{"id":5218,"date":"2020-07-06T15:27:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T18:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=5218"},"modified":"2020-07-06T15:48:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T18:48:41","slug":"carleton-universitys-president-receives-a-letter-from-some-profs-and-alumni-with-eight-commitments-which-claim-to-build-anti-racist-university-what-is-this-new-lunacy-abo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/07\/06\/carleton-universitys-president-receives-a-letter-from-some-profs-and-alumni-with-eight-commitments-which-claim-to-build-anti-racist-university-what-is-this-new-lunacy-abo\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton University\u2019s President receives a letter from some profs and alumni, with eight commitments, which claim to \u201cbuild anti-racist university\u201d. What is this new lunacy about?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First,\nhere is an article about this story, published lately in the Ottawa Citizen and\nentitled: \u201cProfs,\nalumni urge Carleton to accept eight commitments to build “anti-racist\nuniversity<\/em>“:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/news\/local-news\/profs-alumni-urge-carleton-to-accept-eight-commitments-to-build-anti-racist-university\/wcm\/2ee7b8bf-b013-47c1-823e-0f62f86b4d61\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, Bambi has the urge to reply to those so-called eight commitments to build “anti-racist university<\/em>“, just for fun ?:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\nReassess the school\u2019s relationship with police to create \u201ca campus community in\nwhich everyone has a sense of physical and psychological safety as well as a\nsense of belonging\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does\nthis first point mean<\/strong>?<\/strong>? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\nthe link to anti-racism? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Commit\nto hiring, retaining and promoting Black faculty;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why specifically\na commitment to this minority?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, what\nis a \u201cblack\u201d faculty, according to those signing this letter? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nexample, what does a black person from the Arab world (a Bedouin, etc.) have in\ncommon with a black person from Haiti or a black person from Toronto, etc.?\nNothing. Bambi has more in common with each of them (e.g., language spoken or\nbeing urban\/rural or being Canadian, etc.) than they have between each other. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\ncommitment should be to merit only!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, we do not do a service to this particular group by letting them think that they positioned themselves because of their skin colour or whatever other limited racial feature. We do not do them a service by letting us doubt one day that this what made them earn the position, instead of their merit. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Create\na steering group to study racism and racialization that will enhance research,\nteaching, and program development in Black Studies and Critical Race Studies;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t we\nhave enough of such steering groups thus far? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the\nway, what does \u201ccritical\u201d race studies mean <\/strong>?<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Fund\nanti-racist and Black-led student and faculty research;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh so, this\nis what it\u2019s all about then\u2026 funding. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does\nanti-racist mean? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aren\u2019t we\nall anti-racism because we are pro-respect (to all, including ourselves)? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does\n\u201cblack-led research mean\u201d? This sounds like anything but scientific research.\nThis sounds like ideological absurd language. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.\nAddress the \u201chostile culture and oppressive environments\u201d that reproduce\nanti-Black racism on campus;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

?<\/strong>. OK, seriously what does \u201chostile culture and oppressive\nenvironments\u201d mean? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\ncampuses are anything but hostile\u2026 they are rather perhaps getting unfair (at\ntimes literally, hostile or dismissive) to those who do not virtue signal with these\nfancy ideologies. Look what happened at UBC lately, with their former Chair of\nthe Board of Governors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.\nGenerate data on the racial backgrounds of students, faculty and other\nemployees;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What?! Why?!\nTo create a form of apartheid <\/strong>?<\/strong>? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi\nthought the latter was not a good practice\u2026 or is it only when it is practiced\nelsewhere (e.g., South Africa, etc.). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are\nwe doing this to ourselves, as public institutions and as a society? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whom\ninterests are we serving by creating freaky new policies or practices like that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.\nSupport Black, Indigenous and people of colour who work in custodial and\nmaintenance services with a liveable wage and safe working conditions;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wonderful\u2026\nbut why only them? What about their other peers, who may be local or from other\nethnolinguistic groups? Don\u2019t they \u201cmatter\u201d too?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Commit\nto evaluating the university\u2019s investment portfolios and relationship to the\nmilitary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nreminds Bambi of the whole fossil fuel divestment saga <\/strong>?<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this\nrelate to the earlier points and to the topic\/essence of the letter? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How will such\ndivestment make the lives of everyone, including the specific group mentioned\nin the letter, more enriched?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

End of the\nletter\u2019s commitments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nconclude this post, Bambi will say the following: Make no mistake, like you, she\nis against discrimination and racism to anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all\nwant our society to be the most welcoming and fair to all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we must\nkeep aspiring to be respectful to all to ensure that our world is non-racist\/anti-racist.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all\ndue respect to any noble intention, according to Bambi\u2019s non-expert citizen\u2019s\nopinion, this letter is not only silly. It is also dangerous, as it can eventually\nlead to the opposite of what it claims to be fighting against. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this\nwhat the signatories\nwant\ntheir university to become? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, here is an article about this story, published lately in the Ottawa Citizen and entitled: \u201cProfs, alumni urge Carleton to accept eight commitments to build “anti-racist university“: https:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/news\/local-news\/profs-alumni-urge-carleton-to-accept-eight-commitments-to-build-anti-racist-university\/wcm\/2ee7b8bf-b013-47c1-823e-0f62f86b4d61\/ Second, Bambi has the urge to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5221,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions\/5221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}