Re: the latest 'cancel culture' kerfuffle at the NYT: If your concern is the chilling effect on people who want to say the n-word rather than the students who may be put off journalism entirely after hearing a top reporter use a slur... your priorities are very clear
This is what always happens when powerful white men are held to account - the empathy is centered on them rather than the many, many other people who were hurt by their actions
That's why during #MeToo, we kept hearing about men's "ruined lives" rather than the the dashed careers of the women who left jobs or industries because of harassment
Besides all that, *why* are some of you so fucking eager to defend that particular slur?? There is no "context" that makes it ok
Using the word at all - even in a context when you are repeating a quote or whatever the excuse is - is a deliberate demonstration of power. You know what you're doing
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Women hear this kind of shit *every day* and it gets to the heart of who is allowed to wield power, and who gets condescending messages from rotting old men
Everyone knows this is not really about the honorific!
It’s about misogyny so embedded in institutions that a guy with a long-known history of sexism was elevated to a position where he could publish another guy with a long-known history of bigotry.
If you're wondering why the @WSJ ran that misogynist piece about Dr. Jill Biden, lets take a closer look at James Taranto, the man in charge of op-eds.
He's called efforts to stop military rape a "war on men" & "an effort to criminalize male sexuality" wsj.com/articles/SB100…
Taranto has called feminism a "totalitarianism mindset" and said "the nastiness of contemporary feminism is an indication of its intellectual weakness."
He's also bemoaned that "women can have sex without the fear of pregnancy, just like men can." (?!) huffpost.com/entry/james-ta…
Taranto has also written that "evolutionary psychology contradicts the feminist dogma that the sexes are created equal" and after 3 men died in a shooting shielding their girlfriends, tweeted: "I hope the girls..were worthy of the sacrifice.” mediamatters.org/wall-street-jo…
This comes from a dear friend working on a project to release incarcerated survivors of domestic violence from prison: A few weeks ago, Patrice Smith was released after 21 yrs - she was sent to prison at 16 for killing the 71 yr old reverend who had been sexually assaulting her
In addition to abusing Patrice, the reverend had asked her to recruit other teenagers for commercial sex & threatened to tell her father about their “relationship" if she didn't continue to submit to sexual assault
Patrice is one of the first survivors to benefit from the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in New York. This is the first re-sentencing to be granted over the prosecutor’s objection, and Patrice is the first person to be freed who was potentially facing life in prison.