Thursday, January 3, 2013

They Be So Ghetto: Did Steven Levitt of Freakonomics Fame Commit "Academic Blackface" With This Blog Post?

The Internet can get you in trouble. It can take an inside joke meant to be shared by a few friends and circulate it to hundreds or thousands of people. If you are one of the country's preeminent and most popular economists the Internet can circulate your inside joke to millions.

Several weeks ago, Steve Levitt, a genius and a starred economist, took some very important research on the black-white achievement gap in education that he co-authored with Harvard's Roland Fryer, and using a website, "translated" it into "ghetto English" which he then featured at Freakonomics.com.

I am a fan of dark and ironic humor. I also understand that Dr. Levitt is playing around with academic conventions regarding language, and how insular and self-important said community can be in regards to the rites and rituals of writing, research, and publishing. He is also likely having fun with notions of "code-switching" and the arbitrariness of language conventions.

But, there is something uncomfortable about watching Steve Levitt, a white economist who studies behavior, culture, economic decision-making, and the political economy of the everyday, playing this game with an important article on educational outcomes and race--one which reaches the following conclusion:
Compared with the results of previous studies, our findings provide reason for optimism. We find smaller achievement gaps, in both the raw and the adjusted scores, for children born in the early 1990s than others had found for earlier birth cohorts. It could well be that, as compared with earlier generations of students, the current cohort of blacks has made real gains relative to whites. Indeed, recent cohorts show smaller raw black-white gaps across multiple data sets–a truly promising sign. 
Once students enter school, however, the gap between white and black children grows, even after controlling for observable influences. We speculate that blacks are losing ground relative to whites because they attend lower quality schools that are less well maintained and managed as indicated by signs of social discord. Though we recognize that we have not provided definitive proof, this is the only hypothesis that receives any empirical support.
Here is the same conclusion "translated" into ghetto English:
Compared wit tha thangs up in dis biatch of previous studies, our findings provide reason fo' optimism. Our thugged-out asses find smalla achievement gaps, up in both tha raw n' tha adjusted scores, fo' lil pimps born up in tha early 1990s than others had found fo' earlier birth cohorts. It could well be that, as compared wit earlier generationz of students, tha current cohort of blacks has done cooked up real gains relatizzle ta whites. Git tha fuck outta mah grill wit dat bullshit, recent cohorts sheezy smalla raw black-white gaps across multiple data sets–a truly promisin sign. 
Once students enter school, however, tha gap between white n' black lil pimps grows, even afta controllin fo' observable influences. Our thugged-out asses speculate dat blacks is losin ground relatizzle ta whites cuz they attend lower-qualitizzle schools dat is less well maintained n' managed as indicated by signz of hood discord. Y'all KNOW dat shit, muthafucka! Though our crazy-ass asses recognize dat our crazy-ass asses have not provided definitizzle proof, dis is tha only hypothesis dat receives any empirical support. 
Roland G. Fryer Jr. be a junior fellow all up in tha Harvard Society of Fellows n' a gangbangin' faculty research fellow all up in tha Nationizzle Bureau of Economic Research. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Steven D. Levitt be a professor of economics all up in tha Universitizzle of Chicago. 
While some have suggested that Levitt's post is "racist," I am not sure if said adjective is a good fit for his failure of good taste.

Posting a private joke online (at a website that is followed by millions of people) is ill advised.

Posting a private joke about race, poverty, and education, especially when you are one of the country's foremost economists (and by all accounts a pretty nice and cool guy), also reminds us of the troubled history and relationship between the academy, and the poor and working class communities that many elite institutions find themselves surrounded by. The town/gown distinction is real; the elite institution/ghetto underclass divide, where the latter is a convenient laboratory for the former to study, is real as well.

Did Steve Levitt commit "academic blackface?" I am not sure. And should it matter if he did? It is all a joke anyway, isn't it?

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Universitizzle"? Seriously? If he had to write such a parody, he could at least have written it well.

chaunceydevega said...

@anon. He didn't write it personally there is a computer program that does the translation.

nomad said...

Computers be funny. Who's being used as the syntax guide? Snoop Dog? Guess there is no ghetto English translation for 'empirical'.

Black Sage said...

