Posted January 23, 2015: by Mary Grabar: It was the Martin Luther King, Jr., national holiday last Monday, and "Prison Abolitionist"/Communist/Black Panther Angela Davis came and spoke on three campuses in Georgia and North Carolina and then pocketed a cool $20,000 for one of those speeches from the bourgeois taxpayers.  Former real model for the FBI's most wanted list spoke to an overflowing crowd at Kennesaw State University on Sunday.  Many in the community objected, but university officials predictably cited such high-falutin principles as academic diversity.  But there is nothing academic or scholarly about leading the audience in a chant of "No justice, no peace, no racist police," as the Marietta Daily Journal, reported. Her words of wisdom also included “And we also have to say to our friends in Europe, look at the example of the United States of America. Look at what happened in the aftermath of 9/11. Look at the fact that all over the country now, people who practice Islam are the targets of a racism that has been built on the histories of anti-black racism. And as a matter of fact, I think that black people in this country have a special responsibility to stand up and say ‘no.’”

Read more: Contraries: Davis, Selma, State of the Union

Posted September 12, 2014, by Mary Grabar: If you live in a college town you know that (here in Clinton, New York), school is back in session.  That brings worry about the required reading and class discussions, especially after a summer of rioting in the previously little-known St. Louis suburb of Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown. College students are chalking up campuses with "hands up." Unfortunately, a number of curriculum companies are sending out biased materials that exploit the tragedy, fanning the flames, and adding little to students' knowledge about history or civics.  Slate Magazine had an article headlined, "The Birth of the #Ferguson Syllabus," with links to syllabi and teaching materials.  Students in the school of social work at Michigan had rap sessions about how "police militarization" led to the escalation of protests to looting. Teaching for Change's lesson, sent out by Rethinking Schools, refers back to Malcolm X with a video.

Read more: Contraries: Back to School, Bucket Challenges, and Recommended Reading

Posted December 26, 2014, by Mary Grabar: Happy Boxing Day, the day when servants in Merry Olde England received their gifts.  I hope that all the Dissident Profs out there, many of whom labor as adjuncts for very little pay, have a more prosperous year next year.  To read some of their stories, please purchase Exiled, the collection of stories from supporters of this site.

Some professors who are not exiled, who are enjoying the largesse of taxpayers through their institutions, are professors who were attacking police on Brooklyn Bridge. like Eric Linsker, an alleged poet who teaches at CUNY College.  The graduate of the University of Iowa writing program and attendee of Harvard, writes such profundity as "F--- the police."  In a Norman Mailer-like move, he demonstrated his street smarts; fortunately, he and his peers were prevented from throwing garbage pails off the bridge at police officers.  Had they succeeded they could have killed innocent officers. Linsker is still scheduled to teach in the spring at full pay.  Seems if you quote Plato or the Founding Fathers, you will be lucky to teach freshman classes, but if you write puerile anti-cop poetry and attempt murder on them, you will have steady employment.  And maybe a publishing contract for your new book of "poetry."

Read more: Contraries, Boxing Day, Poets on Police