May 20, 2022

"It was a fraudulent firing from the beginning.... Just because George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy, doesn’t mean the social mob gets to go around demanding people get fired just because they are offended by controversial comments."

Said Charles Negy, quoted in "University Must Reinstate Professor Who Tweeted About ‘Black Privilege’/An arbitrator found that the University of Central Florida failed to show 'just cause' last year when it fired Charles Negy, a tenured professor whose comments generated outrage on campus" (NYT). 

The university said: "U.C.F. stands by the actions taken following a thorough investigation that found repeated misconduct in Professor Negy’s classroom, including imposing his views about religion, sex and race. However, we are obligated to follow the arbitrator’s ruling."

What did Negy say? We're given 2 tweets: 

1. “If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming ‘systematic racism’ exists?”

2. “Black privilege is real: Besides affirm. action, special scholarships and other set asides, being shielded from legitimate criticism is a privilege. But as a group, they’re missing out on much needed feedback.”

97 comments:

gilbar said...

Sshhh!! You Can NOT say truth out loud!!! Shut UP!! The Thought Police will hear us!

Lyle said...

America is in deep trouble if state universities think they did the right thing in censoring this man's reasonable, learned speech.

Ice Nine said...

He lost me at, "...George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy..."

Heartless Aztec said...

Complete utter concurrence and I say that from the vantage point of a retired 37 year inner city social studies teacher. I could write for paragraphs on the subject but will let my first sentence stand alone and unadorned.

rhhardin said...

They're correct but not framed as being helpful to blacks. Which they would be, framed correctly.

The death of George Floyd was not a national tragedy. It was uncomprehending national wokeness. The knee to the neck is a way to apply light but immobile force. Call it low impedence - if you try to move you suddenly meet the weight of the retrainer, but not much force if you lie still.

Robert Cook said...

"America is in deep trouble...."

Yes.

Mike Sylwester said...

College students tend to accept the guilt-tripping argument that some students are "privileged". They still are rather dependent on and grateful to their parents.

After they graduate and begin to live more independently, however, that guilt-tripping argument soon loses its effect on them. More and more, they attribute their own successes and failures to their own efforts.

In retrospect, they recognize that their own successes and failures in college were not determined by their "privileges". Rather, they were determined by how energetically, effectively and wisely they studied.

Did they read their textbooks or did they smoke pot? Did they do their homework promptly or did they wait until the last minutes? Did they take challenging courses or easy courses?

Their supposed "privilege" was just a minor factor in their academic successes and failures.

wendybar said...

What both Lyle and Ice Nine said!!

tim in vermont said...

When you are on a subway platform and have this strange desire to hop down and grab the third rail.

tim maguire said...

Ice Nine said...He lost me at, "...George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy..."

I think they're legally required to say that.

lys said...

Apparently, it's okay to fire college professors who discuss their views on sex and race in the classroom to adults, but it's not okay to fire kindergarten teachers who discuss their view on sex and race in the classroom to 5 year olds.

hombre said...

Everybody knows it is systemic racism to recite factual information about Black America.It is particularly racist to offer an opinion based on a logical interpretation of such facts.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Those two tweets are accurate. Too bad that the great majority of black leafers are so blind to reality. Or so corrupt.

Joe Smith said...

Isn't truth a valid defense?

It wasn't a 'national tragedy.' It might have been a tragedy for Floyd and for the cities burned and the businesses looted.

I thought tenured professors were essentially bullet-proof?

I guess I haven't kept up.

Aggie said...

The story isn't being fully reported I guess - otherwise, why would an arbitrator's findings be ignored in spirit? The University says they'll 'comply' but if, at the same time, they declare that they stand by their original decision-making process, then how is that compliance? They are declaring that they're committed to making this professor's life miserable until he quits. I hope there are some nice juicy expensive lawsuits coming on the subject of hostile workplace and on-the-job harassment. Bleed'em till they drop, burn the corpse, salt the earth. We have forgotten how wars are really won.

Tommy Duncan said...

Let that sink in a while. Our heroes are now career criminals who sell and use illegal drugs and who die of a drug overdose while violently resisting arrest.

Our enemies are now the parents of young children who are concerned about what their children are being taught in their grade school classes.

Kate said...

Writing a tweet is like composing poetry. A hundred complex thoughts must be condensed into the fewest, most impactful words possible. However, twitter, unlike poetry, expects someone to process this and tweet in the blink of an eye. This person is thinking like Wordsworth and posting like Pound.

Joe Smith said...

Hey, I have a great idea.

Let's treat women and minorities like children in this advanced, technological society.