No surprise here, just another Judenrat enunciating his contempt for Black people. Perhaps Levitt should seriously consider pursuing a career in pranksternomics. I'm certain he'll do quite well.

chaunceydevega said...

@bs. provocative question. let's work with the premise for a second. how does mocking the ghetto underclass and "ghetto english" conflate with a contempt for "black people?"

chaunceydevega said...

@thrasher. i gave you a holiday amnesty. tread carefully. don't go back to your disrespectful basement dweller ways or I will have to reinstate your banning here. this is your final warning or you will be permanently banned and I will rescind my generosity.

Anonymous said...

You should see the rec letter that he wrote for a female graduate student. He is also unintentionally and cluelessly a sexist asshole. Just saying.

Historiann said...

OMFG. I'm with you, cd: this is just unforgivably bad taste, and of a piece with what Anonymous reports having seen in a letter of recommendation by Levitt.

And may I just add that while the internet has accomplished a great deal for humanity, such as making available to a global audience ever more videos of adorable kitty cats, computer translation programs still suck ass. Those "translations" that Levitt published on his blog look like the crazzy comments that I find stuck in my spam filter.

Shady_Grady said...

Chauncey, if Romney had done the same thing, what would your reaction have been?

How people act when they think no one is looking is an important guide to who they really are.

Black Sage said...

@CDV, from a historical standpoint, Jews have always ridiculed, criticized and demeaned Blacks. Hell,… Judenrats were overwhelmingly complicit in the transporting of slaves over the Atlantic to reach these devilry laden shores. Moreover, it was recently reported that Black Ethiopian Jewish women who immigrated to the state of Israel are being sterilized so they wouldn’t be able to have any more babies. Imagine that for a moment, a Black majority in Israel!

For the Jews to have so willingly engaged in an act that’s considered one of the greatest crimes against humanity (slavery), surely cannot be equated with a form of love for Blacks. Well then, if it’s not love, it must be hate. There are no in betweens here. Hell, even Jesus said that, “people are either for you or against you.” There are no wiggle room to play both sides.

Even further, when the White South African apartheid, tyrannical regime was still in power, the state of Israel supported them un-reluctantly with weapons in their efforts to keep Blacks in their shanty towns, shoeless, damn near homeless and without political, social or financial power.

Additionally, in the country of Zimbabwe, there is a tribe of people referred to as “Lemba” they have the exact genetic makeup of biblical Jews. However, contemporary don’t want to hear it and refuse to accept them even after DNA testing has already proven otherwise.

In summary, mocking and ridiculing of the manner in which the Black underclass by this one Judenrat by the name of Levitt, isn’t necessarily the same as contempt, but it damn sure is at least an extension or stems from this long historical arc of hate by Jews targeting Blacks.

chaunceydevega said...

@shady. i do have problems with his choice, which is why I decided to post the excerpt here.

@bs. is your suggestion that there is something particular and unique to Jews" which makes them support anti-black racism? Got to be careful with such claims. Too close to biological racism and determinism for my taste. Dangerous stuff.

You know my position on these matters, Jewish folks are for the most part white and have acted accordingly in supporting the racial state. With several notable exceptions Jews earned their whiteness in the U.S. and globally just like other "quasi whites" did too. No surprise.

I had a post on American Jews and Birmingham a year or so back, do check out the interviews there. Levitt a "Judenrat?" Come now the analogy does not even hold for such strong language. Jews are for the most part white in America and they operate from the white racial frame accordingly. No biggie or surprise.

You still didn't answer my question though, does the black underclass equal "black people." It is so casually conflated by so many, both black and white and brown. This does the work of white supremacy too.

Are the black poor and underclass "more authentic" and "real?" I certainly do not hope so as that is such a comment on black humanity as to be stupifying...but not necessarily a surprise.

MilesEllison said...

People always make the mistake of focusing on the packaging and not the contents.

There is a relentless barrage of this in the media all day every day. It only becomes offensive when some white academic does it. There are black buffoons doing substantially the same thing, and people are praising them for "getting paid."

Ms. Bunny Easter said...

Folks like Levitt should be studied. Here is a so called man of letters. He has received accolades, awards and worldwide fame. He achieved it all at the young age of 45. There is no doubt the man is also a multimillionaire. Life should be good.

It appears however, that all of that education, praise and success could not fill the gap in his character. He stooped to the regressive thinking of racism, why, because it felt good. There is something twisted in the white male psyche when it comes to race.

