Absolutely appalling scenes from #Harvard. #Jewish students being harassed. While protesting against the slaughter of civilians by #Israel in #palestine is justified. The usual crap of threats against those who do not agree and calling for harm to the #USA is not acceptable. Also any support for #hamas should result in those doing so being taken away. Hamas have killed many of their own people, and knew exactly what they were doing when they killed so many innocent #Israelis.
This coming April 27th I will be giving a presentation at the Harvard Divinity School's Program for the Evolution of Spirituality on confronting White supremacy in Heathenry. It is part of a larger conference on alternative spiritualities engaging in our colonial and decolonial contexts with lots of presentations scheduled that I highly recommend.
The best part is this conference is free to attend, both in-person and online via Zoom.
If you have never heard of the "Society for American Civic Renewal" (the acronym is pronounced “#sacker” by its members), it’s because they’ve been trying to stay under the radar.
Now that they are getting uncovered, they are attempting to manage the news coming out about them.
They are working to fundamentally reshape America to their vision. It sounds like a classic conspiracy theory — a bunch of rich white men on a mission from God? Really?
The thing is, there’s something about people who have managed to accumulate wealth, whether in business or by other means (like inheritance) that practically breeds hubris.
The prosperity gospel preaches that wealth is a sign that God has especially favored you, and you are privileged to rule over others by virtue of that wealth.
Kovensky has been able to unearth some details on what #SACR is about.
What is it? Among other things…
...The men TPM has identified as behind this group — and they are all men — have a few things in common. They’re all a certain kind of devout #Christian#traditionalist. They are #white. They have means, #financial and social, and are engaged in #politics.
...The members identified by TPM don’t necessarily fit the profile of the disaffected, disgruntled loner or the amped-up, testosterone-fueled militia types often found on the paranoid right-wing fringe. TPM’s reporting has identified as SACR members the president of the influential, Trump-aligned #Claremont#Institute, #Harvard#Law grads, and leading businessmen in communities scattered across America.
...Group members hold a distinct vision of America as a latter-day ancient Rome: a crumbling, decadent empire that could soon be replaced by a Christian #theocracy.
To join, the group demands faithfulness, virtue, and “#alignment,” which it describes as “#deference to and acceptance of the wisdom of our American and European Christian forebears in the political realm, a traditional understanding of #patriarchal#leadership in the household, and acceptance of traditional #Natural#Law in ethics more broadly.”
More practically, members must be able to contribute either influence, capability, or wealth in helping SACR further its goals.
"A few groups purporting to speak on behalf of #Harvard affiliates recently circulated a flagrantly #antisemitic cartoon in a post on social media channels. The cartoon, included in a longer post, depicted what appeared to be an Arab man and a Black man with nooses around their necks. The nooses are held by a hand imprinted with the Star of David, and a dollar sign appears in the middle of the star. Online condemnation of this trope-filled image was swift, and Harvard promptly issued a statement condemning the posted cartoon. While the groups associated with the posting or sharing of the cartoon have since sought to distance themselves from it in various ways, the damage remains, and our condemnation stands."
"There’s no “crisis in higher education”; there’s just a crisis of New York Times writers with daddy issues and anxiety over what the end of legacy admissions could mean for their children’s college prospects."
Claudine Gay Always Knew She’d Have a Totally Nasty, Shitty Time As President of #Harvard
"“So why did Gay take the job in the first place if she knew that it would be a stressful, distressful, & challenging one where she was sure to encounter the worst side of human nature?” Well, because it was about time. Like me, like many of us #Black#women, she wasn’t going to give up that opportunity because of fear.