We'll give them special privileges like extra points on standardized tests, promote them when it's not merited...you know, just like children when you give them participation trophies.

Trust me, it'll work out great!

MartyH said...

His firing proves the second cited tweet-that black privilege exists.

Kevin said...

imposing his views about religion, sex and race.

So taking the opposite positions are also imposing views about religion, sex and race?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"U.C.F. stands by the actions taken following a thorough investigation that found repeated misconduct in Professor Negy’s classroom, including imposing his views about religion, sex and race."

So, do they claim how he did that?

It would be nice to have a comparison between how he "imposed his views about religion, sex and race", compared to how the approved left wing propagandists who call themselves "professors" do it

Greg The Class Traitor said...

lys said...
Apparently, it's okay to fire college professors who discuss their views on sex and race in the classroom to adults, but it's not okay to fire kindergarten teachers who discuss their view on sex and race in the classroom to 5 year olds.

Oh, lys wins the thread

Moondawggie said...

Negy's dilemma reminds me of one of Instapundit's observations:

"It is unwise to bring up inconvenient facts, comrade!"

Glad to see the would-be commisars at CFU can still get slapped down in the US.

Douglas B. Levene said...

What’s interesting is that the Times reported on (I think) the same day that Princeton was planning to fire a heralded tenured professor in exactly the same way that UCF fired Nagy. Princeton was offended by comments that Professor Katz made that violated the Princeton orthodoxy on race and so Princeton went back through Katz’s history to find a firing offense and managed to dredge one up. I hope Katz sues and wins tens of millions in punitive damages.

Enigma said...

The arbitrator supported him, as his tweets were benign and rather helpful observations. This process is the first phase of the woke left walking back many ridiculous efforts of the last 5+ years. Many moderate lefties now need an "authority" to give them permission to "object" to the extreme nonsense that they never believed. They were frightened conformists who first tried compassion and compromise with the hard left. That painted them in a corner, hoisted them on their own petard, and resulted in pyrrhic victories (over Trump).

Many on the left now need "moderate" or "centrist" words...they will conform once again and 100% reject the woke stuff within 5 years. That's the way of life for unprincipled social followers.

Robert Cook said...

"The knee to the neck is a way to apply light but immobile force. Call it low impedence - if you try to move you suddenly meet the weight of the retrainer, but not much force if you lie still."

And yet, this "low impedance" force--which Officer Chauvin continued to apply against Floyd for minutes after he had stopped resisting--killed Floyd.

Police officers are granted tremendous power and discretion in their dealings with the public, and it is their responsibility to know what kind of force to apply, when to apply it, and when to stop applying, relative to changing circumstances moment to moment. Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

traditionalguy said...

Voltaire said our rulers are those whom we cannot make fun of or criticize. Ergo: king Obama of Kenya still rules us.

Dave Begley said...

Today, the University of Wisconsin would probably fire Althouse for not only thinking and writing unapproved thoughts, but also hosting a blog with all sorts of wrongthink comments.

Robert Cook said...

From COUNTERPUNCH this morning:

"+ According to data the Marshall Project collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2015 more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."

TreeJoe said...

If a black professor said those things, would they be fireable?

If not, then firing him is racist.

Anthony said...

As someone recently wrote, if the Left had written The Emperor's New Clothes, the little boy would have been the villain. . .

Michael K said...

Cook quoting "Counterpunch." No wonder he sounds deluded. Angry leftists invent causes. The war on police is already having drastic effects. Look at Chicago, if you can stand it.

Richard Aubrey said...

Robert Cook. Actually, no. I followed the trial. Unfair, I know. The ME found no trauma to the airway. But at least a triple-fatal dose of drugs in Floyd. Who was claiming "I can't breathe" while standing up. Maybe it's an Eric Garner thing.
Also, the knee was on the back near the shoulder according to different camera angles and according to MPD training.

Now, tell me about Justine Damond and all that outrage.... You know, she was....oh, forget it.

Robert Cook said...

Also from COUNTERPUNCH this morning:

"+ NYC Mayor Eric Adams this week: “I have never in my professional career, have never witnessed crime at this level.” Hmm. Let’s go to the stat sheet…"


+ In a Facebook posting, Texas’ Department of Public Safety claimed that troopers had “encountered over 700 criminal gang members” during Operation Lone Star. When reporters asked for proof, they were forced to admit that gang affiliation is not a metric tracked by the Department.

Robert Cook said...

"Voltaire said our rulers are those whom we cannot make fun of or criticize. Ergo: king Obama of Kenya still rules us."