Furthermore, the translation is a awful rendition of a stereotype. How many on this blog actually know people who speak like this? I sure as Hell don't. It sounds exactly like a white person mocking black people.

Levitt should apologize. It is racist. A genius in 2013,that pulls a stunt like this, is not really a genius.

Anonymous said...

What's with allowing the bigoted stuff posted by "sage" above? I see you are banning others for offensive behavior.

BigPhank said...

http://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/mock-ebonics/#comments

nomad said...

I have to agree with Thrasher. Unless there is something more going on here than I'm aware of, I am puzzled by his banning. Especially in light of the fact that many of CNu's posts have been far more offensive than anything I have seen Thrasher post. Controlling the tone of discussion is one thing. Censorship is something else.

nomad said...

its also completely legit to discuss Jewish racism.

nomad said...

its also cool to diss it.

CNu said...

Cobb banned Thrasher, I banned Thrasher, and one need only read one of Thrasher's Oswald Bates screeds for the voice of detroit to conclude that he has nothing worthwhile to offer. Beyond this, however, was his months-long obsessive compulsive sock-puppet commenting as various and sundry basement dwelling and anonymous characters. (I must imagine that Thrasher is blithely unaware of the fact that his Bates-ian steeze is as detectable as the sour stench of a trash dumpster on a hot August afternoon)

As for you Staymad Murphy, well, you picked the wrong one to call an anti-black racist simply because I disagreed with all your stupid handwringing over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

That, and the lying, tweeking idiot noises and threats you made subsequent to being called out for your "blacker-than-thou" identity politics. You were permanently delisted and discarded because if you're 60+ years old, and as weak, reactionary, stupid, and dishonest as you've shown yourself to be, well, you deserve to be kicked to the curb, and permanently, as well.

In fact, it wasn't until you started making idiot old-man threats that you got your leash tugged. So let's be clear about who gave offense first, and, who will always and inevitably give terminal offense last.

As for the other fifty-page book men spewing "love to dish it out", but can't even begin to imagine "taking it" vitriol, including the white feminists fond of pulling those shenanigans, you should each simply be on notice that I'm not the one - and whatever you dish out will be handed back to you with exponentially more force than you've bargained for.

chaunceydevega said...

@nomad. there is no right to free speech on my site or any other. the gov't may make no rules abridging or limiting speech--but even that can be regulated. i am pretty broad with letting folks comment here, and as I discussed last summer, there is a moderation policy that I am going to enforce more robustly. Using the analogy of a bar, folks can come by, chat, dialogue, but they are ultimately guests and should comport themselves as such.

i deleted thrasher's mess. you don't come to someone else's spot, threaten them, talk about knocking their teeth out of their mouth, etc. etc. etc. He was also playing a ventriloquist dummy game a few months ago that was a waste of my time and others too. He does this over at the voice of detroit where he is a "legend" who comments using different names on his own posts. Sad really.

I tried to give him a way back in. But, he is a grown man who acts like a tween and can't moderate his own behavior. Instead of participating responsibly he chose to go back to old habits. Thus, he is permanently banned.

freebones said...

@BS, careful saying "judenrat". that's pretty bigoted too.

i think this is clearly just a joke and people need to laugh at themselves. it's playing into a common and clearly absurd stereotype. and he didn't even WRITE the thing.

goodness.

nomad said...

Gotcha, CD.
CNu. Shut the fuck up.

chaunceydevega said...

@nomad. ringing the bell. feel free to rebut and use appropriate language. but in the new year let's try to watch the use of profanity...that goes for all posters here.

Ms. Bunny Easter said...

Chauncey, I think you should do what is necessary to protect the integrity of your blog. The Field Negro once had a decent blog. However, he felt it was more important to give voice to abusive racists and Uncle Tom's. Now his blog is pretty much garbage. You have a very informative blog, and a very intelligent group of bloggers. Don't let a few kooks ruin it.

chaunceydevega said...

@Msbunny. How kind. You are right. I am going to be holding all parties to our comment policy much more closely this year.

We are at a very important moment where readership has almost doubled this past year and we need to make sure that we have a nice range of voices contributing in the comment section.

