In one my first entries in this blog, “First to the Tribe”, posted on September 14, 2016, I noted – not as a criticism but as a simple observation – that none of us can afford to do all of… Read More ›
Social and Political Philosophy
THE CALL CENTRE CONUNDRUM
Is it still English if the accent is on the wrong syllable? I want to argue that it’s not. Rebel is a noun. To rebel is a verb. “The rebels opted to rebel.” is English. “The rebels opted to rebel.”… Read More ›
SENSITIVITY READERS
Heaven forfend that books should offend. So I knew that publishers have taken to hiring sensitivity readers. What I didn’t know, but should have guessed, is just how sensitive these sensitivity readers take readers to be. I could regale you… Read More ›
SOCIAL SCIENCE 100
There are five times as many inordinately tall white men as black men in America, and yet there are three times as many blacks in the NBA as whites. Why isn’t this a slam-dunk proof that there’s discrimination against white… Read More ›
ONE PARADOX OF POWER
Last Saturday Donald Trump spent an hour on the phone trying to inveigle the Attorney General of Georgia to ‘find’ him enough votes to overturn the results of the election, in the wake of which some pundits are speculating on… Read More ›
BREONNA TAYLOR AND NO-KNOCK WARRANTS
On the one hand it’s perfectly understandable that law enforcement might not want to give the miscreant the opportunity to flush the evidence before it can be found, or to arm himself so he can go down fighting. But on… Read More ›
STEREOTYPING
It’s a matter of straightforward induction that Great Danes are typically taller than Chihuahuas. So why would it be odd to say that they’re stereotypically taller? Because in normal parlance a stereotype only applies to people. Then why would it… Read More ›
OF HUMAN BONDAGE
Picking cotton in leg-irons is very slow work. So instead – and with very few exceptions – slaves are held in their servitude not by leg-irons but by there being nowhere else to go, and there being no access to… Read More ›
TWO CALLS TO ARMS: GRIEVANCE ACTIVISM AND THE RESISTANCE OF THE PRIVILEGED
There’s a lot of variation within white. I happen to be swarthily white, but I’m white nonetheless. I know that all us whites are privileged, but I’m especially privileged. And yet, though I probably should, I don’t seem to suffer… Read More ›
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION (March 26, 2017)
Without social justice warriors we wouldn’t have any social justice. But every once in a while these moral crusaders get a little carried away. A case in point – well, at least on the surface – is the current crusade… Read More ›
