The New Blacklists

[Malikshah]

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2006/04/2006041001c/careers.html


Monday, April 10, 2006
The New Blacklists

By Leah Bowman

Intro--
It's rare that I get an e-mail accusing me of being a Nazi, much less an expletive-laden one, but those were the words that stared back at me as I stopped by my office to check my e-mail after a particularly long day of teaching. The message immediately following that one had a subject line that read "anti-Semitic leftist professors."

I was at the end of my first semester of teaching Middle Eastern history at a large research university in the South. Like any new faculty member, my anxieties revolved primarily around not breaking the Powerpoint projector, not being mistaken yet again for a graduate student instead of a professor, and not spilling spinach dip on the dean at one of the innumerable faculty mixers held at the beginning of the academic year. Hate mail wasn't on the list.
--snip--

--snip--

Charging Middle East scholars with "anti-Semitism," "liberal bias," and "support for terrorism" has become (in fashion parlance) the new black of right-wing political discourse. Entire Web sites are devoted to exposing academics with expertise on the Middle East as dangerous radicals who pose a threat to the young minds of America. I have seen many of my professors, colleagues, and friends over the past few years placed on such blacklists.

The message to those of us who believe there must be room for ethical and reasoned debate on American involvement in Iraq, on the Israeli occupation, and on the war on terror has never been clearer: We are watching you. And we're going to take you down. I never thought I would be immune to it. I just thought I would have a little more time before it happened to me.




Alas, she has begun to learn the hard way what many of us in the field have known for years, now.

The witch-hunts continue to the extent that fewer and fewer folks appear to be willing to lay out the details of the conflict. Guess the forces of silence are winning.
At least for now.

Campus-watch? The David Project? WINEP? Are these *really* healthy for any rational discourse?

Thoughts?

[The Doctor.]

1. Well... I'm definitely K&R'ing this....

That's first and foremost.

[The Doctor.]

2. This is perhaps an issue that should be in 'latest threads' under

GD.

[Malikshah]

3. Thought so at first, but as the key issue is I/P and it'd end up here

anyway, I thought I'd avoid the middlepeople. :)

[Coastie for Truth]

4. There are all kinds of BlackLists related to the ME

Some remote - and some direct.

Some ethnically based against native born, "born in the USA" US Citizens who are of the wrong ethnicity. Not based on anything I taught (variously heterogeneous catalysis, business law for engineers) or published (bulk LNG marine transport issues), just ethnicity --->

--

But I have outgrown the "BlackList" of
* "Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering" by Warren McCabe, Julian Smith, and Peter Harriott, and

* "Transport Phenomena" by R. Byron Bird, Warren E. Stewart, and Edwin N. Lightfoot

and have moved on to

* John Newman's classic "Electrochemical Systems" (The "Bible" of batteries and fuel cells and hybrids and electric vehicles) - I taught from this one :hi:

[Malikshah]

7. Interesting, but offtopic

My focus was on the closing off of dialogue by mcarthyites

the case from your list (bold-faced for effect and all) deals with another issue.

Not sure your point is entirely relevant to the issue the article raises.

[Coastie for Truth]

8. Some (like the EEOC and several US Courts of Appeals)

would say very relevant and directly on point.

[Malikshah]

9. The issue I am referring to is discourse, and the attempt to stifle it

Now, if one wishes to change the subject and bandy words-- have fun. It's a tiresome ruse and *sooooo* 1990s.

[Coastie for Truth]

10. The issue I am referring to is equal employment opportunity

and employment discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and gender orientation.

The original McCarthy-HUAC "black listing" related to employment discrimination based on political orientation.

Now, if you want to use 2006 notions of "political correctness" that is an overused ruse.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. The issue the article's referring to is McCarthyist tactics...

What are yr thoughts on the article that Malikshah posted?


Violet...

[Coastie for Truth]

13. Violet-

You do not need to lecture me about McCarthyism.

