When I was growing up, you had to learn to take a joke — jokes, after all, were all around.
These days, it appears they barely exist.
Where they’re found, beware the wreckage which awaits.
Such seems the case at St. Albans School: Administrators are allegedly laying down the law where comedy’s concerned.
The Washington Free Beacon reports it’s obtained a draft of the institution’s “anti-bias” policy.
As revealed, the Washington D.C. school’s serious about being serious.
Per the policy, attendees may be expelled for a single instance of “misplaced humor.”
And the state of a student’s heart is of no concern; what matters is whether anyone is offended.
“It is the impact of hate speech, rather than the intent of those perpetrating it, that is of utmost importance,” the document declares.
Might those in charge consider that “hate” is an emotion, and therefore “hate speech” would denote intent?
It’s not necessarily on the docket.
Those in hot water, by the way, will be male — as framed by the Free Beacon, St. Albans is “one of the oldest and most prestigious boys schools in the United States.”
Boys will be boys — but perhaps not at St. Albans.
Expulsion will possibly result “even in the case of a single expression, act, or gesture.”
And not only should students stay away from offense they didn’t intend; the Powers That Be compel all to observe and report:
We also expect that anyone, whether student, faculty, staff, or family member, who witnesses, or has knowledge of an incident of hate speech, will report the incident to the appropriate individual.
St. Albans isn’t the first to enforce such a cult-like canary-singing system:
Snitches Don't Get Stitches: School District Creates 'Bias-Based Incident' Reporting System for Students and Staff
https://t.co/zrlx8oMJ9m— RedState (@RedState) June 15, 2021
And it strikes me as a solidly significant change.
When I was a child, teachers told us, “No one likes a tattletale.”
I recall a tag once stuck to a student’s back indicating he enjoyed intimate acts with livestock.
No one got in trouble, and a lot of people laughed — including the fingered participant in animal amore.
But these days, even college students need “safe spaces” — not from physical harm, but words, ideas, and even different shades of skin.
Any one of those afflictions could cause trauma.
St. Albans is committed to avoiding such life-altering events.
Or, they may soon be.
From the Free Beacon:
It’s unclear whether the policy has formally gone into effect or is still subject to revision. But the language appears to have been more than a year in the making. In July 2020, the school publicly committed to “developing a new policy for inclusion” that “specifically addresses racial hate speech” and outlines a process for “investigating and eradicating such behavior.”
Additionally, the outlet observes St. Albans refers to Hispanics as “Latinx” (despite actual Hispanics rarely using that term) and just yesterday celebrated “Indigenous People’s Day.”
More:
In June 2020, all faculty and staff were required to read Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and that September all middle and high school students read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. St. Albans also curates an extensive list of “resources,” including Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility and an introductory textbook on Critical Race Theory.
The $50,000+/year school also sponsors an “Alliance of White Antiracists.”
For rich kids who offer “misplaced humor,” discipline will likely be doled via the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
Several years ago, comedian Brian Regan was asked, “Do they have Sunday School in LA?”
He replied, “I don’t even think they have Sunday.”
Perhaps something similar can be said as to whether they have funny jokes at St. Alban’s.
Still, if the all-boys school wants to really get fully awoke, it’s gonna have to step it up a notch:
Woke vs. Bloke: An Elite All-Boys School Will Allegedly No Longer Call Them 'Boys'
What do they call someone who's sexually eligible to attend?https://t.co/41XaP2zxyt
— Alex Parker (@alexparker1984) October 8, 2021
And that…is no joke.
But for those of you who can take such a thing, here’s a reminder of what jokes used to be.
See if you can find one that’s absent of offense (Language Warning):
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Ron DeSantis Takes a Radical Stand, Signs a Columbus Day Declaration
LEGO Eliminates ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ Labels, Cancels Sexist Shopping Just in Time for Christmas
Pulitzer-Finalist Professor Gets Canceled for Showing Students a Film From 1965
Find all my RedState work here.
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