Abigail Fisher, the detestable embodiment of white privilege, lost her ridiculous lawsuit against the University of Texas admissions program yesterday. Fisher, an underachiever who apparently believed that her white skin entitled her to access to a university to which she didn't qualify academically, had sued UT, claiming that its system of admissions was somehow unfair to her and other white underachievers who were unable to meet admissions standards.
Fisher, as is well-documented, possessed neither the test scores nor the grades to earn admission to UT, but she was undeterred by this obvious fact. Rather than acknowledging her academic shortcomings and accepting that she did not, in fact, deserve a spot at UT, she instead initiated a lawsuit against the state's flagship university, ridiculously claiming that, despite her complete and total lack of qualifications, she nonetheless deserved admission based on... well, the color of her skin, it would seem.
Of course, the conservatives on the Supreme Court, led by the execrable Samuel Alito, decried the majority ruling, submitting a dissent so full of factual errors and racist conclusions that it is obvious that they did not spend a moment worrying about the specifics of this case, choosing instead to use the case as a hill upon which to make another ill-considered stand in defense of white supremacy. Alito, the bigot who wrote in college that "people nowadays just don’t seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns, blacks and Hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they’re black and Hispanic. The physically handicapped are trying to gain equal representation in professional sports. And homosexuals are demanding the government vouchsafe them the right to bear children.”
Yes. A man with opinions like this is allowed to sit on the Supreme Court and determine the future course of the country. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Fortunately, four of the seven justices who heard this case decided rationally, determining that race can be a factor in the lengthy and complicated admissions process. If you're confused, please read that again. Race is one of many, many factors that admissions officers may use when offering admission to applicants.
Is there anyone out there... Allow me to rephrase. Is there anyone out there who is not an open and ignorant bigot who does not believe that an integral part of the learning and maturation process is learning about and from people who come from different backgrounds and circumstances than you? Offering a diverse campus is an important obligation of every college admissions board, and it's one that they'll be able to continue to pursue, thanks to the four justices who ignored Abigail Fisher's racist claims about what she deserved based on her white skin.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
John Oliver is a Treasure
If you don't watch Last Week Tonight, the brilliant HBO comedy-news program starring John Oliver, you should. If you do watch Last Week Tonight, you should know how lucky you are.
In this past episode, after detailing the dirty and corrupt way that banks sell people's debts to private firms, many of whom routinely employ odious collection tactics against their victims, John Oliver let us in on a beautiful and meaningful skit. He was able to purchase fifteen million dollars of debt for only $60,000, all of which he proceeded to forgive. That's right: the people who owed that fifteen million dollars no longer owe it.
Just like that, John Oliver has made many people's lives better than they were before his show aired. And that, my friends, is the textbook definition of doing good in the world.
In this past episode, after detailing the dirty and corrupt way that banks sell people's debts to private firms, many of whom routinely employ odious collection tactics against their victims, John Oliver let us in on a beautiful and meaningful skit. He was able to purchase fifteen million dollars of debt for only $60,000, all of which he proceeded to forgive. That's right: the people who owed that fifteen million dollars no longer owe it.
Just like that, John Oliver has made many people's lives better than they were before his show aired. And that, my friends, is the textbook definition of doing good in the world.
This Is What Male Privilege Looks Like
To wit: Brock Turner, a freshman at Stanford, sexually assaulted an unconscious woman after a frat party. Despite his completely unbelievable denials, he was tried and convicted of this heinous and disgusting act. The judge, Aaron Peskey, took pity on the poor rapist, and sentenced him to only six months in prison for his gross violation of a completely defenseless human being. Peskey's reasoning, he explained, was that "a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him."
No, really. He actually wrote that. A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
I wonder what Judge Peskey believes the impact of this rapist's actions were on the victim. This is, in its purest form, what male privilege is right now in America. Brock Turner is a sexual predator. He is a rapist. He is a horrible, despicable human being, someone who has demonstrated to the entire world that he lacks the basic moral structure required to be a functioning member of modern society. He took advantage of a defenseless woman who was unconscious, pulled her dress up over her head, pulled her panties off of her, and repeatedly jammed his fingers inside of her before being chased off by two students who happened to be walking by.
But a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
Dan A. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, wrote a nauseating letter to Judge Peskey, pleading for leniency. In this trite and self-serving missive, this candidate for father of the year referred to his son raping this unconscious woman as "twenty minutes of action." Stop and read that again. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, penetrated the vagina of a woman who was passed-out and unresponsive. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, repeatedly slammed his fingers into this woman's vagina. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, only stopped his gruesome assault of his unconscious victim when he was chased away by two passers-by who stumbled upon the vicious assault.
