Claiming that Shakespeare invented whiteness, the real Wakanda, the state’s information war against its own citizens, and the libel that police originated with slave patrols.
Shakespeare Assailed for Inventing Whiteness. Rich Lowry reviews a collection of essays from lots of scholars edited by Arthur J. Little, Jr.:
According to a new volume, White People in Shakespeare, the immortal playwright was engaged in “white-people-making.” The contributors to the book aren’t surprised by “the fact of Shakespeare’s global, representational power existing, almost in tandem with a global white cultural supremacy.” Indeed, it only renders “more unremarkable or invisible a unique alliance of white people and Shakespeare.” Q.E.D.
How far will academics go in debasing the academy? Is it possible that scholars with Ph.D.s are not aware of how unscholarly they have become?
Some years ago I attended a conference on Christianity and literature. I met a young Christian grad student and asked him what his dissertation topic was. He described some kind of feminist, post-Marxist, critical-theory saturated topic. I must have given him a funny look. He said, “Hey, I’m just trying to get a job.” If he was successful at getting the job, he is probably continuing to write in that vein in an effort to get tenure. And then to keep his students and colleagues from getting mad at him.
This taught me that even some of the scholars who write this stuff don’t really believe it. Which is another level of corruption in what used to be my profession.
How the Real Wakanda Changed Teddy Roosevelt’s Views on Race. This is just a really interesting historical account. Besides introducing us to the kingdom of Buganda (now a part of Uganda), a well-run and very Christian nation in Roosevelt’s time, it reminds us that people can change their views, quite profoundly. This is a rebuke to the current “progressive” practice of vilifying historical figures for something they once said about race, oblivious to their developed positions.
A Government Waging Information Warfare Against Its Own Citizens. This article by David Samuels at Unherd describes the development of “information warfare” in U.S. military and intelligence practices. That’s interesting enough, but then he shows how those same capabilities put in place for the “war on terrorism” have been employed to shape the thinking of American citizens. Thus the manipulation of social media, news outlets, the “Russiagate” frameup of Trump, and more.
No, the Police Did Not Originate with Slave Patrols. Telling historical lies for the greater intersectional good of defunding the police as racist.