Friday, November 06, 2009
Smugness, Simplistic Bumper Stickers and Choice
It was the smugness that got me, I think. That and the simplistic view of a complex problem that never lends itself to the black and white arguments which attend it.
The bumper sticker read “SMILE. Your Mother Chose Life.” The first thing that crossed my mind was simply “How in the hell would you know?”
There is no small amount of arrogance in presuming to know the circumstances of another life. I thought back to my dear mother, whom I seem to miss more and more with each passing day. I recall her stories about my birth: “It was the hottest day in 1953. And we had to ride all the way across the state on SR 90 to West Palm Beach so you could be born. Your father had to stop the car twice so I could throw up… (This on a highway lined on both sides with signs warning of “Deep Canals” into which cars vanish and only resurface years later complete with skeletons of missing persons) And then they brought you to me and you were so beautiful.”
I miss hearing that story on my birthday each year. But the story which the bumper sticker would presume to dictate took place long before Sept. 1, 1953. The reality is that my mother did not have to choose when it came time for me to be born. She and my father very much wanted children. I was the first of three. And at some level, my birth came as a great sigh of relief for my mother who had nearly died with a tubular pregnancy on their previous try a year earlier. My mother produced three children from one ovary, the last when she was on the cusp of 40 years old. Clearly, this was a couple who wanted children.
My father had a decent job in the early 50s, working first for the USDA on a post-war training project teaching former soldiers to farm in the cane fields of South Florida and later for the local school board. After a year he headed back to the University of Florida on the GI Bill to get his masters in agriculture. Both my parents had siblings within a couple hours drive of LaBelle. My mother’s parents came down to help her when I came home from the hospital and I would go to stay with her sister’s family in Hialeah a year later when my brother’s birth proved difficult. We had places to go and resources to cover us.
My birth was simply not a result of a choice. My mother had no choices to make. She didn’t have the prospect of raising a child alone with no income to provide for it. Her child was not the result of rape or incest. She did not live in an abusive relationship nor did she live within the surround of abject poverty. My mother had two years of college under her belt and a husband with a bachelor’s degree. They were white, middle class, well respected with a strong familial support system. What choice was there to make?
I admit to no small amount of frustration over the way the abortion discussion typically is cast. Pro-life arguments are rarely about life in any sense beyond birth. Their proponents add hypocrisy to myopia in their general support for state killing and opposition to any kind of welfare spending to ease the lives of the poor. And pro-choice arguments focus far too often on rights with little consideration of responsibilities. Even so, choices regarding the termination of a pregnancy considered outside the context in which they are made can make little sense to anyone outside the parties immediately involved. Such complex decisions simply do not lend themselves to the simplistic reductionism of bumper sticker slogans.
If I must smile on command as the bumper sticker demands, I am more than happy to smile this day because I am alive, I am in decent health, I have a comfortable home and life, and a family who loves me. All of this is only partly due to my own efforts, the rest due to circumstances over which I had little, well, choice. But if I am being honest with myself, I must also admit to simultaneously feeling no small amount of pain for the many children born into poverty, abusive families, many of whom struggle to meet the bare minimums of food, shelter and clothing required for life. And I feel no small amount of sorrow for their mothers, many of them relatively powerless to change those conditions which can readily make life a living hell.
I have seen these children and their mothers in the barrios of Central America and the ghettos of the United States. I have taught them and represented them in court. I have lived in their dirt floor hovels in the countryside of Panama. I have sat with them in courtrooms packed with drug dealers and prostitutes. And as I remember them, I wonder how they would respond to the glib, self-satisfied bumper sticker on the rear of a late model automobile in the faculty lot at a large state university in Florida.
More importantly, I wonder how their mothers might react. Would they see themselves as blessed? Would they have second thoughts? Would they smile? More importantly, would they see the “choice” in as simplistic, black and white terms as the smug purveyor of the bumper sticker? I have to wonder.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was the smugness that got me, I think. That and the simplistic view of a complex problem that never lends itself to the black and white arguments which attend it.
The bumper sticker read “SMILE. Your Mother Chose Life.” The first thing that crossed my mind was simply “How in the hell would you know?”
There is no small amount of arrogance in presuming to know the circumstances of another life. I thought back to my dear mother, whom I seem to miss more and more with each passing day. I recall her stories about my birth: “It was the hottest day in 1953. And we had to ride all the way across the state on SR 90 to West Palm Beach so you could be born. Your father had to stop the car twice so I could throw up… (This on a highway lined on both sides with signs warning of “Deep Canals” into which cars vanish and only resurface years later complete with skeletons of missing persons) And then they brought you to me and you were so beautiful.”
I miss hearing that story on my birthday each year. But the story which the bumper sticker would presume to dictate took place long before Sept. 1, 1953. The reality is that my mother did not have to choose when it came time for me to be born. She and my father very much wanted children. I was the first of three. And at some level, my birth came as a great sigh of relief for my mother who had nearly died with a tubular pregnancy on their previous try a year earlier. My mother produced three children from one ovary, the last when she was on the cusp of 40 years old. Clearly, this was a couple who wanted children.
My father had a decent job in the early 50s, working first for the USDA on a post-war training project teaching former soldiers to farm in the cane fields of South Florida and later for the local school board. After a year he headed back to the University of Florida on the GI Bill to get his masters in agriculture. Both my parents had siblings within a couple hours drive of LaBelle. My mother’s parents came down to help her when I came home from the hospital and I would go to stay with her sister’s family in Hialeah a year later when my brother’s birth proved difficult. We had places to go and resources to cover us.
My birth was simply not a result of a choice. My mother had no choices to make. She didn’t have the prospect of raising a child alone with no income to provide for it. Her child was not the result of rape or incest. She did not live in an abusive relationship nor did she live within the surround of abject poverty. My mother had two years of college under her belt and a husband with a bachelor’s degree. They were white, middle class, well respected with a strong familial support system. What choice was there to make?
I admit to no small amount of frustration over the way the abortion discussion typically is cast. Pro-life arguments are rarely about life in any sense beyond birth. Their proponents add hypocrisy to myopia in their general support for state killing and opposition to any kind of welfare spending to ease the lives of the poor. And pro-choice arguments focus far too often on rights with little consideration of responsibilities. Even so, choices regarding the termination of a pregnancy considered outside the context in which they are made can make little sense to anyone outside the parties immediately involved. Such complex decisions simply do not lend themselves to the simplistic reductionism of bumper sticker slogans.
If I must smile on command as the bumper sticker demands, I am more than happy to smile this day because I am alive, I am in decent health, I have a comfortable home and life, and a family who loves me. All of this is only partly due to my own efforts, the rest due to circumstances over which I had little, well, choice. But if I am being honest with myself, I must also admit to simultaneously feeling no small amount of pain for the many children born into poverty, abusive families, many of whom struggle to meet the bare minimums of food, shelter and clothing required for life. And I feel no small amount of sorrow for their mothers, many of them relatively powerless to change those conditions which can readily make life a living hell.
I have seen these children and their mothers in the barrios of Central America and the ghettos of the United States. I have taught them and represented them in court. I have lived in their dirt floor hovels in the countryside of Panama. I have sat with them in courtrooms packed with drug dealers and prostitutes. And as I remember them, I wonder how they would respond to the glib, self-satisfied bumper sticker on the rear of a late model automobile in the faculty lot at a large state university in Florida.
More importantly, I wonder how their mothers might react. Would they see themselves as blessed? Would they have second thoughts? Would they smile? More importantly, would they see the “choice” in as simplistic, black and white terms as the smug purveyor of the bumper sticker? I have to wonder.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Monday, October 26, 2009
Things that make you go hmmmm....... (10-26)
Tag on an SUV in a parking lot: "IN A TRAP"
One wonders if that refers to ownership of a vehicle whose mileage might well be draining the resources of the owner and prompting fearf as to what will happen when the next gas price hike occurs. Or perhaps it's a reference to a mindset that cannot (will not?) come to grips with the new reality the world faces: our addiction to petrochemicals is killing us and the time to get off the stuff is now.
Then there's the bumper sticker on the Hummer in the parking lot of Borders at the Winter Park Village shopping center: "So how's that 'CHANGE' and 'HOPE' working out for you?"
Don't you just love smug, self-satisfied Winter Park? I often say it's such a beautiful little town (little in just about every way including its collective mind and heart) and it's a shame the folks who live there can't pull their heads out of their asses long enough to see it.
