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TONGUE TIED ARCHIVE
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September 24, 2005Update on the Australian Racial Censorship Case
I wrote about this previously on Sept 15th. and 21st. See here and here. Readers might remember that publication of an academic journal article by a law professor (Andrew Fraser) was censored because it was "racist". Subsequently, Chris Brand has exposed what would seem to be the absolutely phony legal grounds for the ban. And the Head of the Law School where Prof. Fraser works has written a scathing condemnation of the ban on publication.
Prof. Fraser has two main contentions, one of which is that the influx of refugees from Africa that Australia is presently allowing into the country is asking for trouble. To anybody who knows anything about the black crime rate in both the USA and U.K. that is mere commonsense. "White flight" doesn't happen for nothing. And in supposedly gun-free Britain you have some black kids taking machine pistols with them to school!
Sadly, Prof Fraser's warnings to Australians are already being justified. Note the following news excerpt:
"A teenage Sudanese refugee arrived in Australia just days before going on one of the most vicious rape sprees in Victoria's history, police allege. Hakeem Hakeem, now 20, is accused of raping four women and forcing a teenager to rape his former partner in the space of just a week. Mr Hakeem's alleged victims ranged in age from 16 to 63 and appear to have been chosen randomly. The rapes increased in brutality as the offender progressed, with one woman's throat slashed during an attack in her home"I don't suppose many Americans would be surprised to hear that story but it is very bad news for Australia.
Cladistic Lies
"Cladistic"? What the devil is that? (Hey! Am I still allowed to refer to the Devil? I'd better phone the ACLU to find out!)
Cladistics is the name for a skeptical approach to the study of fossils. It says that you should not assume stuff you cannot prove -- which is a pretty reasonable idea as far as I am concerned. One of the advocates of cladistics is Henry Gee, who is Senior Editor for biological sciences at the prestigious scientific magazine Nature. He has written a book called In Search of Deep Time that tells you all about cladistics.
But how does this great skeptic and authority on science go when political correctness raises its head? He crumbles utterly, of course. Science and skepticism go straight out the window. According to this review of his book, he refers to relations between the early British settlers of the Australian State of Tasmania and the native blacks of Tasmania as follows: "When white settlers arrived in Tasmania they regarded the Stone Age inhabitants as animals and hunted them down to extinction".
Another "evil white man" story, of course. One hardly knows where to begin in blowing up such a pack of lies. Such an account is indeed the story put out by the current generation of politically correct Australian Leftist historians but to accept it as true is neither skeptical nor scientific. And it has been known as a pack of lies for years by anyone prepared to delve into the matter -- as this 1982 article by Cobern illustrates. And Keith Windschuttle -- himself a reformed Leftist historian -- has been dynamiting the whole lying story for years.
And, as Jonathan Sturm -- a long-time resident of Tasmania -- asks: If the Tasmanian aborigines were hunted to extinction, how come he knows so many of them in his own neighbourhood?
Where's the Outrage?
A city council candidate in St. Petersburg, Fla. was told she is unfit to serve a predominantly black district because she is white, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
In a town hall meeting with a largely black audience, candidate Darden Rice was also berated for being a lesbian. Theresa "Momma Tee" Lassiter, described as an outspoken city activist, said of Rice's sexuality: "God's not down with that."
Members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, also in attendance, said a white person is unfit to serve the district. They said she was part of an "oppressive politic" bent on taking over the African community.
Now It's Not 'Inclusive'
Latino activists in California say a high school's rule prohibiting students from wearing clothing with flags on it not "inclusive" enough because it prohibits kids from wearing images of the Mexican flag, according to the Hollister Freelance.
Students who came to school wearing clothes with the Mexican flag on them in honor of Mexican Independence Day were told to remove them or cover them up by officials at San Benito High School. A blanket ban on all flags -- including the Confederate flag and the U.S. flag -- was cited.
Dozens of students and parents were described as "irked," and Mickie Luna of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens said the district needs to rethink the policy. "I wish that people would be more inclusive and then wouldn't have these problems with students," he said.
