Confused by the Black Lives Matter protests? If my inbox is anything to go by, our millionaire white school administrators are here to help!
From Rafael Reif, the president of MIT:
The death of George Floyd and the events unfolding in Minneapolis are deeply disturbing in themselves. And of course, they come on the heels of highly charged incidents, from Georgia to New York, that highlight yet again the tragic persistence of racism and systemic injustice in the United States.
I know that the pain of these events is especially intense for certain members of our community, beginning with those who are African American and of African descent, though certainly not ending there. And I know that, in this time of tension around the pandemic and rising strains in US-China relations, others in our community are also suffering distinctive forms of harassment and discrimination.
In the days and months to come, I would like us to find meaningful ways to come together to work on these challenges, for ourselves and for our society. I have asked John Dozier, our Institute Community and Equity Officer, to guide us in this effort.
(MIT has already hinted that undergraduates won’t be welcomed back to campus any time soon, so comfort will be provided via Zoom (perhaps with the help of the Chinese referenced in the email?)
From Larry Bacow, president of Harvard:
In the midst of this incomprehensible loss, our nation has once again been shocked by the senseless killing of yet another black person—George Floyd—at the hands of those charged with protecting us. Cities are erupting. Our nation is deeply divided. Leaders who should be bringing us together seem incapable of doing so. [i.e., Trump is bad]
As I think about the challenges that we face today, I return again and again to what I believe:
I believe in the goodness of the people of this country—and in their resilience.
I believe that all of us, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, whatever our race or ethnicity, want a better life for our children. [if he hasn’t talked to a Republican since starting his career in Academia, how does he know what a Republican might want?]
I believe that America should be a beacon of light to the rest of the world.
I believe that our strength as a nation is due in no small measure to our tradition of welcoming those who come to our shores in search of freedom and opportunity, individuals who repay us multiple times over through their hard work, creativity, and devotion to their new home. [remember that immigrants are good]
I believe in the Constitution, the separation of powers, the First Amendment—especially the right to a free and independent press that holds those in power accountable, and to a free and independent judiciary.
The last one is interesting. The First Amendment is apparently not real, since it is something that one either “believes in” or does not. Dr. Bacow is also picking and choosing here. He doesn’t mention the First Amendment right to assemble, which healthy young people have been denied now for months by state governors’ lockdowns.
The promotion of low-skill immigration is interesting because it is black Americans who pay the heaviest price when low-skill immigrants are welcomed by coastal elites such as Dr. Bacow (see “Yes, Immigration Hurts American Workers” for a Harvard professor’s explanation of how low-skill immigration results in a $500 billion/year transfer of wealth from low-skill Americans, like George Floyd, to rich Americans, like Dr. Bacow).
In our nearly all-white suburb, the school superintendent sends us an email with a subject line of “Opportunities to Stand Against Racism”:
Mayor Walsh has asked Boston residents to hold a moment of silence for 8 minutes 46 seconds at 3:45pm in honor of George Floyd. I invite each of us to take part in this symbolic act as a stand against racism and demonstration of support to our community members impacted by acts of violence and racism.
As school has now been shut down for three months, we’ll be standing against racism on the two-acre zoning minimum lots that serve to exclude black Americans from our “community”…
Despite there being only one school in the town (K-8 for about 440 town-resident students), in addition to the above-referenced superintendent and her assistants, we also have two school principals. They sent out a joint email “K-8: We Stand Together Against Racism”:
Students, staff, families and community members have joined in conversations this week to talk about racism. We are committed to speaking out and creating change, and to educating ourselves and our school community so that we can cause true change. This video is the collective voice of the Lincoln School educators: We Stand Together Against Racism.
One change that they’ve created recently is committing to building the most expensive school, per student, ever constructed in the United States. This will raise property taxes to the highest levels in Massachusetts, thus creating an additional barrier to lower-income people of color who might want to live here (can they afford $20,000/year in property tax on a median house?).
One irony regarding the new school is that they couldn’t figure out a way to build the new building somewhere on the 70-acre campus other than where the current school is. So half the students (K-4) will be crammed into temporary trailers for three years while the site of the existing building is worked on and the 5-8 students are shuffled from one part of the building to the other.
The existing school, either built or renovated in 1994, has an exterior door in every classroom and massive banks of windows that can be opened for fresh plague-free air. The trailers appear to offer less than half the square footage per student and minimal doors and windows. Given that Americans refuse to believe the Europeans that the science is settled regarding young children not being a significant source of coronaplague, it is unclear how the trailers can ever be occupied.
Here’s a recent photo from an East Coast Aero Club helicopter. The existing school building is in the foreground, an L-shaped building. The trailers are in the middle of the L.
A close-up of the trailers, showing the lack of windows and doors and the generally more compact ideal virus-breeding environment.
So… not only did they contract for the construction at the very peak of the Boston real estate market ($110 million total cost; roughly $250,000 per town-resident student), but they will be trying to cram students into a reduced square footage less-ventilated space just in time for Wave #2 of a global coronavirus pandemic.
Related:
- AerialBoston, Tony Cammarata’s site (he took the pictures)
Where is the solar power array located for the new school?
I believe the glorious plan includes rooftop solar. The only near-term problem that was identified with the current school (built or renovated in 1994) was that some sections of roof were likely to need replacement. When they have problems with the roof on the new building they’ll first have to lift up a massive solar array in order to start work!
If they didn’t destroy the old building, it would have become possible to compare it favorably with the new building, and that simply can’t be allowed.