Oh, as for the question, the change is working out well not just for America but for the rest of the world. Ask the Nobel Peace Prize folks. Ask the American people who have hope for the first time in a long time that they might actually be able to be medically treated when sick or injured. If nothing else, ask people like me who no longer have to grimace and frantically reach for the radio dial each time the president of the United States speaks in public. If nothing else, an administration which values diplomacy over costly invasions, which tells big business it cannot continue providing a gravy train for its execs at the expense of the American public and which consistently articulates its vision in complete sentences properly using the English language (unlike the producer of the bumper sticker of the former administration) gives me hope.
Yeah, buddy, that change is working out just fine for all of us.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tag on an SUV in a parking lot: "IN A TRAP"
One wonders if that refers to ownership of a vehicle whose mileage might well be draining the resources of the owner and prompting fearf as to what will happen when the next gas price hike occurs. Or perhaps it's a reference to a mindset that cannot (will not?) come to grips with the new reality the world faces: our addiction to petrochemicals is killing us and the time to get off the stuff is now.
Then there's the bumper sticker on the Hummer in the parking lot of Borders at the Winter Park Village shopping center: "So how's that 'CHANGE' and 'HOPE' working out for you?"
Don't you just love smug, self-satisfied Winter Park? I often say it's such a beautiful little town (little in just about every way including its collective mind and heart) and it's a shame the folks who live there can't pull their heads out of their asses long enough to see it.
Oh, as for the question, the change is working out well not just for America but for the rest of the world. Ask the Nobel Peace Prize folks. Ask the American people who have hope for the first time in a long time that they might actually be able to be medically treated when sick or injured. If nothing else, ask people like me who no longer have to grimace and frantically reach for the radio dial each time the president of the United States speaks in public. If nothing else, an administration which values diplomacy over costly invasions, which tells big business it cannot continue providing a gravy train for its execs at the expense of the American public and which consistently articulates its vision in complete sentences properly using the English language (unlike the producer of the bumper sticker of the former administration) gives me hope.
Yeah, buddy, that change is working out just fine for all of us.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
They Are Still Our Slaves?
A friend of mine who is a black retired teacher sent me this essay as an email. I found it shocking and provocative. I would have immediately assessed this as racist propaganda had it not come from my friend.
His email had copied one of the many pieces circulating the internet which initially cited the essay as having been written by a white man and sent to a NYC radio station where a white woman talk show host supposedly read it live on air. As is the case with many web-based legends, that never happened. The talk show host ended up posting a disclaimer suggesting that her name had been confused with a black Philadelphia comedian who had broadcast it on a local talk show in that city. That, also, turned out to be untrue.
What follows the essay is the website for the actual author of the piece who is a NYC professor at Baruch College. He included the essay in a book entitled Mental Slavery.
The essay is well worth considering. He draws a bead on self-defeating behaviors and the surrender to superficial values and materialism that is hard to escape as one looks around them in consumerist America. However, as I look out at my young undergrads, eager to get diplomas (and occasionally, an education as well) to go make money and to play the consumerist game, I wonder if the self-imposed slavery is not broader than simply African-Americans.
I offer the essay to you for your consideration. Your thoughts are welcomed.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is one version of the piece as it has circulated on the internet
http://pridemagazine.wordpress.com/2006/04/26/they-are-still-our-slaves-very-enlightening-article-think-about/
“They Are Still Our Slaves” Very Enlightening Article. Think About.
For those of you who heard it, this is the article DeeLee was reading on aNew York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.
"THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES" We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book. We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and <http://amazon.com/ Amazon. com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for anybusiness venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for savingor investing. They would rather buy some new sneakers than investin starting a business.
Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, and they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them "Status" orthat they have achieved their Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.
SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However,that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner.
They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers.
Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own , as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as theyrefuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!
Now that you have read this, I want to get an ongoing discussion on the topic. I want everyone who reads this to post your opinions of this letter. Do you feel that is true. If so, in what ways? How can us as a black race get away from these sterotypes or accusations that are raised within this text? The evidence is provided in this letter. Did this letter take you aback as it did to me? Let me know what you think. Tell your friends to read this also. Remember that in order to have progress you must address the issues pertaining to your people so please keep this in mind and educate your friends and most importantly educate yourselves. -----Garrett L. Sawyer: Content Editor for Pride Magazine
ACTUAL SOURCE:
http://www.readlikeyourlifedependsonit.com/home.html
Read Like Your Life Depends On It
By Art Lewin
Welcome
Dr. Arthur Lewin, author of Africa Is Not A Country: It's A Continent, and member of the Black and Hispanic Studies Department of Baruch College of the City University of New York thanks you for your interest in his latest book and visiting his website.
Additional content is being developed and will be incorporated into this site in the near future. However, in the interim we would like to hear from you with your questions and comments regarding topics in the book.
Please click here or the contact button to send an email to Dr. Lewin.
Read Like Your Life Depends On It
Addendum
THE MATRIX OF THE MATRIX (Pg. 23)
DID A BLACK WOMAN WRITE THE MATRIX? (Pg. 23)
PRETTY NAILS COST MORE THAN U THINK! (Pg. 10)
MENTAL SLAVERY (Pg. 5)
HOW TO MAKE AN ECONOMIC OR GHETTO SLAVE
FULL TEXT OF BILL COSBY’S COMMENTS (Pg. 12)
MENTAL SLAVERY
In the book under the title, “Mental Slavery,” we reproduce an article that we authored that has been circulating around the net for years. On the net we titled it “They Are Still Our Slaves.” It is based on an article we received called “How To Make An Economic Or Ghetto Slave.” This original is reproduced below. Compare it to the piece in the book to see how we modified it.
Back To Top
HOW TO MAKE AN ECONOMIC OR GHETTO SLAVE
A Lesson for the New Millennium by Willie Lynch VI, building on my great-grandfather's work, we can see how we can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery.
We will focus on the current methods of containment that they use on themselves:
1. IGNORANCE 2. GREED 3. SELFISHNESS.
The IGNORANCE of blacks is the primary weapon of containment. A great Man once said, “the best way to hide something from a black is to put it in a book.” This statement is so true. We currently live in an information age. Blacks have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom and integration yet; they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. com, that would help them reach economic equality (which should Have been their fight all along). However, very few of them read consistently if at all. As long as we continue to publish books for our benefit and keep books, computers and the Internet out of their hands, we will never see the masses of them rise above the slums and projects.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 9 billion dollars during Christmas and overall yearly have about 450 billion dollars in purchasing power. Any of us can use them as our target market for any business venture. Being primarily a consumer people they function totally by greed.
They continually want more without any regard for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business or a community development organization. Some will even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, they still think that having a Mercedes and a fancy apartment in the middle of the ghetto gives them "status" or that they have achieved the American dream. They are fools.
The vast majority of their people are still in poverty. Living in slums, projects and run-down homes. What have they achieved? Their greed holds them back from making better communities for themselves. With the help of BET and the rest of their black media, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. They, will continue to congregate in their 'buppie" communities and slums trying to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses. Some would argue that this last method is the most powerful one of the three. SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can contain them in a slave status. We all know that any group united under one vision can accomplish anything.
The Bible shows that even God acknowledged in the Tower of Babel story that a people united can accomplish anything. With this said, we understand that the most effective way to keep them contained is to create divisions among blacks as a people. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A 'Talented Tenth' he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some form of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work, they didn't read that the Talented Tenth was then responsible to aid the Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life.
Instead, that segment has created another class, a buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. The selfishness of the buppie class, and the "it's all about me" attitude that is prevalent throughout their people, has caused them to isolate both classes and fail to achieve solid communities, business or economic empowerment.
They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. Their so-called help organizations, with large budgets and some existing for almost a hundred or more years, seem to only want to promote their names without making any real change to the communities in which they live. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions and talk about what they will do and award the best speakers a plaque. Is their no end to their selfishness?
They lack the essential understanding that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE! They do not understand that they are not better than each because of what they own. Most are only one or two paychecks away from poverty. And their paychecks are written by us in our offices and boardrooms.
Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as we keep them from reading, let them buy anything they want, and keep them thinking that they are really "helping" their communities by paying dues to some organization. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, they don't read!
Back To Top
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A friend of mine who is a black retired teacher sent me this essay as an email. I found it shocking and provocative. I would have immediately assessed this as racist propaganda had it not come from my friend.
His email had copied one of the many pieces circulating the internet which initially cited the essay as having been written by a white man and sent to a NYC radio station where a white woman talk show host supposedly read it live on air. As is the case with many web-based legends, that never happened. The talk show host ended up posting a disclaimer suggesting that her name had been confused with a black Philadelphia comedian who had broadcast it on a local talk show in that city. That, also, turned out to be untrue.