The Alligator Saga Continues
Student government leaders at the University of Florida have yanked all advertising and publicly censured the student newspaper, the Alligator, for publishing a racial epithet in an editorial cartoon, reports the Gainesville Sun.
The student senate passed a resolution "addressing the need for journalistic responsibility" and opposed to the "irresponsible attitude" of the Alligator.
The cartoon in question featured black rapper Kanye West, who said President Bush doesn't like black people at a fund-raiser for Hurricane Katrina victims, holding a playing card labeled "The Race Card" next to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The bubble over Rice's head contains the words: "Nigga, Please!"
Editors of the paper say its reporters and editors are being harassed around campus since the fracas flamed up.
It Took a Bungle to Tell the Truth
Alcohol abuse is a conspicuous problem among native Australian blacks (Aborigines) but you are not supposed to mention it of course. But seeing blacks lying around half drunk in public parks is a common sight in much of Australia. So the following news item was amusing (excerpt):"Australian police working in Aboriginal communities have withdrawn new uniforms after they appeared to poke fun at many Aborigines' problems with alcohol. New South Wales police ordered 50 green vests for Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers - known as ACLOs. But the vests arrived bearing a much more insulting acronym - ALCO, used all over Australia as slang for alcoholic. The error was missed until it was almost too late, prompting embarrassed apologies from senior police chiefs."Note that the news item is from the BBC. The bungle was so shocking that a little local affair got reported on the other side of the world! And if even the BBC admits that Australian blacks have an alcohol problem, you can guess what a problem it is! But I wonder just how "accidental" the bungle really was. I suspect a typical Australian (irreverent) sense of humor somewhere along the line there.
School Daze I
Pictures of Jesus and of the Last Supper that have hung in an Illinois middle school for decades have been removed following complaints from an atheist group, reports KFVS-TV.
The images hung on a wall near the junior high gym in Anna, Ill., but had to be removed after the board received a letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. But the action was taken reluctantly, but both the board and broader community.
"Separation of church and state I don't think ever meant to be what we're experiencing right now across the nation," said Pastor Al Campbell, the President of the Union County Alliance of Churches. "I don't think it hurts young people to have our symbols in the schools."
SChool Daze II
A federal judge in Denver refused to contravene a local school district's decision not to show students a video from a Christian student group because it included the word "prayer," according to the Pueblo Cheiftain.
The judge was ruling on a complaint from the Fellowship of Christian Bulldogs who wanted to show a 73-second video at Pueblo Centennial High School announcing a prayer rally and encouraging students, teachers and staff to attend and "pray for your school, family, nation and world."
In the past, the school has allowed similar video announcements by other groups such as the Junior ROTC Rifle Team and the student Republican Party Club. School officials also allow the Christian fellowship to meet on campus during non-school hours.
Bowl Games Now Under Political Correctness Orders
Note the following news excerpt:"The NCAA is requiring bowl games to ban the "hostile" or "abusive" use of American Indian nicknames, mascots and logos beginning next year. On Tuesday, the NCAA announced it's extending its prohibition to include bowl games. The decision was made after Bowl Championship Series officials sought a ruling after determining it could not impose the prohibition, NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said. Only one Division I-A school, the University of Illinois, will be affected".Indian names are "hostile"? I thought they were names that expressed admiration. I thought they paid tribute to the strength and heroism of the Indians in defending their native lands. On what authority do the NCAA say that such names are hostile? Or is it really a matter of the NCAA being hostile to strength and heroism? No doubt "The powder-puffs" would be a team name that would win NCAA approval.
Hey! Hang on a minute, though. "Powder Puffs" might be "hostile to women"! You can never really win with the PC warriors. They will always dream up something to criticize.
New Orleans "Saints"? Where's the ACLU?
