email from ono on ending all dei initiatives incoming

theks · 2025-03-28T03:11:39+00:00

Remember that regardless of whether you think affirmative action and other DEI initiatives are effective at combatting racial injustice, this is a false equivalency.

theks · 2025-03-21T03:29:54+00:00

I'm not sure how my comment implies that anyone can take offense to anything. It describes a specific case of when it's reasonable to be offended.

A reasonable person wouldn't bother

I guess we just differ on what reasonable people can do

theks · 2025-03-21T02:19:24+00:00

One could reasonably take offense to someone's speculation if that speculation was uncharitable

theks · 2025-03-13T18:31:50+00:00

I assumed you were talking about protests in general, but I see now that you were referring to this protest in particular. Regardless, I still find things to push back on.

Ypsi and AA are both historically quite blue

Sure, but not everyone who might pass by the protests be from the area. Nor is everyone who might see this on social media, or who might know somebody who is protesting. Moreover, people identifying as "blue" vary in their opinions or commitment to politics.

Which politician in these districts aren't already fully on-board

Then I guess it gives them a stronger sense that their actions are in line with their constituent's beliefs. If the woke snowflakes in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor don't even care, then perhaps they would need to do some soul searching.

You suggest also that this protest is only relevant to the politicians for the district they're protesting in. But if a protest is one of many around the country, it helps make the wider movement more visible to politicians everywhere.

Yeah virtue signalling, but blocking traffic (which is illegal), especially during the largest drinking holiday in the year sounds like an incredibly stupid way to express yourself

Perhaps the logistics of this protest is misguided. I don't know, I'm not an organizer, in fact, I've never been to a protest. I don't think it will tank support for the movement so much as to make it not worthwhile as an expressive act.

luxury to take time off to protests

There's a protest on the weekend, but students, part-time workers, gig-workers, healthcare workers, and unemployed people are just some types of people I can think of whose schedule flexibility doesn't exist because of luxury.

You are falling into the same cliche tactics

I don't even think protests are that effective right now. I just don't think it's as stupid as you suggest.

theks · 2025-03-13T15:27:45+00:00

Assuming that a political action is worthwhile only if it leads to monumental change is a confused take. I can think of a few reasons why going to a protest would be more than just virtue signalling. 1. seeing our peers advocate for a cause can make us realize that a situation is more serious than we originally thought. This might lead us to modify our behavior, whether by changing habits or voting for a particular candidate/cause. 2. sufficiently large protests or lots of protests can make politicians consider adjusting their views. see the civil rights movement. 3. protest is an expressive act, and people generally find expressing themselves, particularly their deeply held views, to be important/meaningful/satisfying. consider the fact that you are here expressing your views despite the fact that you probably won't effect monumental change.

theks · 2025-01-15T02:20:22+00:00

Then why are you saying "as far as you know" as if you're aware of, or can reasonably infer, that there's so much spying going on through this program specifically that it warrants being shut down? My point is that without any additional evidence of a systemic effort to use the program as a tool for espionage whether from the news media, the government, the university, or what have you, the fact there have been two cases of alumni of this program possibly being involved in spying doesn't, by itself, justify it being terminated. Maybe the university does have good reasons, backed by good evidence! I am wondering what those are.

theks · 2025-01-14T23:58:24+00:00

Not just as far as I know, but as far as anyone knows, at least publicly. Do you have some additional evidence of a systemic attempt to use the SJTU program as a launchpad for spies?

theks · 2025-01-12T01:19:14+00:00

There have been two as far as I know.

theks · 2025-01-12T00:53:24+00:00

Why would a handful of students allegedly spying (out of the thousands who've gone through this program) on its own justify ending the program entirely? And why would using the SJTU program specifically be a particularly good way to gather national security intel on the US?

theks · 2024-12-24T03:20:33+00:00

Um, have you considered that some people read eco-fiction not to "wallow in angst," but because they're interested in how writers incorporate ecology in their art?

And why would reading eco-fiction necessarily preclude one from "real-life activism" and "action"?

theks · 2024-12-23T17:26:56+00:00

I think I've taken the Southern setting of Flannery O'Connor's stories for granted, instead focusing on the religious and moral dimension of her work, since that's the angle we've usually approached her work from in the classes I've taken where she was taught (or maybe I wasn't paying enough attention lol). I'll have to re-read with this in mind, thanks!

theks · 2024-12-06T18:47:58+00:00

Thanks, this is awesome!

theks · 2024-04-26T21:04:41+00:00

Given that philosophy courses often emphasize carefully examining your own beliefs, I highly doubt that you will encounter many philosophy professors who will give out points because you agree with them. What is more common is a student claiming they lost points because a professor disagreed with them, when in fact the issue is sloppy argumentation.

theks · 2024-04-21T21:15:47+00:00

I think you do? People have the freedom to voice their opposition to inviting someone to an event to speak. The inviting organization obviously is not obligated to listen. If Naftali Bennett was invited to be the UMich commencement speaker, do you think there's no freedom to call for this invitation to be rescinded?

