Microaggressions-R-Us
Today, a painting of an early 19th-century fur trading fort and another of settlers and American Indians paddling canoes have been relocated at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. One went into a dean's conference room, where it could be in "a controlled... space" in which "context" could be provided and the other to a space where it could be viewed "by appointment."
Allegedly, two American Indian students complained about the paintings, and Chancellor Bob Meyer caved to pressure from the school's Diversity Leadership Team to remove them.
When only half of American Indians graduate from high school, when the rate of child abuse among American Indians is twice as high as the national average, when American Indian women are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted as the average American woman, how does the removal of two paintings - neither of which depict violence or a dispute between settlers and Indians - help?
It doesn't change the past, it doesn't change the present, when American Indians have a suicide rate significantly higher than the national average, and it doesn't change the future.
But this is the microaggression world promoted by President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Interested in four more years of it?
Gender agenda
A recent policy presentation to principals and counselors in Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Schools suggests that pupils should no longer be referred to as boys and girls but as scholars or students.
But that's just the beginning, per the system's new bully prevention regulations, according to television station WSOC.
The regulations also allow students to participate in extra-curricular activities based on their current gender identity. So, an all-girl overnight trip also might include a boy currently identifying as a girl.
But parents, according to the policy, will never find out because "a student's transgender status is confidential" and staff are warned not to "out" a student to others, including parents, without the student's permission. The policy does not discuss how it would determine if someone claiming to be a transgender is doing so for legitimate or nefarious reasons.
To date, no guidance has been given whether the new policies will allow separating sports by gender, making all sports coed and if a transgender girl can be prom queen.
Superintendent Ann Clark wouldn't elaborate on the policy, giving a pat comment, and then walking away.
"We will strictly adhere to the guidance from our court systems as we've done every step of the way," she said.
Look for these same regulations sooner rather than later in a school district near you.
Just joshing
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, trying to put a positive face on the Obama administration recently, told reporters a little something he thought would help them respect the current White House occupant a little more.
"I don't think it's a coincidence," he said, "that President Obama is actually the first president since President Eisenhower to win two national elections back-to-back, earning a majority vote from the United States people, from the American people."
Earnest was met with stunned silence, but he plowed ahead.
"The first once since Eisenhower," he said, "is actually the first president - Democrat or Republican - to get more than 50 percent of the vote twice."
Well, no.
A reporter reminded Earnest that Ronald Reagan had done it, but Earnest wouldn't have it.
"Reagan did not do it twice," he retorted.
Of course, The Gipper did just that, and the Twitter-verse had a field day.
"Josh Earnest has apparently never heard of Google, Wikipedia or Ronald Reagan," Stephen Kruiser wrote.
What the press secretary also failed to mention is that Obama is the only two-term president who got fewer popular votes - more than 3.5 million fewer votes - in his re-election than he did in his initial election.
You're welcome
A guide published by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Resource Center at the University of California, Davis, is here to help you guys.
You must no longer use the phrase "you guys" because it erases "the identities of people who are in the room," the guide, "Words That Hurt," says.
It also insists the words "lame" and "crazy" must be abandoned and says "ugly" is both mean and "can be connected back to white supremacists' standard of beauty." And you thought "ugly" was a racially neutral word. Wrong.
Oddly, while not giving the same designation for the other no-no words, it says the word b-- is unacceptable "in any language."
So, call us "crazy" (or don't), but it seems like the LGBTQIA center ought to find better use for its time.