Either every documentarian over the past 40 years edited out the racial slurs used by John Davidson or his n-word incident is suspicious as hell. I watched every documentary and interview segment I could find online that featured or discussed Davidson, yet in those several hours of footage he never used a racial slur. Even…
Category: Education
Let’s Talk About: ICE & Border Patrol
I want to address four points pertaining to ongoing ICE and Border Patrol discourse surrounding the state-enacted murders of multiple U.S. citizens and disappearances of undocumented civilians. * 1. This is exactly what they were created and trained to do. No amount of training or reform will fix militarized police forces designed to protect settler…
I Completely Redesigned my Curriculum for Spring. Thanks, Fascists.
I keep class relevant by updating materials as time passes, but it felt wrong going into Spring semester with my revised Rhetoric of (Indigenous) Comedy curriculum. Besides the fact that Joe Rogan and podcasters have pretty much destroyed stand-up comedy, I worried students would feel like I was trying to ignore the “real world” or…
I Attended a 3-Day AI Workshop. Here’s My New Course Policy.
“Know your enemy, know his sword.” -Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings I am signing up for just about every training, microcredential, and workshop on artificial intelligence implementation in higher education. This week, I completed a three-day faculty development workshop that walked us through gauging AI’s “disruption” in our classrooms and assignments. Overall, I…
4 Common Myths About Ancestry DNA Testing
Understand that if you are someone who worries about state surveillance or police violence, contributing DNA samples and genealogical information to “ancestry” corporations only feeds the system. The Biden administration’s failure to renew or bolster antitrust protections prior to his end-of-term allowed for the current wave of corporate restructuring and mergers, but most media attention…
Let’s Talk About: Downplaying the Christofascist Threat to Our Children
Erika Kirk has one verified degree and one unverified degree she was awarded after marrying Charlie Kirk, by Kirk’s affiliated university, and who gave the commencement address at her ceremony. I could not find any evidence of her actual grad enrollment, a submitted thesis, or certificate of degree completion while researching for my essay on…
Ableist Terms & Slurs: Part 2
This set includes eight different terms with their original meanings, common use, and sociopolitical implications. The next set will focus on mental health and hospital jargon. Removing oppressive, racial capitalist language from our vocabularies is a necessary part of the decolonization process. When someone claims these terms are neutral or their use is inconsequential, what…