But a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
Dan A. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, wrote in his sickening letter to Judge Peskey that his poor son, the rapist Brock Turner, had never been violent towards anyone, not even on the night that he sexually assaulted the unconscious woman behind a dumpster in a deserted alley after a frat party. Mr. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, complained that his poor son, the rapist Brock Turner, doesn't even enjoy eating steak anymore, and that he only eats to live.
Poor, poor Brock Turner. How much can one rapist possibly suffer for his crimes? The man can't even enjoy a steak anymore. He certainly doesn't merit prison. Remember, a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
The simple fact is that if men were the primary victims of rape and sexual assault they would be capital crimes. But because men are the primary perpetrators of rape and sexual assault and women are the victims of men's depredations, we get tortured reasoning from male judges who sympathize with the perpetrators of these terrible, dehumanizing crimes. Never forget that a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
No, really. He actually wrote that. A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
I wonder what Judge Peskey believes the impact of this rapist's actions were on the victim. This is, in its purest form, what male privilege is right now in America. Brock Turner is a sexual predator. He is a rapist. He is a horrible, despicable human being, someone who has demonstrated to the entire world that he lacks the basic moral structure required to be a functioning member of modern society. He took advantage of a defenseless woman who was unconscious, pulled her dress up over her head, pulled her panties off of her, and repeatedly jammed his fingers inside of her before being chased off by two students who happened to be walking by.
But a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
Dan A. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, wrote a nauseating letter to Judge Peskey, pleading for leniency. In this trite and self-serving missive, this candidate for father of the year referred to his son raping this unconscious woman as "twenty minutes of action." Stop and read that again. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, penetrated the vagina of a woman who was passed-out and unresponsive. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, repeatedly slammed his fingers into this woman's vagina. His son, the rapist Brock Turner, only stopped his gruesome assault of his unconscious victim when he was chased away by two passers-by who stumbled upon the vicious assault.
But a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
Dan A. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, wrote in his sickening letter to Judge Peskey that his poor son, the rapist Brock Turner, had never been violent towards anyone, not even on the night that he sexually assaulted the unconscious woman behind a dumpster in a deserted alley after a frat party. Mr. Turner, the father of the convicted rapist, complained that his poor son, the rapist Brock Turner, doesn't even enjoy eating steak anymore, and that he only eats to live.
Poor, poor Brock Turner. How much can one rapist possibly suffer for his crimes? The man can't even enjoy a steak anymore. He certainly doesn't merit prison. Remember, a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
The simple fact is that if men were the primary victims of rape and sexual assault they would be capital crimes. But because men are the primary perpetrators of rape and sexual assault and women are the victims of men's depredations, we get tortured reasoning from male judges who sympathize with the perpetrators of these terrible, dehumanizing crimes. Never forget that a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.
Friday, June 3, 2016
LeBron and His Haters
There's a terrific article up at the brilliant new website The Undefeated about LeBron James and the (to me) inexplicable hostility that he has engendered among fans. Note to everybody: go check out The Undefeated. It's wonderful: it's sports and culture and race and reason all mixed together and shaken up.
Anyway, I've always believed that most of the fans who dislike LeBron do so out of, well, racism. Not necessarily burning crosses on the lawn, White Power, swastikas tattooed on the neck racism, but a more subtle, unconscious form of the disease. LeBron's big sin for these people is that he is a strong, oversized black man who decided to bypass the traditional framework of white ownership of black athletes and determine his own future.
LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh got together - eschewing any interference from the white men in suits who generally comprise the general managers of the various teams of the NBA - and decided that they were going to join forces and see what they could accomplish on the same team. I'm not sure if this move was completely unprecedented in the history of American professional basketball, but it is certainly a rare occurrence and, insofar as it was a direct attack on the logic of white ownership over dynamic and athletic black men, it presented a problem to many white people.
Again, in a vain attempt to soothe the hurt feelings of self-styled non-racist white LeBron haters out there, I am not saying that you are a Klansman, nor am I implying that you are a David Duke fanboy. Racism is rarely that overt. Racism often takes the form of the unconscious reactions that we have to external stimuli, the nagging discomfort that we get at a novel situation that threatens to undo our preconceived notions of how members of different groups of people are allowed to behave.
