A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: racism

Oct 10 2012
Mark Twain, probably

How did ‘Monday’ become a racist slur?

How did ‘Monday’ become a racist slur?

The Boston Globe, earlier in the summer:

When news emerged earlier this month that Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford said he’d been called a racial epithet by an off-duty Leominster police officer before a minor league game in New Hampshire, reaction was swift. After an internal investigation, which turned up additional racist comments, the Leominster mayor fired the officer on Thursday.

But the epithet itself still has sports fans and commentators scratching their heads. Allegedly, the officer called Crawford, who is black, “Monday.” Monday? The day of the week? Is this really an insult, and one that has anything to do with race?

Messed up.

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May 07 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Students’ racist tweets about Boston hockey game put schools in a bind

Students’ racist tweets about Boston hockey game put schools in a bind

James Eng, msnbc.com:

Hordes of angry hockey fans – presumably Boston Bruins fans — unleashed a barrage of racist rants on Twitter and other social-networking sites after the Washington Capitals beat the defending champion Bruins a week ago Wednesday on an overtime goal by Joel Ward, the Capitals’ 31-year-old left wing. Ward is one of just a handful of black players in the NHL.

According to local media reports, several students at high schools in Gloucester and Danvers in Massachusetts, the Cumberland, R.I., School District, and Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire were among the tweeters.

What follows is a rather long discussion on free speech of students: what schools can and should do about what students say in and out of school, both legally and morally.

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May 03 2012
Mark Twain, probably

This photo by Jeff Kowalsky for the European Pressphoto Agency shows some modern pieces at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Michigan. MSNBC’s PhotoBlog has several more photos and a short article on the museum and its founder and curator, David Pilgrim.

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Apr 08 2012
Mark Twain, probably

John Derbyshire is a racist

John Derbyshire is a racist

Ugly stuff. Be sure to explore the links Ta-Nehisi Coates provides — in fact I’ll enumerate them here: Derbyshire’s original article, in all its ugly glory; an interview with Derbyshire from 2003 in which he proclaims himself to be “very mild, tolerant racist”; and, bonus, a follow-up to that interview in which he attempts to explain what sort of racism is “very mild and tolerant”.

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Jan 23 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Gwinnett teacher who resigned apologizes for writing slavery-themed questions

Gwinnett teacher who resigned apologizes for writing slavery-themed questions

D. Aileen Dodd, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A Gwinnett schools investigation found former Beaver Ridge Elementary School teacher Luis Rivera was the author of a third-grade homework assignment that used slave beatings to teach math concepts.

In a statement to school officials obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday, Rivera, a teacher at the school since August 2008, apologized and said some of the questions he wrote were in “poor taste.”

Rivera’s 20-question homework assignment used slave beatings and picking cotton to link lessons about ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass to math computation. One of the problems read: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

What the fuck.

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