I think that lots of folks are natural lurkers; but many others are turned off by the tone of some folks here. Hopefully, everyone will step up and some new voices will emerge too. I love all the folks at WARN and appreciate them very much. But, we need to make sure that the tone in the conversations is a spirited salon and not a knife fight.

CNu said...

@Msbunny. How kind. You are right.

No she's not right CDV.

It's neither meet or right for the hyper-aggrieved and imaginally fixated to be able to call folks who don't share their neurosis "Uncle Toms" or anything else but a children of God.

Confusing proxies for a "white feminist echo chambers" with "safe spaces" or "spirited salons" - in which any imaginable kind of nastiness can be unilaterally dished out to folks with whom the white feminist ideologues disagree - is a surefire method of insuring that you will produce an unchallenged and intellectually dead space in which folks with shared neurosis simply reinforce their gendered pathos.

Most all these issues are trivially resolvable, however, by simply upgrading to a more sophisticated commenting system than the default provided by blogger.

One of the features of disqus is the like/dislike toggle which enables those too emotionally sensitive to directly wade into the perilous waters of direct textual engagement (guffaws) to safely "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" their keenly attuned visceral responses to the imagined tone of commenter's text.

Not only will this afford these delicate psyches with a "safe" means of expressing their feelings, but it will also give you a direct metric as well as showing the brave textual warriors how their assertive expressions and strong language are impacting the tender fuzzles.

Not only, but you will be absolved of having to delete comments, as blacklisted users are simply shut out and blacklisted terms automatically go into a moderation cue which sends you an email notification that a comment featuring "strong language" has been submitted.

chaunceydevega said...

@Cnu. You and I can agree to disagree about what constitutes a "feminist echo chamber." By that, if you mean places where people don't name call and threaten then count me as one of those "feminists." I would just call it good manners and civility.

It goes both ways. I am not going to allow pc nastiness or un pc nastiness. As long as the convo is being advanced and unnecessary name calling not allowed I am down. Coates has a great model of what I think a comment section should be. But then again he has the traffic and name brand to do that.

Does the thumbs up or thumbs down on disqus "hide" comments as I would want to avoid that.

Regarding banned users I wholeheartedly agree. Having to manage that crap is tedious. I just don't get why grown ass adults would be so persistent in commenting somewhere they are not wanted. Get a life; the internet is a huge place. I just don't understand the appeal of being a troll with delusions of grander.

If disgus allows banning ip ranges we are good to go. Transitioning and redesigning the whole site is costing more than I thought as I don't want to go with some unseen person overseas and want to use a boutique here in Chicago.

If you have any suggestions in that regards I am all ears.

CNu said...

lol, how you going to disallow PC nastiness when it is foundational to your own oeuvre?

How you going to discourage PC nastiness when it is a primary attraction for folks who don't want to deliberate or be challenged, but who instead are only looking for a "safe" place to vent their emotional and political frustrations?

(by "safe" I mean a place where the targets of said PC ire and incivility are not allowed to hit back)

That middle-ground which serves truth is difficult to find and even more difficult to maintain given the grist with which you load your mill.

As for "technical" details, why would you spend a plugged nickel to "redesign" a blogger site, when blogger offers countless simple templates that you can non-destructively mix, match and experiment with on your own - free of charge?

Thumbs-up/thumbs-down doesn't hide comments so far as I know, at least not on the free version of disqus.

Disqus has fairly flexible blacklisting capabilities, to stop spammers as well as trolls - so you can block various commenter attributes. Not only that, but most serious commenters want to own their commentary and the accumulated votes that go with it over time.

In other words, both web loggers and commentors are interactive diarists who should mutually and reciprocally be involved with compiling a journal of their thinking.

That is not a capability supported under blogger ID's and blogger commenting at all.

As far as specific suggestions go, you might consider copying the contents of this blog to world of ghetto nerds or big black brain - or set up another experimental placeholder altogether - and then experiment with that placeholder risk free and to your heart's content - until you find a look, feel, and capability set with which you're comfortable

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. thanks for the insight. suggestions always come the turn of the knife, no? pc nastiness, me? not at all.

if that were were the case my vibe would very different and much more profitable and lethal. feel free to disagree, as is your right, but pc suggests lazy thinking and playing the jack and jill what did obama do today stuff. not interested.

i may not write about what some would like me to, i have many thoughts, but following approved talking points is not one of them.

pc folks, especially black ones, generally do not like warn or me.

i hear you on the templates, by paying i meant going over to wordpress, getting a custom theme, having the info and old posts ported over, etc., keeping followers...

