J.K. Rowling, B.Weiss & N. Chomsky Among Dozens Sign Open Letter Calling for End to Cancel Culture

[Jim__]

89. Some examples of what the letter might be talking about.

I just googled some of their claims. Based on the results I got - not necessarily what they were referring to - I agree with what they are saying.

From the letter:

... More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.

The letter: Editors are fired for running controversial pieces ...

From CNN:

New York (CNN)The editor of The New York Times' editorial page, James Bennet, has resigned, publisher A.G. Sulzberger announced Sunday. Bennet's resignation comes after the publication of a controversial op-ed from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton earlier in the week drew significant criticism, including from dozens of the newspaper's staffers. ...

The letter: ... books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity ...

From The Guardian:

The novel about a Mexican mother and her young son fleeing to the US border had been praised widely before its 21 January release and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. But Mexican American writers have been among those criticizing American Dirt for stereotypical depictions of Mexicans and the large profit she stands to make from the story. Cummins is of Irish and Puerto Rican background.

“Jeanine Cummins spent five years of her life writing this book with the intent to shine a spotlight on tragedies facing immigrants,” said Bob Miller, president and publisher of Flatiron Books, in a statement on Wednesday. “We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor.”

“Unfortunately, our concerns about safety have led us to the difficult decision to cancel the book tour.”
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins review – a desperate Odyssey
Read more

American Dirt, Cummins’ third novel, had been met with massive pre-publication praise and had been selected for Oprah Winfrey’s book club. But, following its release, Cummins and Flatiron Books quickly drew fire for positioning the novel as a seminal book about Mexican immigrants. Julissa Arce Raya, the author of My (Underground) American Dream, argued American Dirt was not representative of her experience as an undocumented immigrant in America. Author Celeste Ng shared a review calling Cummins’ depictions of Mexico “laughably inaccurate”. Roxane Gay deplored Oprah’s decision to elevate the novel.

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The letter: ... journalists are barred from writing on certain topics ...

From a CBS Local report:

...

The suit says Johnson’s editors told her she could not pursue planned stories on jailed protesters or social-media efforts to raise bail funds because a May 31 tweet she sent about the different treatment black and white people get for doing property damage was an unacceptable public display of bias.

“The Johnson Tweet was intended to — and did — mock, ridicule and protest discrimination against African Americans by society in general and by whites who equate property damage with human life,” the suit says.

It alleges that the subsequent ban on her coverage “would tend to dissuade a reasonable newspaper reporter from making or supporting claims of race discrimination.”

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The letter: ... professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class ...

From The Guardian:

The Pulitzer-nominated poet Laurie Sheck, a professor at the New School in New York City, is being investigated by the university for using the N-word during a discussion about James Baldwin’s use of the racial slur.

The investigation has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), which is calling on the New School to drop the “misguided” case because it “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”.

Sheck, who is white, was teaching a graduate course this spring on “radical questioning” in writing. She assigned students Baldwin’s 1962 essay The Creative Process, in which the black American writer and civil rights activist argued that Americans have “modified or suppressed and lied about all the darker forces in our history” and must commit to “a long look backward whence we came and an unflinching assessment of the record”. During the class, Sheck pointed to the 2016 documentary about Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, and asked her students to discuss why the title altered Baldwin’s original statement, in which he used the N-word instead of negro during an appearance on a talk show.

Sheck told Inside Higher Education that a white student had objected to her language. According to Sheck, she questioned the student about her objection, who said she had been told by a previous professor that white people should never use the term. At the end of term, the student gave a presentation about racism at the New School.

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The letter: ... a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study ...

From Law Officer:

What has become the newest craze in “cancel culture,” Michigan State Vice President of Research and Innovation Stephen Hsu has been forced to resign because he had the audacity to cite research that showed that the police are not more likely to shoot African-Americans.