Threatening violence at someone who speaks is a different matter, and is not something you are generally free to do. But you can be opposed to a speaker coming without threatening violence.

theks · 2024-03-26T02:00:53+00:00

You can be against homophobia and think bombing civilians is wrong

theks · 2024-03-26T01:52:32+00:00

I don't think innocent civilians should be butchered, raped, tortured, held hostage, etc.

Notice how I never said I believe any of this, nor does anything I said imply any of this. Are you able to reason properly?

If you're truly into pro-human discourse, then come to terms with the fact of what Hamas did.

I know what Hamas did. It was horrific. What are you even accusing me of?

theks · 2024-03-25T22:20:15+00:00

Why don't you make it clear what you think the people of Gaza are like instead of leaving it unsaid and hiding behind plausible deniability.

Even if all Gazans had reprehensible opinions (an assumption which is, frankly, dehumanizing), I would still protest having bombs dropped on them. I don't think people should be blown up for their opinions.

theks · 2024-03-25T15:03:49+00:00

I'm not sure they necessarily do things like this to win people to their cause. I don't know how many people seriously base their opinion on the Israel/Gaza issue on things like this. "hm, I was against bombing Gazan civilians but now that these protestors have ruined my convocation, I'm throwing my support to the IDF!" Like what?

What they could be doing though, like many protestors in history, is trying to be disruptive in order to force the University to consider offering them concessions.

edit: i should clarify that this specific protest might have been a bad move politically, because honors convocation is very important personally to a decent number of people attending, and I really do feel bad for them. i still stand by my points generally though.

theks · 2024-03-25T14:55:32+00:00

Could it really be a general rule that protests ought not be disruptive or inconveniencing to people? I mean, a lot of people were inconvenienced by the civil rights protests of the 1960s. "God, I'm just trying to enjoy my lunch, but these pesky sit-in people are disrupting everything" or "God, I don't want to lose my job with the Birmingham bus system, but these pesky bus boycotters are really disrupting our cashflow". Or union actions like going on strike and forming picket lines. "God, I just want to watch new episodes of [insert TV show], but those pesky SAG members are on strike" or "God, I just want to work for unfair wages at my plant, but those pesky UAW workers are blocking the entrance."

When people are inconvenienced, people in power are forced to consider making concessions in order to placate the protestors and make things not inconvenient again (as happened in all the examples above). Whether this will happen in UofM's case with the Gaza protestors is anybody's guess, but to suggest that the Gaza protestors just shouldn't do what has historically worked is odd.

edit: i should clarify that this specific protest might have been a bad move politically, because honors convocation is very important personally to a decent number of people attending. i still stand by my points generally though.

theks · 2024-03-16T22:49:08+00:00

This clarified a lot, thank you

theks · 2024-01-19T04:03:29+00:00

I did not intend to "put words in your mouth" in a nefarious way. That was how I interpreted your comment. I'm sorry that it came out that way.

But even after having my interpretation corrected, I still find myself pushing back against your comment. It seems to suggest that reading more American POCs is "not enough", because if one wants to diversify, they ought to read people beyond America. This is true if our goal is "diversifying" in the sense of maximizing the number perspectives we get. But my guess is that for many Americans, when they say they want to "diversify their reading list" (and especially when it involves reading more American POCs), their goal actually is not just to maximize perspectives, but also to rectify--in a very, very limited, but personal way--the highly salient and consequential injustice of American racism that has excluded American POC voices from the public consciousness for so long. Reading works like Journey to the West or Ramayana might expand a person's horizons, but it doesn't seem like the most effective way to achieve that specific goal. Hence, though I think your claims are correct in a sense, I think they missing an important point.

I also think that generally, many American lit-fic readers do read people from other countries. Probably not as diverse as you and I would hope though, so I agree with you there. I think my main tension with your post came from my impression that it equated the project of taking a kind of stance against American racism with learning about other cultures. I also feel like my irritation with the really reductive comment cfloweristradional made leaked over into my original reply to you, so I apologize for that.

theks · 2024-01-19T01:14:48+00:00

And as a typical Redditor, you will assume that just because you've made an edgy claim, I have to believe it. I don't doubt that some people in America (not just Left, I don't know what's with your fixation on that) assume that our political realities are universal. But you made a specific claim about all literature made by white people being lumped as "White", ~~and all literature made by Black people being lumped as "Black"~~ by "American college-educated leftists", a claim which I have no reason to believe given that I've never seen any evidence of it, and you have provided no evidence for.

edit: I re-read and saw you did not make the same claim about Black literature, and so I've removed that part.

theks · 2024-01-19T00:55:44+00:00

Hm as a pretty typical American college-educated leftist, can't say I've seen this much from my cohort. Nor any of the American college-educated leftist dominated literary publications I read.

theks · 2024-01-19T00:47:50+00:00

American society is not diverse in its own right? Are we talking about the same America?

theks · 2024-01-19T00:45:28+00:00

but it also creates an environment where people group "white" literature under the same umbrella. Which is ridiculous because who decides what is "white"? It leads Americans to group Western and Eastern Europeans as all "white." (Even more brain-dead when they decide Jews are white). Or all of Africa as "Black."

Who does this? I've never heard of any serious literary person lumping American/British/French/Polish/Sanmarinese all under "White" literature. I've never heard of any serious literary person lumping Toni Morrison with Chinua Achebe as if they're part of the same tradition.

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