What follows the essay is the website for the actual author of the piece who is a NYC professor at Baruch College. He included the essay in a book entitled Mental Slavery.
The essay is well worth considering. He draws a bead on self-defeating behaviors and the surrender to superficial values and materialism that is hard to escape as one looks around them in consumerist America. However, as I look out at my young undergrads, eager to get diplomas (and occasionally, an education as well) to go make money and to play the consumerist game, I wonder if the self-imposed slavery is not broader than simply African-Americans.
I offer the essay to you for your consideration. Your thoughts are welcomed.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is one version of the piece as it has circulated on the internet
http://pridemagazine.wordpress.com/2006/04/26/they-are-still-our-slaves-very-enlightening-article-think-about/
“They Are Still Our Slaves” Very Enlightening Article. Think About.
For those of you who heard it, this is the article DeeLee was reading on aNew York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.
"THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES" We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book. We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and <http://amazon.com/ Amazon. com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for anybusiness venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for savingor investing. They would rather buy some new sneakers than investin starting a business.
Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, and they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them "Status" orthat they have achieved their Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.
SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However,that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner.
They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers.
Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own , as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as theyrefuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!
Now that you have read this, I want to get an ongoing discussion on the topic. I want everyone who reads this to post your opinions of this letter. Do you feel that is true. If so, in what ways? How can us as a black race get away from these sterotypes or accusations that are raised within this text? The evidence is provided in this letter. Did this letter take you aback as it did to me? Let me know what you think. Tell your friends to read this also. Remember that in order to have progress you must address the issues pertaining to your people so please keep this in mind and educate your friends and most importantly educate yourselves. -----Garrett L. Sawyer: Content Editor for Pride Magazine
ACTUAL SOURCE:
http://www.readlikeyourlifedependsonit.com/home.html
Read Like Your Life Depends On It
By Art Lewin
Welcome
Dr. Arthur Lewin, author of Africa Is Not A Country: It's A Continent, and member of the Black and Hispanic Studies Department of Baruch College of the City University of New York thanks you for your interest in his latest book and visiting his website.
Additional content is being developed and will be incorporated into this site in the near future. However, in the interim we would like to hear from you with your questions and comments regarding topics in the book.
Please click here or the contact button to send an email to Dr. Lewin.
Read Like Your Life Depends On It
Addendum
THE MATRIX OF THE MATRIX (Pg. 23)
DID A BLACK WOMAN WRITE THE MATRIX? (Pg. 23)
PRETTY NAILS COST MORE THAN U THINK! (Pg. 10)
MENTAL SLAVERY (Pg. 5)
HOW TO MAKE AN ECONOMIC OR GHETTO SLAVE
FULL TEXT OF BILL COSBY’S COMMENTS (Pg. 12)
MENTAL SLAVERY
In the book under the title, “Mental Slavery,” we reproduce an article that we authored that has been circulating around the net for years. On the net we titled it “They Are Still Our Slaves.” It is based on an article we received called “How To Make An Economic Or Ghetto Slave.” This original is reproduced below. Compare it to the piece in the book to see how we modified it.
Back To Top
HOW TO MAKE AN ECONOMIC OR GHETTO SLAVE
A Lesson for the New Millennium by Willie Lynch VI, building on my great-grandfather's work, we can see how we can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery.
We will focus on the current methods of containment that they use on themselves:
1. IGNORANCE 2. GREED 3. SELFISHNESS.
The IGNORANCE of blacks is the primary weapon of containment. A great Man once said, “the best way to hide something from a black is to put it in a book.” This statement is so true. We currently live in an information age. Blacks have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom and integration yet; they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. com, that would help them reach economic equality (which should Have been their fight all along). However, very few of them read consistently if at all. As long as we continue to publish books for our benefit and keep books, computers and the Internet out of their hands, we will never see the masses of them rise above the slums and projects.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 9 billion dollars during Christmas and overall yearly have about 450 billion dollars in purchasing power. Any of us can use them as our target market for any business venture. Being primarily a consumer people they function totally by greed.
They continually want more without any regard for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business or a community development organization. Some will even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, they still think that having a Mercedes and a fancy apartment in the middle of the ghetto gives them "status" or that they have achieved the American dream. They are fools.
The vast majority of their people are still in poverty. Living in slums, projects and run-down homes. What have they achieved? Their greed holds them back from making better communities for themselves. With the help of BET and the rest of their black media, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. They, will continue to congregate in their 'buppie" communities and slums trying to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses. Some would argue that this last method is the most powerful one of the three. SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can contain them in a slave status. We all know that any group united under one vision can accomplish anything.
The Bible shows that even God acknowledged in the Tower of Babel story that a people united can accomplish anything. With this said, we understand that the most effective way to keep them contained is to create divisions among blacks as a people. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A 'Talented Tenth' he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some form of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work, they didn't read that the Talented Tenth was then responsible to aid the Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life.
Instead, that segment has created another class, a buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. The selfishness of the buppie class, and the "it's all about me" attitude that is prevalent throughout their people, has caused them to isolate both classes and fail to achieve solid communities, business or economic empowerment.
They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. Their so-called help organizations, with large budgets and some existing for almost a hundred or more years, seem to only want to promote their names without making any real change to the communities in which they live. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions and talk about what they will do and award the best speakers a plaque. Is their no end to their selfishness?
They lack the essential understanding that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE! They do not understand that they are not better than each because of what they own. Most are only one or two paychecks away from poverty. And their paychecks are written by us in our offices and boardrooms.
Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as we keep them from reading, let them buy anything they want, and keep them thinking that they are really "helping" their communities by paying dues to some organization. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, they don't read!
Back To Top
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Summer of Their Discontent – Part II
Amidst the sea of negativity I received in my Summer B evaluations (the tenor of which my chair described as “hysterical”) was this comment: “Professor’s lack of respect for his students was outrageous.” It’s a comment that stings given the general fondness I feel for most of my students, a trait that is repeatedly reflected in the evaluations of my real live courses. But, in all fairness, I think this student was on target. By the end of a summer which had featured a mutiny and a non-stop whine session, I really didn’t have much respect for those students.
But was respect due them? The same student who lamented my lack of respect for her complained that the stripped down, bare minimum course with three tests and four Gordon Rule Papers “placed unrealistic expectations” on students. She complained that the tests did not allow students to skip questions and return to them later (which makes it difficult to look up the answers in the text the student hasn’t read). She complained that 24 hours was insufficient time to write a Gordon Rule Paper even though the prep materials needed for the paper were provided well in advance of the 24 hour window.
Comments from other students included complaints about “the enormous amount of reading” and “an unreasonable expectation of study time.” Another complained because I did not give an “open note test” while another asserted that the tests were “weird. They required comprehension and critical analysis of the reading.” Imagine that! Yet another complained because the class was so fast paced the student “did not have enough time to learn the material” (this from a student who specifically chose to take the course in the abbreviated six week summer format). And then there was the complaint that requiring submission of papers to turnitin.com, the plagiarism site, was “too much of a hassle. I think we should be trusted because we are college students now, not high school students any more to plagierize (sic).”
Some of the comments were ironic in their embodiment of the very concerns to which I often direct my comments:
· “Technical errors.u”
· “This is not an english class so assume we know how to use english properly…”
· “This is the first time I’ve taking a class online so at first the test as overwhelming some answers were there, but trying to complete the test before the time was up, lead me to overlook some of the right answers sadly.”
So, perhaps I did not show a lot of respect for this substandard writing and the constant whining. But, again, what respect is due this kind of performance?
A number of students reported taking personal affront to some of the comments made to them. Admittedly, my frustration with the onslaught of posts, many of them asking questions that were already answered by posted materials they clearly had not read, did begin to show by the end of the term. Moreover, I was having to completely revamp the website given its changeover from WebCT to Blackboard with all the accompanying technical problems that went with that shift. As some students rightfully complained, many of the links no longer worked and had to be relinked. In reality, I spent hours recreating the documents and links. No doubt my frustration was palpable by the end of the term.
What was particularly troubling in all this hysteria was the personal nature of some of the comments. One of the great weaknesses (among the many) of online courses is that the human beings involved never get to know each other. They don’t get to see the human face of the other. They make comments they would never say to a person’s face. And so perhaps it is not surprising when a frustration-filled semester ends with comments like this: “Your picture hanging in some building does not make you a good teacher.” This from a person who has never met me.