Not at all. Obama was ridiculed throughout his term in the White House and he continues to be ridiculed today...as you just did.

tim maguire said...

Robert Cook said...Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

I'm inclined to give police a lot of leeway and am reluctant to engage in armchair quarterbacking, but too many cops, including one I know personally, think Chauvin is a scumbag who deserved his conviction.

To me, the most fascinating part of this case by far is the fact that Chauvin and Floyd knew each other. I really wish we had a real news media that was willing to explore this angle instead of just lazy cheerleaders for the rioters.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

"+ According to data the Marshall Project collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2015 more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."

I guess this is supposed to sound bad, but:

1) how bad were the injuries
2) who started the violence
3) did the police use minimum required force
4) how many people were saved a trip to the emergency room or the morgue because the police used force

And I say this as someone who isn't necessarily a big fan of the police.

Ever wonder why there are so many tv programs about cops?

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

Also, apparently LA Sherriff's deputies have their own gangs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoF8RmohTB4&t=971s

tim maguire said...

Robert Cook said..."more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."

I suspect or is doing an awful lot of work in that sentence.

wendybar said...

Not at all. Obama was ridiculed throughout his term in the White House and he continues to be ridiculed today...as you just did.

BY WHOM?? Not any professor or media person. Americans citizens with free speech...sure...but if you want comparisons...look at what the left called Trump and his supporters since he came down that escalator. Obama was worshipped in comparison. The media swooned for him...and still do.

Kevin said...

If a black professor said those things, would they be fireable?

If a black professor said those things, they would be "not black".

Yancey Ward said...

"Not at all. Obama was ridiculed throughout his term in the White House and he continues to be ridiculed today...as you just did."

He was ridiculed by people who couldn't be punished for doing so. Show me anyone in a university job, for example, who ridiculed him, or any bureaucrat in the US or a blue state government that did so. I am free to ridicule him- retired, wealthy, and out of fucks to give. Were I still in my job, though, I wouldn't free to do so.

n.n said...

Floyd suffered from a fentanyl-induced progressive condition that preceded, and, in fact, prompted a premature exit from the police vehicle. The assembled mob prevented timely access by authorized medical personnel to treat his condition. There is no evidence that diversity [dogma] (e.g. racism) was a motive for the arrest, transport, or subsequent restraint to mitigate injury caused by his progressive condition.

Bruce Hayden said...

“And yet, this "low impedance" force--which Officer Chauvin continued to apply against Floyd for minutes after he had stopped resisting--killed Floyd.”

Nope. His fentanyl OD killed him. Testimony by the numerous, highly paid, state’s experts to the contrary. Thank you MN AG and Black Racist Keith Ellison and the taxpayers of MN, who paid for that testimony. Black Racist Ellison wanted a show trial, and got it.

“Police officers are granted tremendous power and discretion in their dealings with the public, and it is their responsibility to know what kind of force to apply, when to apply it, and when to stop applying, relative to changing circumstances moment to moment. Chauvin murdered George Floyd.”

Floyd was put in that position to prevent him aspirating his own vomit, as a result of his having ingested a fatal dosage of fentanyl. That is what happens with narcotics ODs. That situation didn’t change. He was still ODing. He was ODing up until the sedative effects of the fentanyl eventually stopped his heart. The ambulance had been called Code 2, but that was upped to Code 3 when Floyd took a turn for the worst. But the crowd was already in riot mode, and the ambulance, even with lights and siren, couldn’t get through them. The ambulance crew likely could have saved Floyd By promptly giving him a narcotics antidote, which they carry, but the Minneapolis police didn’t. That was very likely the only thing that could have saved Floyd, and they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd starting to riot. Changing Floyd’s position, or uncuffing him and letting him walk away (by then he couldn’t), wouldn’t have helped or keep him alive. Just the administration of a narcotics antidote.

n.n said...

Angry leftists invent causes. The war on police is already having drastic effects. Look at Chicago, if you can stand it.

In left-wing ideology, the virtuous pursuit of minority redistribution of capital, control, with social progress, all's fair in lust and abortion, love and war.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It’s true. Privilege is a shield from criticism.

Beasts of England said...

’ George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy’

Wasn’t he the guy who had a bunch of Fentanyl shoved up his ass? ��

Quaestor said...

Imposers of views on religion, sex, and race cannot tolerate competition.

n.n said...

George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy

Yeah, the nation insurrections, burning, looting, abortions, and neighborhood invasions and intimidation followed what was a self-abortion by Choice and assembled mob.

That said, Baby Lives Matter (BLM).

Quaestor said...

Robert Cook writes, "'America is in deep trouble...' Yes."

