First They Came for the Books: The Oppressive Whiteness of Books (shortened title)

The Bulwark ^ | 4/17/2019 | Charles Sykes

[BadLands59]

My first reaction to this tweet was: Surely, the article it links to can’t be this bad? It’s a parody right?

"Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries." (Link to read the tweet) Alas, no. If anything, the tweet actually understates the degree of nihilist unthought that passes for wokeness among some academic librarians. The Library Journal tweet links to a blog post by Sofia Leung, whose Twitter profile describes her as an “academic librarian. I like cats, whiskey, intersectional feminism, social justice, critical librarianship, & CRT [Critical Race theory].”

The good news here is that Leung cannot be described as a thought leader in the librarian tribe. In her article, she describes her epiphany about the “whiteness” of libraries in a discussion with a colleague:

"One of the mind-blowing things she shared was this idea of how our library collections, because they are written mostly by straight white men, are a physical manifestation of white men ideas taking up all the space in our library stacks. Pause here and think about this."

Yes, let’s pause here. Leung regards the idea that books are written by straight white men (many of them dead) as “mind blowing,” when, in fact, that has been a hoary, tattered, clichéd fixture of academic leftism for nearly half a century. Her innovation here is moving from the identities of the dead white guys—Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Plutarch, Freud—to the offensive nature of the physical space that their books occupy.

[rintintin]

Sorry I won’t click on Bulwark.

It’s run by bitter Never-Trumper Bill Kristol who has blasted Tucker Carlson for coming “close now to racism, white — I mean, I don’t know if it’s racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism of some kind” (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/25/bill_kristol_tucker_carlson_and_fox_news_have_become_ethno-nationalist.html)

So Bill Kristol hurls white “racism” smears kind of like the hate-Shakespeare crowd denounces “whiteness”

[rintintin]

What’s the difference between the lefties who think libraries are too much into “whiteness” and Bill Kristol - who runs Bulwark - who has denounced Tucker Carlson as “ethno nationalist”?

[rightwingcrazy]

“Wonder how they’re gonna live without air conditioning, microwave ovens and cellphones?”

Electronic communication, internal combustion engines, antibiotics, flush toilets. Before she burns all those oppressive books, I’d like to see her forego all that oppressive technology.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Well, in response, I could start in about the incredible gayness of contemporary Hollywood and TV production. It’s crowding out normal, non-perv imagery.

[Nea Wood]

Larry Elder has told a story about going to a library in LA, and outside the library, black kids were doing fantastic tricks on their skateboards. Inside the library, nothing but Asian kids studying.

[txrefugee]

Librarians are on the academic super highway to a New Dark Ages.

[Cicero]

“I like cats, whiskey, intersectional feminism, social justice, critical librarianship, & CRT [Critical Race theory].”

---

I like dogs.

[Fred Hayek]

Books be raciss!
Reading be raciss!

Universities have gone full retard.

[BadLands59]

I did not know that. Thanks for the info. I’m not a Bill Kristol fan, either.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

per article:

Sofia Leung, whose Twitter profile describes her as an “academic librarian. I like cats, whiskey, intersectional feminism, social justice, critical librarianship, & CRT [Critical Race theory].

She is a bitter, childless, menopausal alcoholic man-hating harpy who was unable to get and keep a husband. She lives alone with her cats and empty whiskey bottles. Her resentment and anger at her barren life will be vented on white male authors and their books.
 

[hanamizu]

I wonder what the books in a Ugandan or Zembabwean library look like.

---

I would venture to guess that the vast majority would be in English.

[Billthedrill]

I like cats, whiskey, intersectional feminism, social justice, critical librarianship, & CRT [Critical Race theory].

I started laughing halfway through the list. Only surprised at the whiskey entry. Which, incidentally, was invented by...

[wally_bert]

Sounds like the very likely end of a former phb-ette some years from now.

She did have a very dumb kid though.

[Pelham]

Sofia Leung

“I’m a second generation Chinese American and native New Yorker currently living in the Boston area. I’m the Teaching and Learning Program Manager and liaison to the department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at the MIT Libraries. I believe that social justice work is library work and that we should all be collectively engaged in our liberation. My current research is on the intersections of Critical Race Theory and Library and Information Science and I speak on a number of topics, mostly related to social justice and libraries, critical pedagogy, and critical librarianship.”

[Pelham]

“Sorry I won’t click on Bulwark. It’s run by bitter Never-Trumper Bill Kristol “

IIRC the author, Charles Sykes, is also a bitter NeverTrumper.

[rintintin]

Universities have gone full retard.

Yes, but the same can be said of Bill Kristol’s Bulwark, from which this article comes. I won’t click.

[kallisti]

Not sure which disturbed me more, the quote or her picture.

[Rebelbase]

It’s called Western Civilization you stupid cnut.

[Pelham]

She’s a classic example of the White America Hating immigrant that has gained control of the Democrat Party.

Limbaugh thinks that illegal aliens are the ones who have turned California into the hard left, socialist, sanctuary state that it is today.

But he’s wrong.

Illegals do a lot of damage, but they don’t vote in big numbers. Legal immigrants from the 3rd world do vote and there’s millions of them here. Many highly educated. And all too many of them are resentful ingrates like this Sofia Leung.

While she isn’t a Californian, she’d fit right in here.

[antidemoncrat]

“If this is the case, then Granville Woods was certainly a respected inventor as he was often referred to as the “Black Thomas Edison.”

Granville Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio.”

Granted 50 patents. Proved that blacks with ability could succeed even in a white dominated world.