Twisted Sister: We're Not Gonna Take It, Anymore...
Lol. That's the Friday late afternoon soundtrack then, for what is shaping up to be an identity-politics tussle of the year: a Russian-Jewish man vs. the Professional Black women who were offended by his lack of decorum in judging their professional worth.
Truth be told, blacks and women are relative newcomers to the legal profession, if you think on a long-term historical timeline. Jewish people, since we are so used to talking in terms of labels, are well represented historically, since the days of Moses, in the field of law.
It's been interesting this past week to observe: Jews indeed can "circle the wagons" to protect one of their own. But, more and more black persons -- young and female too -- are finding their voices and learning to assemble together and push back.
Mr. Ilya Shapiro is not an ordinary professor seeking tenure, but was hired to serve as executive director -- an administrative position. I hope the women's voices are not silenced to bring him aboard. Their complaints about his candidacy, whether he is the best qualified person for the job with appropriate diplomatic and communication skills, ought to be heard in a way they are not yet, as newcomers, with less established connections in the media, academic and think-tank world supporting them.
But they have a burning justice on their side, as they know -- given the same opportunities as those firmly ensconced in the profession -- that they can compete just as fiercely because they know their own worth. Places like Georgetown have always opened the doors for advancement and it would seem a shame to be putting leaders in power now, who choose to shut doors and not see others not in their demographic group.
Or worse, to see them as lessers. Here's the song then Rock on, sisters. You got this one...
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ADDED: Black linguist and NYT columnist John McWhorter (he/him) asks:
The question is: If Shapiro had wanted to say that Black women are inherently lesser, would he actually have written it for all the world to see? This, after all, would paint him as not just obnoxious, but as someone severely socially impaired. Given how carefully policed so much of our language is these days, why would he deliberately type out a line saying, in essence, that Black women are inferior, somehow missing that this would likely put his new job in jeopardy and draw a wave of social opprobrium?
To assume Shapiro would baldly, publicly assert this manifests the tendency to assume malevolence in those we disagree with, a means of dehumanizing people perceived as being on other side of an unbridgeable divide. I find the idea of him writing “lesser black woman” in the meaning of “Black women are lesser” psychologically implausible. Shapiro is by all indications intelligent; writing “lesser” and intending it as a blanket judgment would be stupid.
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I think the answer is not stupidity so much, as ... "greenness". I don't think Mr. Shapiro came up interacting with black people, or black women in particular. I do think that as an immigrant newcomer, he does still likely hold prejudicial views. I also think, in his abundance of confidence demonstrated in the follow up apology and the fast deletion when he was called out by a black female professor on what his tweets meant, he expect to ... get away with it. If black women are lesser, in his view, then their advocating for themselves at Georgetown is not likely something that was even on his radar.
Yes, Mr. McWhorter. You've led a very sheltered black life. It's showing. Hold your impassioned defense perhaps until you have read more of this man's words? Dare I say, there are others who share his background who too are dismissive of women and "colored" people even today.
Aren't there bigger war issues for the opinion columnists to be opining on? Defending bigots so strongly is unseemly for the former paper of record. Just observing. Other voices, other rooms and all.
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