Hi Jean-Marc, Jean-Marc Perreault wrote: > > I really wanted to stay out of this one, but it > seems I'm missing a piece of information, and I would > really like to find it.
What you are missing is history. TIPS is indeed a wonderful forum for an exchange of ideas related to teaching and psychology. I truly value the professional relationships that I have developed over the years as a result of this forum. Some of these relationships have resulted in joint publication and convention/conference presentations over the years. You would be hard pressed to find a better group of individuals. However, TIPS is a forum that like other groups has a history. The poster in question has a history of offensive posts which have been responded to over the years. He makes posts simply to bait people and we usually ignore the posts. Sometimes the posts are humorous and occasionally challenging. However, not all fit into those categories and after time someone usually snaps and takes the bait. On the surface and in isolation, none of the posts appear highly offensive but the pattern over time tells another story. As I wrote in a similar discussion in 1999 (not that any of this ceased from there to here!) just in regards to anti-Semitism. I had also raised a similar objection in October of 1998. ************** First, here is the original post to which I responded as I found it offensive. This is followed by someone's questioning of my comments and my reply. The original post: This issue came up while discussing prejudice in Social Psychology. Even though Israel allowed for the Black Jews to relocate to Israel from Ethiopia,there was a story that the blood donated by the black jews were put in a separate blood banks and were discarded because Israel did not want to mix the Ethiopian blood with those of the other immigrants. Could this be viewed as a form of ethnic cleansing? > Michael's posts are outrageous. They are often provocative, > superficial, tasteless, insensitive, misinformed, ignorant, silly, and > dumb. Linda Woolf thinks they're also anti-Semitic. But are they? Well, let's see. (Note that I simply did a quick 15 minute search using a couple of key terms so I have probably missed some posts): A post that ask whether Jewish professors tend to adopt texts written by Jews is perhaps silly. A post that criticizes university administration for sending out memos that only announce up-coming Jewish religious Holy Days and not Moslem is an accurate criticism (although worrisome in light of a later post - see below). To ask "did CP Snow write that he thought that the Jews had an intellectual superiority?" (not in the context of any other discussion or thought) is confusing. A post (dated mid -1997) concerning the Ethiopian blood situation and putting it in a list of atrocities such as the U.S./Canadian Internment of the Japanese, the use of women as sex slaves in Korea, and slavery is provocative. Referring to the mention of Jewish text authors in class as the "Jewish factor" is ?????? To state that the Jewish faith requires women to be submissive to their husbands is misinformed. Asking why Hitler did not like Freud is dumb. To state without further data or explanation in response to a post concerning the effect of the Bible vs. pornography on violent behavior, " The Israeli grab of Palestinian land and subsequent aggresions.", is provocative. To argue that behavioral scientists are complacent to injustice and then ask "BTW,was not Wolpe of Jewish descent?" and mention no other behavioral scientists is provocative and raises questions. To make the statement "Seems like 'damn if you do,damn if you don't.'" in response to upset on the part of Jewish survivors to the canonization of Edith Stein seems insensitive. To make the statement, "Try defying the administration by NOT (emphasis mine) allowing Jewish students to do make-up work on account of Jewish Holydays." is worrisome. To state that the ancient Hebrews practiced incest and could this be the basis for Freud's Oedipal theories is misinformed and the idea has roots in religious anti-Semitism. To equate the Ethiopian blood issue of several years past with ethnic cleansing is offensive particularly in the light of the Holocaust. To raise the claim of fear of "blood mixing" and the words "allowed" to relocate is totally misinformed and erroneous. The motivations become worrisome as the topic had been raised previously on TIPS. Raising the belief that Jews see themselves as the chosen people and that they use this belief as the basis for oppression is grounded in an anti-Semitic tradition that dates back through the centuries. Of course, Henry Ford helped to promote it in the U.S. with his publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. One could probably argue that each of these is just silly, misinformed or highly provocative. I question just how misinformed Michael can be due to his religious background as a monk. Either his education concerning Old Testament was very poor or his instructors were teaching anti-Semitic ideas. As there has been great strides in the past fifty years in Jewish-Catholic relations, I tend to dismiss the later. As Michael appears to be educated and has demonstrated that education concerning religious concepts on other topics, I tend to dismiss the former. In total, the posts and Michael's knowledge raise questions about his motivation. This is the only group for which Michael Sylvester cites negatively on a relatively frequent basis. Yes, Michael has made a couple of posts concerning homosexuals and a couple of posts concerning "dwarfs" (including "dwarf tossing"). He also has made some Jewish jokes which in this case also includes Jewish mother jokes. But for no other group do we see a consistent pattern of negativity and baiting. *************** Back to the present - I'm sure another 15 search of the archives could create another list of comments but this should give you as sense as to why individuals responded negatively. Often the poster in question puts "a student asked me in class today" in front of his posts. My sense is that this is simply to deflect questions about motivation. First, I don't think students are as misinformed or as confused as this individual's students are alleged to be. Second, my sense is that most professors already know how to address such misinformation if genuinely asked in class. Warm regards, Linda -- Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Book Review Editor, H-Genocide Associate Professor - Psychology Coordinator - Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Webster University 470 East Lockwood St. Louis, MO 63119 Main Webpage: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ mailto:woolflm@;webster.edu "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's (and woman's) best friend. . . . Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