My chair is willing to write this off as simply a bad term which we all suffer through occasionally. But in all honesty, my experience last summer caused me to seriously question how long I can remain in college instruction. For the first time in my life, I found myself dreading the beginning of school this fall, a time that has always been one of great excitement and anticipation for me. I found myself wondering what other work could I possibly do and whether I could simply survive to retirement in 10 years, this from a man who had once believed he’d teach until he dropped over dead.
Fortunately, this fall has gone a long way toward redeeming my vocation as teacher. My three sections of honors students are unusually good, generally respectful and hardworking with the occasional attitude-laden narcissist thrown in for good measure. My large Encountering the Humanities class has produced some good discussions and is composed mostly of decent, good natured students. I’m actually enjoying this rather frantic fall where I am teaching four different courses including a new course team taught with another instructor. Indeed, I had almost laid this troubled past summer to rest when I received the summer’s evaluations yesterday.
Ironically, a couple of my summer students seemed to think I see myself “to be above 2000 level courses.” In actuality, I believe the Humanistic Traditions courses we teach are perhaps the most important courses the university offers. Where else will students be required to actually consider what it means to be human, what legacy they have inherited from those who have gone before and what obligations to the world they have as a result of their privilege? My graduating senior (and who knows more than them?) ended her diatribe with the comment “If you feel above basic humanities, please stop teaching it!”
The problem is not that I feel above teaching basic humanities. The problem is that the online summer format of Humanistic Traditions simply isn’t about teaching. And it’s even less about learning.
What it is about is the procurement of credit hours and crossing off of graduation requirements in as short a period as possible with as little work as is necessary. It’s about relieving overcrowded classrooms and guaranteeing tuition moneys (not to mention additional online fees) for the university’s ever shrinking budget. It’s about teachers being required to spend more and more of their own time playing technical games with substandard computer systems and being the middle man with little technological expertise between that system and its users. And it's about the difference between a $43,000/year income and $51,000/year income (this for a professional with three graduate degrees and 25 years of college teaching experience) guaranteed only by the willingness to endure online teaching in six week summer terms.
Finally, it’s about those who ostensibly came to college to be students but who instead have come to confuse themselves for consumers with inordinate senses of entitlement. That sense of entitlement includes a perceived right to make demands on everything from pedagogy to course content to assessment from those they see as obligated to provide goods and services to their specifications. One only has to read my summer courses’ evaluations to see that.
In reality, I stopped actually teaching the basic humanities a long time ago, not because it was beneath me but rather because that was no longer the job I was paid to do. Sadly, that will prove to be a major loss to all parties involved.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amidst the sea of negativity I received in my Summer B evaluations (the tenor of which my chair described as “hysterical”) was this comment: “Professor’s lack of respect for his students was outrageous.” It’s a comment that stings given the general fondness I feel for most of my students, a trait that is repeatedly reflected in the evaluations of my real live courses. But, in all fairness, I think this student was on target. By the end of a summer which had featured a mutiny and a non-stop whine session, I really didn’t have much respect for those students.
But was respect due them? The same student who lamented my lack of respect for her complained that the stripped down, bare minimum course with three tests and four Gordon Rule Papers “placed unrealistic expectations” on students. She complained that the tests did not allow students to skip questions and return to them later (which makes it difficult to look up the answers in the text the student hasn’t read). She complained that 24 hours was insufficient time to write a Gordon Rule Paper even though the prep materials needed for the paper were provided well in advance of the 24 hour window.
Comments from other students included complaints about “the enormous amount of reading” and “an unreasonable expectation of study time.” Another complained because I did not give an “open note test” while another asserted that the tests were “weird. They required comprehension and critical analysis of the reading.” Imagine that! Yet another complained because the class was so fast paced the student “did not have enough time to learn the material” (this from a student who specifically chose to take the course in the abbreviated six week summer format). And then there was the complaint that requiring submission of papers to turnitin.com, the plagiarism site, was “too much of a hassle. I think we should be trusted because we are college students now, not high school students any more to plagierize (sic).”
Some of the comments were ironic in their embodiment of the very concerns to which I often direct my comments:
· “Technical errors.u”
· “This is not an english class so assume we know how to use english properly…”
· “This is the first time I’ve taking a class online so at first the test as overwhelming some answers were there, but trying to complete the test before the time was up, lead me to overlook some of the right answers sadly.”
So, perhaps I did not show a lot of respect for this substandard writing and the constant whining. But, again, what respect is due this kind of performance?
A number of students reported taking personal affront to some of the comments made to them. Admittedly, my frustration with the onslaught of posts, many of them asking questions that were already answered by posted materials they clearly had not read, did begin to show by the end of the term. Moreover, I was having to completely revamp the website given its changeover from WebCT to Blackboard with all the accompanying technical problems that went with that shift. As some students rightfully complained, many of the links no longer worked and had to be relinked. In reality, I spent hours recreating the documents and links. No doubt my frustration was palpable by the end of the term.
What was particularly troubling in all this hysteria was the personal nature of some of the comments. One of the great weaknesses (among the many) of online courses is that the human beings involved never get to know each other. They don’t get to see the human face of the other. They make comments they would never say to a person’s face. And so perhaps it is not surprising when a frustration-filled semester ends with comments like this: “Your picture hanging in some building does not make you a good teacher.” This from a person who has never met me.
My chair is willing to write this off as simply a bad term which we all suffer through occasionally. But in all honesty, my experience last summer caused me to seriously question how long I can remain in college instruction. For the first time in my life, I found myself dreading the beginning of school this fall, a time that has always been one of great excitement and anticipation for me. I found myself wondering what other work could I possibly do and whether I could simply survive to retirement in 10 years, this from a man who had once believed he’d teach until he dropped over dead.
Fortunately, this fall has gone a long way toward redeeming my vocation as teacher. My three sections of honors students are unusually good, generally respectful and hardworking with the occasional attitude-laden narcissist thrown in for good measure. My large Encountering the Humanities class has produced some good discussions and is composed mostly of decent, good natured students. I’m actually enjoying this rather frantic fall where I am teaching four different courses including a new course team taught with another instructor. Indeed, I had almost laid this troubled past summer to rest when I received the summer’s evaluations yesterday.
Ironically, a couple of my summer students seemed to think I see myself “to be above 2000 level courses.” In actuality, I believe the Humanistic Traditions courses we teach are perhaps the most important courses the university offers. Where else will students be required to actually consider what it means to be human, what legacy they have inherited from those who have gone before and what obligations to the world they have as a result of their privilege? My graduating senior (and who knows more than them?) ended her diatribe with the comment “If you feel above basic humanities, please stop teaching it!”
The problem is not that I feel above teaching basic humanities. The problem is that the online summer format of Humanistic Traditions simply isn’t about teaching. And it’s even less about learning.
What it is about is the procurement of credit hours and crossing off of graduation requirements in as short a period as possible with as little work as is necessary. It’s about relieving overcrowded classrooms and guaranteeing tuition moneys (not to mention additional online fees) for the university’s ever shrinking budget. It’s about teachers being required to spend more and more of their own time playing technical games with substandard computer systems and being the middle man with little technological expertise between that system and its users. And it's about the difference between a $43,000/year income and $51,000/year income (this for a professional with three graduate degrees and 25 years of college teaching experience) guaranteed only by the willingness to endure online teaching in six week summer terms.
Finally, it’s about those who ostensibly came to college to be students but who instead have come to confuse themselves for consumers with inordinate senses of entitlement. That sense of entitlement includes a perceived right to make demands on everything from pedagogy to course content to assessment from those they see as obligated to provide goods and services to their specifications. One only has to read my summer courses’ evaluations to see that.
In reality, I stopped actually teaching the basic humanities a long time ago, not because it was beneath me but rather because that was no longer the job I was paid to do. Sadly, that will prove to be a major loss to all parties involved.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Summer of Their Discontent – Part I
This past summer I tried an experiment. I’ve been teaching the HUM 2210 and 2230 (Humanistic Traditions I and II) courses online each summer for five years now. Summer classes are by definition slacker magnets, particularly online sections. They draw students who think because the class is shorter it won’t require as much. They draw students who think that because the class is online it will be easier. As a result, you get the usual online class denizens – the hung over frat boys who don’t want to have to get up for class, the students who can’t get into any of the classes they need and decide to knock out their GEP requirements online and the graduating seniors who have put off their general education requirements until the very end and who think the course work is beneath their dignity given their newly acquired vocational skills.
In all fairness, this hardly exhausts the possibilities. You always have a small group of students who actually get caught up in the material, wrestle with the questions humanities courses raise and generally perform like actual college students. And there is invariably the one or two working mothers or fathers desperately trying to get the college degree needed for a decent life while juggling child care and work schedules. It’s this latter group of students for whom I have the patience of Job and the utmost of admiration. But, sadly, it’s the former group of students who have increasingly made summer teaching online an experience in the same category with barium enemas.
