Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Taking up the mantle

Antioch College is closed, and no one knows at this point if it will ever reopen... but the spirit of Too PC For Sanity has not died! Carleton University in Ottawa has stepped up to the plate!

For 23 years Carleton has participated in Shinearama, a fundraising event for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This is a huge event, with 65 colleges participating, and significant amounts of money have been raised by it- Carleton alone, over the course of the years, has raised over a million. But no more- the Carleton University Student Union has dropped Shinearama from its roster of events. Why? I quote from the resolution whose passage killed it:

"Whereas Orientation week strives to be [as] inclusive as possible;

Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their diverse communities;

And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men

Be it resolved that:

CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign

Be it Further Resolved that the CUSA representatives on the incoming Orientation Supervisory Board work to select a new broad reaching charity for orientation week."

Good catch, Carleton! Not one penny should be sent to an organization so racist, so oppressive, that they will spend it on white men! No, not even if it's to save them from a dreadful disease that will kill them in their 20s- if the demographics are wrong, we won't belong!

It's not true, of course- Cystic Fibrosis strikes both sexes and all colors. But then, as we have seen with debates on cultural misappropriation and "code words", facts are often not on the side of the PC. No matter- there is a higher truth here. As long as people believe there's an oppressive situation there, their feelings will be hurt- and that's what it's all about, right? Trying to correct or educate them would be condescending- a PC sin in its own right- so just go along with it. After a while, you won't even wince.

sources:

Canada.com
CTV.ca
FlackLife

1 comment:

ogre said...

I suppose one can hope -- in a Darwinian way -- that stupidity is self-curing, but... that takes a lot of faith. A whole lot. And in the meantime... it hurts to watch it.