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☆ Work Is (Mostly) Work, Not Your Soapbox
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Roxane Gay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Generation ZealI work for a health care nonprofit, and there have been some clashes among the five generations in our work force. I had been working in a new role for about six months when my brother was diagnosed, but my company offered to let me work remotely. I return to California for work about four or five times a year. They are paying for your flight because you are going there for work. You certainly could be honest and say you don’t want to hang out, but that might create unnecessary tension.

Persons: you’ve, I’m, Tell Locations: California, Arizona

☆ Opinion | On Broadway, ‘Centering’ Antiracism Is Delightful
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

My 12-year-old daughter practically had to drag me into the musical “Six,” currently raging on Broadway, in which Henry VIII’s six wives all have their say about what happened to them. In this, the whole show is a kind of lesson in antiracism, regardless of whether a viewer is consciously aware of it. In that way, it is a quintessentially modern work of musical theater. Beyond the lessons “Six” teaches, the performers manage some of the deftest work on Broadway I’ve ever seen. So, “Six” can change your lens in an antiracist (and antisexist) way — while also turning you on to art, wonder, curiosity and excitement.

Persons: ”, Henry VIII’s, Kimberly Akimbo, ” I’m, Anne of Cleves Organizations: Broadway

☆ Why the SAT Isn’t Racist - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That’s three down: Last week, Brown University reinstated standardized testing as a part of its admissions requirements, following Yale and Dartmouth, which did the same earlier this year. For all that we have heard about how standardized tests propagate injustice, the decisions at these Ivy League schools are antiracism in action, and should serve as models for similar decisions across academia. Of course, for years, the leading idea has been precisely the opposite: that the proper antiracist approach is to stop using standardized tests in admissions. Many schools first suspended using them a few years back because their administration was too difficult during the peak of the Covid pandemic. All the way back in 2001, the University of California president Richard Atkinson was warmly and widely celebrated for eliminating the SAT from the schools’ admissions process.

Persons: Richard Atkinson, Sian Beilock Organizations: Brown University, Yale, Dartmouth, Ivy League, University of California

☆ Opinion: The meaning of Black History Month on campus following the ouster of Harvard’s president
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Opinion Khalil Gibran Muhammad | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Black History Month, which gets underway this week, is a chance to give Americans the timely reminder that you can’t teach our history honestly without understanding Black struggle and triumph. There are few aspects of America’s past that haven’t been impacted by conscientious Black people and their resistance to systemic racism and illiberal democracy. The situation at Harvard has been made more dire by the university’s failure to push back sufficiently against broader political attacks. Another vocal critic of Penslar is the former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who was also an outspoken opponent of Gay’s. As an academic institution, we should be leading the resistance to these assaults on higher education, not bowing to them.

Persons: Khalil Gibran Muhammad, ” Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Virginia Foxx, ” Foxx, ”, Claudine Gay, Foxx, “, haven’t, Donald Trump, Adolph Hitler, Alan Garber, Gay, —, Garber, Derek J, Harvard’s, Penslar, Bill Ackman, Lawrence Summers, Black Organizations: Ford Foundation, Harvard University, CNN, Harvard Kennedy School, Republican, University of Pennsylvania, GOP Rep, Global, Harvard Divinity School, “, Racial, Harvard, Republican Party, Equity Locations: American, United States, America, Florida, Gaza, Israel

☆ TikTok's Lunden and Olivia Stallings are straight people's favorite lesbian couple. What do they owe queer fans?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Kate Taylor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Lunden and Olivia told me their mission as influencers was to "represent and inspire others to be their authentic self." Advertisement"I did feel represented by them," Asia said, but the tweets "showed me that they are still white women." "We are especially confident in our sexuality and the way that we feel and who we are," Olivia told me. Lunden and Olivia told me they want to advocate for all LGBTQ+ people, including those who don't look like them. It's a chance, the couple told me, to combat the hate and negativity LGBTQ+ parents face.

