The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Norman Pollack and re Reed Plow Similar Ground

    By A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 3:41pm |

    I have nothing to add to these two pieces and little to say about them other than that I find them both "interesting" and, in the case of the second one, amusing. Maybe some here at Dag will too and maybe take them as food for thought as I also do. Fred does not mind stepping on toes or kicking shins and while I think he sometimes goes beyond the place where I would lay the line, I make it a point to read him regularly. 

     If, as may happen, I am otherwise engaged for a while, I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. 

    Where Does It End?: Left Political Correctness by NORMAN POLLACK

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/24/where-does-it-end-left-political-...

    On Campus at U.PE: The University of Practically Everywhere by Fred Reed

    http://fredoneverything.org/on-campus-at-u-pe-the-university-of-practica...

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    Comments

    Norman Pollack can go stuff it. He has no business pontificating on the students at Princeton.

    The Black students at Princeton should be admired for going to Princeton and challenging the sanitized history of Woodrow Wilson, in particular his racism, which initiated segregation in the postal service (and a lot of other measures) that had not had it before he took office. And he did it within one month of taking office. He was turning the race relations clock back to the 1860's.

    Edmund Morris in Theodore Rex noted that as President of Princeton University, Feb 8, 1903, at a public meeting of alumni Woodrow Wilson cracked a joke relating to TR's having had dinner with Washington Carver at the White House, which had ignited the racists and bigots, that that year's groundhog had gone back in its hole because  'it was afraid Roosevelt would put a coon in there'. We needn't even get into Wilson's failures at Versailles that led to WW2, but he was a racist, a blowhard and incompetent in foreign affairs.

    Pollack's odd paean to Robeson is perhaps not surprising considering his dismissive views of the Princeton students, as Robeson was a die hard Stalinist. Robeson saw his own friends and contacts eliminated in the Stalin show trials and purges, did nothing, and defended Stalin and his murderous policies until the end, even accepting a Stalin award well after WW2.


    by NCD on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 8:02pm

    Here are some smart people who mostly agree with you. I am including commenters.

    http://coreyrobin.com/2015/11/22/on-sentimentality-and-college/

    http://coreyrobin.com/2015/11/17/black-alumni-at-yale-weigh-in-with-majo...

    http://coreyrobin.com/2015/11/21/what-we-owe-the-students-at-princeton/


    by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 9:11pm

    Great links thanks.


    by NCD on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 11:10pm

    Here is another smart guy who speaks about the record and the importance of Wilson. I admire Bill Scher and am glad that I listened to his views on this subject. He corrects some of the commonly held history and gives a different slant on the controversy than that which I have seen in other places. He also has a column at "Real Clear Politics" with much of the same story but I recommend the diavlog at "BloggingHeads TV" which goes into a bit more depth for about thirty minutes on the subject. For those short of bytes an audio only version can be found at Itunes and no doubt other sources.

    http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/37809 


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sat, 11/28/2015 - 2:32am

    I follow Corey Robin and read these this morning going through my reader feed.  I like most of what he writes.  He has a really good blog. 


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 11/25/2015 - 2:30pm

    Good links - I think it's instructive to consider how inept Wilson actually was at foreign policy, as well as exposing his inherent & blatant racism. Other than being the Johnny-come-lately president that won the war in 1 year after Europe exhausted itself, and not getting the League of Nations passed... what did he do? Why is he respected?

    In looking at some of the negotiations, the acceptance of Asian-on-Asian racism over white-on-Asian as preferable is something of a curse that has had consequences over the last century.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/29/2015 - 2:43am

    Good links - I think it's instructive to consider how inept Wilson actually was at foreign policy, as well as exposing his inherent & blatant racism. Other than being the Johnny-come-lately president that won the war in 1 year after Europe exhausted itself, and not getting the League of Nations passed... what did he do? Why is he respected?

    In looking at some of the negotiations, the acceptance of Asian-on-Asian racism over white-on-Asian as preferable is something of a curse that has had consequences over the last century.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/29/2015 - 2:43am

    Wilson actually resegregated DC.

    Then there was his lauding of Birth of a Nation.

    It has been awhile since I actually read a biography of this President, but I recall that several social programs were instituted during his Administration.

    But I am against these attempts at erasing our histories.

     


    by Richard Day on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 9:57pm

    I don't think anyone is trying to erase history. Mostly people are trying to revise poorly done history with a more accurate portrayal. At most they're simply trying to remove an honor given in error.


    by ocean-kat on Sat, 11/28/2015 - 4:22am

    For your reading interest...

    Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers
    and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America

    By Eric Steven Yellin - 2013

    Partial Introduction


    Click the link for Page 1886 for the entire Introduction.

    ~OGD~

    .


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Sun, 11/29/2015 - 5:36am

    As a TR admirer I.think WW election in 1912 led to the bloodbaths of WW1&2. TR spoke German fluently, had recently toured Europe as a hugely popular statesman and had already forced the Kaiser to back down in the Venezuelan crisis when President by threatening war on Germany. TR would h ave ended the stalemate of 1914 in 1915 over German violation of Belgian neutrality. 

    On race, Wilson also instituted a requirement for photos for federal job applications, not ended until FDR.


    by NCD on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 10:42pm