Note this press excerpt:
"The New Orleans Saints play a "home" game Monday night in New Jersey, having evacuated their own city for one season, and likely many more. The Meadowlands sports complex, of course, has absolutely nothing in common with New Orleans, save the swampy, mosquito-rich environments on which each was built".No comment on the vast incorrectness of the name? A reader writes: "Do you know that the New Orleans Saints' logo is the French Cross? Yes ACLU - it is the French Christian Cross. Now what are you going to do about it? Are you going to take the French Christian Cross away from this hurricane-ravaged city and its citizens - Most of them BLACK????? I don't know about you, but I'm grasping for air. There is some much political incorrectness going on here I barely know where to begin."
The ACLU has certainly been relentless in trying to get all public Christian symbols and mentions of things Christian banned. Does being black get you an exemption? I wonder where it says that in the constitution?
Help Defeat Censorship
The Australian State of Victoria has laws that drastically restrict free speech. Two Christian Pastors were recently penalized there because they criticized Islam, for instance. The latest victim of the oppressive legal environment there is a law professor, Andrew Fraser, who wrote an article which called for a reduction in the number of black and Asian immigrants that Australia is allowing into the country. The article was accepted for publication by the academic law journal hosted at Deakin university in Victoria but legal pressures were brought to bear on the university not to publish it and they caved in. So I have now put the "suppressed" article online here. Prof. Fraser has asked that the article be circulated to anyone "who might be interested in defending the editorial integrity of a university law review". I have put it online not because I wholly agree with it. I don't. I am not at all bothered by Australia's intake of Asians, for instance. But, as a libertarian, I will always do my utmost to defeat censorship. So let anybody know about it who might be interested. If it gets re-posted all over the place, that will really defeat the censors.
I should stress that the article concerned is not some rave by a Right-wing nut but a fully accredited (peer-reviewed) academic journal article by a Professor of Law at a major Australian university.
Painful Truths
The Heights, a student newspaper at Boston College, has been branded racist for a headline reading, "[Resident Directors] Resign Following Drug Bust," according to the Daily Free Press.
Members of minority student group say use of the term "drug bust" in a story about the arrest of three black Resident Directors caught smoking dope was insensitive and racist. They even burned some copies of the newspaper to make their point. They insisted that the term would not have been used had the perpetrators been white.
The paper printed an apology on the front page of the following issue expressing regret for "the pain that the mistake inflicted on the BC community."
So Much for School Spirit
The chalk phrase "Scalp the Indians," scribbled on a sidewalk at Oklahoma State University before the school's annual football contest with the Arkansas State University Indians, has been derided as innappropriate and racist, according to The Daily O'Collegian.
Stuart Sparvier, adviser to the campus' Native American Student Association, called the sight of the phrase very disturbing. "It's an exploitation of people's culture, and it should not be appropriate," he said.
The article didn't say whether there were any actual American Indian students offended by the phrase, only that faculty members were upset.
Adventures in Etymology
Canada's National Union of Public and General Employees celebrates Herstory Month in October!
Place-name Correctness -- in Scotland
Readers of recent posts here will have noted how confusing the correctness of American Indian names is. Apparently it is incorrect to name sporting teams with Indian names but highly correct to replace "white" names for towns, rivers etc. with Indian names (but "Squaw Mountain" is a no-no, however).
Well, if it's any consolation, there are similar sensitivities in Britain. Would you believe that it's sometimes incorrect to refer to Scotland's largest city by name? To explain why, I have to give you a quick bit of history. Glasgow was in the 19th and early 20th century Scotland's great industrial city and, as such, it got a reputation as a grimy, ugly place full of poor factory workers. And things got worse after the second world war when Glasgow lost most of its industries (shipbuilding etc) to competition from Asia and elsewhere. So you now have generations of Glaswegians who have lived on welfare payments only. All of which it is now incorrect to mention.
So how did a recent article in the "The Times" about the high level of crime (particularly knife-crimes) in Glasgow refer to it? Here's what they said (excerpt):
"The attacks have been fuelled by a "booze and blades" culture in the west of Scotland which has claimed more than 160 lives over the past five years. Since January there have been 13 murders, 145 attempted murders and 1,100 serious assaults involving knives in the west of Scotland. The problem is made worse by sectarian violence, with hospitals reporting higher admissions following Old Firm [football] matches".So the whole of the "West of Scotland" got the blame for the misdeeds of the Glaswegians!