Persons: Lunden Stallings, Olivia Bennett, Monique Lhuillier, Lunden, Taylor Swift, Stallings, David Yurman, preppy, Olivia, TikTok, Kendrick Brinson, who's, you've, Madison Mathews, sunnies, peck, they'd, Brooklynites, Remington, Zeta Tau, Olivia DMed Lunden —, Justin Bieber, snapbacks, haven't, Lunden's, Ellie Goulding's, Olivia couldn't, Caroline Bayne, Lunden's TikTok, Zara, Mercedes, Sophie, It's, Jackie J, Jackie, There's, Bud Light, Dylan Mulvaney, influencers, They've, KenzKustomz, Krysten Stein, Black influencers, Stein, Hill, millennials Organizations: Naylor, People, Business, Alabama, Chevrolet, New York Post, Daily Mail, Madison, University of Central, Jacksonville State University, Zeta Tau Alpha, University of Alabama's, University, Minnesota, BI, Braves, Rover, Pride, Nielsen, Saks, University of Illinois Locations: Roswell , Georgia, Asia, Olivia, Charleston, LoveShackFancy, Powder Springs , Georgia, Atlanta, Blytheville , Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas, Alabama, Roswell, Austin, RushTok, Alpharetta, Charleston , South Carolina, Southern, Publix, Fayetteville , Arkansas, University of Illinois Chicago

Earlier this month, the university said an initial inquiry found no issues with how the center managed its finances. Despite the hubbub, essentially none of the center's funders have raised public concerns about its work. But tell us how you’re going to puzzle through.”The sudden termination of the center’s research projects prompted some within the movement for racial justice to see good reason to criticize Kendi’s leadership. Kendi agreed many funders were new to racial justice philanthropy in 2020, but said they didn’t usually give to his center. Kendi said most of the center's funders already supported antiracist community organizations.

Persons: Kendi, Grantmakers, it's, Earl Lewis, Andrew W, “, “ missteps, “ There’s, ”, Lewis, It's, Jack Dorsey, Chera Reid, ” Reid, William, Larry Kramer, Reid, Kendi’s, Jenn M, Jackson, ” Jackson Organizations: Boston University, BU Center, Mellon Foundation, University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions, Associated Press, Rockefeller Foundation, ESPN, Netflix, Unity Summit, Flora Hewlett Foundation, Observers, Syracuse University, Lilly Endowment Inc, AP Locations: Los Angeles, U.S

☆ Debut Novels About Women Longing in Obsessive, Sometimes Uncanny Ways
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Tracy O Neill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Sheena Patel’s I’M A FAN (Graywolf, 203 pp., paperback, $17) is an impolite novel about romantic obsession, set in a liberalized but inequitable sexual economy that rewards the white and rich. The unnamed narrator, a young brown woman living in London, spends much of the book online, fixating on the white, married and much older “man I want to be with” and the other women in his life. She rails and seethes and then regrets the railing and seething, bringing her no closer to the object of her obsession. She kisses a girl and likes it, though not enough to override her interest in acquiring male approval. Meanwhile she derides the ways in which her lover’s other lovers perform antiracism in corny, confused ways: “privileged white women talking about care of the Earth and the land as if they are distinct from the white people who are racist and those who have pillaged this burning, now volatile planet of ours.”

Persons: Sheena Patel’s, I’ve, ’, “ Locations: London

As a result, books like “Call Me Max” have been challenged or outright removed from schools and libraries in Florida, as well as other states — and though some believe book bans lead to more book sales, authors say the effect of those bans is devastating for their careers. These bans “overwhelmingly” target books about race and racism, as well as books with LGBTQ characters, PEN America said in its September study on school book bans. The MoveOn Banned Book Mobile stops for an event with local authors and teachers on October 1, 2023 in Decatur, Georgia. “(A book ban) would make news, and people would say, ‘I’ll buy this book just to show them,’” Lukoff said of the once-common result of book bans. Lukoff said his first high-profile bans occurred in early 2021, in Austin and Salt Lake City, when book bans first started to accelerate.