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. "As far as specific suggestions go, you might consider copying the contents of this blog to world of ghetto nerds or big black brain - or set up another experimental placeholder altogether - and then experiment with that placeholder risk free and to your heart's content - until you find a look, feel, and capability set with which you're comfortable"

what a great suggestion. setting it to private and then playing around. good stuff.

nomad said...

will comply w policies except when personally attacked. then there will be profanity. delete it. but im not spending an ounce of intellectual effort rebutting ad hominem. the only thing such trifling behavior warrants is profanity.

CNu said...

@cnu. thanks for the insight. suggestions always come the turn of the knife, no? pc nastiness, me? not at all.

if that were were the case my vibe would very different and much more profitable and lethal. feel free to disagree, as is your right, but pc suggests lazy thinking and playing the jack and jill what did obama do today stuff. not interested.


I'm not quite sure what the current term of art is for describing the "diverse" and "inclusive" assemblage of folks under the higher-ed and mainstream media imprimatur whose primary preoccupation seems to be to demonize, ostracize, and if it were possible, to castigate non-leftist, non-feminist points of view.

That derision and mockery of non-leftist, non-feminist points of view is central to your oeuvre - shouldn't really be particularly controversial.

That you're on the fence about gun ownership, that you appear not to believe in endless toleration and subsidization of other folks out of wedlock CHUD spawn, that you realize that the second and third line inheritors of the civil rights movement have proven themselves epic failures in the areas of black partisan constituent services - these are all good things.

These are all possible openings into the realm of truth in which realm it becomes perfectly obvious that there is no such thing as racial solidarity, there never has been, nor will there ever be, and, that in order to maintain the pretense of solidarity in a the "diverse" and "inclusive" sphere of political correctness, there has to be some pretty draconian thought-policing and ideological orthodoxy.

CNu said...

Pursuant to that orthodoxy and thought-policing is a considerable amount of nastiness directed toward differing points of view many of which are neither malevolent or wrong.

Historiann said...

Chauncey, migrate to WordPress. You can ban commenters by keywords, email addresses, IP addresses, whatever. I never have problems with attention hogs or abusive trolls, because I make liberal use of these tools when the situation warrants it.

And do you know what happens? All kinds of lovely, smart, interesting commenters come out of the woodwork because they feel free to express themselves without being drawn into a food-fight from attention-seeking monologists who really should start their own damned blogs if they are so confident of their intellectual and rhetorical chops.

CNu said...

lol, comes now the deftly wielded dermatome - best comply CDV - if you know what's good for you...,

Cavoyo said...

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed not-racist Stephen D. Levitt:

"In 1999, Levitt co-authored a paper arguing that an increase in abortion rates for black women in the 1970s was the reason for falling crime rates two decades later. "Basically, we had aborted the generation of criminals who would have been active in the 1990s," he told Esquire magazine."

"In 1999, Levitt presented a paper for privatizing prison labor at a symposium hosted by a private prison consulting firm, arguing: “I would privatize prison industry. As long as the government is in charge of prison industries, it will be difficult if not impossible to avoid decisions being made with political rather than economic justifications.” Thirteen years later, Levitt’s privatized-prison-labor dream is a reality: Some 1 million state inmates are slaving away for wages averaging between $0.93 and $4.73 a day. African-Americans make up over 40% of the U.S. prison population."

"In 1995, Levitt published a paper which "proved" that packing prisoners into increasingly-overcrowded prison cells translates into a net $15,000 positive effect on society per overcrowded cell inmate."

Source: http://shameproject.com/profile/steven-d-levitt/

nomad said...

@Cavoyo
I'm shocked.

Black Sage said...

@Cavoyo, this is great information regarding Levitt. To a certain extent, your post proves my point and if it doesn't so wholeheatedly, at,least in some respect it reveals that this Levitt person has an abundance of hate towards Blacks. Thanks for your post!

Hell, ... in the quest to stamp out racism, some folks would rather kill the messenger as opposed to confronting the perpetrators. That's a mighty strange proposition.

Ms. Bunny Easter said...

