Headline Irony

Part of my job as a grant writer is pulling relevant statistics and research to support the projects our clients are pitching. Sometimes, it is quick and to the point - such as pulling numbers of Census.gov. Other times, my search results turn up articles that are not at all what I need but unexpectedly entertaining. I particularly enjoy accidentally finding articles that, although written completely independently of one another, are perfect counterpoints.

Such a serendipitous event happened recently, when I stumbled upon a Slate article suggesting that Millennials don't actually understand racism. Admittedly, I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to blog about how they completely understand it, they just find it hard to take seriously considering that they have grown up in a world smothered by affirmative action and political correctness.

Before I got that far, however, this little gem crossed my path to prove the point for me far better than anything else ever could: Professor Corrects Minority Students' Capitalization and Is Accused of Racism.  Clearly having a college professor correct your grammar, capitalization, and punctuation is an act of "micro-aggression." Seriously, what else could it possibly be? Certainly not his job or anything!!


So, to the author of that surely well-intentioned Slate article, and to everyone else lamenting why racism, sexism, and the like continue to exist: take note. Allowing people to claim racism (or sexism or any other "ism" for that matter) for frivolous, patently ridiculous things (let alone supporting them in it!) will steeply erode your cause to the point that no one will ever take you seriously again.If you actually want people to believe you about racism, you'd be wise to quash or denounce nonsense accusations like this promptly and consistently.

If not, of course, that's okay too. Such behavior does, after all serve a higher purpose... it inspires Dilbert comic strips, and we all benefit from that!