Persons: CNN —, Ron DeSantis, Max, ”, ‘, ” DeSantis, Max ”, Kyle Lukoff, Newbery, “ I’ve, —, ” Lukoff, “, ” Kyle Lukoff's, Marvin Joseph, Phil Bildner, ” “, Bildner, PEN America, Tasslyn Magnusson, Read, Derek White, Magnusson, ” Laurie Halse Anderson’s, George M, Deborah Caldwell, Stone, Angie Thomas, “ Maus, “ Maus ”, ” Magnusson, Lukoff, BookScan, Juno, Mike Curato’s “, John Green’s “, Samira Ahmed, Laura Gluckman, Armando L, Sanchez, Maus, ’ ” Lukoff, … that’s, they’re, she’s, haven’t, “ It’s, isn’t, Ahmed, ” Bildner, Caldwell, J.K, Rowling, Harper Lee, Art Spiegelman, ‘ Maus, ’ ”, Torrey Maldonado, ” Maldonado, who’ve, Eileen T, ’ ” Magnusson, ’, ” Ahmed, it’s, “ I’m, I’m, Maldonado, They’re Organizations: CNN, Florida Gov, Washington Post, PEN America, Liberty, Utah Parents United, Mobile, American, Association’s, Intellectual, ”, Association of American Publishers, Women, Chicago Tribune, Getty, America Locations: Florida, bookshelves, Rye, PEN, Utah, Decatur , Georgia, Tennessee, Alaska, Chicago, Sandmeyer's, Austin, Salt Lake City

☆ Opinion | Ibram X. Kendi and the Problem of Celebrity Fund-Raising
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The turmoil at Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, which recently laid off more than half its staff, has been a schadenfreude bonanza for the right. Three years later, there are considerable questions about what’s been accomplished with all that money. Conservatives who see Kendi as the living embodiment of the style of social justice activism they deride as “wokeness” are, naturally, gleeful. It’s almost hard to blame right-wingers for their delight; Kendi’s mistakes played right into their hands. It exemplifies the lamentable tendency among left-leaning donors to chase fads and celebrities rather than build sustainable institutions.

Persons: George Floyd, what’s, Jeffrey Blehar, ” Organizations: Kendi’s, Antiracist Research, Boston University, National, Washington Examiner Locations: antiracism

☆ An Ambitious Antiracism Center Scales Back Amid a Funding Slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Stephanie Saul | More About Stephanie Saul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The reorganization is partly a sign of the times. Until the university established the center, the 41-year-old Mr. Kendi had never run an organization anywhere near its size. On Wednesday, Boston University announced it was conducting an inquiry into complaints from staff members, which include questions about the center’s management culture and the faculty and staff’s experience with it, as well as its grant management practices. The university said Friday that the center has raised nearly $55 million and its endowment contains about $30 million, with an additional $17.5 million held in reserves. The bulk of the donations came from pledges made during the first year, and the university reported $5.4 million in cash and pledge payments in the most recent fiscal year.

Persons: Floyd’s, Kendi, America — Organizations: ESPN, Boston University Locations: America

☆ Opinion | Is ‘Peak Woke’ Behind Us or Ahead?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The attempts to use “woke capital” to effect progressive change have met strong resistance, and corporations are losing enthusiasm for a vanguard role. Meanwhile, there is more intellectual and political energy in anti-wokeness now, evident not just in backlash in red states but in this autumn’s roster of new books, which includes critiques of social justice ideology from the socialist left, the center left and the right. The Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action has created new legal roadblocks for Kendi-style progressivism. The mood in elite journalism is less ideologically committed and more skeptical and critical. These exemplify a different aftermath for “peak woke” — not the ideology’s retreat, but its consolidation and entrenchment.

