Will Shetterly's Blog, page 42
February 21, 2019
Why the black bourgeoisie loves race reductionism, plus reading Margo Jefferson’s Negroland
The black bourgeoisie loves race reductionism because it makes them heroes. They hate adding class to the analysis because that reveals they’re part of the problem. This bit from Margo Jefferson’s Negroland, describing the black elite before the Civil War, is fundamentally true today: What did it mean to be a privileged free Negro? ...Free in the North to agitate against slavery and for voting
February 20, 2019
Recommended: Cedric Johnson’s Black Political Life and the Blue Lives Matter Presidency
Black Political Life and the Blue Lives Matter Presidency is the sequel to “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now”. It's filled with smart observations for people who care about race and class. Here are a few: “Many left activists and academics continue to abide the notion of black exceptionalism, that there is something unique and incommensurable about the experiences of blacks that prohibits any
Links and Thinks - Feb 20
On temporarily deactivating Facebook and Twitter So far, I like it. I hadn't realized that I felt a bit obliged to be on social media, and that included an obligation to interact with everyone who was officially part of my community, so it's an unexpected relief in some ways. But I also miss it—I've always loved venting with friends, and suspect that's on the short list of things I would count
February 18, 2019
The woman who invented micro aggressions was a plagiarist who may have committed a hoax hate crime
Madonna G. Constantine, an academic who promoted the idea of micro aggressions, was fired by Columbia University in 2008 for plagiarism. While she was being investigated, a noose was found outside her office. The perpetrator was never found, but many people (including me) find this detail suspicious: After the October incident, cops were rebuffed – by Constantine herself – in their efforts to
February 17, 2019
Review: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now is 3/4 Very Good
TL;DR: I give Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now a B. It has some good lines and insights, but he could've used a strong editor to tighten up the writing and his argument. He did not convince me to abandon social media, though he made me more convinced that social media is horribly flawed. His weakest chapters, on economics and politics, show that
February 16, 2019
Things I did not share on social media on Feb. 15
Three rules for readers: Read charitably. Read skeptically. Read widely. Read deeply. Yes, the first two and the second two are at odds with each other. That's why they're on the list. * A woman insisted mass shooters do not suffer from mental health issues but from white male entitlement syndrome. How that explains Brenda Ann Spencer or John Allen Muhammad, she did not say. #
February 14, 2019
Things I did not share on social media on Feb. 14
Thoughts Life's too short to give negative reviews. If you must give bad reviews, do them after you're reviewed everything that's good. We should not talk about gun violence in America when there's been a recent major incident, or when it's old news, or when it's a day that ends with "day". People who make straw man arguments are not being malicious. We argue with what we hear. They only hear
The Israel and Palestine FAQ that Zionists don't want you to see
Who attacked first in 1948? “Menahem Begin, the Leader of the Irgun, tells how ‘in Jerusalem, as elsewhere, we were the first to pass from the defensive to the offensive...Arabs began to flee in terror...Hagana was carrying out successful attacks on other fronts, while all the Jewish forces proceeded to advance through Haifa like a knife through butter’...The Israelis now allege that the
February 13, 2019
On depression, cancel culture, and why I’m taking a month off from Facebook and Twitter
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." —attributed to Cardinal Richelieu I was canceled ten years ago. This isn’t the anniversary quite yet—it’s in March. The occasion was a huge flamefest in the science fiction community called Racefail 09, which I think of as RaceReductionistFail—the participants hated
January 12, 2019
The intersectionalist's mythical history: Combahee River Collective or Derrick Bell?
On social media, I posted, Intersectionality question: Was Kimberle Crenshaw influenced by the Combahee River Collective? Obviously, she was influenced by Derrick Bell, a very problematic figure. Do intersectionalists cite the CRT to avoid discussing Bell? He and Crenshaw were far to the right of the CRT. A Facebook friend who is not a socialist but who is often a better researcher than I
