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

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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. ...

Bennet resigned after admitting he hadn't read an essay by Tom Cotton that advocated the use of the U.S. military on protestors, and the Times itself said it should not have been published.

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.

The issue isn't the author's background, it's the fact that she wrote a book that makes no sense when it comes to the challenges migrants face. Viz:

Writer Myriam Gurba, another critic of the book, pointed out a particular inauthenticity: "There is a scene where the main character encounters an ice rink. And she's utterly shocked at the existence of this ice rink, as if she's unaware that winter sports are played in Mexico. And I was laughing," Gurba says. "I laughed out loud when I got to that section because I learned to ice skate in Mexico. I learned to ice skate at age 9 in Guadalajara."

Shit books get cancelled all the time.

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.

This is a discrimination suit, claiming that white journalists who post similar tweets are not told they can't write about protests.

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.

Sheck was cleared of discrimination, but spoke out against her employer for not taking a stand for free speech. There is definitely a discussion to be had whether using the n-word in its entirety is useful, necessary and acceptable. As a white person, I can't imagine staking my career on saying it in the lecture hall, but it's a big world.

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.

Hsu is a race biologist and why he was ever at MSU is an important question for that institution.