The devil is in the ellipses.

William said...

There are many white people in America and a fair number of them are racially prejudiced. That's not the same thing as "systemic racism"....I'm okay with some forms of affirmative action, but it's not fair that someone like Kamala Harris, whose background is far more privileged than mine not only gets a leg up but also gets to moan about mistreatment. On the persecuted privileged spectrum, she falls heavily to the privileged side....A Black person is more likely than a white person to encounter prejudice in everyday encounters, but, so far as systemic racism goes, a Black person is the one with options above market value.. ...Race problems are intractable, but, if we refrain from murdering each other for another five or six generations, they will gradually disappear. Americans are not like Kamala's Brahmin forebears and do not hold grudges for centuries.

Skeptical Voter said...

So much for speaking truth to power on a college campus.

Ann Althouse said...

“ What’s interesting is that the Times reported on (I think) the same day that Princeton was planning to fire a heralded tenured professor in exactly the same way that UCF fired Nagy.”

I’ve had an open tab on that all morning. Will get to …

Original Mike said...

"And yet, this "low impedance" force--which Officer Chauvin continued to apply against Floyd for minutes after he had stopped resisting--"

Fox Butterfield, call your office…

"killed Floyd."

The evidence is the drugs Floyd took is what killed him.

Whiskeybum said...

Robert Cook said...
From COUNTERPUNCH this morning:

"+ According to data the Marshall Project collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2015 more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."


You'd have to be Fox Butterworth to believe that statement in any way supports the argument you seem to be making. Of course police/security guards are going to be involved in 'violent interactions' - that comes along with their metier. How many of those violent interactions were initiated by the persons treated in the emergency room? (and another good question - does the 400,000 include officers injured in the interactions?).

(And a tangential question from the above report: what do police interactions have to do with disease control?? Is violence now considered a disease?)

Michael K said...

Affirmative Action is a sacrament, just like abortion. That's why mentioning it will get you fired unless you praise it.

Eleanor said...

Professor Katz's crime was saying the best route to success is to finish school, get a job, get married, and then have kids. Stating the obvious is racist. Because having three baby mammas at 14, dropping out at 16 when you finish 8th grade, and joining a gang is equally as good a path to take. It will get you three squares and a cot, and the government will support your kids for you. It's all in the definition of "success".

Jefferson's Revenge said...

I think Dave Begley asks an interesting question of Professor A. If she was still employed and teaching, would she feel comfortable hosting this site and posting some of these comments? Or would she self-censor out of concern for her safety/career/future? In today's climate, self censorship would be the safe prudent thing and one individual could not be blamed for doing so. Who would want to be their college's first free speech martyr?

Josephbleau said...

"400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."

I assume that if you are going to violently interact with police, you may get hurt, that says nothing with regard to who is at fault. In Chicago, according to crime stats, I am much more likely to go to an emergency room due to being slashed or shot by a criminal than by police. Why don't you promote ethical rape, carjacking, and strong arm robbery, where the gang is obligated to secure your safety while they force you to hand over your property or sexually assault you? That would help more than screaming about police.

Rusty said...

Robert Cook said...
"From COUNTERPUNCH this morning:"
The WaPo for people even more left than the WaPo readership.

""+ According to data the Marshall Project collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2015 more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards.""

You might find this odd, Bob, but nothing happens in a vacuum. I know right! If you find yourself in the ER after an encounter with law enforcement I can bet 99.7% of the time you made the first move.

PM said...

Floyd's death was a flashpoint, not a national tragedy.
What has followed his death IS a national tragedy.

MalaiseLongue said...

After more than half a century of modern-day affirmative action as applied to the lives and opportunities of black Americans, I can understand, without endorsing, the reasoning behind Professor Negy's second tweet.

But his first tweet seems to me less defensible.

For one thing, "having the highest income" (as Negy says of Asian Americans) isn't necessarily a matter of a group's "behavioral profile," since "systematic" (sic) racism, apart from any person's or group's behavior, may in fact close off economic opportunities for some black Americans.

For another, the tweet doesn't acknowledge systemic racism as a possible factor in an individual's or a group's lower academic performance and higher rate of participation in crime.

And for yet another, the tweet has an overall whiff of collective responsibility -- for good, in the case of Asian Americans, and for ill, in the case of black Americans.

I certainly don't think Professor Negy should have been fired, but some of his thinking about racism, as represented by his first tweet, strikes me as illogical and bigoted.

Josephbleau said...

