov. 16, 2016."

More pictures - looks like a pretty serious spray-painting. National news!

Trigger warning: red-neck-ish butt-crack:
"Friends turned-out to scrub the hateful writing off her SUV to remove any trace of the disturbing, transphobic acts by the unknown vandals." (Apparently not reported to police.)

"As word of the vandalism spread, someone claimed Timmons did this herself, going so far as to claim they had surveillance video to prove she bought the spray-paint. Facebook removed her post after receiving those complaints, something that made Timmons feel victimized all over again."

Heh.

Scott Anderson said...

Treating the result of an election, through the sending of these emails and of safe space counseling, as the equivalent of a school shooting or deadly weather event continues to demonize one half (or more) of the country. It's not just silly but seriously dangerous.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Tim in Vermont said . .
". . . The code includes the ideals of nonpartisanship . . ."
Lol, looks like the quoted writer is one of the many, many journalists who do not understand the difference between nonpartisan and unbiased.
I'm registered as an independent.
I am nonpartisan.

Et Cetera said...

Drama queens in high school? OMG! what else is new?

Et Cetera said...

Drama queens in high school? OMG! what else is new?

Jon Ericson said...

a different look at this insanity

Bandit said...

How much sleep am I supposed to lose because some teenage halfwit spray paints a swastika on a storage container? None??

OK I'm good then

gerry said...

That's the template.

Well, and as we now know, NYT editorial staff dictates the template the reporters must research to support.