If an “expert” can be shown to make those who engage with it less knowledgeable about science and society, they’re not really much of an expert, are they?

Hell, I’ve seen studies that show that people who didn’t watch the news at all were still more informed than those who watch Fox News.

Some expert.

(January 12, 2022 at 3:53 pm)Nomad Wrote:

(January 12, 2022 at 11:09 am)Ahriman Wrote: Why trust your own flawed judgment, instead of the experts?

Says the misanthropic anti-vaxxer.  Heed your own words, idiot.

I think you may have Ahriman and Irreligious Atheist mixed up. IA is the conspiracy loving, woman hating, anti-vaxxer (who got vaxxed). Ahriman is just a strange guy who seems to be trying to fit in and doesn't seem to have any ill intent.

Both spew nonsense to get attention.

I think Ahri may have a secondary dual diagnosis of a type I personality disorder, I'll give him a break, the same as with Winter, except his is medical first, psychiatric second with a heavy dose of indoctrination. IA on the other hand, well, it's hard for me to pigeon hole conspiracy, hate and racism. Maybe antisocial/borderline, but I think indoctrinated socialized hater sum's it up best.

(January 12, 2022 at 8:52 am)Ahriman Wrote: You guys should listen to the newsmakers more often......they are the experts, not you. You're just some doofus with a little opinion.

FoxNews and Newsmax and Infowars are the doofuses with opinions. Perhaps, with your lack of expertise in the real world, you shouldn't decide which experts to listen to or not. As a Historian, and a History teacher I guarantee that I know more about 'Critical Race Theory" than any of your 'experts'

(January 10, 2022 at 1:57 pm)Spongebob Wrote: I know this topic has been discussed on other threads, so apologies is this is redundant.  There is an author who's children's books were banned in Texas schools due to claimed intentional teaching of CRT to children.  His most popular book is titled New Kid and it follows the every day life of a young black boy in a mostly white school.  I haven't read the book (actually its a graphic novel) but have heard some of its content discussed and it sounds completely harmless.  This is supposedly happening in many states.  I'm curious if anyone here has had first hand experience and what you think of this development.  To be glaringly transparent, I find this practice to be nothing more than the re-implementation of Jim Crow.

I listened to the audio book for this New Kid book you bring up and it's pretty trash. Apparently, according to the black kid in the book, it's racist to gift a black person chocolate for Christmas, because chocolate is brown and their skin is brown ugh (shaking my head), and giving a black kid cookies that are in the shape of a basketball is racist because thinking that a black person might like basketball is a nono. You're trying to make kids so soft and pathetic that they automatically assume that a gift of chocolate equates to racism (facepalm)? And the other thing the kid got upset about and let his rage out on the teacher over (portraying the angry black stereotype, but putting a positive spin on it and acting like the rage and screaming is justified), was the teacher getting his name wrong. Big bad racist teacher (named Karen, of course), gets his name wrong, so therefore the teacher hates all black people. Makes sense. This pathetic lack of logic and fear over microagressions and teaching blacks to be offended over every minor thing in life has now even lead to a situation where a woke professor was fired after mixing up black students names. His apology letter led to the firing, sure, but the students started this all by calling something racist that has no business being called racist. Teachers make mistakes and get students names wrong sometimes. This has zero to do with racism. Parents mix their own children's names up. This is almost as bad as Colin Kaepernick calling getting his vertical measured a little too close too slavery for his liking. How are we preparing these kids to survive in the real world when they're extremely weak minded and having massive meltdowns over someone getting their name wrong?

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/un...ated%20Oct.

I have yet to actually read New Kid, but looking at IA's response to it, I have to ask: how certain are we that it (and other things like it) are teaching black kids to find any potential microagression worth throwing a shit fit over? From what little I understand of the black experience (and I'm not 100% convinced such a thing is possible), it seems more like many black kids have already felt the way Jerry does and, if it's teaching anything, it's that they're not alone in feeling the way they do. If it's meant to be teaching anyone anything, it seems like it's trying to teach white people to be more mindful in their interactions with black people. It sounds like it's no more teaching black kids to be resentful than Catcher in the Rye taught teenagers to be resentful back in the day.

I admit I'd have to read it to be certain, and I'll probably either find a copy the next time I go to the library or find it via some... less than legal methods. And given that you listened to an audiobook, and it's a graphic novel, it's also possible that something might be missing from the visual dimension. But, going from what you've said about it, and the discourse on race in general, I doubt this take will be too far off base.

(January 15, 2022 at 9:10 pm)Irreligious Atheist Wrote:  How are we preparing these kids to survive in the real world when they're extremely weak minded and having massive meltdowns over someone getting their name wrong?

Same way you were, I suppose, given your long running meltdown over this subject?

(January 15, 2022 at 10:56 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: I have yet to actually read New Kid, but looking at IA's response to it, I have to ask: how certain are we that it (and other things like it) are teaching black kids to find any potential microagression worth throwing a shit fit over? From what little I understand of the black experience (and I'm not 100% convinced such a thing is possible), it seems more like many black kids have already felt the way Jerry does and, if it's teaching anything, it's that they're not alone in feeling the way they do. If it's meant to be teaching anyone anything, it seems like it's trying to teach white people to be more mindful in their interactions with black people. It sounds like it's no more teaching black kids to be resentful than Catcher in the Rye taught teenagers to be resentful back in the day.

