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Showing posts with label CANCEL CULTURE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CANCEL CULTURE. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Fact Checking “Cancel Culture” – radical eyes for equity

Fact Checking “Cancel Culture” – radical eyes for equity
Fact Checking “Cancel Culture”


Every white person in this country—and I do not care what he or she says—knows one thing. They may not know, as they put it, “what I want,” but they know they would not like to be black here. If they know that, then they know everything they need to know, and whatever else they say is a lie. 

ON LANGUAGE, RACE AND THE BLACK WRITER, JAMES BALDWIN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 1979)

If we can take seriously the high-quality source, the actor who plays Mr. Bean, it appears we should be fearful of a future where there is no freedom of speech because “what we have now is the digital equivalent of the medieval mob roaming the streets looking for someone to burn,” claims Rowan Atkinson.

Of course, this is but one of many alarm bells about the scourge of “cancel culture.”

It would be easy to smile at Atkinson’s goofy face and brush this off—except there are dire consequences to this manufactured crisis. Take for just one example the language being used to propose legislation in my home state of South Carolina.

“Pushing back against what they called America’s ‘woke mob,’ a group of GOP lawmakers want to protect South Carolina historic monuments and markers and penalize any community or elected official that removes them,” writes Adam Benson for the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). CONTINUE READING: Fact Checking “Cancel Culture” – radical eyes for equity

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Dr. Seuss and “Cancel Culture” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Dr. Seuss and “Cancel Culture” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Dr. Seuss and “Cancel Culture”



The publisher of the many books written by Theodor Geisl (“Dr. Seuss”) announced that it was suspending publication of six books that contained demeaning drawings of Asian and African figures.

The books that will no longer be published are:

“And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”

“If I Ran the Zoo”

“McElligot’s Pool,”

“On Beyond Zebra!,”

“Scrambled Eggs Super!”

“The Cat’s Quizzer.”

Having written a book in 2003 called The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Children Learn, I have a long-standing interest in censorship of books, textbooks, and tests. In that book, I came down on the side of free speech and freedom of expression. I did not grapple, however, with the real dilemma presented by books that contained hateful images, even if they were not seen as such when they were first published. I was CONTINUE READING: Dr. Seuss and “Cancel Culture” | Diane Ravitch's blog