Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.<\/p>\n
The focus this time: Mad as a bag of ferrets.<\/p>\n
First, a little unwoke science lesson:<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> Carrying on\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5372\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"176\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> The English language derives primarily (abet with Old Norse and a millennium of other influences) from the language of the Anglo-Saxon people, and many rights either derive directly from those first millennium times\u2014such as the right of the free to personal arms\u2014or from asserting rights in the resistance against the \u201cNorman Yoke\u201d. Not surprising that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-7663127\/Academic-says-Anglo-Saxon-dropped-links-white-supremacy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">woke academics dislike that<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAnglo-Saxon traditionally refers to groups from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands who settled in Britain at the end of Roman rule.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cHowever, early medieval England specialist Mary Rambaran-Olm, an independent scholar and author, claimed the term is used by white supremacists to refer to white British people and should be banned.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe academic \u2013 raised in Canada and now based in Ireland \u2013 says previous objections to the term Dark Ages sets a precedent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cShe told The Times: ‘Generally, white supremacists use the term to make some sort of connection to their heritage (which is inaccurate) or to make associations with ‘whiteness’ but they also habitually misuse it to try and connect themselves to a warrior past.’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> However, some others are not impressed\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cTom Holland, author of books including Athelstan: The Making of England, said the term was ‘inextricably bound up with the claim by Alfred … to rule as a shared Anglian-Saxon identity’.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c’Scholars must be free to use it,’ he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIn a tweet, he wrote of the idea to ditch the term Anglo-Saxon: ‘Mad as a bag of ferrets, as they say in Deira [a former kingdom].’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more--> Because <em>of course<\/em> White people could only be where they are due to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/students-told-theyre-genocide-beneficiaries-at-panel-on-native-american-issues\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cleaver scheme<\/a> that required both genocide of others and perpetual oppression of those allegedly genocided groups according to some well thought out scheme\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cA room full of college students recently attending a panel on Native American issues at UMass Boston were told they are \u2018genocide beneficiaries.\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe panel, \u2018Indigenous Commemorative Practices and Community-Building Initiatives in Native New England and Beyond,\u2019 offered an overarching focus on \u2018indigenous resiliency,\u2019 according to organizers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cOne presenter, Kristen Wyman, identified herself as half-indigenous and half-European to the audience, and posed the question to the 50 or so students and others in the room: \u2018How can we define systemic oppression?\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">“After the audience did not offer a cohesive response, she described the term as one group hindering another group\u2019s accessibility to opportunities and resources. This can take many forms, she said.:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAs an example, she explained that the erection of early dams by European settlers in Massachusetts rivers served as a \u2018system of oppression\u2019 for Native Americans, since the construction of the dams hindered natives from canoe travel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> Apparently beavers are White Supremacist Genocidal Tyrants now or something\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aYDfwUJzYQg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> But what is the most unwoke toold of genocidal oppression, according to Seattle public schools?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2019\/10\/22\/seattle-math-oppressive-cultural-woke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mathematics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt’s chock full of social justice jargon that sounds smart but is actually vapid. What does it mean to decode mathematical \u2018beauty\u2019 or \u2018identify how the development of mathematics has been erased from learning in school?\u2019 (Has it been erased? That seems like a problem for history class.) The guidance says it will \u2018re-humanize mathematics through experiential learning\u2019 and facilitate learning \u2018independently and interdependently.\u2019 That’s a fancy way of saying almost nothing at all.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe guidance also includes some extremely political, simplistic talking points that might be popular among activist academics but are in reality somewhat dubious. This is verbatim from the proposal: Students will be able to \u2018identify the inherent inequities of the standardized testing system used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color,\u2019 \u2018explain how math has been used to exploit natural resources,\u2019 and \u2018explain how math dictates economic oppression.\u2019 Each of these statements are debatable, but they are not being presented as such. It would be one thing to hold a class discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of standardized testing, but what’s happening here is that students are being trained to reject standardized testing due to its \u2018inherent inequity,\u2019 which is asserted as some kind of proven fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> In other words\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cInfusing the existing math curriculum with a bunch of unfounded progressive assumptions about cultural appropriation is a silly approach.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15508\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/monty-python-silly.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"236\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"> TTFN.<\/p>\n<p><meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PoliticHatBlog\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePoliticalHat\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Enemies of Academic Wokeness: Ancient Anglo-Saxons; Genocide Beneficiaries; Mathematics\"\/><meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The focus this time: Mad as a bag of ferrets.\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on. The focus this time: Mad as a bag of ferrets. First, a little unwoke science … <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2020\/01\/16\/quick-takes-enemies-of-academic-wokeness-ancient-anglo-saxons-genocide-beneficiaries-mathematics\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[25,48,68,97],"class_list":["post-16253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-progressives","tag-higher-ed","tag-social-justice","tag-wtf","tag-_"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16253"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16270,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16253\/revisions\/16270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}