Mayor Lightfoot could require gangs to post a bond forfeitable if they injure a victim, proportional to the cash volume of the crime they commit. So if they sell "cocaine" to high school kids with a bit too much fentanyl they would have to pay, say $1,000 per dead kid. You have to keep the penalty down some so that the gangs have enough money left over to keep making political contributions to the ward boss.

pacwest said...

Mr. Cook - You might want to run a fact check on the Floyd comment... Nevermind. Best to just run with what you've been told. Keeps the image in the mirror more palatable.

Cook aside, I'm consistently amazed by the people who after being constantly corrected still believe in the Ministry of Truth's output. It's astounding.

tommyesq said...

1. “If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming ‘systematic racism’ exists?”

Maybe I am dense, but I don't see how this is relevant to the question of whether systematic racism exists - the argument is (or at least entails) that African Americans have lower income as a result of systemic racism, are overly targeted by law enforcement due to systemic racism, and suffer academically due to the poor quality of the schools that they are forced to attend, due in part to systemic racism directly and to the consequences of living in lower income neighborhoods due to having a lower collective income due to systemic racism.

I am not saying that any of that is true - I suspect it is a combination of historic trends, cultural influences within the African American community, on-going actual racism (but not from everybody), and some residual misbelief/mistrust by the rest of America as to how an African American will perform academically/socially/financially based on the existence of all of the above. I also believe that anyone who attributes any of the problems of the black community solely to either blacks or whites are foolish or deliberately misrepresenting what they believe in their hearts to be true.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Robert Cook said...
"+ According to data the Marshall Project collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2015 more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms after violent interactions with police or security guards."

1: "Since 2015". So, let's son 1/1/15 - 1/1/22: so that's spread over 7 years.. And comes to "less than 60k people a year"
2: "treated in emergency rooms". That's a rather broad range. People get "treated in emergency rooms" for cuts and scrapes, and for gunshot wounds, and limbs being destroyed. So the metric promises much, but delivers little
3: "after violent interactions with". Who started the violence? Doesn't say. If you attack someone, are they allowed to fight back, and do things to you that might send you to the ER?
4: "police or security guards". That "or" is most likely doing a lot of work. And shows fundamental dishonest on you source's part.

Because less policing means more private security guards. So if private security guards do more damage on average than cops, the Left's "defund the police" policies will make that number worse

One of the Left's big problems is that they refuse to actually engage with the Right. Which makes it difficult for them to make worthwhile arguments.

Bubbles are bad for you Cookie

Jupiter said...

The guy is obviously a dangerous lunatic. He thinks George Floyd's death was "a national tragedy".

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Hey MalaiseLongue, you clearly don't understand the first tweet, or its purpose.

What Nagy was saying was that claims of "systemic racism" are examples of backward reasoning:
You start with an end result (blacks doing poorly) and from there you immediately jump to it's the fault of 'systemic racism', not of them and their choices!"

IOW, he's showing that all claims of "systemic racism" are statements of faith, rather than reasoned argument.

Oh, and no, you don't get to assume the existence of "systemic racism", and then claim he's wrong because it "really exists."

You have to prove that, not claim it.

And, as he points out, you can't in fact prove that

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

I woke up this morning to find the small crack in my windshield had expanded. It's a national tragedy.

Jupiter said...

"And yet, this "low impedance" force--which Officer Chauvin continued to apply against Floyd for minutes after he had stopped resisting--killed Floyd."

Cookie, stow it. Floyd died of a self-administered overdose of fentanyl. And it was probably the best thing he did in his entire life. The man was a powerful argument for abortion.

Ann Althouse said...

"I think Dave Begley asks an interesting question of Professor A. If she was still employed and teaching, would she feel comfortable hosting this site and posting some of these comments? Or would she self-censor out of concern for her safety/career/future? In today's climate, self censorship would be the safe prudent thing and one individual could not be blamed for doing so. Who would want to be their college's first free speech martyr?"

It took some nerve to do what I did at the time, and in fact, I worried a lot and encountered some opposition and threats. It is a great relief to be retired. Would it be worse now? I got out just before the Trump administration began, so I didn't get to see how that affected people.

Robert Cook said...

Richard Aubrey said...

"Robert Cook. Actually, no. I followed the trial. Unfair, I know. The ME found no trauma to the airway. But at least a triple-fatal dose of drugs in Floyd. Who was claiming "I can't breathe" while standing up. Maybe it's an Eric Garner thing."

Two autopsies found Floyd's death to be the result of homicide, though they each found different specific causes for his death.

