His Black Studies graduate degree will qualify him (sic) for a six-figure salary from the fedgov.
Fired from a blog. How bad is that? She now has more time to write another book!
Naomi Schaefer Reilly had an excellent article in the WSJ this morning discussing her “firing” and the reactions to what she said.
The grievance majors (black studies, women’s studies) should never have been given reputable academic status, IMO. Anyone who wished to focus his research in, say, anthropology, sociology or economics on a particular group could certainly have done so without this artificial world of [name the aggrieved group of your choice] studies.
From what I observe, the “black culture” is totally and exclusively obsessed with race.
Paging through an “Essence” magazine (target audience is black women), all one will see are angry race based articles and ads centered on the reader’s “blackness”.
Hey, folks, there are other topics and issues in this world!
Blacks in this country have a special right not to be criticised in any manner or your day will get rained on.
I hope that doesn’t get me banned.
As for the grievance studies, most of that could have been handled in a chapter of a sociology test.
Disclaimer: I didn't take sociology, it was all over the place and all you had to do was look, for Pete's sake.
I took Archaeology courses for my required 'humanities' and never regretted it.
Thomas Lifson supports the firing — but his argument for it is lame. She chimes in that Naomi Schaefer Riley should have read the theses she flamed. But, why should she? The titles and summaries alone are outrageous assaults on common sense and scholarship and illustrate her point vividly.
Sorry I called Thomas Lifson a “she.” That was inadvertent.
I’ve never taken a Black Studies class (or a Women’s Studies..er Womyn’s Studies) or any other victimology class. The tragedy is the students taking these next to worthless classes are being taken advantage of by leftist profs. These majors are nothing more than feel-good exercises which will benefit the students taking them nothing. There is room in other majors (history etc.) for classes dealing with ethnic groups and their role in shaping America. But a whole major devoted to telling the student how awful their country is and what victims they are is patently worthless.
Yes nigher means being near but it also means being on the left side (specifically of two horses or vehicles) -- in fact there is a "news" report that Rick Santorum said "We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like the anti-war government nig "
The UK Guardian goes on to ask what else could Santorum be thinking about other than the N-word? Well as several readers who are more professional than the "professional" employees of The UK Guardian asked what about niggardly? (and numerous other words.)
Actually, Chronicle of Almost Education works too.
They are not nearly as good as McMillan describes and that's not sarcasm.
Took editor Liz McMillen only four days to be browbeaten out of her initial pro-speech stance:
Editors Note:
When we created the Brainstorm blog five years ago, we hoped it would be a forum for debate where views about higher education, academic culture, and ideas could be aired and discussed and often challenged. It is a blog for opinion, sometimes strong opinions, not news reporting by the staff. The writers on the blog13 in all, from institutions around the countryfall on different points of the ideological and political spectrum. They are not staff members of The Chronicle nor do they represent the views of the staff or of the newspaper.
Many of you have asked The Chronicle to take down Naomi Schaefer Rileys recent posting, The Most Persuasive Case for Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations. I urge readers instead to view this posting as an opportunityto debate Rileys views, challenge her, set things straight as you see fit. Take a moment to read The Chronicles front-page story about the future of black studies, written by Chronicle reporter Stacey Patton and weigh in.
Please join the debate.
Liz McMillen
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/editors-note/46423