Fundraiser For "White Male" Illness Dropped 241
gubachwa writes "The student association at Carleton University in Canada recently voted that Cystic Fibrosis was a charity unworthy of receiving money raised during orientation week fund-raising activities. The reason behind the decision, as given in the motion on which the student association voted, is that Cystic Fibrosis 'has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men.'" I'm speechless.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Did they repeal their racist and sexist attitude or is that still okay?
Re:Idle, annoying and out of date (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that it happened in the first place should be very worthy of note.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is the least they can do. Seriously though -- they were "misinformed" that the disease that only affects white males but that doesn't excuse the fact that a disease is still a disease and they were being racist douchebags by locking it out in the first place.
Re:Already reversing that decision (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that the negative publicity has motivated them to back-peddle in no way excuses the original decision.
But thanks for the update.
Re:Update (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they were misinformed, but so what? The fact that they would vote based on that criteria, affecting only "white men", is just as disgusting as voting against a fundraiser for sickle-cell anemia because a great proportion of those suffering from it are black.
Some of the politics universities are associated with is downright disgusting. University students, I've seen, are often anti-freedom of speech (for political correctness) in the LEFT-WING direction because "people just shouldn't say that" and yes, rightly or wrongly there is a huge stigma against being conservative in any sense--I don't mean against gays or whatever, I mean small-government, fiscal conservatives, not the Republican "conservative". Throw in some of the weirdo racial ideas where "race is just a social construct it doesn't really exist we shouldn't judge based on race!" along with the "affirmative action is necessary to protect racial groups that I just said didn't really exist!" in the next breath and it's hard not to roll your eyes or become disgusted.
Then there was my black studies class I took to see if it was everything I thought it would be. Oh was it ever! The text book was written by ex-felon Maulana Karenga, Black Panther and inventor of Kwanzaa; the book was full of Afrocentrism, anti-capitalist bullshit, had whooping factual errors (even claimed that blacks were the first to the Americas leaving behind the Olmec statues!) and went so far as to capitalize "Black" and kept "white" lowercase. The premise of the class was really attacking everything that was "European-American" and exalting everything "African", of course everything "bad" like capitalism, competition, the patriarchy, empirical science was associated with the "European-American worldview" and everything "good" like "holism, caring and sharing, matrilineal descent, and intuition" were part of the "African worldview". Do note that the same type of distinction is made by loony feminists as well.
University racial politics are really disgusting and I think a lot of it stems from stupid, naive kids entering college without the ability to think critically; they mean well but are easily led.
Those are my observations, YMMV.
As bad a decision as it gets (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Idle, annoying and out of date (Score:4, Insightful)
But hey lets bash for a while anyways as though we don't know that this is already out of date.
Who cares if it has been changed? The mere fact that this sort of assinine stupidity happened in the first place is news enough. Stupidity is defeated on a daily basis - that doesn't make it less stupid or less worthy of discussion.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Cystic fibrosis only affects people who have cystic fibrosis, which is a tiny minority of the population (a much smaller minority than white men). So if they must choose a charity that represents the entire student body, it's clearly not suitable, since most of the students do not have CF and never will.
If that is their criterion, the only choice open to them is just to give the money back to the students. Any other use would be favouring one minority or another.
Sad and Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Diseases that affect minorities tend to receive, not just less, but disproportionately less funding than better known, "white" diseases, just because they get crowded out of the awareness space that correlates directly to fundraising dollars. CUSA could have accomplished the same intent of switching to an under-fundraised disease without the absurd act of saying "we don't want to help white males". They could have said "we want to help fight this disease that's been overlooked until now because it's mainly minorities that suffer from it." Their heart was in the right place, from all the stories I've read. They were just shockingly tone-deaf in their do-goodism.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but do the students not belong to the community called "Canada", to which CF sufferers also belong?
But this isn't about "communities" is it? No, it is "race" and "sex" counting. It is the most obscene consequence of multi-culti racism and sexism. Dividing the citizenry into camps defined by their race and sex, whose merit is contingent upon race and sex. It is racism and sexism, by definition.
Re:Update (Score:2, Insightful)
The point isn't to benefit the students directly. The point is to benefit the communities to which they belong.
An example: Slashdot decides to have a fund raising event. They want to benefit the nerd community, so they decide to give to research into Asperger's Syndrome -- not because every Slashdotter has Asperger's, but because it's quite common in the nerd community.
This is sort of what they were aiming for.
Re:It's CUSA - business as usual (Score:5, Insightful)
It's amazing how much money CUSA cost the university in Alumni giving every year. Every Carleton grad I know refuses to give based solely on CUSA; and the fact I can see the main campus from my office window I can tell you I know quite a few grads.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
The point isn't to benefit either the students OR their communities. Otherwise it would be called "investment", not "charity". "Charity" means helping people AGAINST your own intrest.
If they're mere investment bankers, a sort of insurance salesmen, then they should call themselves such.