I admit I'd have to read it to be certain, and I'll probably either find a copy the next time I go to the library or find it via some... less than legal methods. And given that you listened to an audiobook, and it's a graphic novel, it's also possible that something might be missing from the visual dimension.  But, going from what you've said about it, and the discourse on race in general, I doubt this take will be too far off base.

To be clear, I certainly don't want any books to be banned. That's not me. Sure, some black kids may feel the way the author does, but that doesn't necessarily mean those thoughts should be validated. I'm sure 99 % of us on the forum can agree that chocolate is not a racist gift, whether a black person takes it that way or not. And I'm sure we can also agree that basketballs are not quite the new Swastika, especially given that the black kid in the novel actually had a Knicks poster in his locker at school and loved basketball. If Colin Kaepernick came out with a children's book showing children trying out for a football team and compared that to slavery in the children's book like he did in his Netflix show, that would be a similarly dumb book.

I know that CRT is not taught in schools other than colleges/universities. I don't agree with the Republican talking points and I certainly want history to be taught, but microagressions over being given chocolate as a gift is a bit out there, and wow, what do you even say to something like that? That's a new one for me. I never knew some blacks were microaggressed over chocolate or saw the symbol of the basketball as the new Swastika. This knowledge is new to me, so forgive me. I have no doubt that it would be tough for a black kid going to a mostly white school, but some of the examples that this book gave are pretty yikes.

(January 15, 2022 at 9:10 pm)Irreligious Atheist Wrote: I listened to the audio book for this New Kid book you bring up and it's pretty trash. Apparently, according to the black kid in the book, it's racist to gift a black person chocolate for Christmas, because chocolate is brown and their skin is brown ugh (shaking my head), and giving a black kid cookies that are in the shape of a basketball is racist because thinking that a black person might like basketball is a nono. You're trying to make kids so soft and pathetic that they automatically assume that a gift of chocolate equates to racism (facepalm)? And the other thing the kid got upset about and let his rage out on the teacher over (portraying the angry black stereotype, but putting a positive spin on it and acting like the rage and screaming is justified), was the teacher getting his name wrong. Big bad racist teacher (named Karen, of course), gets his name wrong, so therefore the teacher hates all black people. Makes sense. This pathetic lack of logic and fear over microagressions and teaching blacks to be offended over every minor thing in life has now even lead to a situation where a woke professor was fired after mixing up black students names. His apology letter led to the firing, sure, but the students started this all by calling something racist that has no business being called racist. Teachers make mistakes and get students names wrong sometimes. This has zero to do with racism. Parents mix their own children's names up. 

OK, I haven't read the entire book (New Kid) yet (As I pointed out in my OP, btw), but I have checked it out and will read the entire thing, looking for the incidents you claim here.  My instinct tells me you are either lying or exaggerating and I'm going to call you out on that if I find it is true.

If your idea of protecting children from racist acts is "making them soft", then you are simply an abusive asshole.  I suppose you would have liked it if bullies had fucked with you for the color or your hair or your height, or any incidental part of your character that you couldn't change.  It's called bigotry and that is what is pathetic.  People are bigots because they are weak, not the one's they pick on.

You are simply whitewashing a person's experiences.  If a person only gets the names of black students mixed up, that says something about the person.  They may not be racist but it certainly says they aren't looking at them the same way and writing about how frustrating this can be is a valid thing, just as any white person might write about some type of personal obstacle in life.  What is racist is that you only seem to care when the protagonist is black.  That's racist.

Quote:This is almost as bad as Colin Kaepernick calling getting his vertical measured a little too close too slavery for his liking. How are we preparing these kids to survive in the real world when they're extremely weak minded and having massive meltdowns over someone getting their name wrong?

So it's weak minded to expect some basic respect.  I suppose you don't expect any basic respect from people?

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CRT is also claiming the careers of people who are not even promoting it in any way.  I listened to a podcast this morning discussing how a high school administrator who had been promoted and honored was fired in 21 because he made comments in a school board meeting about racial diversity.  It was pretty bland stuff actually, but the meeting was packed with Karens and Trumpers who are now taking action at every level of government to promote bigotry.  This guy was fired for basically just saying that the school did everything it could to promote a safe and welcoming environment for all ethnicities and sexual orientations and creeds.  Basically for promoting a fair and equitable environment for everyone.  So it seems that Trump's hatred and bigotry is not percolating down into local institutions.  We are now in a full out Jim Crow 2.0 era.

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@Irreligious Atheist
I wonder, if you lived in Alabama in 1960, would you have agreed with those who hanged black people from trees for simply wanting to sit at a diner and eat lunch or drink from a water fountain marked "white"?  Something tells me you are that person and it makes me gag just having this conversation with someone so vile.

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University professor fired after mixing up names of two Black students

@Irreligious Atheist

This case appears to be a miscarriage of justice and a mistake on the part of the university and I don't support it.  But you cannot point to this single incident and claim that it somehow balances out the massive amount of injustice that black people endure in this country.  I'm sure this is not the only such incident but I am totally positive that the number of incidents of real bigotry far outweigh incidents where a person is falsely accused of and punished for bigotry.

In fact, I'm sure there's a term for this sort of thing where white bigots see one overreaction to bigotry and scream and yell that now they are experiencing "reverse racism" at an alarming rate.  It's pathetic and stupid and only makes you look like a much bigger jackass.