Race and the Political Process
Thursday, October 01, 2009 8:06pm 2,854 viewsSomeone was kind enough to forward me an email sent to all students from the Office of the Provost at St. Joseph’s University. The Provost is carefully expressing community offense over literature distributed on campus with the famous image of Obama as the Joker. The letter informs students of a committee being put together to discuss the issue of race and the political process, including civility and democracy.
Perhaps during the panel discussion it will be revealed that the creator of the Joker image is neither white or Republican. I strongly suspect this committee will have only one word to discuss - RACISM! In this new post racial era, you can set an egg timer by how soon a liberal/democrat will pull out the race card – it will be no different with this planned discussion.
UPDATE: I was right..as always. It did not take long for the race card to be thrown down by liberals, in the form of an open letter to the editor signed by Jo Alyson Parker, Chair and Professor of English, Thomas Brennan, S.J., Assistant Professor of English,Richard Fusco, Professor of English, Ann Green, Associate Professor of English.
In particular was this statement:
Thus, despite the claims of its designer, when we see this particular poster, we see a black man covered in whiteface, his features distorted. We find this image as offensive as we would a flyer portraying a Jewish politician in the garb of an Hasidic Jew with exaggerated features or a Catholic politician wearing a miter and a hideous grin”
I wonder if hypocrisy is the new Catholic value embraced by the faculty of St. Joseph’s University? Where is their umbrage against Lady GaGa channeling her inner Al Jolsen in a interview with V magazine? Her shtick seems a bit Jim Crow-ish, don’t you think? No mention in this letter of Jane Hamsher’s 2006 Huffpo essay that featured a blackfaced Joe Lieberman. I’m sure the faculty meant to include in this letter the social injustice of President Bush depicted as the Joker in a Vanity Fair in 2008 or a white faced image of Michael Steele, Chairman of the GOP. Including these examples would have required honesty and attentiveness to the whole story, which was not the intent of this letter. In the end, this letter to the editor is another example of how race pimps, under the guise of social justice, are using group grievances to pit one racial group against another.
In all honesty, if the literature included a photo like this:
Bush Joker Image
or this:
"White Face" Steele
There wouldn’t be a letter from the Provost or a committee organized to discuss issues of democracy, race or civility at St. Joe’s University. Below the fold is a copy of the letter sent to St. Joe’s students regarding Joker-gate:
St. Joe Letter
Not sure if this is connected but the link to St. Joe’s College Republican club seems to be broken, wherease, the link to the College Dem Club works fine.
Tags: Democrat
Ah yes the double standard is amazing. If it is against Bush it is the highest form of Democracy, but against the WON it is Racism.
You’re saying these people are still wussing about that picture and big ass mistake that has been foisted on us.Even my Mom is sick of it and she’s almost 90. All she watches is FOX cable and said yesterday that that fool was on tv every day.
First, the focus of the picture is the caption – “Socialism” – which is THAT ugly no matter how smooth and pretty the salesman.
Second, an Administration operating on the premise that no good crisis should go to waste has no standing to complain about being compared to a character who created chaos for its own sake.
*YAAAAWN* The “Race Card” again.
But, pictures of President Bush holding a revolver to his head are okay. Pictures of Presidnet Bush being decapitated are okay.
Pictures od President Bush …..
Wow. What a scathing expose. An excellent post, especially about Michael Steele in whiteface….didn’t know about that. You’ve outdone yourself on this one and I think you should send it to the English Deptartment at SJU.
http://www.sju.edu/academics/cas/english/
jparker@sju.edu
If the English Department is so concerned about the Jesuit ideal of social justice, why aren’t they protesting the University conference on the right to die?
Dying in America: Is the “Fragile Consensus” Eroding?
Duration: 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: Campion Banquest Room
Guest speaker Ronald P. Hamel, Ph.D., senior director of Ethics-Catholic Health Association of the United States, presents the annual McCormick Lecture. How we die in America today has been forged over the past 40 or so years. A “fragile consensus” exists about the ethical, legal, and medical rightness of forgoing life-sustaining treatment at the end of life. But is this consensus beginning to erode due to influences from within society and the Church? And what might this mean for how Americans and Catholics approach end-of-life decision making in the future, and for how we die?
The good English department and a ditzy SJU student are conflating this issue into a racial attack. The characterization of Obama has nothing to do with his race – since he is bi-racial – but a nuanced critique of his ill formed policies.
If they want to pursue a race issue in this regard,they must draw into the discussion the various images I’ve provided in my post. SJU campus is not a vacuum and any intelligent and honest discussion on race has to include incidents that occur outside the walls of SJU.
