Discussion:

Discussion for article #242367

The problem with whiteness is, Lack…of…Sun! Hello, that’s all it is.

The Professor’s experiences appear consistent with Matthew Yglesias’s comparison of conservative politics with a multilevel marketing scam. I wonder if the supremacist email writers remembered to ask for money.

I love the article, but can you not use “going to” instead of “gonna” when quoting the professor? Sure, when people speak, they slur their words – at least in the South where I’m from – but I suspect a university professor would prefer a grammatically correct written version. Am I wrong?

I noticed that too. It’s probably exactly how he talks. I think I’m a pretty literate guy and certain usages really bother me and I would never use them, like “ain’t” (yes, educated people actually use this, often as in “ain’t gonna”, and no need to recount the ancient history of the term). Or double negatives, as in the double whammy “ain’t got none”. I don’t think any of it is cute and only indicates a lack of education or a lack of being able to change due to education.

I don’t understand the linguistics of less educated people using double negatives. It doesn’t make no sense. Yes, I know what I just did there.

On the other hand…I realize I use “yup” all the time, as do many people. And “gonna”. Yeah, (I use that too) it’s all very appalling.

I looked up Campus Reform, and they’re a depressing bunch. Whiny, coddled white kids who got hooked on Limbaugh and the rantings of Boomers, and are now convinced they’re living under tyranny despite being a bunch of privileged brats. The next generation of Fox News’ viewership. Wonderful.

The study of whiteness is not new. Ebony magazine even had it as a theme decades ago. Jeff Hitchcock studied whiteness. A number of others.

What is the recent phenomenon is FOX “news” as a racist Clearinghouse.

There have always been Reactionary organs of communication…FOX is the Biggest, most Pervasive, most Permanent.

Some people are educated some people are not. They both had a shit this morning.

Just a wild stab on my part, but I suspect he looks at this solar issue thru the lens of an anthropologist. A lens which likely filters out all the direct solar effects.

The study of “Whiteness” and “Critical White Theory” can be traced back as early as the 1920’s and W.E.B Dubois.

Having said that, I am ambivalent about this issue, especially as it relates to this specific individual.

Just on the grounds of academic freedom as well as who the guys enemies are, I am inclined to support him.

But some of his responses seem either disingenuous or clueless.

"But I also know as somebody who’s been a scholar in critical whiteness studies for years that when you’re talking about whiteness, people get their hackles up."

I think anytime you are critical of any group, be they Black, White, Brown, Yellow, Male or Female, people of that group will get their hackles up. There is nothing exceptional or different about “White People” in this regard. I would think a “Scholar” would be smart enough to understand this.

"I’m not somebody who likes media attention. I don’t like hearing my voice. I don’t like seeing my picture on TV. "

Yes, well what better way to avoid media attention than to give interviews to the media.

However, as I said earlier, you can judge a lot about a person by their enemies, and based on his, I am inclined to support him.

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/gonna

Great (and needed) post.

In some languages double negatives are accepted and used as emphasis. I don’t think of people using them in English being uneducated as much as just bad at math!

Not really sure if you’re being serious or joking back at my non-seriousness?

As far as this college course goes, I wonder about what it actually teaches but then I went through an apprenticeship, never went to college and have barely managed to own my own businesses for 30 years, so what do I know.

I took some language classes back in the day and we studied several different languages throughout the course of the semester. I think this guy ought to make his class about the problems that all races have and that would remove the inevitable angry white hater problem.
But the again, knowing how the world works, he’d likely have everyone pissed at him. A guy just can’t win I tells ya ; )

Fascinating. I really like the description of how this becomes ‘news’…My political friends and I refer to it as ‘the circle jerk’ theory. One person brings something up (usually outrageous), the the next person (or corporation) cites the first person in their ‘reporting’ as if they are ‘authentic’. Next up is FOX (generally) who reports it as definitive citing both ‘sources’…then the first person says ‘FOX news thinks’ and so on. It does not have to be fact based or true or anything save a person’s opinion but BY GOD, it’s ‘news’.

Exactly. This guy is an attention craving clown who knows how to play that game by giving his course a sophomoric and controversial/divisive name, and the morons at FOX and other such venues will feed off it.

Crackas be crumblin’!!!

The chain of events can vary, but it generally goes something like this:

• Limbaugh makes up X because he needs something to enrage his cult followers.

• Fox News picks up X under the guise of “soooome people” are saying…

• The X talking point and manufactured outrage is firmly established

• X starts appearing on Twitter and Facebook as a legitimate concern of your conservative friends via unsourced image memes.

• The incessant whining about X reaches a fever pitch.

• Now, it’s time for action on X!

• A doctored, out-of-context video regarding X gets released as part of a political hit job

• A Congressional hearing to investigate X is undertaken

• Regular media lets the X narrative go completely unchallenged because “both sides are equal!”

• Congress votes to defund X

American democracy in action!

Well he actually reminds me a lot of my father. When he was alive he was even more clueless about the world around him than this guy is. Totally brilliant in his field not so much about anything else. At least this guy was aware that he could have been in some danger.

I, personally, would call the class “White conservatives and the giant stick up their ass: why white conservatism fucks up everything, and has yet to contribute anything positive to the world…ever. Oh, and why they play the perpetual victim. Basically, they give white people a bad name.” Too wordy?

liberal white person who would love to take this class,
Albesure