Among the discretion and responsibilities that should be (and are) exercised by good and conscientious police officers--which Chauvin definitely was not, given his actions on the day he killed Floyd and given the trail of prior complaints against him for similar behavior--is to observe and listen to persons they are interacting with, especially if the interaction is an arrest. They should be aware if the persons they're arresting appear to be having health crises. Floyd--like Eric Garner--complained he could not breathe; in both cases, the police did not let up on their constrictive holds to see if their respective arrestees were actually in crisis. (Moreover, in Floyd's case, he had stopped resisting and had been still for several minutes before Chauvin removed his knee from Floyd's neck.)

In both cases, the persons being arrested--both for minor charges--DIED.

If a suspect repeats "I can't breathe" over and over, the police should fucking STOP what they're doing. The "resisting" could be the panicked and perhaps involuntary thrashing of someone gasping desperately for breath.

Even if the direct cause of death was not suffocation resulting from the police officers' restraints in these two cases, but because of poor health of Garner and Floyd, respectively, exacerbated to the point of death by the restraints of the police, the police are responsible; their actions resulted in the deaths of these men. Bluntly, they did murder these men.

Michael K said...

(And a tangential question from the above report: what do police interactions have to do with disease control?? Is violence now considered a disease?)

Oh yes. The CDC and the pediatrics associations now consider guns or any violence to be their business. We have just seen how well they manage these "health" issues.

Butkus51 said...

Participating in this discussion is racist to some.

Jupiter said...

Academia has already found a way to avoid this problem in the future. Any white person applying for an academic position is now required to write a groveling screed proclaiming his devotion to diversity, and describing his past efforts to advance that singularly desirable goal. We can expect that as matters progress, these "affirmations" will become longer and more ornate, and less and less credible. Indeed, I wonder whether the shark has not already been jumped.

The fiction of racial equality was originally a sort of common-sense rejection of prejudices which had become embarrassing. Wouldn't it be nicer if ...? The willingness to make that leap of faith enabled persons of a certain tendency to recognize one another, and to band together against those unlike themselves. But it has become harder and harder to pretend that those prejudices were baseless, as the evidence stacks up like cordwood. At the same time, it has become more and more necessary to pretend to believe, as any least sign of doubt is grounds for destruction. Anyone who has reached a position of authority in modern academia has, perforce, long since abandoned any vestigial allegiance to truth and reason. Those notions don't even cross their minds, as they grapple with their "colleagues" under the savage and pitiless rules they have imposed upon themselves. Think of the audience at Stalin's speech, beating their own palms bloody in their determination not to be the first to stop clapping.

Maynard said...

It is a great relief to be retired. Would it be worse now? I got out just before the Trump administration began, so I didn't get to see how that affected people.

I cannot describe just how relieved I am to have retired in 2018.

After Trump was elected in 2016, I had two years of biting my tongue bloody in the Psych practice that employed me. It was not just colleagues, but the chronically depressed clients who hated Trump the most. There was a constant drumbeat of anti-Trump hysteria that seemed way over the top.

Ray - SoCal said...

I am still amazed by the Rodeo Clown that was destroyed / cancled, for making fun of Obama. He had made fun of ever President before him.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-clown-obama-20130812,0,1862612.story

>Robert Cook said...

>Not at all. Obama was ridiculed throughout his term in the White House and he continues to be
>ridiculed today...as you just did.

robother said...

For the last 100 years, the determination of what constitutes a "National Tragedy" has been the exclusive province of leftist newspaper writers and authors such as Theodore Dreiser. The tragic flaw is of course the American System (capitalist, racist, exploitative). George Floyd is just the latest in a long line of fictional and real characters advancing the narrative.

From Dreiser and Sinclair up to Patrice Cullors, there is a damn good living in America off exploiting these victim's "tragedies". Sophocles could appreciate the irony.

Robert Cook said...

"You might find this odd, Bob, but nothing happens in a vacuum. I know right! If you find yourself in the ER after an encounter with law enforcement I can bet 99.7% of the time you made the first move."

It certainly must make it easier for to sleep at night by telling yourself such comforting bullshit. Aren't all you right-wing Trumper guys (and gals) on this site always complaining that government is fucked up, never works right, etc., etc.? How is it, then, that you're all so quick to absolve the police of responsibility for their unprofessionalism (at best) and brutality (at worst)? Encounters with the police are the most frequent direct contacts Americans have with our government.

Doesn't the right like to call people "sheeple?" Well, anyone who can deny the nationwide problem of police violence, putting it all or mostly down to those who are victims of police violence, is a "sheeple."