For the past four summers I have placed a caveat on my homepage regarding these online courses. The link reads “Is this Webcourse the right course for me? (HUM 2211 and HUM 2230) and contains an informal survey asking students to rate their responses to questions such as the following:
7. I am not laboring under the misapprehension that a course taught online is easier or less demanding than a regular face-to-face course. Indeed, I recognize that given the demands on the student to be responsible for meeting the course schedule and managing time with no interaction with the instructor in class, it can be much more difficult.
9. I am particularly adept at managing time, at reading and following directions and acting without assistance from instructors using only a schedule and course modules (particularly critical in summer sessions where 15 weeks course material is covered in a six week session, meaning each class week is the equivalent of 2.5 ordinary class weeks).
In short, I warn students ahead of time that their preconceptions are not on target. I warn them that the online class in which they are enrolling will be an actual course - with all the requirements of a real class - simply taught in online format. And I warn them that, contrary to popular conception and fervent student desires, it will be demanding. Despite such warnings, the classes always fill (even as the face-to-face sections languish and sometimes are cancelled), dominated by the usual suspects – the frat boys, the graduating seniors and the folks working full time jobs over the summer and taking two or more courses.
In what is perhaps a paradox, I have observed that as I have increasingly cut requirements from these summer online courses, the complaining actually increases each time. This is somewhat in line with studies which suggest that students actually want more engagement in online classes - perhaps as a consolation for a recognition after the fact that online courses are often mere shadows of their face-to-face editions - even as they resent having to actually do anything to engage the class.
This past summer, I found myself facing an unprecedented situation of a student using the course email list to run a mutiny among the students. Suggesting that the work load was too high and the feedback too slow (in all fairness, a week and a half can be perceived as a long time in summer sessions), the young man drafted a sample letter to be sent to my chair essentially demanding that I be disciplined. Becoming aware of the mutiny via a student I knew from a real live class who sent me the mass mailed letter, I responded with a point by point refutation to the email that I posted to course news. That effectively ended the mutiny. Upon receiving the form letter, my chair directed the student to meet with me in person and after less than an hour of talking face to face, the student apologized for the incident, said he wished he’d taken this class in a face-to-face section and concluded by saying he would consider taking other classes with me. (So much for the “just as good as regular classes” propaganda from the IT boys.)
Admittedly, this confrontation left a sour taste in my mouth going into the second half of the summer . I was burned out from Summer A and wanted to avoid any more confrontation. I decided to minimize my interactions with the incoming students and cut the Summer B course to a bare bones bottom line which required nothing more than three exams over the three volumes of the text and the four Gordon Rule Papers required by the state. No content quizzes on the chapters, no discussions of material, no posted responses to the Gordon Rule Papers, no group activities or presentations, all of which I have used in real live classes and past online editions of the class. Even as I prepared the syllabus and schedule for what I was calling Humanities Lite, I predicted to my chair and colleagues that the complaints about the course would increase and my evaluations would drop.
Today the truth of those predictions arrived in the form of course evaluations from the summer sessions. As I had predicted, even with the aborted mutiny, the first half of the summer evaluations were much higher and fairer than those of the whittled down second half. Even so, it was not without complaints.
The first half complaints centered primarily around what one student described as “tons and tons of work.” Of course, trying to cram a 15 week semester into 6 will no doubt result in such a perception if an actual class (as opposed to an online class trimmed of any real obligations for students to perform) is being taught. My mutiny leader complained about the “classroom equivalent time” as I had designated it on the schedule to show that students don’t get the class time off, that there were activities designed to simulate the same. Like many online course students, he had decided that no class attendance meant that time was the student’s and could not have any claims made on it by pesky little assignments.
One remarkably transparent comment seemed to sum up the entire thread of complaints: “An online course is about convenience, and having 2 quizzes due at the end of everyday is not convenient.” Of course, a day in a summer session is the equivalent of 2 days of classes in a regular semester. And in all fairness, the rare day when supplementary material (and thus extra credit) quizzes were scheduled was the exception and not the rule. Even so, clearly this course was not convenient enough for this student as she ended her evaluation with “I am never recommending this professor to anyone, or this class.”
Upon reading this comment, all I could think was, “O, thank G-d.” Indeed, at some level, I have come to see the revenge sites like myprofessorsucks.com and ratemyprofessor.com as doing instructors who actually demand that students engage their classes a great public service. If students are consulting these sites because they want to avoid work and decide against taking a course from me, I think the world will be a happier place for all parties involved. And if workload and convenience was all that was involved, it would be easier to simply do with these evaluations what is most appropriate for all such acontextual and generally meaningless consumerist surveys – look at them briefly, comment upon their novelty and then consign them to the closest recycle bin.
Unfortunately, in an age of educational bureaucratic micromanagement which confuses consumerism with accountability, “evaluations” like this one can become a problem for instructors who consistently prove inconvenient taskmasters. Of course, the problem isn’t the workload or the convenience. After five years of offering courses online, I observe that anytime a teacher actually demands more of students than paying their tuition and coming out with easy three hour As, their convenience-focused, work avoidant consumers will find something to complain about. As I predicted at the end of Summer A going into a stripped down Summer B, even if you only give the minimal three tests and the required four papers, the students will complain about them.
The very first comment from the Summer B evaluations began “There was not one thing I enjoyed about this class” and continued with a critique of workload: “There is an overwhelming amount of reading to retain in a given time period and exams are impossible.” While this student felt “All text chapters were completed ignored…” the following student complained “The test questions were straight from the book, not any of the unnecessary work…the extra Worksheets.” Yet another suggested “describing the kinds of questions to students before giving them the tests to produce a better grade curve.” Of course, tests are always easier when you know the questions ahead of time, no? Indeed, one student suggested “[I]n the ‘real world’ it’s not like you can’t open a book to reference something you are unsure about.” Why bother with tests at all, right? Just give a worksheet to fill in the blanks.
As I had predicted, if all you assign is tests and papers, the students will complain about them.
Ironically, the “extra Worksheets” for each chapter referenced here were designed to develop each artifact and piece of literature with questions about them. The questions ask students to consider “What might this sculpture suggest about how the Greeks saw men v. women?” and “Where do you see ideas like this in the world around you?” I provide the worksheets as study guides for the exams. I neither collect nor grade them.
Study after study suggests that actually understanding an artifact results in a greater tendency to remember it than mere memorization of the artifact and its maker followed by regurgitation of data from one’s short term memory and nearly instantly forgetting the same. And study after study suggests that if students can connect material being learned to their own lives, they are more likely to remember it. Of course, such concerns don’t fare well in a world driven by consumer convenience and the desire to avoid “an overwhelming amount of work,” even when it only involved three tests and four required papers, the least workload I have ever assigned in any college class I have ever taught anywhere.
One final thought on all this. The student who had taken a real live class with me previously wrote the following in her evaluation: “This course really shouldn’t be offered online. Too much is lost in translation. Dr. Coverston is a stellar professor who truly cares about the transfer of knowledge and engaging education.”
I must say I agree with her initial assertions and I can only hope her final complimentary statement is true. In reality, Humanistic Traditions courses do translate poorly to online format. Art takes time to download as some of the complaints about testing suggested (particularly when taken during the 11:00 pm to midnight witching hour of all online courses when the UCF system slows to a crawl due to overuse). The concepts that these courses consider do not translate well to asynchronous discussion or written comments read in the absence of the commenter. Tests with artificial time constraints to discourage the ability to cheat (Are you listening, FSU athletic department?) require a focus on technological means rather than pedagogical ends. These are valid concerns and have been raised by a number of instructors repeatedly.
However, when the concerns that give rise to online courses are administrative (translation: monetary) rather than pedagogical, it should not be surprising that online courses end up as a dumping ground for the excess students admitted into an already overtaxed system ill-prepared to handle the onslaught. Online classes become the solution to shortage of classroom space problems. Thus one pathology gives rise to another as instructors teaching online try to adapt pedagogy and content to the realities of online courses: minimalist content and requirements driven by consumerist entitlement. The result? Low to none-existent workloads, quizzes which test little more than the ability of students to actually crack their texts long enough to look up answer, and the occasional discussion requirement which produces a slew of posts beginning “I just feel…” with little of substance thereafter. Those who seek to do more than that minimum face stiff resistance, whine-filled evaluations and the occasional mutiny. There is much to be said about such realities. Little has anything to do with education.
