A lengthy piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education features a Pomona College English professor who thinks an interest in aesthetics on the part of a literature professor is not merely racist, but just about the worst racism in America: Trump racism.
It’s a disgusting claim, but useful to mention here, since it goes to the mindless (j’accuse MAGA racists of considering the formal properties of Liberty Leading the People!) but sometimes effective bullying that exists in more than a few departments/administrations.
The real point of the bullying in the Pomona instance is simply intellectual turf-protection: One professor is outraged that another professor wants to teach a course that trespasses on territory she owns, you see.
After all, if this professor truly cares about the work of Ralph Ellison (the writer in question) being broadly taught to the largest number of students, she will welcome additional courses on him.
August 23rd, 2024 at 10:42AM
Field notes for a future academic novel, although it’s hackneyed to have the neurotics in the English Department.
Dressing up the viciousness of the academic politics with the intersectional vocabulary does not conceal the smallness of the stakes.
August 23rd, 2024 at 10:57AM
Stephen: Not so small. Ridiculous ideologues like this woman make the world safe for Trump. As long as she’s gassing away, his attacks on the left very much hit their mark.
August 23rd, 2024 at 2:37PM
UD: Trump is the symptom. Did you catch any of RFK the younger’s announcement? His reservations about establishmentarian politicians and the legacy media align with mine. All that “ridiculous ideologue” had to do was a good job, and she didn’t. Does that sound familiar?