My Uncle Saul was blacklisted from the entertainment industry by HUAC for having been affiliated with allegedly "Communist Front" organizations in the 1930's.

And as we have discussed I have been one of MANY Jewish Chemical Engineers, Chemists, and Geologists subjected to McCarthyism for the crime of "Being a Jewish Chemical (Petroleum Industry Centric) Engineer" .

Yes - I am responding - I do not like discrimination or boycotts of any form. And I do not see how any liberal, progressive person can support them.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. I didn't lecture you about McCarthyism...

I pointed out that I'm seeing yet another attempt to divert the discussion away from I/P issues that are discussed in the OP...

btw, thanks for reminding me of that previous discussion. You never did answer the question I asked about a claim you made. I'm still interested in hearing what you have to say about it...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=115809&mesg_id=115989

:)

Violet...

[Coastie for Truth]

16. In a previous discussion

I think we had agreed to disagree and declare an impasse.

I relied on Jim Kunstler and The Club of Rome to call for an aggressive program of desalination.

And you called that changing the subject. Kunstler and Klare and the Club of Rome and Robert Malthus are the subject - sad to say.

So, we reached an impasse.

[Violet_Crumble]

17. Yr talking about a different discussion

Please take the time to click on the link I supplied and read the question I had asked you. It had nothing to do with the Israeli exploitation of West Bank water and had everything to do with a claim you made about the oil companies....

Violet...

[Coastie for Truth]

18. Changing Demographics of the Oil Industry and Chem E Profession

Plus - if you are big enough, well connected enough, and arrogant enough - you can just go on as before.

1. Demographics of the Industry

The oil industry hasn't been doing large scale hiring for over twenty five years, and therefore are no longer the major player in the geoscience and chemical engineering job market.

The school where I did my doctoral work pretty much phased out their petroleum engineering minor in chemical engineering, and petroleum geology was subsumed into a common geology - oceanography - meteorology "earth sciences" department.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x49858

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8GTVVQ0...

2. Demographics of the Profession

When I went to school, the petroleum industry "generically" (refinery design, construction, operations; petrochemicals; petroleum additives; etc.) was the 800 pound gorilla. Now there are such fields as semiconductor manufacturing, bio-engineering (medical devices, diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals, enzyme and bacteria and yeast catalyzed chemical processes, agri-business related engineering), electrochemistry (fuel cells and batteries), and environmental engineering (including water desalination). Plus, the petroleum industry has the reputation among students of being a bunch of white men who look and talk and think like Dick Cheney.

3. The Demographics of the Profession and the Demographics of the Industry are "self-selecting."

4. In the 1960's, the "Best and Brightest" competed for the petroleum indusrty --- today the same "Best and Brightest" appear to be going into "Bio."

[Violet_Crumble]

19. I'll repost the question I asked...

Coz that didn't answer it...

'A question I've got is why are US oil companies required to supply Arab states with their employee records? Because if they don't, then how do the Arab states know who the individual employees are?'

I'm fine with things if you don't want to answer it, coz then we can get back to discussing the article that Malikshah posted, which I'd prefer. The bullyboy tactics of 'pro-Israel' and pro-war groups in the US is something that should concern everyone, and creeps like Daniel Pipes and his Campus Watch crap need to learn that they can't force academics to teach their slanted and hatefilled view of the world...

Violet...

[Malikshah]

14. The term is Obfuscation. An oldie but a goodie

obfuscation

n 1: confusion resulting from failure to understand 2: the activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving them baffled or bewildered 3: darkening or obscuring the sight of something

Such is life with some.

[acmejack]

5. I'll do the same.

This is an important topic, too many are overly eager to suppress any attempt at dialog on this topic. We need to at least be open to discussion on this matter, it is the elephant in the room...

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. MLK said it for me

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Keep your chin up! There are millions of us out here in America that are willing to defend ideas and the people that are on the front line exposing them to our children. Ideas are what these people fear. What does that make them?

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Silence in Class...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1746227,00.html