#huzzah for dixie

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Abigail Shrier

In the abstract, if “Huzzah for Dixie” is worth the full mobilization of university resources and law enforcement, then waving the flag of a terrorist group, or writing “burn you filthy zio” to a student chat, or telling Jewish students to “go back to Poland” where millions of Jews were murdered in gas chambers, or pulling down the American flag over a statue of John Harvard and replacing it with the Palestinian flag, or painting “Ziosgetfuckt” on UPenn’s statue of Ben Franklin, or calling Jews “Hitler’s children”—all insults hurled at Jews on campus—are at least as menacing. 

But in practice, the two types of incidents—rather, the two targets of the incidents—are treated entirely differently. Punishment is meted out swiftly and mercilessly, and with no consideration for free speech principles, any time Confederate flag flyers are posted, any time students hold culturally insensitive themed frat parties, any time colleges uncover student use of the N-word while in high school (or even a word in Mandarin that sounds like the N-word), or even when students or faculty make the familiar conservative argument that affirmative action sets black students up to fail. Rinse and repeat and repeat.

Speech on college campuses has been stultifyingly narrow—and very far from free—for decades. That pro-Hamas students cheer freely for “intifada” doesn’t make it any freer now. The fact that certain students are allowed to call for the death of their Jewish classmates does not herald a new era of free expression. It only underscores that some bigotries enjoy the official sanction of these schools, and are accepted, tolerated, and rewarded with special dispensations and, indeed, goodies.

Use of the N-word on campus or misgendering a classmate will no doubt be met with as swift punitive consequences as they have been for decades, as have a vast and more minute array of “microaggressions.” I invite anyone who doubts this to parade through any of our elite campuses with insulting cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. 

After weeks of violent, destructive protest, which left campuses trashed and buildings damaged and graffitied, administrators have at last begun to enforce their own rules and call in the police. Perhaps they felt they had no choice: commencement ceremonies loom and lawsuits, recently filed by Jewish students, are on the way. 

[kpgresham]

Music to Our Ears!

The roles of music and memory in mystery

by Helen Currie Foster On April 2 I drove with my writing compadre D.L.S. Evatt (aka Dixie) to Houston to sign books at Murder by the Book. That renowned bookstore has sold mysteries for 42 years. Huzzah! We’d launched our books–my Ghost Daughter, Book 7 in the series, and her Bloodlines and Fencelines–at our Honky-Tonk Book Launch on December 5, 2021, at venerable Sam’s Town Point, a South…

[theundergradstudent-blog]

Case #1: American University, Washington D.C.

Ø  Confederate flags and twigs with cotton attached to them hung around AU’s campus

Ø  Flags were found the same night that an Anti-Racism Policy Center was going to be announced and implemented at the university

o   Director of the new Center, Dr. Ibram Kendi was supposed to present

Ø  President of the University, Sylvia M. Burmwell, comments:

o   “We must stand together strongly against this act, which was intended to frighten and divide our community.”

Ø  Confederate Flag posters read, “Huzzah for Dixie, I wish I was in the land of cotton”

o   Lyric from unofficial anthem for the Confederacy

o   Posters were posted on bulletin boards around campus

§  Boards that promoted diversity programs like the Center for Israel Studies, American Studies Month, and one for University’s center for diversity and inclusion

Ø  This was the second reported attack of racist symbols on the university’s campus

o   1st being banana noose hanging same day that first black woman, Taylor Dumpson, was elected to be SGA president

Ø  Dumpson and other students released statement referring to the Confederate Flag situation, “horrifying”

o   “The significance of this occurring as our country continues to struggle with its history of white supremacy also cannot be ignored... to bring whoever committed this act to justice.”

Source: New York Times article by Jonah Engel Bromwich