I try to eat apples one week out of the year, rather than eating pears. Clearly, I must hate pears.
@Bay It’s inconvenient for a reason. There are truths that the majority of White America doesn’t want to face.
She was not making a point about patronizing black-owned businesses. She was calling for a boycott of all white-owned businesses. There is a big difference. Patronizing one =/= boycotting the other.
The vast majority of white males at BU will never even notice this professor, and those who do will probably have no problem with her at all.
By the way, this is yet another discussion that shows how people don’t really understand what racism is in the first place.
Again, those of you who aren’t really white males don’t really understand this…
She did not make a rally cry from the top of Black People Mountain urging all black people to boycott white-owned business. All she did was Tweet how she tries to find businesses that aren’t owned by white people and struggled. If anything, this social experiment shows the lack of racial diversity in the ownership of businesses.
“Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year I find it nearly impossible.”
This is the tweet I was referring to, which I find hardly controversial. In fact, it says that she’s actually spending money in white-owned businesses. Now, it could be that in other tweets she’s calling for a boycott. In context of her point – the ability to be able to patronize black-owned businesses for at least a week of the year – it seems fairly tame.
"when she refuses to patronize businesses owned by white males. She does not want to support white males, wants them or their businesses to fail or just dislikes them enough that she does not want to interact with them. "
For one day? You think their business would fail because she, or even hundreds of “she’s” because that group didn’t go for one day?
Wait…is there an MLK WEEK? When did THAT happen?
Yes, that particular tweet is pretty tame, although still quite hateful. There were references to “boycotts” in some links about the story, but since her Twitter is closed off to the public now, there is no way to see what else she really sad. However, what has been quoted off her tweets does not paint a great picture of her.
Please explain “hateful”. No, seriously. What’s hateful about wanting to focus on black-owned businesses for one week of the year? Is an attempt to shop at local, non-chain businesses also hateful?
It can be MLK day everyday. <:-P
Blackout. Melanin Poppin’.
Here are the tweets that started this whole thing rolling:
There is a lot of anger there. And poor Bruce Jenner. No idea why she would go off on him. Oh wait, he used to be a “white male” so guess he counts too.
Dumb tweets, dumb comments. A tempest in a teapot, as someone else wrote on this thread.
Thanks for the link, HarvestMoon1. There is a lot of anger in there.
With the whole Bruce Jenner tirade, I know there was a bit of backlash of sorts when it came to those supporting Bruce Jenner and his transition. His interview was in the midst of the Baltimore riots and even, from what I recall, the investigation of a murder of a black transgender woman, or even women. People came out for Jenner, but it all faded to silence for those who were getting murdered. Sounds like Grundy was just attacking Jenner for the heck of it rather than speaking on what actually angered her.
A lot of people really, really hate republicans, Niquii77. It might have been that that angered the professor.
I have a white son who will (God willing) go to college in just over a year (noooooo!!!) and this professor’s presence on campus wouldn’t bother me unless she was the only teacher teaching a required course. Otherwise, I’m sure there are a lot of professors with strong opinions that may not all be particularly thrilling to me. I would probably encourage him to avoid her classes if he were at BU, but that’s more because he is a doofus than because of her. I can’t believe that if a white male student came to her class and did the work well and conducted himself respectfully she would do anything other than grade him appropriately.
Dumb? Any college professor and educator is measured against a higher standard than a typical joe-the-public. Why should we lower the plank for her?
The plank! Walk the plank! Walk the plank! ;
Her tweets were dumb. I was hoping for more substance. She was dancing around topics and focusing on easy jabs. I wanted some hard statements. I wanted some Jesse Williams like tweets. Now THAT is a what African American Studies sounds like.
Not just dumb tweets and comments. Hateful, racist, sexist tweets! Really, people, read what she says! It is hateful. Do you really believe she can fairly evaluate a white male student? White female student? Transgender student? Conservative Republican student? Or anyone who doesn’t agree with her world view? Here’s another way to look at it. Your boss tweets hateful comments about whatever race, gender, sexual orientation or political group you fall into. Are you going to feel comfortable around the office? Can you be sure you’ll get a fair end of the year performance review?
Nothing at all of substance in her tweets. No solutions or calls for understanding, just the typical racially divisive ranting (that we hear from both sides). As a sociology prof, she should be able to offer more.
As an aside, I TOTALLY don’t get how this tweet thing works. How does this “following” happen, and besides waiting pearls of wisdom from known to be wise people, how do people end up following each other? Is this stuff usually between friends? I know I have attended conferences where happenings where “tweeted”. Any ideas about who she thought was “following” her?
The employer should have done a bit more due diligence before hiring her. My kid was once put in charge of checking the social media sites of the potential new hires at her organization. The reason? They did not want anything out there that would negatively reflect on the organization and give unnecessary food for anti-American propaganda “feasts.” Easier to not offer a job than to fire someone who’s already hired. I’m sure there were other deserving candidates for that position at BU…