Rutgers English Department to deemphasize traditional grammar ‘in solidarity with Black Lives Matter’
Also pledges to decolonize the writing center
The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules.
The initiatives were spelled out by Rebecca Walkowitz, the English Department chair at Rutgers University, and sent to faculty, staff and students in an email, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.
Walkowitz sent the email on “Juneteenth,” which celebrates the commemoration of emancipation from slavery in the United States.
Titled “Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” the email states that the ongoing and future initiatives that the English Department has planned are a “way to contribute to the eradication of systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color.”
One of the initiatives is described as “incorporating ‘critical grammar’ into our pedagogy.”
[….]
Walkowitz explained in the email that since 2012, the Rutgers English Department has had a Committee on Bias Awareness and Prevention.
Following the committee’s most recent meeting in mid-June, its members agree it needs to “move from a role emphasizing awareness and prevention towards a role emphasizing ‘culture change.’Several initiatives came out of that meeting,” she wrote.
A recommendation endorsed by leaders of all instructional units is to require all fall 2020 instructors in English to attend at least one workshop remotely on “how to have an anti-racist classroom,” the email states.
Just a reminder first about what Ned Ryun said at American Greatness (reported here by me yesterday) as he proposed that it is imperative that the Right grows a spine:
Some people might think this is mean. [To fight like the Left does.] To which I say: grow up. There is a war for the republic’s existence and some people are like, “Ew, this approach would make me feel so icky.” You know what will make you feel super icky? When your indoctrinated kids inform on you and get you sent to a re-education camp. So suck it up, buttercup.
I am ashamed to admit that I have an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University (graduate degree from Yale), but if I had it to do over, I would tell my kids—do not go to college!
And whatever you do, don’t send money to colleges like Rutgers!
Do you remember the controversy in 2014 when Condi Rice was forcedto turn down her invitation to speak at a Rutgers commencement when students protested that woman of color because she was a Bush Republican? So much for BLM!
My brother, who also graduated from Rutgers, told me that he told a phone solicitor for Rutgers to NEVER call him again for a dime in the wake of that shameful RU episode.
And, you have been sending your money their way thinking that they are fighting for you in the swamp, only to find out that they are basically wimps who have gotten just too damn comfortable in the swamp.
Ned Ryun founder and CEO of American Majority.
There is an excellent piece by Ned Ryun at American Greatnessin which he suggests it is time to build a new, leaner, meaner political Right. (Hat tip: Richard Falknor on twitter https://twitter.com/highblueridge)
For conservatives it seems every day brings with it another betrayal from the professional Right. The hollow people leading the Republican Party and Conservatism, Inc., have been exposed. Some of us have known for years they wouldn’t be up to the task when a true challenge came, but it is still staggering to watch the meltdown happen in real-time.
So maybe it’s finally time for those on the Right to stop doing the same things they’ve been doing for nearly half a century, and instead form a new movement—a New Right that is actually equipped to defeat the Left.
As the think tanks are shown to be ineffective in the face of the aggressive Left, more people are beginning to realize that perhaps the money given to places like Heritage, American Enterprise Institute, and Cato was squandered. And it was a lot of money. The three organizations combined raised roughly $2.45 billion between 2001-2018, and that does not include the hundreds of millions in investments and real estate.
Rational people should acknowledge this reality and stop pretending it’s not happening. People invested billions of dollars in these entities, only to realize they never intended to be anything but sinecures.
Even worse, so-called conservative think tanks have little if anything in common with America First and have been corrupted by corporatism and imagined access to power.
It’s time to abandon the concept of institution building, as though we will ever have the ability to match the Left institution for institution. It’s time for a scrappy New Right to be built with an insurgency approach: we must accept that we are not in power, that we do not control the institutions, and that it’s time to go on the offensive. Our thinking, our strategy, and our investments must reflect that belief.
[….]
Let’s Build Fleet of PT Boats
For too long we have accepted the rules of the game laid out by the statists and the Left. It’s past time to stop playing by Goliath’s rules; time to start playing by David’s.
