Imagine two colleges side by side with everything being equal, save that one has all and only white faculty and students, the other all and only black faculty and students. Imagine too that there’s some objective measure of student outcomes…. Read More ›
Social and Political Philosophy
DIVERSITY AND ORTHODOXY
Scene One: Five friends walk into a bar. Each is a fundamentalist pro-Life Trump-supporting Republican who’s never disagreed with the other four about anything. But one is white, another black, one brown, one yellow, and one red. Scene Two: Five … Read More ›
MY BOOK REPORT
I take it we’ve all heard of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. That it was an anti-Semitic forgery and yada yada yada. But how many of us had actually read it? I certainly hadn’t. Until last night…. Read More ›
DECOLONIZING THE CLASSROOM
Earlier this morning, Thursday, November 19, 2020, the faculty here at the University of Lethbridge received a rather puzzling missive. We’re being told that the University would like us to cooperate in “the decolonization of the classroom.” Not having the… Read More ›
JEWS, THE SHOAH, AND IDENTITY POLITICS (July 18, 2017)
There’s not a whole lot that’s special about us Jews. Yes, we do celebrate Easter by drinking the blood of a Christian baby, preferably one still wet from the baptismal fount. But other than that we’re pretty much like everyone… Read More ›
CHARLIE HEBDO VS THE PROPHET
Rightly or wrongly we can decide when we’re more at our leisure; but in the meantime, John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice can be taken as pretty much the canon on distributive justice, at least in our relatively affluent Western… Read More ›
ASKABLES AND UNASKABLES
It’s not a taboo unless it’s also a taboo to question the taboo. I get that. But it’s not a violation of a law or a rule or a policy to question that law or rule or policy. If you… Read More ›
HOW TO BE BOTH PRIVILEGED AND WOKE
For some time now I’ve been standing back and keeping bemused score on the latest salvos in the Great Cancel War, a war that’s been going on since even before we emerged from the cave. Sometimes it’s been about sedition,… Read More ›
THE REPARATIONS ARGUMENT
When receiving an award, be it for this or for that, it’s now considered churlish not to acknowledge that, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” Only at one’s peril should this be confused with “We… Read More ›
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
A neighbourhood is a location and a socio-economic homogeneity. It’s a location because people don’t want to have to drive to borrow a cup of sugar. And it’s socio-economically homogenous because they like to chat when they’re borrowing a cup… Read More ›
