To understand Zadie Smith, you have to understand Cambridge. And its special brand of self-regarding gaslighting.
I am not quite sure why people are shocked or surprised. This IS the price of admission into elite white literary and institutional circles.
Dec 28, 2023 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
“The Palestinian people are the only people living under military occupation who are expected to ensure the security of their occupier.” Oxford's Avi Shlaim on Israeli terrorism.
Have the courage to read this detailed indictment.
prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel/6…
"What is happening in Gaza today is the cruel manifestation of Israeli state terrorism. Terrorism is the use of force against civilians for political ends. The cap fits and Israel must wear it."
Nov 12, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
You know, I think it's perfectly possibly to criticise Israel in universal moral terms without resorting to swastikas and Nazi comparisons. There are very good reasons not to do the latter however angry or justified you may feel.
If Nazi comparisons are all you have, then apart from deep insensitivity to historical recent trauma for many (notwithstanding misuse of that trauma by state actors), you also show ignorance of multiple other land grabs ethnic cleansing occupation which are far better comparators
Apr 3, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
We need to be clear: outside of African-American liberation discourse, the use of the term 'woke' has become both indiscriminate & fundamentally pejorative. It is not an innocent descriptor or useful analytical category any more than the equally resentful 'politically correct.'
Quite apart from the questionable wrenching of the term specific to becoming aware of structural race oppression, this use of 'woke' is not neutral. There's not point in throwing it around to describe fights that may not be yours, then getting upset when people query that move.
Apr 1, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Vigilante attacks on religious minorities have increased markedly, the ruling party has taken steps to strip citizenship from Indian Muslims, and the historically repressed Muslim-majority state of Kashmir has faced even harsher crackdowns
newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/h…
'He’s not as popular as he claims. The B.J.P. never got more than thirty-seven per cent of the vote nationally. They control half a dozen big states, and most of them are in the Hindi Heartland. [These are states in the northern and central parts of the country.]'
Mar 31, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Vatican repudiates Doctrine of Discovery. That's nice, the anti-woke will be furious But what is really being withdrawn? 500 literally world-shaping years of deep damage to so many Indigenous communities & ecology? The laws, treaties & property regimes that still govern lives?
'From the mid-15th century to the mid-20th, most of the non-European world was colonised under the Doctrine.' (Dunbar-Ortiz) Then reiterated by US Supreme Court in 1823 as established principle of European and English law.
Mar 11, 2023 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a different thought. The history of dehumanising, othering & injuring in British history does not require a turn only to 1930s Germany: the history of British Empire will give you plenty of examples. But that history neither known nor acknowledged in its malign aspects.
In fact, when Lineker & others reach for the example of 1930s Germany, defensible in itself, it's because of a lack of immediate grasp of parallels within British history itself. And implicit there is that this kind of rhetoric is foreign, not British. Not true at all.
Mar 10, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Right,very important to make a distinction between targetting & hounding Others with a shared passport and Others without shared passport. Completely different things. It's not that bad if it's Others without a passport. Or something.
The passport--and citizenship-- is apparently key when it comes to decision whether and who to hound, pillory, marginalise, hurt, ostracise, detain or eliminate. Such moral finesse! Such exquisite nuance!
Mar 9, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
In the face of this reality, longstanding reality, we also have to be endure being told repeatedly of the organisations' so-called 'leftwing bias'. Can you imagine the leftwing counterpart of the spit-flecked reactionary Neil being given their own show on C4?
Also, when they say 'left', they mean moderate liberals like O'Brien or Lineker. Nobody actually on the left has serious primetime time ever.
Feb 16, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
We know who will win the British elections in 2024: Britain's governing class.
Ordinary British people have already lost whether they recognise this now or not.
It is in this context that we have to repeatedly deal with the fatuous sub-juvenile question: 'why, do you want the Tories to win?'
Feb 15, 2023 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Who will form a party of protest? Protest, challenge, interrogation, opposition, questioning--those things are the lifeblood of real democracy. Not the 'service' of the rich.
Anyway, glad to know I don't have to vote for Labour assuming they will carry my protest to Parliament. At least we are agreed on that.
Feb 15, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Heard some fascinating things on picket today. One student's lecturer was teaching today, & when the student pressed him on why, the lecturer answered: 'I'll participate in industrial action only if it become truly disruptive'.
The pickets are insufficiently radical for them.
Another person, white male but not a student, crossed the picket, saying 'I'm a foreigner, it doesn't concern me.'
That's not how it works, but you do you.
Feb 14, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My employer sending out email on a strike day inviting people to a discussion of a new 'People Strategy' *on another strike day* says it all, really, about 'People Strategy'. Talk to the Union--they've got some ideas on 'People Strategy' #ucuRISING#UCUstrike
The bigger the Pay & Pensions Deficit, the louder the People PR talk.
Oct 19, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
So pointless reminding the likes of Suella that if it wasn't for the 'wokerati', she wouldn't be in the UK, be educated, be a lawyer, enter the professions, be able to vote, be able to stand for elected office & be a minister. All we can do is to stand up to the lies.
This is the tragic burden of those who fight for change: clearing the path for hypocritical dross. Still we persevere, there's no other moral choice.
Oct 19, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Braverman's despicable & authoritarian Public Order Bill need not remind us of Russia, Iran or Egypt.
It is the British Empire's response to any form of resistance. Harsh, violent anti-protest & sedition measures kept by postcolonial states--& now coming home. Warned against.
Other countries, including Nazi Germany, took inspiration from the Empire's playbook. Again, imperial amnesia means the familiar is not recognised & treated as alien. So we can perpetuate the myth that Britain is the home of democracy & freedom.
"Nothing in my view is more reprehensible than those habits of mind in the intellectual that induce avoidance, that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position, which you know to be the right one, but which..."
"you decide not to take. You do not want to appear too political; you are afraid of seeming controversial; you want to keep a reputation for being balanced, objective, moderate; your hope is to be asked back, to consult, to be on a board or prestigious committee..."
Jul 6, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I've been thinking that it's time for a totting up of costs. It has been extremely costly for those who speak up, especially women of colour, & most people have no fucking clue how costly.
One thing I've been toying with writing because I keep getting asked, usually by young women, 'how do you keep going', is a primer about what to expect. And it's not pretty or cheering, but at least unlike me & others of my generation, they should be prepared for what's in store.
Jul 1, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Oxford Union Society wants me to 'debate' following tedious proposition: 'This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far.' What does that even mean literally?
This faux debate style fostered at ancients is a very big part of the political &intellectual stunting of Britain.
Anyway, for the record, since I keep having to turn down invites, I don't believe in This House Believes performative grandstanding, so never accept them. Certainly also not when the propositions are this infantile as they usually are.
Jun 29, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Ummmmm. Today in No Shit Sherlock. Also today in Been There Done That.
I daresay Mx Freedman would have a heart attack at the thought of....reverse influence.
Jun 29, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Cambridge quietly pushing through regulation that will allow us to dispense with externals in the event of a strike or boycott. This is a dangerous undermining of an important element of our examining process--& clearly a wider UUK plan in the face of future industrial action.
I note that not many colleagues are even aware of this? Are you?