Some people might think this is mean. To which I say: grow up. There is a war for the republic’s existence and some people are like, “Ew, this approach would make me feel so icky.” You know what will make you feel super icky? When your indoctrinated kids inform on you and get you sent to a re-education camp. So suck it up, buttercup.
The SPLC actually does us a service by letting us know more about White House advisor Stephen Miller, one of the few Trump advisors to survive nearly four years in the President’s orbit.
Of course the SPLC doesn’t publish its“Extremist File” for our benefit (they use it to scare money out of gullible rich people***), but I found this an interesting read. All you have to do is skip over the writer’s snark and spin and find the events of Miller’s life edifying.
I had to laugh especially when the SPLC blasts Miller for supporting the Duke Lacrosse players when rape allegations ruined their lives, but never mentions that the players were exonerated and Miller was right!
Editor:I had this post ready to go early yesterday before my internet went out for the third time in recent months, so sorry if you have sent e-mails or comments and I missed them. I’m back on line at least for now.
Stephen Miller is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda, according to a report in Vanity Fair.
Miller with former boss Senator Jeff Sessions. “In the spring of 2013, Miller and Sessions played a key role in ensuring the failure of a comprehensive immigration bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight. “
And during the COVID-19 crisis, the Trump administration’s decision to halt the issuance of new green cards is yet another example of its hard line on immigration.
Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia, Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States.
[….]
Through his connections to the anti-Muslim movement, Miller landed his first job in Washington, D.C. as a staffer on Capitol Hill. In less than a decade, Miller would go from a congressional staffer to an adviser to the Trump campaign.
During this time, Miller influenced the editorial direction of the highly trafficked conservative website Breitbart.com, sharing white nationalist and anti-immigrant propaganda with their editors in an effort to buoy Trump’s run, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. His role in the campaign included crafting then-candidate Trump’s nativist immigration platform, writing campaign speeches as well as being the opening speaker during rallies.
[….]
At a June 16, 2016, campaign rally in Dallas, Miller’s speech made clear the campaign then-candidate Trump was going to run and foreshadowed the nativist policies Miller and the administration would eventually pursue.
In speaking about the impact of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., Miller said, “You’ve seen what it does to living standards. You’ve seen what it does to wages. You’ve seen what it does in terms of transnational cartels. You’ve seen what it has done to the innocent victims of illegal immigrant crime … You have seen the death. You have seen the needless destruction because we can’t secure this border.”
Miller’s use of the state to vilify immigrants has led to calls for his resignation. After Hatewatch’s investigative reporting verified Miller’s white nationalist perspective, more than 80 Democratic members of Congress called for his resignation. Opposition to Miller and his agenda have also surfaced within the rank-and-file civil servants who are charged with discharging the administration’s policies.
If you are new to the immigration restriction movement, you will learn a lot from the SPLC’s hit on Miller.
***But, it is more than scaring money out of rich people, a hit piece like this is meant to remind you that this will happen to you too if you dare stick your neck out and do or say anything like what Miller has said and done.
A great phrase which for me crystallizes in one question and eight words where we are today.
Do not miss the guest column by Dr. William Scott Magill & Lawrence Allen at World Net Daily posted a couple of days ago.
Have you had your Second Tower Moment yet?
Few who were alive at the time can forget the moment the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11. Over the intervening 18 minutes, people remarked that there were 10,000 people in those buildings on any given workday. And some talked about a B-25 that crashed into the Empire State Building in dense fog in 1945. Nearly all were wondering how those kinds of accidents can still happen in the 21st century. In those tense minutes, everyone knew something was terribly wrong, but they were in a First Tower Mentality.
When the second plane hit the South Tower, everyone suddenly had a Second Tower Mentality. They didn’t need to hear about the Pentagon or Flight 93 or see reports about who al-Qaida and the Taliban were. That would come later. All knew when that second plane hit – America was under attack.
