The Roundup Top Ten for April 12, 2023
Attacks on Education Echo Fascismby Eden McLean"Florida’s legislation represents only the latest in a long history of attempts to deplore knowledge, deride academic inquiry for its own sake, and discourage intellectual curiosity in our children and the American public." |
"Woke" Indoctrination of Students is a Mythby Glenn C. Altschuler and David WippmanThere is virtually no evidence that liberal professors are successfully indoctrinating students, or that they're even trying. But the myth is behind a host of measures that threaten higher education. |
Federal Judges Explain Things to Meby Felicia KornbluhAn ideological and fact-challeged ruling by a single judge to revoke the FDA's approval of mifepristone shows the danger of years of complacency about the security of reproductive freedom. |
A Proponent of Technified, Skills-Based Higher Ed is Out, but His Soulless Vision Lives Onby François FurstenbergJason Wingard's presidency at Temple is over, but his vision of higher education shaped by the skills needs of business and the diminishment of the value of subject experts has enough backing among moneyed interests in tech and education reform to remain dangerous. |
There's a Precedent for Trump's Indictment: Spiro Agnewby Zach Messitte, Charles Holden and Jerald PodairNixon's VP pioneered the right-wing politics of grievance against coastal elites and higher education familiar today. He also had a tendency to accept bribes that is familiar. But in 1973 the Republican Party was willing to cut him loose. |
The Real Story Behind the Expulsion of the Two Black Members of the "Tennessee Three"by Jemar TisbyThe disproportionate response of the Tennessee House's majority—the expulsion of two Black members for the violation of decorum rules during a gun control protest—echoes the efforts of the so-called "Redeemers" of the Reconstruction era to reassert white supremacy through expulsions. |
After Texas Ruling on Abortion Medication, Get Ready to Hear More About the Comstock Actby Mary ZieglerThe ruling of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invoked a reading of the 150 year-old anti-obscenity law to claim that the distribution of mifepristone by mail is illegal. |
Claiming a Latino Place in Chicagoby Mike AmezcuaLike their African American contemporaries, ethnic Mexicans in Chicago have a long history of organizing to overturn residential segregation. |
The Inexcusable Silence of Florida's College Presidentsby Brian RosenbergFlorida's public college presidents have made it clear that they intend to keep out of sight as the governor attacks the independence of the state's higher education system, even as the very idea of the universities they run is being undermined. |
The French Fascination with the Cadavers of the Bastilleby Nicole BauerThe prison held a sym4bolic place in the minds of antiroyalists that exceeded its actual significance; the themes of gothic horror were reflected in political tracts that denounced the horrors of imprisonment there. |