LeBron's sin, in my humble opinion, was that he dared to act like a professional man and grab the reins of his own destiny. The status quo of professional basketball in America to that point had been that white owners and general managers of teams have the God-given right to determine the future of the black players in their employ. Sure, players can earn their status as free agents and may decide to take their talents to any team in the league, and this is mostly uncontroversial these days. What LeBron, Dwayne, and Chris did, however, is to seize the role of general manager for themselves and to decide without interference how their team was going to be composed.
LeBron's sin, in other words, was to defy the racist hierarchy of the NBA and, by extension, the racist hierarchy of American society. And this is a sin for which many white people will never forgive him.
Anyway, I've always believed that most of the fans who dislike LeBron do so out of, well, racism. Not necessarily burning crosses on the lawn, White Power, swastikas tattooed on the neck racism, but a more subtle, unconscious form of the disease. LeBron's big sin for these people is that he is a strong, oversized black man who decided to bypass the traditional framework of white ownership of black athletes and determine his own future.
LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh got together - eschewing any interference from the white men in suits who generally comprise the general managers of the various teams of the NBA - and decided that they were going to join forces and see what they could accomplish on the same team. I'm not sure if this move was completely unprecedented in the history of American professional basketball, but it is certainly a rare occurrence and, insofar as it was a direct attack on the logic of white ownership over dynamic and athletic black men, it presented a problem to many white people.
Again, in a vain attempt to soothe the hurt feelings of self-styled non-racist white LeBron haters out there, I am not saying that you are a Klansman, nor am I implying that you are a David Duke fanboy. Racism is rarely that overt. Racism often takes the form of the unconscious reactions that we have to external stimuli, the nagging discomfort that we get at a novel situation that threatens to undo our preconceived notions of how members of different groups of people are allowed to behave.
LeBron's sin, in my humble opinion, was that he dared to act like a professional man and grab the reins of his own destiny. The status quo of professional basketball in America to that point had been that white owners and general managers of teams have the God-given right to determine the future of the black players in their employ. Sure, players can earn their status as free agents and may decide to take their talents to any team in the league, and this is mostly uncontroversial these days. What LeBron, Dwayne, and Chris did, however, is to seize the role of general manager for themselves and to decide without interference how their team was going to be composed.
LeBron's sin, in other words, was to defy the racist hierarchy of the NBA and, by extension, the racist hierarchy of American society. And this is a sin for which many white people will never forgive him.
The City of Brotherly Love
Philadelphia has taken the wonderful step of adding two Muslim holidays to its school calendar. Next year students in the Philadelhpia school system will be learning about and also getting the days that correspond with Eid al-Fitr, which is celebrated following the month-long observance of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, which celebrates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son in submission to God's will.
Expect heads to begin exploding at Fox News any moment now.
Expect heads to begin exploding at Fox News any moment now.
Donald Trump is a Dangerous Dumbass and His Supporters Are No Better
In attempting to explain the inexplicable rise of Donald Trump from annoying reality television star to a possible extinction-level event, many pundits have suggested that Trump is channeling the rage of people who feel as though they have been left behind or even left out of the new global economy. He is, these pundits tell us, a populist rabble-rouser, a truth teller who instinctively understands the economic anxieties of a group of people that society has forgotten.
This, of course, is completely bullshit.
Donald Trump and, by extension, his supporters are not angry because of economic struggles. There is absolutely no evidence that Trump supporters are pitchfork-waving mad due to existential worries stemming from the effects of globalization. Rather, the unifying characteristic of his supporters is that they are unable or unwilling to deal with the changing face of America. To put it simply, Trump's supporters are more racist, more Islamophobic, more homophobic, and more sexist than the average American.
I'll let Kevin Drum explain it.
This, of course, is completely bullshit.
Donald Trump and, by extension, his supporters are not angry because of economic struggles. There is absolutely no evidence that Trump supporters are pitchfork-waving mad due to existential worries stemming from the effects of globalization. Rather, the unifying characteristic of his supporters is that they are unable or unwilling to deal with the changing face of America. To put it simply, Trump's supporters are more racist, more Islamophobic, more homophobic, and more sexist than the average American.
I'll let Kevin Drum explain it.
Everything You Need to Know About the Terrifying Relationship Between Vaccines and Autism
Finally, somebody has taken the time to compile every last piece of evidence proving the link between vaccines and autism. I thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for sending us this brave young man, and I consider him to be a hero of the highest magnitude.
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