This is a classic Saul Alynski Rule 12 being utilized by the professors at SJU:
Hence the avoidance of the faculty in considering similar or related offenses that counter their allegations.
Blonde Conservative,
Apparently at SJU it is a very selective application of the Jesuit ideal of social justice.
“…a ditzy SJU student…”
Why, hello to you, too. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to my comment (or, you know, get my name right). Also? Not agreeing with you doesn’t mean I’m a ditz, kthx.
Not agreeing with my point of view does not make me right wing. Please use your own advice.
As much as I admire and respect the English department and its faculty, I actually think that they’re blowing this one out of proportion.
I agree with this statement – makes one wonder of the quality of staff hired at SJU
I don’t think that the College Republicans acted with any kind of racist intent; that said, I’m also not sure they executed the best judgment in using those fliers when our campus is still sensitive to racial tensions following the racial graffiti incident in Fall ‘08.
Again, the flyer had NO racial overtones at all. It’s intent is to bring awareness about the crippling economic and social policies this administration is forcing on the citizens. The Catholic values of the SJU are at risk with this current Administration’s policies. Where is the outrage?
Were the fliers inherently racist? No. Was it a wise decision to include them without anticipating a backlash? Maybe not. Did the university make the right decision condemning them? Yes. Yes, they did, because, as anyone familiar with this campus is aware, the administration is already fighting a losing battle against accusations that St. Joe’s is at best indifferent and at worst hostile to minority students.
This is where we disagree, and I won’t call you a leftwing, Koolaid drinking Kos Kiddie for disagreeing with me on this point. The University should have not have been bullied by un-named groups into this humiliating position. I’m sure you read the original email from the Provost where the type of offense was not even named. I suspected the charge of racism and was proved correct by your beloved English faculty. The poster may be blasphemous, but racist – it think not.
You’re discussing racial issues at St. Joe’s, so clearly you must know about the McShain incident last fall, when racist propaganda was found on a whiteboard in the McShain dormitory. The university failed to classify the act as racially-motivated (and, in this case, there was no way to construe it as anything but) until the students protested. The university administration would never be foolish enough not to denounce something even potentially racist in nature when the McShain incident is still fresh in everyone’s minds. It’s largely a protective act, one that’s quite understandable.
Did they erase Bush=Hitler before writing that message on the whiteboard? I’m discussing the outing of race pimps in your English department. Using collective grievances of one group to smear another group goes against the core values of Catholicism, yet it is right in line with liberal social justice practices. The good students should be protesting this malicious type of racial manipulation. We are more than the color of our skin, it is a shame the faculty of SJU cannot see this.
Please take the time to learn more about St. Joseph’s before you condemn its practices; one incident doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.
One poster does not tell the whole story on racial issues – something the SJU faculty and students need to learn. Thank you again for surfing on to MidnightBlue.
“Again, the flyer had NO racial overtones at all.”
A fact which I acknowledged.
“The Catholic values of the SJU are at risk with this current Administration’s policies. Where is the outrage?”
There’s an outcry nearly every time something even remotely contradictory to Catholic doctrine occurs on this campus; the vocal reaction to the confirmation of Chris Matthews as this past spring’s commencement speaker is evidence enough of that (likewise the reactions to the existence of the Gay-Straight Alliance, performances of the Vagina Monologues, etc.).
Also, as long as Steffani Whitmyer continues to be a contributor to The Hawk, representation of Catholic values is by no means at risk.
“This is where we disagree, and I won’t call you a leftwing, Koolaid drinking Kos Kiddie for disagreeing with me on this point.”
That’s very kind of you, and I do admire the sly debating tactic of insulting me by framing said insult as an example of what you’re NOT going to call me.
I don’t even read Kos, for the same reason I don’t watch Keith Olbermann—I prefer reasoned, intelligent discourse over inflammatory rhetoric.
Which is why I think I’m officially done debating this one. I appreciate the cooler-headed response I received to my previous comment, but the pervasive air of “HUR STUPID LIBERAL ST. JOE’S KID DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING” is so rude and condescending that I know my words won’t be given equal consideration no matter how eloquently I state my position.
I do look forward to seeing your response when the SJU Women’s Group begins running articles on feminist issues in The Hawk, but until then, I hope you continue to enjoy the spectacular view from your high horse.
Skye=1; SJU Co-ed:0
Proof that you can get schooled better off campus.
The College Democrats site hasn’t been updated in five years…
Um…One can certainly make a candid observation about what Democrats have to offer the nation based on that link.
I had noticed the outdated message of the College Democrats, but the link was working, unlike the College Republicans link.