A second post follows.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This past summer I tried an experiment. I’ve been teaching the HUM 2210 and 2230 (Humanistic Traditions I and II) courses online each summer for five years now. Summer classes are by definition slacker magnets, particularly online sections. They draw students who think because the class is shorter it won’t require as much. They draw students who think that because the class is online it will be easier. As a result, you get the usual online class denizens – the hung over frat boys who don’t want to have to get up for class, the students who can’t get into any of the classes they need and decide to knock out their GEP requirements online and the graduating seniors who have put off their general education requirements until the very end and who think the course work is beneath their dignity given their newly acquired vocational skills.
In all fairness, this hardly exhausts the possibilities. You always have a small group of students who actually get caught up in the material, wrestle with the questions humanities courses raise and generally perform like actual college students. And there is invariably the one or two working mothers or fathers desperately trying to get the college degree needed for a decent life while juggling child care and work schedules. It’s this latter group of students for whom I have the patience of Job and the utmost of admiration. But, sadly, it’s the former group of students who have increasingly made summer teaching online an experience in the same category with barium enemas.
For the past four summers I have placed a caveat on my homepage regarding these online courses. The link reads “Is this Webcourse the right course for me? (HUM 2211 and HUM 2230) and contains an informal survey asking students to rate their responses to questions such as the following:
7. I am not laboring under the misapprehension that a course taught online is easier or less demanding than a regular face-to-face course. Indeed, I recognize that given the demands on the student to be responsible for meeting the course schedule and managing time with no interaction with the instructor in class, it can be much more difficult.
9. I am particularly adept at managing time, at reading and following directions and acting without assistance from instructors using only a schedule and course modules (particularly critical in summer sessions where 15 weeks course material is covered in a six week session, meaning each class week is the equivalent of 2.5 ordinary class weeks).
In short, I warn students ahead of time that their preconceptions are not on target. I warn them that the online class in which they are enrolling will be an actual course - with all the requirements of a real class - simply taught in online format. And I warn them that, contrary to popular conception and fervent student desires, it will be demanding. Despite such warnings, the classes always fill (even as the face-to-face sections languish and sometimes are cancelled), dominated by the usual suspects – the frat boys, the graduating seniors and the folks working full time jobs over the summer and taking two or more courses.
In what is perhaps a paradox, I have observed that as I have increasingly cut requirements from these summer online courses, the complaining actually increases each time. This is somewhat in line with studies which suggest that students actually want more engagement in online classes - perhaps as a consolation for a recognition after the fact that online courses are often mere shadows of their face-to-face editions - even as they resent having to actually do anything to engage the class.
This past summer, I found myself facing an unprecedented situation of a student using the course email list to run a mutiny among the students. Suggesting that the work load was too high and the feedback too slow (in all fairness, a week and a half can be perceived as a long time in summer sessions), the young man drafted a sample letter to be sent to my chair essentially demanding that I be disciplined. Becoming aware of the mutiny via a student I knew from a real live class who sent me the mass mailed letter, I responded with a point by point refutation to the email that I posted to course news. That effectively ended the mutiny. Upon receiving the form letter, my chair directed the student to meet with me in person and after less than an hour of talking face to face, the student apologized for the incident, said he wished he’d taken this class in a face-to-face section and concluded by saying he would consider taking other classes with me. (So much for the “just as good as regular classes” propaganda from the IT boys.)
Admittedly, this confrontation left a sour taste in my mouth going into the second half of the summer . I was burned out from Summer A and wanted to avoid any more confrontation. I decided to minimize my interactions with the incoming students and cut the Summer B course to a bare bones bottom line which required nothing more than three exams over the three volumes of the text and the four Gordon Rule Papers required by the state. No content quizzes on the chapters, no discussions of material, no posted responses to the Gordon Rule Papers, no group activities or presentations, all of which I have used in real live classes and past online editions of the class. Even as I prepared the syllabus and schedule for what I was calling Humanities Lite, I predicted to my chair and colleagues that the complaints about the course would increase and my evaluations would drop.
Today the truth of those predictions arrived in the form of course evaluations from the summer sessions. As I had predicted, even with the aborted mutiny, the first half of the summer evaluations were much higher and fairer than those of the whittled down second half. Even so, it was not without complaints.
The first half complaints centered primarily around what one student described as “tons and tons of work.” Of course, trying to cram a 15 week semester into 6 will no doubt result in such a perception if an actual class (as opposed to an online class trimmed of any real obligations for students to perform) is being taught. My mutiny leader complained about the “classroom equivalent time” as I had designated it on the schedule to show that students don’t get the class time off, that there were activities designed to simulate the same. Like many online course students, he had decided that no class attendance meant that time was the student’s and could not have any claims made on it by pesky little assignments.
One remarkably transparent comment seemed to sum up the entire thread of complaints: “An online course is about convenience, and having 2 quizzes due at the end of everyday is not convenient.” Of course, a day in a summer session is the equivalent of 2 days of classes in a regular semester. And in all fairness, the rare day when supplementary material (and thus extra credit) quizzes were scheduled was the exception and not the rule. Even so, clearly this course was not convenient enough for this student as she ended her evaluation with “I am never recommending this professor to anyone, or this class.”
Upon reading this comment, all I could think was, “O, thank G-d.” Indeed, at some level, I have come to see the revenge sites like myprofessorsucks.com and ratemyprofessor.com as doing instructors who actually demand that students engage their classes a great public service. If students are consulting these sites because they want to avoid work and decide against taking a course from me, I think the world will be a happier place for all parties involved. And if workload and convenience was all that was involved, it would be easier to simply do with these evaluations what is most appropriate for all such acontextual and generally meaningless consumerist surveys – look at them briefly, comment upon their novelty and then consign them to the closest recycle bin.
Unfortunately, in an age of educational bureaucratic micromanagement which confuses consumerism with accountability, “evaluations” like this one can become a problem for instructors who consistently prove inconvenient taskmasters. Of course, the problem isn’t the workload or the convenience. After five years of offering courses online, I observe that anytime a teacher actually demands more of students than paying their tuition and coming out with easy three hour As, their convenience-focused, work avoidant consumers will find something to complain about. As I predicted at the end of Summer A going into a stripped down Summer B, even if you only give the minimal three tests and the required four papers, the students will complain about them.
The very first comment from the Summer B evaluations began “There was not one thing I enjoyed about this class” and continued with a critique of workload: “There is an overwhelming amount of reading to retain in a given time period and exams are impossible.” While this student felt “All text chapters were completed ignored…” the following student complained “The test questions were straight from the book, not any of the unnecessary work…the extra Worksheets.” Yet another suggested “describing the kinds of questions to students before giving them the tests to produce a better grade curve.” Of course, tests are always easier when you know the questions ahead of time, no? Indeed, one student suggested “[I]n the ‘real world’ it’s not like you can’t open a book to reference something you are unsure about.” Why bother with tests at all, right? Just give a worksheet to fill in the blanks.
As I had predicted, if all you assign is tests and papers, the students will complain about them.
Ironically, the “extra Worksheets” for each chapter referenced here were designed to develop each artifact and piece of literature with questions about them. The questions ask students to consider “What might this sculpture suggest about how the Greeks saw men v. women?” and “Where do you see ideas like this in the world around you?” I provide the worksheets as study guides for the exams. I neither collect nor grade them.
Study after study suggests that actually understanding an artifact results in a greater tendency to remember it than mere memorization of the artifact and its maker followed by regurgitation of data from one’s short term memory and nearly instantly forgetting the same. And study after study suggests that if students can connect material being learned to their own lives, they are more likely to remember it. Of course, such concerns don’t fare well in a world driven by consumer convenience and the desire to avoid “an overwhelming amount of work,” even when it only involved three tests and four required papers, the least workload I have ever assigned in any college class I have ever taught anywhere.
One final thought on all this. The student who had taken a real live class with me previously wrote the following in her evaluation: “This course really shouldn’t be offered online. Too much is lost in translation. Dr. Coverston is a stellar professor who truly cares about the transfer of knowledge and engaging education.”
I must say I agree with her initial assertions and I can only hope her final complimentary statement is true. In reality, Humanistic Traditions courses do translate poorly to online format. Art takes time to download as some of the complaints about testing suggested (particularly when taken during the 11:00 pm to midnight witching hour of all online courses when the UCF system slows to a crawl due to overuse). The concepts that these courses consider do not translate well to asynchronous discussion or written comments read in the absence of the commenter. Tests with artificial time constraints to discourage the ability to cheat (Are you listening, FSU athletic department?) require a focus on technological means rather than pedagogical ends. These are valid concerns and have been raised by a number of instructors repeatedly.