This is, coincidentally, the logic that will be used with the “defund the police” project going on in our major cities. (A few other things as well)
> [if he hasn’t talked to a Republican since starting his career in Academia, how does he know what a Republican might want?]
That’s easy! He could just read Thomas Patterson’s new book: “Is the Republican Party Destroying Itself?”
https://scholar.harvard.edu/thomaspatterson/home
Professor Patterson discussed it at length during an interview on NPR about a week ago. No sarcasm: I enjoyed listening to his critique, and I liked his style. He has valid criticisms and a very deep and wide breadth of scholarship and analysis, but most importantly, he’s got a balanced mind and he’s not a bomb-thrower. In other words, one of a dwindling number of classical liberal thinkers that you can learn from without feeling like you’re being assaulted. I think that actually frustrated the host, Alan Chartock, because I got the impression he was trying to elicit something much more radical and vituperative from Patterson. You should listen if you have the time.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564573549/w-a-m-c-s-in-conversation-with
And when I say that about bomb-throwers, I note that the 13th edition of his book “We the People – An Introduction to American Government” has a picture of the Washington Monument on the front cover. There are CNN commentators right now who live in DC talking about tearing down statues of George Washington. Why not the Washington Monument itself?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/18/cnns_angela_rye_washington_jefferson_statues_need_to_come_down.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Rye
He’s been focusing on the Republicans, but in the meantime I don’t think Professor Patterson has been listening closely to how far out the Democratic party has gone. He certainly isn’t being quoted very often right now by BLM. In fact, for a lot of people on the Left, old white men like him, with their centrist sensibilities and belief in the importance of our country’s institutions and the two-party system are being either ignored, vilified or worse. I think he’s going to have a very hard time with them if Harvard ever starts bringing students back to campus. There are a lot of people who would classify him as inherently racist, someone who needs to be banished from the academy.
BTW Angela Rye is good friends with Charlamagne tha God (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlamagne_tha_God) who hosted Joe Biden on his radio show, back in the paleolitic era of three weeks ago, when Biden cut loose with his “You Ain’t Black” voting advice. Patterson and Bacow should watch this interview, because Charlamagne tha God is *not* the most radical guy out there. He’s the new mainstream.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/charlamagne-tha-god-on-joe-biden-and-black-voters/
He doesn’t want words, he wants a “Quid Pro Quo” for his advocacy (10:30).
I have a lot of respect for him, actually. He talks about exactly what he wants, he’s not using any code words. He’s telling you straight up.
Since the language of MIT and Harvard are moralistic you can bet that the impetus is financial. So we see a concerted effort to bring down the Trumpenfuhrer. Elderly Generals give the Commander in Chief the middle finger. The Democratic controlled cities and states lock up their citizens for reason that have not really been explained and promote rioting in the streets supposedly over one George Floyd. They no doubt hope that the voters will sacrifice the Trumpenfuhrer in the hopes of tranquility and being allowed to walk the streets, go to a house of worship, have a haircut. The universities have no doubt spotted that most people will find it ludicrous to spend 70-80K annually for the privilege of watching some university professors lecture on Zoom. A subscription to that + a grade + a diploma is worth what, $2-5K at most? So they will want some sort of bail out and better to ask for it from Sleepy Joe than the Trumpenfuhrer.
Better than talking to a white school administrator, talk to the CEO of Vail Resorts (gargantuan ski resorts conglomerate).
https://www.powder.com/stories/news/vail-resorts-ceo-donates-11-7-million-to-covid-19-relief-racial-justice-reform/
““While our current focus as a Company has been on recovering from the challenging impacts of COVID-19, it’s still essential to be aware and acknowledge what is happening around us. People of color have been hardest hit by this pandemic while continuing to struggle with the very real impacts of racism in their daily lives,” wrote Katz. “This fact makes me reflect on what our Company should do about it. In some ways, these issues might feel removed from the ski industry – to some, it might not feel like our problem. But that is the problem.”
He went on to recognize that Vail Resorts, and skiing in general, are overwhelmingly white, with incredibly low representation of people of color.”
Talk to a white school administrator, like the Public Safety Department at Berklee College of Music, were some police were allowed to use the restrooms during the May 31 protest, causing grievous, ongoing psychological damage:
https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/berklee-deeply-sorry-after-letting-police-use-its-restrooms
“We understand that many members of our community feel betrayed,” Brown wrote. “We are deeply sorry for the impact this had on our community and for perpetuating feelings of oppression, silencing, and marginalization. We will make a more concerted effort to consider the effects of our actions.”
Watched the Lincoln teacher video, too. These people are cult members, you realize that don’t you? When do they start passing out the cyanide Flavor Aid in the new school? Before or after the boys switch genders?
“Administrators everywhere on the planet and at all times in history have been the plague.”
>Given that Americans refuse to believe the Europeans that the science is settled regarding young children not being a significant source of coronaplague, it is unclear how the trailers can ever be occupied.
So start calling state agencies and start filing some complaints. Better yet, start writing letters. If some of those kids going into those trailers are children of color (colorful children?), there may be racism involved as well.
Why is your school district trying to kill black children?
Slightly off topic, but I find it fascinating that George Floyd’s lengthy criminal rap sheet and the fact that he clearly wasn’t following police instructions aka he resisted arrest isn’t mentioned. This man held a gun on a pregnant woman and did five years in jail for robbery. I say garbage in, garbage out.
@Mark. I completely agree, and you wonder why.. I guess it doesn’t fit the narrative on what the media wants to tell us..