Cancel Culture Claims Another Victim

In the wake of firings of veteran professionals for questioning aspects
of BLM
.

Or for declining to be subjected to Intensive Racial Sensitivity Training over the actions (not even themselves racist) of *someone else*.

Now, Michigan State University manages to up the ante. It seems that talking in public about research done at one's own school which conflicts with the approved narratives )in this case racist white cops being responsible for genocide-level killing of black people) is grounds for termination.

Facts, reality and quaint notions about academic freedom are not a defense.

The vice president of Research and Innovation at Michigan State University, physicist Stephen Hsu, has been forced out of his position at the university after daring to show actual facts from a 2019 study that show there to be no racial bias in incidents of police shootings.

Hsu wrote on his blog on Sunday that “The [Graduate Employees Union] alleged that I am a racist because I interviewed MSU Psychology professor Joe Cesario, who studies police shootings.”

"Cesario’s work…is essential to understanding deadly force and how to improve policing," Hsu said.

Cesario's 2019 study found "that the race of the officer doesn’t matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot."

The conclusion of the study was that “contrary to activist claims and media reports, there is no widespread racial bias in police shootings.”

source

What sort of future does a society have that is willing to let feelings trump facts and attempts at understanding? And just who is going to be deciding whose feelings count and whose do not?

Edit: - more egregious cases: The Atlantic

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Raggedy Ann's picture

being presented with lots of information, which is necessary for us to discern what is real and what is not; how to look at other's perspectives without reacting negatively because it doesn't square with what we believe. We need to be open to any and all information and use our own brains, good judgement to discern fact from fiction. Research cannot tell us that a police officer was going to put his knee on a black man's neck for eight and a half minutes, much less a white man's neck. This is why we have social science.

Systemic racism exists because we are quick to identify people by what they are not who they are. MLK wanting people to judge his kids by they content of the character and not by the color of their skin went out the window when we all had to start defining ourselves by our ract, when teevee anchors say, "a black man shot..." or "a hispanic man shot..." you get the picture. They never say, "a white man shot..." We must stop identifying people by race because it adds to our systemic racist minds.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Raggedy Ann The only sense I can make of it is that somehow, making it "systemic" reverses the definition of racism - you now have to be racist in order to not be racist, and you're guilty until proven innocent, which is practically impossible.

“Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.”

- Hannah Arendt

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

than simply a cancel culture hissy fit.

Hsu is an America born scientist of Chinese descent who just happens to have started a testing company that builds 'genomic predictors' for illnesses based on DNA sequences.

He's also a scientific adviser to a Chinese genetics lab (BGI Group) whose main rival is an American company (Illumina).

Sounds like a guy caught in the crossfire of our new cold war with China. The cancel culture attack is likely just the pretext.

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7 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

@Not Henry Kissinger

Sounds like a guy caught in the crossfire of our new cold war with China. The cancel culture attack is likely just the pretext.

Although he looks pretty firm with the Taiwanese connections. Looks like he gave up a full professorship in Oregon to take the MSU gig - with a bio like that he's not going to be hard up for opportunities.

Much grimmer prospects for a lot of other CC victims...

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@Blue Republic

as a tenured prof. He lost his admin position as 'VP for research and graduate studies' but kept his teaching gig.

On June 10, 2020, the MSU graduate student union began calling for Hsu to be removed from the administrative position. The MSU student association also called for his removal, and multiple petitions were circulated, including a counter-petition.[14][15] As of June 17, petitions for removal had 700 and 470 signatures, while the counter petition had over 970 signatures.[16] On June 19, 2020 MSU President Samuel L. Stanley announced that Hsu had resigned as Vice President, returning to a tenured faculty position. [16][14] Hsu made clear that President Stanley requested his resignation, and that he did not agree with Stanley's decision. [17]

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4 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

enhydra lutris's picture

If DFG is concerned that today's hunters preferentially shoot does, a study of showing that male and female hunters have equal propensity to shoot does that concludes that there is no bias toward shooting does seems like pure deflection and issue avoidance. So does this bit:

"that the race of the officer doesn’t matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot."

The conclusion of the study was that “contrary to activist claims and media reports, there is no widespread racial bias in police shootings.”

After all, the suspected bias is in the victims race, not the killers? Perhaps some departmental or administrative level concern that this was a propaganda piece may have been involved?

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@enhydra lutris

"that the race of the officer doesn’t matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot."

So the study concluded that a victim is just as likely to be shot by a Black cop as a White cop.

Yeah. That's not REALLY the issue BLM is protesting about, is it?

Still ... good to know.

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10 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Roy Blakeley's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger remedies (i.e. hiring more black cops would likely not reduce the number of black people that are killed).

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vtcc73's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris I had to read the essay three times to be sure I understood. I'm not sure why Hsu thought this was important to the issue or was a simple misunderstanding. Terrible timing is evident as is questionable judgement if he thinks this was supposed to be relevant. I still don't think removal from a VP position, absent additional factors like suggested by NHK, is entirely proper. Like others have said there is probably more to the story. It's also possible that it is the typical big organization $aving face over bad publicity. This is not the environment to say anything that isn't necessary. That's as big a problem in some ways.

It's also nothing new. I remember a 747-400 captain I used to love to work with who was accused of sexual harassment by a senior flight attendant in the early '90s. He was the last person on earth anyone who knew him would expect to be guilty of that charge. Some of her crew stepped up later to refute her charge during the company hearing. Several didn't. They had witnessed the incident which was neither sexual nor harassment but a stupid attempt to retaliate against the captain for calling her and the crew out for what they had done to a brand new flight attendant on that flight. He was dead right to do what he did and some admitted it.

Going into the hearing the ALPA attorney told him to not expect to get out of the hearing with his job. "We'll get your job back with back pay later." he said. "The company would rather hang you out to dry than face her in court." That's bad enough and didn't happen since a couple of the F/As stepped up and did the right thing. What shook him to the core was the VP for Flight Ops' scorching public condemnation of him following the hearing. The VP was a known as a 3 knot windsock, pilot speak for empty suit/gutless tool.

The United corporationS of America is such a terrific place to live and work in, no?

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@enhydra lutris https://quillette.com/2020/06/11/racist-police-violence-reconsidered/

It raises all sorts of questions: Why doesn't police brutality toward anyone but African-Americans ever get attention? If the Tony Timpa story had gone viral the way George Floyd's did, might Floyd still be alive?

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

SOMEBODY NEEDS to aggressively call out the "racial bias training" brainwashing cults out on their bullshit. This is doing more to regress America and resurrect racism than a few doofuses with Tiki-Torches ever could. There has GOT to be a way to beat them in court, and there has GOT to be enough opposition from actual experts that academia can start taking an actual stand.

My generation was born free, innocent, and with limitless potential; for some reason the Management is DETERMINED to devolve us into a crappy remake of our parents.

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!