I don't think most police officers are malevolent thugs looking for opportunities to brutalize the public. However, there are enough of them who are that people guilty of only minor infractions--or none--suffer injuries and death from the brutality of those police. The problem is exacerbated by the majority of police who would not eagerly look for reasons to harm members of the public, but who don's speak up, who stay loyal to the "blue shield of silence," (either out comradely loyalty or realistic fear of consequences from their brother and sister officers). These officers may not be brutalizers themselves, but they are complicit in the brutality of their rotten apple colleagues.

Iman said...

Don’tcha just loves the people what try to threaten and intimidate you!?!?

Game definitely on, at that point.

gilbar said...

This was Fun! I went to Robert Cook's link to the Marshall Project thingie
Their Lead was Eliel Paulino, from 2015.. Here's the Marshal slant

SAN JOSE, California — Eliel Paulino was less than a block from his apartment complex late one night in 2015 when red police lights flashed in his SUV’s rearview mirror. After he pulled into his parking lot, police told him the light on his license plate was out.

Within minutes, a routine traffic stop became a beatdown, court records show. An officer yelled at Paulino to stop talking, then pulled him to the ground. A second policeman jabbed his baton into Paulino’s gut; a third struck him more than a dozen times with a baton. An emergency room doctor needed four staples to close the wounds in Paulino’s battered right arm.


hmm? ALL he did, was have a light out, and then... POLICE BRUTALITY!!

Let's see if we can get.. The rest of the story?
I searched his name, and the first i found was this:
https://www.localcrimenews.com/welcome/detail/13302654/eliel-paulino-arrest.html
Arrested For
148(A)(1) - Resist / Obstruct / Delay Peace Officer
12500(A) - Drive W/O License
23152(A) - DUI Alcohol/Drugs
Arrest Date August 16, 2015

You know.. Maybe (just MAYBE) if Eliel hadn't been drunk, or HAD a license.. Or hadn't resisted?

Of course, Eliel's Lawyer said he WASN'T resisting! He was just fooling around!
an internal police investigation exonerated the officers, but a Jury (made up of Eliel's peers),
In the video, the police pat down Paulino, who does not speak English, and then allow him to stand calmly without handcuffs for about eight minutes near the front of a patrol car while they check his license and search his car.

It is only after he says in Spanish to his father, who was standing at the window of their nearby apartment, to lock up his truck if he is arrested — and then ignores about three commands in English to be quiet — that Officer Marco Cruz slams him against the patrol car

At that Point, Eliel HAD NO OPTION; but to try to kill the police officer
The other two officers, Gerardo Silva and Gurbaksh Sohal, then join in to protect Cruz, according to police reports.

After losing the Jury, the DA dropped all charges, and said:
"I personally HATE the Cops! If it was up to ME, All Cops would be in the ground!! ACAB!!"

effinayright said...

Yeah, Floyd was in perfectly normal state when he died. Here's what the autopsy showed:

https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/live-trials-current/george-floyd-death/authorities-just-released-george-floyds-complete-autopsy-report-read-it-here/

"Blood samples collected at 9:00 p.m. on May 25th, before Floyd died, tested positive for the following, the autopsy report states. (Quantities are given for those who are medically inclined.)


Fentanyl 11 ng/mL
Norfentanyl 5.6 ng/mL
4-ANPP 0.65 ng/mL
Methamphetamine 19 ng/mL
Various types of THC: 11-Hydroxy Delta-9 THC 1.2 ng/mL; Delta-9 Carboxy THC 42 ng/mL; Delta-9 THC 2.9 ng/mL
Cotinine positive
Caffeine positive

Cook, you really, really, REALLY are a dull tool.

Gravel said...

'But the report released later Monday by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office said Floyd died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression." The manner of death was ruled homicide, but the office noted that "is not a legal determination of culpability or intent." A preliminary autopsy report cited earlier by prosecutors said the county medical examiner's review "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."'

From Cookie's own link. The other autopsy was performed by people paid by Floyd's family.

gahrie said...

I also believe that anyone who attributes any of the problems of the black community solely to either blacks or whites are foolish or deliberately misrepresenting what they believe in their hearts to be true.

Why are Black immigrants more successful than native Blacks?

n.n said...

The CDC and the pediatrics associations now consider guns or any violence to be their business. We have just seen how well they manage these "health" issues.

Took The Jabs? Welcome To Hell

Anti-nucleocapsid antibodies following SARS-CoV-2 infection in the blinded phase of the mRNA-1273 Covid-19 vaccine efficacy clinical trial

These data show that, among the participants with PCR-confirmed Covid-19 disease, anti-N Ab seropositivity at a median of 53 days post diagnosis occurred in 40% of the mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients vs. 93% of the placebo recipients. While an increase in seroreversion cannot be ruled out, given the short time frame the more likely explanation is a vaccine-induced reduction in seroconversion.