Many feel precisely the same way today: Americans and our constitutional republic are under attack. But not from strange foreign adversaries with names that took practice to pronounce.
Instead, it’s an attack from “Enemies Domestic” right here at home – household names like CNN, Nancy Pelosi, Seattle Mayor Durkan, California Gov. Newsom, your local faceless city council members, Soros-selected district attorneys and the usual suspects of academics, race hustlers and deep state operatives at all levels of government. Like al-Qaida, they are working to rob you of the blessings of your birthright, your liberty, your livelihood. Their goal is to: destroy your safety and security; burn down our nation; erase Western civilization history; and destroy our way of life so they can enforce their tyrannical form of government in a socialized world without borders.
Do you remember how you felt on September 11, 2001, and have you arrived at your “second tower moment”—the 2020 version?
If so, can you say exactly when that happened?
But, more importantly as authors Magill and Allen ask, are you “cowering in place, curled up in the fetal position, relieved that at least, “they haven’t come for me yet”?
Let me know by commenting to this post what you are doing to prepare!
Well, they didn’t use those words exactly, but the Trump Administration says Minnesota must pay from its own coffers; federal taxpayers are not responsible for the mess politicians instigated and the riots they failed to control in Minneapolis.
Federal government denies Minnesota’s request for aid to clean up, rebuild in Twin Cities
The federal government has denied a request from the state of Minnesota for a disaster declaration and accompanying financial support, to help clean up and repair fire damage from unrest following the police killing of George Floyd.
Governor Tim Walz (boo hoo!)
Gov. Tim Walz’s office said it received the denial on Friday, eight days after Walz had submitted the request. A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson said the agency had determined the damage was something local and state governments could handle on their own.
In a letter to President Trump on July 2, Walz had noted more than $15 million in damage and cleanup costs that could be eligible for federal reimbursement.
The state has estimated total damages at more than $500 million.
Hundreds of buildings were looted, damaged or destroyed by fires in the Twin Cities, primarily in Minneapolis and St. Paul, after Floyd was killed on May 25.
“The governor is disappointed that the federal government declined his request for financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help Minnesota rebuild after civil unrest damaged public infrastructure and caused extensive fire damage in the wake of George Floyd’s death,” Walz’s spokesperson Teddy Tschann said in a statement. “As we navigate one of the most difficult periods in our state’s history, we look for support from our federal government to help us through.”
In making the request for help, Walz had noted that the financial challenge had been made even harder by the impacts on the state budget from the cononavirus pandemic. A projected $1.5 billion budget surplus in February was soon wiped out by a projected $2.4 billion revenue shortfall, he wrote to in the request to President Trump via FEMA.
In a statement provided to MPR News on Saturday, a FEMA spokesperson said:
“After a thorough review of Minnesota’s request for a major disaster declaration from extensive fire damage as a result of civil unrest in late May and early June, it was determined that the impact to public infrastructure is within the capabilities of the local and state governments to recover from. The governor has 30 days to appeal that decision.”
Rep. Emmer to Trump: Do not give Minnesota any money without a full investigation of how this level of destruction was allowed to occur.
The federal government’s denial of the request from Walz, a Democrat, came a day after Republican U.S. Rep Tom Emmer of Minnesota sent a letter to Trump and other federal officials raising questions about the request.
While not stating opposition to Minnesota receiving federal money, Emmer asked that — in the wake of Walz’s request — the Trump administration “undertake a thorough and concurrent review of my state’s response to the violence.”
Emmer wrote that if federal money helps pay for cleanup and rebuilding, the government “has an obligation to every American — prior to the release of funding — to fully understand the events which allowed for this level of destruction to occur and ensure it never happens again.”
Slightly changing the subject, there is a new book publishedon how immigrants turned Minneapolis, a dying WHITE city of the 1970s, into the wonderfully diverse and vibrant city it is today.
Catholic and Lutheran refugee resettlement agencies come in for praise for helping to save the city from a “death spiral.”
