Vincent J. Curtis
4 Feb 21
RE: 'We have to do better' Public board chair says on release of racism probe. Hamilton Spectator of today's date.
Do you laugh, or cry? I laugh. The most woke and progressive organization in the city of Hamilton got rebuked for failing to be woke and progressive enough.
A characteristic of a woke progressive is that they feel themselves exempt from the ramifications of their own ideology. Their wokeness grants them an indulgence from sin, like a rich guy buying a brick for the dome of St. Peter’s. Then, someone said, not so fast.
The woke school board failed to provide the complainant, Ahona Medhi, then an 18 year old student trustee, with a with a ‘safe and welcoming environment.’ Who knew Medhi could be so high maintenance? Her most serious charge, that a trustee used the N-word, couldn’t be proven. That some trustees said “all lives matter” is held without doubt to be anti-Black racism, is itself evidence of the intellectual corruption – of the investigators.
The answer is not to get woker; it is to realize the falsity and foolishness of wokeness. The answer is not to “place high expectations” on trustees, or to restrict free speech at the board table. (Both those things are anti-democratic; but then again progressives believe in rule-by-expert, not democratic representation) The answer is to grow the hell up. If a person is so lacking in robustness that they can’t handle the elbowing in the corners or the heat in the kitchen, they should get out of the kitchen and stay out of the corners.
High-schooler Medhi, then too young to buy
herself a drink, got a life lesson on how mature adults do business, and was
shocked when they didn’t take her seriously.
She told tales out of school If
she were a Canadian white male instead of a Muslim female immigrant, not even
the investigators would have taken her complaints seriously.
-30-
I wrote a letter to the editor at the time charges were made against the Board. Of course it was not published. Here it is.
ReplyDeleteDifferences of opinion between members of different racial groups should not always give rise to cries of racism. These are the days of cancel culture whereby just accusations of racism are enough for the accused individual to lose their position and prospects for further employment, not to mention loss of standing in the community.
In this case the accuser, barely out of high school, makes serious charges of racism against members of the HWDSB. The accuser has been studying all the politically correct terms to use while making her accusations or has been coached well. “Opened my eyes” to the experience of racialized board staff, while enduring “racial gaslighting” and “microaggressions that affected her mental well-being”. She would do well on today’s university campus that provides “safe spaces” for their students so they never have to hear a word that affects their “mental well-being”.
I have no idea if any racist comments or statements were made at any of the board meetings. If they were they should have been brought to the attention of the board chair when made and protests aired at that time. Accusations have been made and sympathies will lie with the young accuser. The trustees have already been declared guilty as charged.
I have to believe the overwhelming majority of our society just wants to get along with each other.