Note: I am not dissing the Glaswegians or the Scots generally in what I say above. I speak as someone who has a great affection for Scotland and some background in studying the Scots.
Romney's 'Slip'
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is under fire from newspapers and civil rights groups for suggesting that some Muslims in America should be put under surveillance in the name of security.
In a speech last week to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Romney suggested that the government wiretap people connected to radical mosques and authorities keep a close eye on university students who come from countries known to sponsor terrorism.
Romney is refusing to apologize for the comments, saying "there is no place for political correctness" when it comes to national security.
But the Boston Globe is, unsurprisingly, leading the charge of those critical of the comments. The comments are "an affront to the values and principles that make America a great country," according to civil rights groups quoted by the Globe.
Swirly Offense
Burger King restaurants in the UK were forced to remove and replace ice cream containers across the country because a Muslim man said the swirly image too closely resembles the inscription for Allah and is therefor sacreligious, reports the Scotsman.
Burger King said the image on the lid of an ice cream desert is supposed to look like a spinning ice cream cone.
But Rashad Akhtar of High Wycombe said he wants to put a Jihad on BK for the snafu, or at the very least a boycott. "This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims," he said.
Anglos and Teachers
Because I invite email comments in my postings here, I do get lots of interesting emails. I reproduce two below that I think I should mention. The first concerns the fact that in some of my posts I use the word "Anglo":
"We're a little concerned about your use of "Anglo kids" to describe the non-Latinos in the school about which you wrote, Dixie Downs Elementary. The label "Anglo" is specifically designed to degrade most kids of European descent by smothering their diversity. The "Anglo kids" you mention are Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Slavic, and so on. They are by no means all of Anglo-Saxon descent. In addition, we don't like "Anglo" used for non-Anglo-Saxons on the ground that "Anglo" is a name slapped on these kids by Latinos. If we go out of our way to avoid naming Latino kids with names they don't want, isn't a little reciprocity required here?That is a fair point I think. I myself was using "Anglo" as shorthand for "Anglophone" (meaning someone whose native language is English) and I think I am not alone in that practice but maybe I should spell out the whole word in future.
The second email concerns how I characterize teachers:
"As a teacher, I take offense with your implication that all teachers are Left Leaning. I am what you would call a Mexican American, but I prefer to be called a Tejano. My ancestors bled at the Alamo and were at San Jacinto when we vanquished Santa Anna. I am part of a large group of teachers who do not believe in dual immersion and we do not teach in Spanish. We are citizens of Texas and the United States. We owe nothing to Mexico and we owe much to Texas and the United States. It is the Yankee liberals, who talk out of their asses that give the rest of us a bad name. So, I ask you sir, to please measure your words and support conservative and moderate teachers who do not follow or lean to the left"I am of course delighted to hear from such a patriotic teacher and am pleased that I have the opportunity of passing on his message. But he underestimates how carefully I measure my words. I said that as a GROUP teachers are Left-leaning, not that all teachers are Left-leaning. And anybody who knows anything about the NEA will be aware of where they stand politically. Interestingly, the article by Phyllis Schlafly that I linked to pointed out that about a third of NEA members were GOP-leaning not so long ago but most of them have in recent times resigned from the NEA because of its extreme Leftism.
The British Attack on "Extremism"
At first glance the news excerpt below seems reasonable:"Extremist organisations are operating on university campuses across the country and pose a serious threat to national security, according to a new report. Yesterday the education secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered vice-chancellors to clamp down on student extremists in the wake of the July terror attacks in London. But a report due to be published next week by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's centre for intelligence and security studies, lists more than 30 institutions - including some of the most high-profile universities in the country - where "extremist and/or terror groups" have been detected. "This is a serious threat," Professor Glees told the Guardian. "We have discovered a number of universities where subversive activities are taking place, often without the knowledge of the university authorities." ... Among the universities named are Cambridge, where the BNP were detected; Oxford, where the report said animal rights extremists had been active; and the London School of Economics and Manchester University, which both had active Islamist extremist groups".But in fact there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with extremism. I am an extreme advocate of rationality and individual liberty and make absolutely no apology for that. It is advocacy of violence that should be monitored, not "extremism". Slipping in attacks on all "extremists" under the cover of preventing violence seems a very serious attack on civil liberties. And who is to define "extremism"? Will Brits soon all have to have the conformity of ants? In America, the New York Times regularly describes as "out of the mainstream" anybody they disagree with. It's not hard to envisage the ruling British Leftists doing much the same.