However, when the concerns that give rise to online courses are administrative (translation: monetary) rather than pedagogical, it should not be surprising that online courses end up as a dumping ground for the excess students admitted into an already overtaxed system ill-prepared to handle the onslaught. Online classes become the solution to shortage of classroom space problems. Thus one pathology gives rise to another as instructors teaching online try to adapt pedagogy and content to the realities of online courses: minimalist content and requirements driven by consumerist entitlement. The result? Low to none-existent workloads, quizzes which test little more than the ability of students to actually crack their texts long enough to look up answer, and the occasional discussion requirement which produces a slew of posts beginning “I just feel…” with little of substance thereafter. Those who seek to do more than that minimum face stiff resistance, whine-filled evaluations and the occasional mutiny. There is much to be said about such realities. Little has anything to do with education.
A second post follows.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmm
Item 1: This week’s Time magazine, an advertisement for Crash, "a Starz original series"
“In this city, you’re either a roadblock or a shortcut. And if you’re not using someone, then someone’s using you. In L.A. there are no accidents.”
What a grim place (if that were, in fact, true) !
And what a wonderful credo for free market fundamentalism!
Item 2: Seen on a bumper sticker:
I Support the Separation of Church and Hate.
Indeed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Item 1: This week’s Time magazine, an advertisement for Crash, "a Starz original series"
“In this city, you’re either a roadblock or a shortcut. And if you’re not using someone, then someone’s using you. In L.A. there are no accidents.”
What a grim place (if that were, in fact, true) !
And what a wonderful credo for free market fundamentalism!
Item 2: Seen on a bumper sticker:
I Support the Separation of Church and Hate.
Indeed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Things that make you go HMMMMM..... (8-20)
Bumper sticker observed on Florida's Turnpike (forget the Ronald Reagan Turnpike bit boys, Ronnie Raygun did nothing for Florida):
"5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions."
Indeed.
Hmmmmm.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bumper sticker observed on Florida's Turnpike (forget the Ronald Reagan Turnpike bit boys, Ronnie Raygun did nothing for Florida):
"5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions."
Indeed.
Hmmmmm.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is how homophobia works
Recently I posted a discussion of heterosexism, an unconscious set of presumptions about the world that begins with the presumption that everyone is either heterosexual or ought to be. In many ways, because heterosexism is more subtle and tends to be invisible (much like “race” or “ethnic” always means other than WASP) it is harder to get at than the more blatant kinds of irrational prejudices we would identify in folks like Fred Phelps and his travelling Theatre of the Absurd family troupe out of Topeka, KS.
But the scale from a normative, presumptive heterosexism to blatant, misanthropic homophobia has a lot of gradations along the way. Here’s one that caught my eye this week.
The story involves a quarterback out of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Riley Skinner is about as cute as they come (one friend responded to his photos with “How does anyone get so beautiful?”) and apparently not bad as a football player. He comes from a preppie WASP background in Jacksonville, FL, having attended an academically well regarded private academy also known for its football prowess. The son and nephew of southern college football players, Riley would seem to have everything going for him. Until now.
Apparently Mr. Skinner had someone take a photo of himself out of uniform – completely out of uniform. The nude photo of this southern jock Adonis quickly went viral on the web. Not surprisingly, the assessment of Riley’s sexuality was almost immediately the subject of web chatter.
One of the more interesting comments on this matter comes from the website Fratdog Sports Blog whose motto is “Sports journalism for the arrogant.” Apparently the pathology in the blogger’s thinking doesn’t end at arrogance. Having heard about the Skinner scandal, the blogger provides a picture of Skinner (from the waist up) and the following entry on Feb. 4, 2008.
Entitled “Riley Skinner Smokes Noles Poles,” the blogger begins, “ I am extremely uncomfortable reporting this. “ No doubt. Of course, the obvious response would be “And why would that be?” but I suspect this is not a man (and I am presuming this writer is male given what follows) prone to much critical reflection. He continues: “Fair warning - this is very, very, legitimately gay. Riley Skinner has apparently taken a nude picture of himself or [Wake Forest University head coach] Jim Grobe has has (sic) this picture under his pillow since 2005. No joke, that link will ruin your f***ing day. We are unbelieveably (sic) rattled over here.”
Clearly this frat boy has missed more than a few English grammar and comp classes and he apparently has not figured out how to run the spell check. And the childish play on the abbreviation for Seminoles to create a homophobic slur is pretty much par for the course for many frat boys (and middle school kids). Beer tainted functioning tends to do that. (yes, speaking from experience both as frat boy and being beer tainted). The result is a blog entry that suggests the frat boy’s problem is either stupidity or immaturity (perhaps both) rather than arrogance.
But what’s interesting about this blog is his presumption that this exhibitionist jock is gay. Ultimately, the self-revealing statements that the blogger is “extremely uncomfortable” and “unbelieveably rattled” say much more about him than the handsome narcissist he would malign. Indeed, the study out of the University of Georgia on homophobic responses might suggest that the young man “doth protest too much.” Highly homophobic responses can readily be unconscious responses to fear of homoerotic feelings in oneself, according to the study.
The apparent truth about poor ole Riley (this from a friend of the family in Jacksonville) is much more complicated (and amusing) than the simplistic presumption of the poor beer addled frat boy. Apparently, Riley was fooling around with another girl while going with his girlfriend. When she found out about it, she broke up with him and Riley began seeing the other girl. Deciding to impress his new love object, he had the photo made and sent it to her as an email attachment. He thought. In fact, he mistakenly sent it to the ex-girlfriend who quickly distributed the photo to the web including a number of gay porn sites. As Shakespeare observed, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Riley had been hoist on his own petard (mightily resisting the temptation to make the obvious salacious comment here, having seen the photo - you can find it in an images search if you must see).
I doubt it would do much good to actually send this observation to the purveyor of the fratdog sports blog (indeed, what am *I* presuming about the right to do so?). If his own obvious homophobia is rooted in a fear of homoerotic feelings in himself, he would not be able to hear it. And given the general tenor of his postings, it’s rather unlikely he would be able or willing to check his irrational presumptions.
That, folks, is precisely how homophobia works and why we have such an uphill battle in overcoming this virulent social disease.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Recently I posted a discussion of heterosexism, an unconscious set of presumptions about the world that begins with the presumption that everyone is either heterosexual or ought to be. In many ways, because heterosexism is more subtle and tends to be invisible (much like “race” or “ethnic” always means other than WASP) it is harder to get at than the more blatant kinds of irrational prejudices we would identify in folks like Fred Phelps and his travelling Theatre of the Absurd family troupe out of Topeka, KS.
But the scale from a normative, presumptive heterosexism to blatant, misanthropic homophobia has a lot of gradations along the way. Here’s one that caught my eye this week.
The story involves a quarterback out of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Riley Skinner is about as cute as they come (one friend responded to his photos with “How does anyone get so beautiful?”) and apparently not bad as a football player. He comes from a preppie WASP background in Jacksonville, FL, having attended an academically well regarded private academy also known for its football prowess. The son and nephew of southern college football players, Riley would seem to have everything going for him. Until now.
Apparently Mr. Skinner had someone take a photo of himself out of uniform – completely out of uniform. The nude photo of this southern jock Adonis quickly went viral on the web. Not surprisingly, the assessment of Riley’s sexuality was almost immediately the subject of web chatter.
One of the more interesting comments on this matter comes from the website Fratdog Sports Blog whose motto is “Sports journalism for the arrogant.” Apparently the pathology in the blogger’s thinking doesn’t end at arrogance. Having heard about the Skinner scandal, the blogger provides a picture of Skinner (from the waist up) and the following entry on Feb. 4, 2008.
Entitled “Riley Skinner Smokes Noles Poles,” the blogger begins, “ I am extremely uncomfortable reporting this. “ No doubt. Of course, the obvious response would be “And why would that be?” but I suspect this is not a man (and I am presuming this writer is male given what follows) prone to much critical reflection. He continues: “Fair warning - this is very, very, legitimately gay. Riley Skinner has apparently taken a nude picture of himself or [Wake Forest University head coach] Jim Grobe has has (sic) this picture under his pillow since 2005. No joke, that link will ruin your f***ing day. We are unbelieveably (sic) rattled over here.”
