Radicalized Antiracism on Campus—as Seen from the Computer Lab

Quillette ^ | September 29, 2020 | Stuart Reges

[karpov]

The campus battle over what I’ve previously called the equity agenda has recently shifted almost completely from a focus on gender to a focus on race. This has been accompanied by a series of surreal spectacles at the University of Washington in Seattle, where I teach. In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, student activists have made new demands upon the school’s administration, while scathingly denouncing anyone they perceive as dissenters.

Just consider our university president, Ana Mari Cauce—a Latina lesbian whose activist brother was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. One would imagine that she’d command a certain level of respect from even the most puritanical social-justice enthusiast. But there is little evidence of that: Student protestors have marked the campus with slogans such as “Anti Black Ana,” denounced her as a “Poo Poo Pee Pee Head,” and a “white woman” (a term of abuse, obviously).

The background to this is a petition containing seven demands put forward by the university’s Black Student Union, including a call to remove a statue of George Washington that’s been on campus since 1909. Protestors have installed “resistance art” at the base of the statue, painted it red, plastered it with posters, and left messages in chalk. At first, university staff attempted to clean the statue and remove the art, but eventually they just allowed it to accumulate. Very little came of the protest other than informing Cauce that they consider her a traitor for refusing to immediately submit to the petition’s demands.

As at many other institutions in the United States, the public focus of administrators has turned to the idea of antiracism. The highest-ranking diversity officers from our three campuses sent a joint email in late May with the title “Antiracism work is all of our work.”

[zeestephen]

Before I retired, I worked in the hotel and corporate housing business.

I met hundreds of Microsoft applicants, new hires, college interns, and contractors.

Microsoft definitely hired Black employees, but not Black coders, and very few white female coders.

I retired seven years ago, so the overwhelming political pressure for Affirmative Action has probably changed every big tech company in America.

My Bottom Line - if great Black coders or great white female coders exist, what possible reason would any business owner or corporate executive have for not hiring them?

[AppyPappy]

I’ve known several of them. Most came out of the military.

[AppyPappy]

Something to keep in mind. You are not black if you don’t support Biden and the Democrats. This is actually determined by whites who make the decision whether someone is black enough.

We have made racism acceptable again.

[AppyPappy]

When I started programming, most of the coders I knew were women. Remember, coding involved typing.

[JCL3]

Multiculturalism & diversity
____________________________________________

Code words for white genocide.