@Bay The thing is, that isn’t true.
When I looked over her CV, it seems that she has an issue with males period. Her thing is supposed to be women’s studies, but she seems overly focused on men.
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I don’t see how her comments are any different to white people referring to young black males as thugs or by saying the black community has an absent father problem.
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Who calls 'young black males" thugs? Who does that? I think some people call criminals thugs, no matter what color they are.
As for the black community having an “absent father problem,” who really can argue against that? It’s not a secret, it’s not debatable, it’s not 'racist" to acknowledge that. In some areas, 90% of AA babies are born w/o a father in the home. Is that stat racist? No. There’s a reason that there are some PR messages out there encouraging black males to be involved with their children’s lives. Are those PR messages racist? no.
@Niquii77, I have no idea what this means. Could you or someone please explain it?
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If a white male (or white or Asian or Latina female) prof had made a similar statement about black females being THE problem, or a problem, that prof would likely be having problems now.
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@calicash <<< The thing is, that isn’t true. >>>>
What isn’t true? Are you saying that @Bay 's statement wouldn’t ever get claimed because it isn’t true? Things get claimed all the time that aren’t true.
Niquii,
I agree with you that context would help. And since no one helped me out with what “white masculinity is THE problem at American colleges” means, I came up with a meaning myself.
If she is saying that the way we raise our boys and men to be masculine (e.g., tough versus sensitive, physical versus emotional, etc) causes them to behave in ways that are counterproductive in an academic environment, then that is a reasonable theory. (Not saying I agree). But…I don’t know why she targets only white masculinity versus American masculinity. And, I would like to know how such theory translates into THE problem for American colleges. I was under the impression that the biggest problems facing colleges are cost, grad rates, lack of learning, etc. I don’t see what white masculinity has to do with that.
If she is talking about alcohol use, sexual assault, vandalism, etc. on campus, then she could be correct that white males are overrepresented in those areas (I don’t know if this is true). But…I still don’t see how generalizing those “problems” to white masculinity is in any way appropriate. Whether consuming alcohol is a “problem” is widely debatable (even in the medical community) and is not limited to white students. Attributing sexual assault to white males in general is not accurate and highly offensive to the 99%+ (or whatever it is) white men on campuses who did not and would not commit sexual assault.
So, giving her the benefit of my doubt, I still find her statement to be wrong, inappropriate and offensive.
@CaliCash, Bay has said many things. Which one are you talking about? It would be helpful if you would quote the post you are referencing.
Another example of symbolism over substance.
Yes, but only after her parents and lawyers got involved. So, I guess the zeros did not matter then. How does one get an A after getting four zeros? You have to be dumb as a post to think that someone can get multiple zeros on assignments and then they get an A in the class and that makes logical sense. Thus the zeros were symbols of something else and not really indicative of the work quality???
More interesting, people look at the final grade, but are clueless about the process that was necessary for the student to get what she deserved in the first place. As is known, sunlight is the best disinfectant. The school and professor got called on it, but that was totally unnecessary if the student’s work was really of A quality. Oh, maybe I missed the new grading system, zeros = As. Yeah, that must it.
There were 15 assignments and 4 zeroes.
@Bay, wasn’t that data about BINGE drinking? I know my link was, and I don’t think the medical community is debating that. The paper I posted made a connection between binge drinking and other negative outcomes.
I would also wonder if the expression of masculity expresses itself differently among different cultures, including campus cultures. It just occured to me that not all women on campus would see this the same way.
@mom2collegekids “As for the black community having an “absent father problem,” who really can argue against that?”
I imagine there is someone who could argue that absent father’s are not a problem, or that there is no "THE " black community, but if I understand “offfensive” correctly as a copied in an earlier post, something can be true and still be offensive, right?
And who calls black men thugs? Maybe not in a lecture hall, and in the press, but I don’t doubt people tweet it. They certainly write it in the comments of trashy news items on the internet.
But I just logged on, and maybe I took that out of context. You were responding to a comment, and I am responding to yours. I wonder if this is what tweeting looks like.
Shoot; I went to bed saying I was going to leave this alone.
I can imagine that people who were raised without a father present might argue against the value of patriarchy at all. Perhaps Ms. Grundy was raised without a father, and she sees the patriarchical model of family and leadership as a “white masculinity” thing, at least in America. Perhaps she is railing against all the white males in university administration, and is not talking about students at all. Even then, hers would be a bigoted statement because she would be judging the present hierarchy as “bad” (THE problem) based only upon race and gender.
A thought after reading through all these posts: I think a lot of people are talking past each other here. We might be best served by acknowledging that racism and sexism are both legitimately polysemous terms (as are most abstract nouns, and for that matter many concrete ones), and so people should be careful when throwing them around to make it clear which definitions they’re using.
Sorry I didn’t have time to read the links, but if Grundy is referring to binge drinking only, then she should have said so, and she’d still be wrong to say it because white males are not the only people who binge drink on college campuses.
@awcntdb The letter from the prof to the student is worth reading. It does seem like he was genuinely concerned about her and felt that she was missing the entire point of the class, and this was well before the lawyers got involved. I think we’ve all seen many examples of people that frame everything in terms of their faith and are unable to step outside of that framework. From the prof’s letter, it sounds like this student was one of those people.
I agree that I don’t see how 4 zeros can still get you an “A”, but in his letter the prof says, “These low grades have not drastically reduced your grade or jeopardized you in terms of passing,” and he encourages her to finish strong. My knee jerk reaction on seeing the initial news article was that the prof was a lunatic, but he comes across as quite reasonable in his letter. He sounds like a teacher trying his level best to convince a recalcitrant student that writing a paper contrary to their personal beliefs is an academic exercise and not a challenge to their faith. It does seem like that particular student would likely be best served by attending a Christian college (assuming those types of colleges don’t require students to argue positions contrary to their religious beliefs - I wouldn’t know).
@dfbdfb these words are not truly polysemous, as their definitions are related. Unlike something like, say, “bank” which has multiple unrelated definitions:
Racism (Websters)
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2: racial prejudice or discrimination
I think it’s #2 we’re talking about here. Sexism has two similar definitions.
Speaking of words… “thug” used to be just another synonym for “hoodlum” or “crook” and that’s what it still means to a lot of people. There was nothing racist about it any of these words. It wasn’t until the 90s and the advent of gangsta rap (“thug life,” et al) that it took on any racial significance - if I recall correctly (and I am no expert) thug was not always used as a perjorative within the genre.
I think of “thug” and I think of the villains in Dick Tracy comic strips. Like Mumbles.
“she’d still be wrong to say it because white males are not the only people who binge drink on college campuses.”
Yes. We should stay on topic.
@mom2collegekids @nrdsb4 The post at #118
This is NOT true. People called Trayvon Martin a thug when the only person with a mug shot was the one who killed him. What do they call the multiple white young males who have committed mass acts of terrorism against innocent civilians? They have the privilege of being “mentally deranged” or a “quiet kid who was misunderstood”.
And there are some areas where 100% of AA babies have a father in the home. I’m sure there is some pretty damning evidence in “some” areas for white people. In the same way you hold black people as having an absent father problem as a “truth”, that professor views her comment a “truth”, so how are the two of you any different? You’re both making generalizations.
@subtropicus, I think you misunderstand the definition of polysemy—polysemy is when a single word has multiple meanings. Saying that racism and sexism are both polysemous says nothing about whether their definitions are related or not, it says that each of them has multiple definitions.