Clearly this frat boy has missed more than a few English grammar and comp classes and he apparently has not figured out how to run the spell check. And the childish play on the abbreviation for Seminoles to create a homophobic slur is pretty much par for the course for many frat boys (and middle school kids). Beer tainted functioning tends to do that. (yes, speaking from experience both as frat boy and being beer tainted). The result is a blog entry that suggests the frat boy’s problem is either stupidity or immaturity (perhaps both) rather than arrogance.
But what’s interesting about this blog is his presumption that this exhibitionist jock is gay. Ultimately, the self-revealing statements that the blogger is “extremely uncomfortable” and “unbelieveably rattled” say much more about him than the handsome narcissist he would malign. Indeed, the study out of the University of Georgia on homophobic responses might suggest that the young man “doth protest too much.” Highly homophobic responses can readily be unconscious responses to fear of homoerotic feelings in oneself, according to the study.
The apparent truth about poor ole Riley (this from a friend of the family in Jacksonville) is much more complicated (and amusing) than the simplistic presumption of the poor beer addled frat boy. Apparently, Riley was fooling around with another girl while going with his girlfriend. When she found out about it, she broke up with him and Riley began seeing the other girl. Deciding to impress his new love object, he had the photo made and sent it to her as an email attachment. He thought. In fact, he mistakenly sent it to the ex-girlfriend who quickly distributed the photo to the web including a number of gay porn sites. As Shakespeare observed, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Riley had been hoist on his own petard (mightily resisting the temptation to make the obvious salacious comment here, having seen the photo - you can find it in an images search if you must see).
I doubt it would do much good to actually send this observation to the purveyor of the fratdog sports blog (indeed, what am *I* presuming about the right to do so?). If his own obvious homophobia is rooted in a fear of homoerotic feelings in himself, he would not be able to hear it. And given the general tenor of his postings, it’s rather unlikely he would be able or willing to check his irrational presumptions.
That, folks, is precisely how homophobia works and why we have such an uphill battle in overcoming this virulent social disease.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Things That Make You Go Hmmm………(8-19)
March 20, 2003 - Shock and Awe......
Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, officials in the United States armed forces described their plan as employing shock and awe…
Limited bombing began on 19 March 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a small number of targets until 21 March 2003, when at 1700 UTC the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles).[12] Coalition ground forces had begun a "running start" offensive towards Baghdad on the previous day. Coalition ground forces seized Baghdad on 5 April, and the United States declared victory on 14 April.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe
Jan 20, 2004, State of the Union Address –
“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you. Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.”
These are the words of President Bush in his inaugural address on 20 January. Bringing freedom and democracy to the world, beginning with the Arab world, is now apparently the primary focus of US foreign policy.
http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/freedom-american-style.htm
Meanwhile, back in America.....
Nov. 4. 2008 - Anti-marriage constitutional amendments
Anti-marriage amendments were on the ballot in Arizona, Florida and California this election, and passed in Arizona and Florida. In California, as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 5, Prop. 8 had a margin of 52 percent in favor and 48 percent opposing it, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting. Voters in Arizona approved Prop.102 by a 56-44 percent margin, banning legal marriage for same-sex couples. In Florida, voters passed Amendment 2, which would not only ban marriage rights for same-sex couples, but would also limit any partner recognition rights to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples.
http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/prAF_110508
Aug. 15, 2009 – 'Don't ask, don't tell': Retreating from a mistake – LA Times Editorial
'Don't ask, don't tell," the policy delusion that acknowledges that gays and lesbians serve in the military but pretends they aren't there, is in its final days. Sooner rather than later, this discriminatory law is going to be overturned…Nearly 13,000 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged under the policy -- 287 since President Obama took office. The armed forces have spent more than $1.3 billion to kick them out and to pay for the investigations that justify their expulsions. Among those who have been discharged are almost 60 Arabic linguists, weakening our national security in order to pursue a policy of exclusion.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-dontask15-2009aug15,0,5507360.story
Aug. 18, 2009 - Anchorage Mayor Vetoes Anti-Discrimination Ordinance –
The city’s Assembly approved it; the local newspaper applauded it; GLBT residents testified as to its need. But newly elected Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed it, killing an anti-discrimination bill….Anti-gay Baptist pastor Jerry Prevo has fought against GLBT equality since the first attempts by the Assembly to provide for gay and lesbian residents, the article said, and he expressed approval that Dan Sullivan had followed in his father’s footsteps in vetoing the measure.
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=95185
Aug. 18, 2009 – "A Spreading Campaign of Torture and Murder" Against Gay Iraqis
Human Rights Watch has released a report confirming what Care2 members have been aware of for some time: Iraqi militias are "carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct" in Iraq.
Released Monday, the 67 page report confirms many of our worst fears as to the situation for gay Iraqis after the fall of Saddam. The report documents 2009's "extrajudicial executions", kidnappings and the horrific anal glue torture gay men have been subjected to and, as we reported quite some time ago, points the finger at Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, a group aligned to a particularly vehement anti-gay cleric.
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/-a-spreading-campaign-of-torture-and-murder-against-iraqi-gays/
It would appear that Mr. Bush did have at least one success in his administration. He managed to export the US version of “democracy” – with liberty and justice for some – to Iraq. The Iraqis have learned to preach democracy and practice a deadly form of homophobia with impunity. Looks like George Bush’s Great American Adventure will leave quite a legacy in our world.
Hmmmmm……..
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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
March 20, 2003 - Shock and Awe......
Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, officials in the United States armed forces described their plan as employing shock and awe…
Limited bombing began on 19 March 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a small number of targets until 21 March 2003, when at 1700 UTC the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles).[12] Coalition ground forces had begun a "running start" offensive towards Baghdad on the previous day. Coalition ground forces seized Baghdad on 5 April, and the United States declared victory on 14 April.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe
Jan 20, 2004, State of the Union Address –
“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you. Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.”
These are the words of President Bush in his inaugural address on 20 January. Bringing freedom and democracy to the world, beginning with the Arab world, is now apparently the primary focus of US foreign policy.
http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/freedom-american-style.htm
Meanwhile, back in America.....
Nov. 4. 2008 - Anti-marriage constitutional amendments
Anti-marriage amendments were on the ballot in Arizona, Florida and California this election, and passed in Arizona and Florida. In California, as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 5, Prop. 8 had a margin of 52 percent in favor and 48 percent opposing it, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting. Voters in Arizona approved Prop.102 by a 56-44 percent margin, banning legal marriage for same-sex couples. In Florida, voters passed Amendment 2, which would not only ban marriage rights for same-sex couples, but would also limit any partner recognition rights to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples.
http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/prAF_110508
Aug. 15, 2009 – 'Don't ask, don't tell': Retreating from a mistake – LA Times Editorial
'Don't ask, don't tell," the policy delusion that acknowledges that gays and lesbians serve in the military but pretends they aren't there, is in its final days. Sooner rather than later, this discriminatory law is going to be overturned…Nearly 13,000 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged under the policy -- 287 since President Obama took office. The armed forces have spent more than $1.3 billion to kick them out and to pay for the investigations that justify their expulsions. Among those who have been discharged are almost 60 Arabic linguists, weakening our national security in order to pursue a policy of exclusion.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-dontask15-2009aug15,0,5507360.story
Aug. 18, 2009 - Anchorage Mayor Vetoes Anti-Discrimination Ordinance –
The city’s Assembly approved it; the local newspaper applauded it; GLBT residents testified as to its need. But newly elected Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed it, killing an anti-discrimination bill….Anti-gay Baptist pastor Jerry Prevo has fought against GLBT equality since the first attempts by the Assembly to provide for gay and lesbian residents, the article said, and he expressed approval that Dan Sullivan had followed in his father’s footsteps in vetoing the measure.
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=95185
Aug. 18, 2009 – "A Spreading Campaign of Torture and Murder" Against Gay Iraqis
Human Rights Watch has released a report confirming what Care2 members have been aware of for some time: Iraqi militias are "carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct" in Iraq.
Released Monday, the 67 page report confirms many of our worst fears as to the situation for gay Iraqis after the fall of Saddam. The report documents 2009's "extrajudicial executions", kidnappings and the horrific anal glue torture gay men have been subjected to and, as we reported quite some time ago, points the finger at Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, a group aligned to a particularly vehement anti-gay cleric.
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/-a-spreading-campaign-of-torture-and-murder-against-iraqi-gays/
It would appear that Mr. Bush did have at least one success in his administration. He managed to export the US version of “democracy” – with liberty and justice for some – to Iraq. The Iraqis have learned to preach democracy and practice a deadly form of homophobia with impunity. Looks like George Bush’s Great American Adventure will leave quite a legacy in our world.
Hmmmmm……..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