Time will tell if there is a durable, perhaps robust, effect.

n.n said...

Eliel's Lawyer said he WASN'T resisting! He was just fooling around!

Cultural disparity? I wonder if law enforcement from his home nation would agree.

n.n said...

Diversity [dogma]? American... Asian-American (AA)... People of Yellow (POY)? privilege. POY, on average, outperform not only People of Black (POB), People of Brown (POB), but also People of White (POW). There is a not so fine line distinguishing affirmative action and affirmative discrimination. We should look to the diversity of individuals, minority of one, who succeed in order to understand the differences that reside in character, not color. So, yes, systemic diversity [dogma] (e.g. Diversity, Inequity, and Exclusion or DIE) is a clear and progressive condition (PC).

n.n said...

Speaking of affirmative discrimination, a POY group just won a judgment against, I believe it was Harvard, for dreams of social justice (e.g. systemic diversity) through the exercise of liberal license in order to indulge diversity [dogma] (e.g. DIE).

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Ann Althouse said...
It took some nerve to do what I did at the time, and in fact, I worried a lot and encountered some opposition and threats. It is a great relief to be retired. Would it be worse now? I got out just before the Trump administration began, so I didn't get to see how that affected people.

Yes, it would have gone far worse for you during the Trump years.

Compare what Megan McArdle was allowed to publish before Trump won, to what she's been publishing since then. The hate for heretics really skyrocketed post Nov 2016

madAsHell said...

George Floyd died, which was a national tragedy,

No, it wasn't. His death was a national headline because of his skin color.

Kevin said...

I got out just before the Trump administration began, so I didn't get to see how that affected people.

I think it's pretty clear how that affected people.

MalaiseLongue said...

@Greg The Class Traitor: Thanks for reading. Reading is your friend. So is accurate citation.

Richard Aubrey said...

Robert Cook. Another matter of unfairness. I"ve done judo and jiu jitsu plus the Infantry stuff. I watched The Garner arrest. There was no choke. The cop's forearm was across his neck for about nine seconds when Garner was still standing. There is a carotid choke where the bicep and forearm compress the carotids and the windpipe is in the crook of the arm, under little to no pressure.
Garner may have had some of that, but while standing.
Once down, he was placed on his side. This prevents aspirating vomitus which might happen if on his back, and prevents his weight on his lungs and heart if on his front. Still saying he couldn't breathe. That's what it feels like when you're having a heart attack. And he was saying he couldn't breathe at a time when, if he couldn't breathe he couldn't say he couldn't breathe. And he was not in a constrictive hold at the time.

And about Damond...? Your justifable outrage about that case is no doubt on record....

Greg The Class Traitor said...

MalaiseLongue said...
Reading is your friend. So is accurate citation.

Exactly what should I be citing?

Mojo Jojo said...

This is what the first phase of the Chinese cultural revolution looked like. People get disappeared in the next phase.

bflat879 said...

I believe that 80% of the people, who watched the video of the George Floyd arrest, believed his death was unnecessary and the officer was wrong in what he did, once the handcuffs were applied. However, the Democrats couldn't possibly have a political advantage if the country agreed about it, so they promoted the riots, either directly or by their silence in not condemning it. The fact is that, by not allowing the country to come together, they created a further divide between the black and white community that they continue to try and fuel. All this White Supremacy nonsense is meant to keep the hate level up. There have been very few police shootings where the perp did nothing wrong. George Floyd, Eric Garner were both breaking the law and the police were called. Had they not been breaking the law, nothing would have happened. Somehow, that gets completely lost in the conversation.

Rusty said...

"It certainly must make it easier for to sleep at night by telling yourself such comforting bullshit."
No, Bob. Just personal experience in provoking cops. When I was younger and outrage was the name of the game.
George Floyd committed suicide. The innocent bystander victims of Chicago street crime didn't have it coming. No sympathy for them though. His name was Mychal Moultry. But you never heard of him because he doesn't fit your moral outrage paradigm. Don't pretend you have the moral high ground. You don't.

Tom Grey said...

Negy was tweeting true things.

Truth should never be illegal.

The Truth: 1) Blacks have more kids out of wedlock, Black sexual & marriage behavior, and
2) Blacks commit more crimes per capita.

Those who don't want Bad Black Behavior to be true, should be trying to change the behavior of the Blacks - NOT punishing the messenger who is telling the truth.

Whites are not guilty because Blacks choose to behave badly.