CNu said...
No she's not right CDV.
--------
Though I do not comment much on the blog, I am one of those lurkers Chauncey talks about. What is very much clear about you CNu,is your obsessive compulsive need to outwit everyone. You love to display how intellectual you are. However, most of the time, with your flowery language, you come across as unbearable, insecure, and often, silly.

CNu said...

So Easter Bunny, now that you've called me out as someone who's commentary you dislike, I'm supposed to do what, humbly implore you to correct the error of my ways?

Shall I simply not comment because you don't like the questions I ask or the views I express in response to CDV's essays?

Clearly you're someone who wants to call folks with whom you disagree all manner of nasty things. Equally clearly, you want that engagement to be a one way street.

In light of those facts, who then is insecure and silly?

Bruto Alto said...

@CDv
Are the black poor and underclass "more authentic" and "real?" I certainly do not hope so as that is such a comment on black humanity as to be stupifying...but not necessarily a surprise.

Good comment and question, Some of the same fates and problems faced today have nothing to do with class. Try getting in a gas station at night while being black. It doesn't matter if you have a suit or hoodie. Wells Fargo's crappy home loans to minorities when they would have qualitfied for lower interest rates. RG3 and the cornball comment.


Bruto Alto said...

@ Thasher

Your voice here is good, but stop with the side comments. It's hard to support you if you call people "drama queens". Be better than that. While I don't always agree with some of the comments I do respect their ideas. It's the silly name callilng and side comments that ruin the comments. Everyone gets all defenive and it lowers the value of their message. While this is the internet I still choose to say the same things I would tell anyone face to face.

nomad said...

@CD "Jews are for the most part white in America and they operate from the white racial frame accordingly."

So the perceived racism of Jews has to do with their adoption of the American perspective. So what explains this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGJVX6jYjI0

chaunceydevega said...

@Bruto. I delete thrasher's comments as a matter of rule. I didn't want to not acknowledge you for writing as you are very generous and sincere in that regard. Thrasher is toxic. He is banned. As such, writing back to him is ultimately a waste of time because whatever he posts will be deleted.

Bruto Alto said...

@CDv

Funny, I know most of these men refrain from this behavior in public but the internet is a powerful drug. Also thank you for taking time to address the anti-fem talk.

CNu said...

WWTMOBTD? (what would the mayor of blacktown do?)

Bruto Alto said...

@CDv

No in this moment I have to agree with he will will not be named CNu kills comments. Blaming black women for were we are now is silly troll talk. I'm done cause he just isn't worth the finger to type this. Why support this crazy talk?

CNu said...

lol, when CUH-LEARLY white masculinity is the single variable cause of all that ails po black folk struggling and begging for assistance under an out of wedlock birth rate in excess of 70%

priceless.comedy.gold...,

nomad said...

yup

CNu said...

The mayor of blacktown is by no means alone in raising these questions.

Thoughtful people are inclined to wonder, folks with anxiety about the root cause of the issue only want to suppress the question or quickly change the subject.

Black Sage said...

Fellas, you give power to nincompoop-talk when you respond to garbage posted here on WARN or any where else for that matter. The vast majority of the lemming-esque posts emanating from CNu doesn't qualify for a responce. Take power away from his posts by simply refusing to respond, unless he has some thing worthwhile to say. And of course, that's as rare as being able to locate a snow ball in hell.

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. really, the mayor of blacktown? as you know i am a fan of him in the same why that i like alexyss tylor and pastor manning.

how can you not see him as a clown with his oiled up black bodybuilder homoerotic fetish egypt kings and queens nonsense?

you are onto an important issue that needs more definition. how do you define "white?" how do you define "black?" how do you define "masculinity?" here is another question--what do you think of the idea of black male feminists, such as offered by mark anthony neal?

oxymoron?

CNu said...

lol,

The mayor of blacktown is a digital folk artist. I look at his work product as outlier and "liminal", IOW, there's a most significant grain of truth in the collages he flamboyantly constructs.

Both his motivations and his modus operandi are clearly distinct from what these clowns here are on about. Also, very different than what the peculiar, contrived personae of Alexess Tylor and James David Manning are on about. Right or wrong, the mayor of blacktown is sincere.

