Have you ever wanted to fight oppression but didn’t know how?
A Canadian professor’s come up with a way that might have eluded you for life.
Dr. Linda Manyguns is mining a method of justice linked to language — more or less.
Specifically, it relates to the written word.
The Mt. Royal University associate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization made her decree on August 30th.
Going forward, she won’t capitalize letters.
The university instructor is joining the “lowercase movement.”
If I may say so, the revolutionaries’ picket signs are sure to be a letdown. But not nearly as impotent as the lowercase-and-no-punctuation movement’s would be.
dr. linda manyguns joins the lowercase movement to reject the symbols of hierarchy wherever they are found and will not use capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition. read her full statement: https://t.co/4CIjB5bRNp pic.twitter.com/tPHDxfb3yq
— Mount Royal U (@mountroyal4u) August 30, 2021
Here’s how Linda linda laid it out:
“this is a beginning effort at describing the use of lower case on the website of the office of indigenization and decolonization.”
To be clear, she’ll still capitalize “Indigenous.”
“Indigenous people have been actively engaged in a multidimensional struggle for equality, since time immemorial. we strive for historical-cultural recognition and acknowledgment of colonial oppression that persistently devalues the diversity of our unique cultural heritages.”
The professor decries “racialization and cultural domination.” Also: discrimination.
Those “leave the mark of imbalance and abuses of power. sometimes [sites of anti-racism demonstrations] generate media interest but interest is generally fickle.”
She’s determined to accomplish equity:
“the goal of equity, diversity and inclusion of all people is synonymous with the interests of Indigenous people. we support and expand the goal of equality and inclusion to all forms of life and all people.”
According to Linda, she and others are joining “leaders like e. e. cummings, bell hooks, and peter kulchyski, who reject the symbols of hierarchy wherever they are found and do not use capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.”
“we resist acknowledging the power structures that oppress,” she proclaims, “and join the movement that does not capitalize.”
She’s supported by the school:
“the office of indigenization and decolonization supports acts that focus on inclusion and support the right of all people to positive inclusion and change.”
The topic of “indigenous” has, in America, become quite hot.
Curiously, the label is applied to people who — as stated by historians — are not indigenous.
Rather, their ancestors came to America as did other settlers, theirs from Asia via the Bering Strait (though that isn’t the only migration theory).
As for the indigenous in Canada, I sincerely hope they’re treated with all due respect.
And with respect to righting wrongs via cutting capitalization, it strikes me as a powerful sign of the times.
We appear focused on the micro, so much that it’s become the macro. The macro, subsequently, has ceased to exist.
It seems society has lost sight of a larger picture.
Thus, we end up in places such as these:
Woke in the Water: Shark Advocates Call for an End to the Word 'Attacks' in Favor of 'Interactions'
https://t.co/Y1tD6FhEkx— RedState (@RedState) July 17, 2021
Legal Journal Publishes Plea for Hate Speech Laws Protecting Animals https://t.co/2PYk00NCLq
— RedState (@RedState) June 20, 2021
Fish Fry: Social Justice Sizzles With the Woke Renaming of a Racism-Riddled Carp https://t.co/5jwOdYpN1t
— RedState (@RedState) July 19, 2021
College Schools Students and Staff on Microaggressions' 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' and the 'Myth of Meritocracy'
https://t.co/zVLKd6lrH2— RedState (@RedState) July 7, 2021
Feminist Rages Against GirlPal ‘Galentine’s Day,’ Says No Women Are Lonely, Praises Group Vomiting https://t.co/ditsFJSVJx
— RedState (@RedState) February 13, 2019
Of course, everyone has passions; and in many cases, they should be followed furiously.
But in terms of the culture as a whole, I believe our myopia has made things quite more complicated:
[LANGUAGE WARNING — and in contrast to the caption, I’m not implying this person is mentally ill]
America has a serious mental health crisis pic.twitter.com/vllVaTgAWQ
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) September 5, 2021
At one point, human beings were naked, running around in the woods.
Something tells me their thoughts were drastically different than ours.
And they might’ve possessed a perspective from which we could benefit.
I fear that, as we’ve overlooked more immense ideas, we’ve lost sight of greater joys.
Either way, concerning E.E. Cummings, The College Fix asserts he wasn’t necessarily Team Linda:
It is a common misconception that E.E. Cummings used lowercase letters to spell his name. Cummings did use unorthodox capitalization, punctuation, and spacing in his works, but he capitalized his own name more often than not. It was, in fact, one of his publishers that decided to make his name lowercase, not Cummings himself.
As for the professor, may she find peace without the Shift key.
I hope it feels Great with a capital “G.”
Or in her case, a little one.
Meanwhile, others in academia are discovering all kinds of newfangled ways to fix the world:
U. Wisconsin-Madison professor vows to fight the patriarchy by refusing to wear a bra https://t.co/LaFGuK8EO1
— The College Fix (@CollegeFix) August 9, 2021
And the revolutions march on.
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Google Trains Employees on What Leads to ‘Genocide’: Trump, Ben Shapiro and ‘All Lives Matter’
Resigning Professor Pelts State University and Its Intolerant ‘Social Justice Factory’
Find all my RedState work here.
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