Persons: Trump, Jack Dorsey, —, ”, “, Michael Powell’s, ” — Organizations: Antiracist Research, Boston University

☆ Opinion | Bayard Rustin Challenged Progressive Orthodoxies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( James Kirchick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In May 1966, the moderate integrationist John Lewis was ousted from the chairmanship of SNCC by the Black Power radical Stokely Carmichael. Committed to a political program that would improve the lives of the poor and working class regardless of their skin color, Mr. Rustin opposed racial preferences . Contrary to contemporary “antiracism” advocates who claim that the existence of racial disparities necessarily constitutes evidence of racism, Mr. Rustin asserted, “That blacks are underrepresented in a particular profession does not by itself constitute racial discrimination.”Another major source of tension between Mr. Rustin and the progressive left concerned American foreign policy. Briefly a member of the Young Communist League in the 1930s, Mr. Rustin followed the path of many a disillusioned ex-Communist by becoming a staunch anti-Communist. Although an early opponent of American military involvement in Vietnam, Mr. Rustin could not, as he wrote in 1967, “go along with those who favor immediate U.S. withdrawal, or who absolve Hanoi and the Vietcong from all guilt.

Persons: —, John Lewis, Stokely Carmichael, Rustin, “, Mr, ”, antiracism ”, George McGovern’s, leftward, Scoop Jackson Organizations: SNCC, Black Power, Negro, Democratic Party, Young Communist League, Communist, Social Democrats, USA, Socialist Party of America, Soviet Union, Democratic, Coalition for Locations: American, Vietnam, Hanoi, South Vietnam, Soviet, Washington

☆ Opinion | A Progressive James Bond Is Proof of American Cultural Imperialism
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

(The cruelty and neglect at these schools was real but the specific claims about graves at the B.C. school have outrun the so-far scanty evidence.) The first is a general tendency of provincial leaders to go overboard in establishing their solidarity and identification with the elites of the imperial core. The second point is the role of secularization and de-Christianization, which are further advanced in the British Isles and Canada than in the United States. Then the third point is that smaller countries with smaller elites can find it easier to enforce ideological conformity than countries that are more sprawling and diverse.

Persons: Ed West, it’s, tastemakers, Aris Roussinos, ” Organizations: Canadian, “, British Isles, Christianity’s, Republican, Laurentian Locations: Canada, British Columbia, British, Ottawa, London, Rome, Europe, United States, Britain, America, Westminster

☆ Vinícius Júnior Charges Racism Is ‘Normal’ in Spain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vinícius Júnior has had enough. This time, he took aim not only at his abusers but Spain itself. “It wasn’t the first time, nor the second, nor the third,” Vinícius Júnior wrote in a post on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. “Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the federation does too and the opponents encourage it.” Spain itself, he said, was becoming known in his native Brazil “as a country of racists.”On Sunday, Vinícius Júnior was met by fans chanting the word “mono” — monkey — even before he stepped off the Real Madrid bus outside the Mestalla stadium in Valencia.

☆ Opinion: How to fight back against the ‘anti-woke’ movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Opinion Khalil Gibran Muhammad | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Several states across the country have imposed bans on books, K-12 educational curricula and diversity programs in recent months. And even where statewide bans are not in place, restrictive measures are being enacted by local school boards. The mere mention of structural racism or gender discrimination or sexuality can potentially cost educators and librarians their jobs. The beginnings of this national movement to defend the freedom to learn is rekindling relationships between college students and civil rights activists and inspiring new ones between college faculty and K-12 teachers and librarians. With such formidable alliances among students, teachers, organizers and academics being forged in communities across the country, we finally have an answer to reverse the swelling tide of injustice and authoritarianism.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried was the poster boy for 'effective altruism.' Now, its followers are heartbroken and critics are questioning its 'weird' funding setup.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Sam Bankman-Fried was a proponent of effective altruism: earning as much as possible to give your wealth away. He had a huge influence on the effective-altruism movement, which counts Silicon Valley tech workers and Oxford University academics among its fans. 'Devastated'Bankman-Fried was the main funder of Future Fund, a charitable project run by the FTX Foundation. "We joined the Future Fund to support incredible people and projects," they said, "and this outcome is heartbreaking to us." Science groups that had received money from the Future Fund told the magazine Science in mid-November that they were unsure of their funding's future.

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