Re:Update (Score:2, Insightful)
Have you noticed how tolerant "diversity" advocates are of different viewpoints ? They're about as interested in helping others as the muslim terrorists. They merely want power, to push their view on society. Their cause is long dead.
America beats Europe by ten miles when it comes to being less racist. And compared to muslims, well they're still massacring blacks for being black in Sudan, and massacring their own for not having the correct "religious" (political in reality, there is not a single religious thought in the cesspool that goes by the name of "islam") inclination.
But diversity advocates have moved on. Instead of diversity they seek to create "thought crime". The very thing they accuse republicans of doing, but when looking at actual laws they always have distinctly lefty signatures beneath them. And you find nearly all totalitarian lefties in a single party.
Re:Update (Score:3, Insightful)
That would make things like headscarves for women racist. Actually since they're meant as a mark of separation, a mark that they want nothing to do with infidel men, they kinda are, aren't they ?
Re:As bad a decision as it gets (Score:5, Insightful)
Preferably in the presence of his parents, so they can be devastated for a second time.
And beat the living shit out of that bastard too. Just claim he fell town a flight of stairs. Twice.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: They were being unintentional racists.
As a white man (Score:1, Insightful)
As a white mail I couldn't care if someone makes fun of me for anything whether it's race, sex, or whatever and on first read through I thought big deal.
But then it hit me, if they had chosen not to support a charity for sickle cell anaemia because it only affects black people then my god there'd be an uproar.
So I'm not sure what to think really, whether it's sad that they'd do this or whether it's sad that black people make such a fuss about something that has now also affected me but instead of making me angry, or violent has left me feeling simply apathetic.
Maybe there is some truth in what some have been saying about Obama becoming president- racism is only a deal if you let it be and some minorities simply have been dwelling on it too long and bringing their children up to let it be a problem too.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
So if I claim it's wrong to fund sickle cell research because it only affects black people that's OK? Somehow it sounds like I could get tarred and feathered if I actually said that!
Human rights complaint. (Score:4, Insightful)
If I was a student at Carleton I would file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, if for nothing but the delicious irony.
As much as I hate human rights commissions, this is a perfect opportunity to throw some of the same destructive invective back at those so eager to label any and all things as racist and sexist.
Re:Update (Score:2, Insightful)
CF also affects the family/friends/loved ones/caregivers of those with CF.
Re:Update (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Idle, annoying and out of date (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this is a rather good argument for removing any obligation to pay into these idiotic student societies.
Definition of Racism (Score:5, Insightful)
...but it wasn't racist. They weren't discriminating against white men, they were being extremist everything-must-be-inclusive-of-everybody PC.
This is racism. They are making their decision based on race. What they were trying to do, who they were discriminating for or against matters not. Their decision was based on no other criteria than race and that is the textbook definition of racism.
Re:Update (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to wonder, if we applied the same logic to government funding, would it then be ok to deny aids research funding because it primarily effects blacks and queers? Breast cancer seems to mostely effect women, is it still bad to not want to support research in that?
I follow the logic you put forth in their defense, I'm just wondering why it wasn't universally applied. In 2007, the students held their annual charity ball to support Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind / Hopewell Eating Disorders Centre. In 2008, the students held their annual charity ball to support the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary / Rideau Street Youth Enterprises
Blind people and people with eating disorders can't represent the entire school or community. A youth organization or wild life preserve in one tiny area can't either and yet we are fed this story in hopes that no one notices the racists tones. No, we can't help the evil white man- can we.
And your comparison about Asperger's Syndrome is way off the mark. It's would be closer to having the charity drive for Asperger's Syndrome and then canceling it because it only effected black people or gays while not holding enough common sense between the lot of them to figure out that was a flat out lie. It isn't that they didn't want to support the disease, they already decided they did until someone convinced them that race and gender mattered and they couldn't think critically enough to question them or the information presented to them. Seriously, are we all the same under the skin if a disease or illness is selective enough to only effect one gender of one race? It goes country to the entire "they no different then you" argument passed down to get people to think twice about racial biases because of visible differences. This is where logic left the table and raq racist emotion came in. You can accept their excuses, it doesn't matter much, but don't fault someone for not falling for it..
Re:Update (Score:2, Insightful)
No, they were being intentional racists; ones that thought their 'higher' moral position justified it. They were also stunningly hypocritical in making a stand against perceived racism in medical funding my making a racist decision of their own.
Those of us in the US should expect at least 4 years of this sort of doublespeak.
Re:As bad a decision as it gets (Score:2, Insightful)
Ambrose Bierce said, "There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy."
I think dragging those idiots up and down the stairs a few times would qualify you for a Nobel Peace Prize, since it would improve the world so much, especially if they didn't survive.
After all, the generation that fought and WW II understood perfectly well that sometimes the best way to bring about peace is to kill the evildoers and make such an example of them that people are afraid to screw with you after that.
CF Patients (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sad and Stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
They could have said "we want to help fight this disease that's been overlooked until now because it's mainly minorities that suffer from it."
Like AIDS. No one ever does anything about AIDS.