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

[Jim__]

105. .

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

The New York Times is probably the most prestigious paper in the country. Publishing an opinion piece written by a US Senator is not a firing offense.

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.

The issue is that there were threats of physical violence:

He said “there have been threats of physical violence,” which prompted the cancellation. Instead, the publisher plans to organise town hall meetings featuring Cummins and “some of the groups who have raised objections to the book.” Some of the book’s critics, however, expressed scepticism about the threats. “We have no knowledge or involvement in these safety concerns,” said Roberto Lovato, a writer involved in the media campaign #DignidadLiteraria, which has encouraged debate over “American Dirt” and sought to highlight the works of other Latinx writers.

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

From the letter: ... journalists are barred from writing on certain topics ...

... 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.

She's a journalist who was barred from writing on certain topics.

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.

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

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.

She is a literature professor who was investigated for quoting works of literature in class.

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

Hsu was hired to lead the university's research enterprise as the VP for Research and Graduate Studies under ex-MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon in 2012.

Hsu's prior experience in academic administration was serving as director of the University of Oregon’s Institute for Theoretical Science.

Prior to MSU, his research and primary work had been in applications of quantum field theory, particularly to problems in quantum chromodynamics, dark energy, black holes, entropy bounds and particle physics. He also co-founded Silicon Valley companies SafeWeb and Robot Genius Inc.

Hsu is a physicist and he is still at MSU; just not as VP for Research.