As far as MAN goes, just about anything is preferable to his first silly incarnation as a "thug-nigga intellectual". Is there a single non-tenured young black college or university instructor in social or political science America who hasn't yet penned a "hip-hop" text?

The question this all begs for me is, for what audience are these various and sundry inauthentic personae being concocted? How is MAN any different from Alexyss Tylor or James David Manning?

Who is he trying to appease?

What's wrong with being a stridently black masculine intellectual period? Fearlessly and shamelessly posing hard questions and not giving a damn about breaking some PC eggs in the process?

When my man Ed at Dream and Hustle goes hard on this topic, as he has done, the subject has moved well past the reactionary and personally vindictive histrionic taboo objections of the snaggle-tooth CNu-hating crew hereabouts.

CNu said...

btw - sorry CDV for wandering far afield of the topic. I wouldn't have commented on this post at all had the snaggle-toothed CNu hating crew not invoked my name up thread.

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. no need to apologize. it is an interesting conversation. i took your advice about doing a beta site...was much easier than i thought.

i have disqus running, but some of the features, i.e. the tools tab in the admin box, are not showing up. do you have any experience with disqus in that regard? i did a quick search and found a few folks with similar questions, but no definitive answer.

i did have to manually install disqus so that could be it. even without the more robust tools for community building, it has so many more options and i think it will help the convos here a great deal, esp. with blacklisting/white listing etc.

CNu said...

i have disqus running, but some of the features, i.e. the tools tab in the admin box, are not showing up. do you have any experience with disqus in that regard?

That tools tab is for comment import and export from Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type, Intense Debate, and WXR.

What I recommend is that you maintain both Blogger and Disqus comments and sync them. That way, you have two downloadable, exportable, backup-able comments databases. You'll get a pair of email notifications for comments, one from blogger, one from disqus, but the only comment system that will display on the blog will be disqus, unless folk are on a random mobile device that won't resolve disqus, in which case you will rarely get a comment from someone who doesn't know that disqus is your comment system, and their comment is caught in the background/shadow blogger comment sphere.

nomad said...

Delete this one too while you're at it.

"I have to agree with Thrasher. Unless there is something more going on here than I'm aware of, I am puzzled by his banning. Especially in light of the fact that many of CNu's posts have been far more offensive than anything I have seen Thrasher post. Controlling the tone of discussion is one thing. Censorship is something else."

I'm agreeing w Thrasher more than ever.

chaunceydevega said...

@Nomad. you are cool folks. don't lower yourself by agreeing with Thrasher. He who has pretended to be other people online, spammed, acted like a 12 year old, willfully misrepresented the facts about his behavior here, writes comments as different people on the various low tier "publications" he is affiliated with, etc. etc. etc. etc. He has been banned all over the Internet by reputable folks. I gave him a shot and should have followed other folks' lead. Me and Cobb do not often agree. On this issue, he is spot on. Thrasher is a troubled person.

I would not normally explain my choices, but you are good peeps here on WARN. I am not interested in hearing about Thrasher, I am not interested in having posters who challenge my personal integrity or motivations, I am not interested in having posters who want to get into some meta nonsense about the choices I make about commenting and are more interested in fighting with each other about nonsense than in contributing. Thrasher is banned and gone. Any mention of him is going to be deleted. Don't waste your time.

Cnu is a challenging personality. He contributes more than he detracts. He is also sincerely interested in ideas. I agree with him. I disagree with him. He does not log in unlike that clown you are allying with to be a hater or complainer about WARN.

This is not a democracy. Review the comments section please. Discuss the topics at hand, do not waste your time interrogating me. Ask hard questions if you like about the topics at hand. But leave the host's motivations and goals out of it. If not, I do not know what to tell you.

Your new ally is one of two people, the other was more an adult than I thought him to be, to be banned. For some bizarre reason, he will not be gone. If you choose to be a conduit for his mess I will assume that you are him writing as Thrasher in sock monkey pantomine form. Life is so much easier if you just look away from Thrasher. He is toxic.

Next week or so we are implementing a new comment feature. That will solve lots of problems. I hope you are here moving forward. There are a few folks I would reach out to personally here on WARN. You are one of them. Please make the wise choice to stay out of basement shea butter being rubbed by his own online schizo poster and professional delusional "legend" from the D's orbit. It will do you no good at all. Nothing. Period.

nomad said...

don worry. ive said all i have to say.