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More Canadian University Political Correctness Run Amok?
More Canadian University Political Correctness Run Amok?
Recently, the student govt of Carleton University (not to be confused with Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota) voted to no longer support the Shine-a-rama fund-raising activity to support research into treatment of cystic fibrosis. Their reason? It's a disease that affects primarily white males.
Here is a copy of their resolution, as reproduced by Jonathon Kay in The National Post:
Motion to Drop Shinerama Fundraising Campaign from Orientation Week Whereas Orientation week strives to be [as] inclusive as possible; Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their diverse communities; And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men Be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign Be it Further Resolved that the CUSA representatives on the incoming Orientation Supervisory Board work to select a new broad reaching charity for orientation week. Moved: Donnie Northrup Seconded: Meera Chander
This position is truly obnoxious. It factually incorrect, and it is amazingly discriminatory. As Kay points out,
Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low. Had the author of this resolution... bothered so much as to look at Wikipedia, here is what he or she would have found: “Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent … is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.”
That same author would also have found a photo of a young, pitiful-looking black girl staring back at him from behind a mask nebuliser. (Good thing for her the disease “only affect[s] white people,” huh?)
But even if it were true that only white males got CF, what of it? We raise money for breast cancer even though it is primarily a female disease. We raise money for Tay-Sachs, even thought it strikes almost exclusively Jews. We raise money for AIDS, even though it disproportionately affects gays and blacks. That’s because we raise money to save people — not tribes.
As Susan said when she saw this,
This is surely the most repulsive manifestation of political correctness I have run across. We’re going to have to declare white males an endangered species, now that is it unacceptable even to fund research into fatal diseases that might afflict them. Take apartheid and the colour bar in the Old South, roll them all up together and it would be hard to find anything as reprehensible as this. The only possible ramping up of a position like this is to declare open season on white men.
Recently, the student govt of Carleton University (not to be confused with Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota) voted to no longer support the Shine-a-rama fund-raising activity to support research into treatment of cystic fibrosis. Their reason? It's a disease that affects primarily white males.
Here is a copy of their resolution, as reproduced by Jonathon Kay in The National Post:
Motion to Drop Shinerama Fundraising Campaign from Orientation Week Whereas Orientation week strives to be [as] inclusive as possible; Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their diverse communities; And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men Be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign Be it Further Resolved that the CUSA representatives on the incoming Orientation Supervisory Board work to select a new broad reaching charity for orientation week. Moved: Donnie Northrup Seconded: Meera Chander
This position is truly obnoxious. It factually incorrect, and it is amazingly discriminatory. As Kay points out,
Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low. Had the author of this resolution... bothered so much as to look at Wikipedia, here is what he or she would have found: “Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent … is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.”
That same author would also have found a photo of a young, pitiful-looking black girl staring back at him from behind a mask nebuliser. (Good thing for her the disease “only affect[s] white people,” huh?)
But even if it were true that only white males got CF, what of it? We raise money for breast cancer even though it is primarily a female disease. We raise money for Tay-Sachs, even thought it strikes almost exclusively Jews. We raise money for AIDS, even though it disproportionately affects gays and blacks. That’s because we raise money to save people — not tribes.
As Susan said when she saw this,
This is surely the most repulsive manifestation of political correctness I have run across. We’re going to have to declare white males an endangered species, now that is it unacceptable even to fund research into fatal diseases that might afflict them. Take apartheid and the colour bar in the Old South, roll them all up together and it would be hard to find anything as reprehensible as this. The only possible ramping up of a position like this is to declare open season on white men.
funny and sad. Show how low are university students.
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