"Dual Immersion" Madness
American Leftists constantly express their anti-Americanism. Note for example this quote from the much-acclaimed Michael Moore about his fellow-Americans: "They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks" . And there are few more reliably Left-leaning groups than America's teachers and educators (as we see here).
A logical corollary of being an America-hater is a hatred of America's language -- which is English. So the fact that there are now a lot of Spanish-speakers in America who need to learn English is used as an excuse to teach Spanish instead! And "dual immersion" is the fiercest form of that -- where not only Spanish kids but also Anglo kids are taught in Spanish! And it's happening. They're even trying to introduce it in Utah. Note the following report (excerpts):
"As the Washington County School District continues to explore the possibility of teaching both English and Spanish at a local elementary school, Principal Dale Porter met with Spanish-speaking parents Thursday evening at Dixie Downs Elementary to discuss the program. Called "dual immersion," the program would teach classes of evenly balanced English- and Spanish-speakers. Both language groups would learn the other language just as English is now taught in district elementary schools.... Those who live in Dixie Downs' boundaries will not be required to participate and may choose another school in the district to attend.... Porter explained how all students in the program learn a foreign language - either English or Spanish - and how both language populations benefit from each other. The languages are taught simultaneously by bilingual teachers."That report is from a few months back so here's an update from one of my readers:
"Dixie Downs elementary school has not yet been selected to be the "dual immersion" elementary school in town, because the district has not yet decided if it will try the experiment. But it began the school year with many new teachers. 100% of the teachers now speak both Spanish and English. Any teachers which did not have moved to a different school. 100% of teachers for some grades are teaching their own class for the first time. The principal has declared that he only hired the best teachers who applied (all the best teachers were bi-lingual?)Imagine the school board's surprise recently when several parents, who don't want dual immersion, spoke at the school board meeting and asked why a common phrase, with a familiar rhythm and accompanying actions did not sound familiar when they visited the classrooms. If one listens to the rhythm and not the words one can almost hear..... "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America"...... However the children all recite it in SPANISH! Even the ones that can't trace any Spanish ancestry.
So the principal of the school is moving ahead as if the idea were already approved, which it probably will be unless some parents get very active. But it is a "poor" school (intellectuals would much rather experiment on other people's kids than on their own) -- 42% of the students are eligible for a free lunch (See here) -- so I guess the education authorities are banking on parental activism not happening. And, being poor, not many parents may be able to excercise the option of transferring to another school.
My prediction? Lots of kids subjected to such treatment will end up even more illiterate than they do now. If the schools cannot teach the "3Rs" in English properly, how the heck are they going to do it in Spanish?
But anyone who opposes the whole idea is "racist", of course.
Racist Dollar Bills
Note this press report (excerpt):
"A complaint brought about on Saturday by a collaboration of minority rights groups claimed United States currency does not reflect the true diversity of the American people. The joint statement issued by this collaborative group effort demanded seeing currency printed with "prominent historical figures from the African-American, Asian-American, or Hispanic-American community."You may be relieved to know that the whole "report" above is a spoof dreamt up by a conservative blogger having a bit of fun. But don't get too complacent. Truth can be stranger than fiction. Australia always used to feature the monarch on the front of its currency notes. Her Majesty now survives on the $5 bill only. We have some woman on the $10 note, a white guy on the $20 and a black guy on the $50. Get used to it, Americans! Politically-correct currency will come your way eventually too! But you'll never catch up with Canada. I am sure they will have Mohammed on one of their bills soon.
