If you’ve read my penultimate entry, you’ll know that last week I invited Frances Widdowson to Lethbridge, as the first post-Covid “Guest of Dishonour” at our Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner series on Saturday, then to give two guest lectures, one on Tuesday, the other on Thursday, in my Belief, Truth, and Paradox class, and, finally, to give a public talk at the University on Wednesday about the effects of Woke-ism on post-secondary education.

There’s nothing the Administration could have done in any case about the other three events; and on the Friday U of L President Mike Mahon announced he was begrudgingly allowing the Wednesday event to go ahead. But not without virtue-signalling that Widdowson’s views were anathema to those of the University. Did he know what those views were? He did not. Had he read anything written by her or ever heard her speak? Highly unlikely. So the first takeaway is that 

University administrators cannot be counted on to raise,
or even hold, the bar on academic responsibility.

As already reported, the pressure got to Mahon over the weekend, and he caved. Being banned from the assigned venue, Widdowson then decided she was going to have her say in the Atrium instead. When we arrived that afternoon, there were over 700 people there, including reporters, a dozen police officers, and, of course, the usual phalanx of drummers. Needless to say she was not allowed to speak, and after about half an hour she left. In the wake of which the media reported that she had been met by over 700 people protesting her presence on campus. 

Did it occur to these reporters that many of those people might have been there to listen to her speak? That others were simply making their way through the atrium to go home? That still others were just curious about what was going on? So the second takeaway is that

so-called journalists have about as much training
in critical thinking as university administrators.

As it happens I teach critical thinking. And so I took the trouble to talk not just to whomever was wearing an orange shirt with “Every Child Matters” on it. That’s how I know not everyone was there to protest. But of the several people I talked to who clearly were there to protest, not one – and I’m not going to infer anything more than this – not one had ever read a thing Widdowson had written, or heard a word Widdowson had ever spoken. “So how do you know she’s a Residential School denier?” I asked one of the protesters. That stumped her for several seconds, and then, 
“Because that’s what our Elders are telling us.”
“Can you point me to one of your Elders?” I asked. And so she did.
“How do you know this Widdowson woman is a Residential School denier?” I asked him. “Have you read anything she’s written? Heard anything she’s said?” He declined to answer. So I’m guessing not. So third takeaway:

If – and I emphasise the ‘if’ – taking the word of their Elders
is among their ‘special Indigenous ways of knowing’, then
I’m not sure that ‘knowing’ is the right word here.

But hang on. There’s nothing Indigenous about any of this. How do we come to believe what we believe. if not by taking the word of people we trust, however blindly, are in the know? How else did Mike Mahon come to ‘know’ what Widdowson’s views were about anything?

Am I as second-hand-ignorant as Mahon or that protester or her Elder? About global warming, the historicity of Holocaust, and the merits and demerits of the Residential School program, I’m afraid so. But about what Widdowson thinks? Not at all. Why not? Because I asked her! So fourth takeaway:

If you don’t want to know, nor anyone else to know, what someone thinks,
don’t ask her, nor let anyone else. If, in spite of your efforts, they do, then
don’t let her answer. And if she does, don’t let anyone listen to her.

But let’s put all this silliness aside. After the two classes that she guest-taught for me – and keep in mind that she was a political scientist, not a philosopher, at Mount Royal University – she commented that the questions my students asked were the most astute and advanced she’d ever had in a classroom. This was a philosophy class. I thought their questions were banal and obvious. So fifth takeaway:

I guess my second-year students would be considered ready
for grad school at Last-Chance-U places like MRU.

If I had an ego, which thankfully I don’t, I’d be basking in this. But I don’t. And I’m not. I think it’s the saddest observation yet I’ve heard about what’s happening to the academy. That sadness is only compounded by people like Mike Mahon declaring, as he did, how proud he was of the students standing up to whatever they thought they were standing up to, even though neither he nor they knew what that was. 

But it gets worse. What’s happening – and apparently it’s happening right across the so-called settler world – is not what D’Angelo thinks is white fragility. If we’re privileged – and many of us are – fragile is the one thing we’re not. If we were we wouldn’t be privileged! But we are. We’re so privileged that, for one thing among so many others, we don’t want to have to watch what we say around you. If we do have to watch what we say around you, then we’re just not going to want to have anything to do with you. We’re certainly not going to want to be your friend. And you’re not going to want us to be ours. In fact I can’t think of anything more prohibitive of reconciliation – can you? – than our not wanting to have anything to do with each other.

So as I say, it’s not my fragility that makes me want not to give a shit about your grievances, be they legitimate or not. It’s the toxicity of your company. It’s your incivility. If you think that incivility is warranted, I won’t naysay you. Just stay the fuck away from me! And so my sixth takeaway from the behaviour of Mahon and his handlers last Wednesday is what I did:

I just walked away.

Categories: Critical Thinking, Everything You Wanted to Know About What's Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask, Social and Political Philosophy, Why My Colleagues Are Idiots

Tags: academic freedom, Frances Widdowson, indigenous ways of knowing, Mike Mahon, Mount Royal University, Robin DiAngelo, University of Lethbridge, white fragility