It is amazing what a hashtag can accomplish.
“I’m going to just go ahead and say it … the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this ‘racial tension,’” [Texas elementary school teacher Karen] Fitzgibbons said. “I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I’m sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing; or knew it and didn’t care.”
The veteran teacher expressed regret that black Americans were no longer legally obligated to live in segregated neighborhoods and attend separate schools from whites.
“I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone,” Fitzgibbons said. “Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something. Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin….GO!”
She punctuated her rant with a hashtag that insisted “I’m not racist” […]
You know, that sounds exactly like something a fourth grader would say. At some point in life a person has to stop defining themself by that impeccable imaginary self who lives inside the head. There comes a point where a person has to own up to the fact that their real internal self is either incredibly racist, or else trapped helplessly in a body that has long since run out of their control.
I also think this should put to bed any questions about how exactly it is that black students get punished far worse as early as preschool.
piratedan
she just plays one on the interwebs……
Eric U.
what exactly does it take before this person considers someone a racist?
Tim F.
@Eric U.: Think of it like torture. It has to be one worse than whatever we did.
Scott S.
@Eric U.: First, they have to be black…
cahuenga
“I’m not racist” is an instant tell.
JPL
I’m not a racist, but……………………………….
means you’re a racist…
Belafon
My kids, in the fourth grade, would not have been self aware enough to know that what they’re saying is fucked up and they need to qualify it with “but I’m not a bad person.” That’s a fully adult thought that they hope to qualify their responsibility away.
comrade dread
A good rule of thumb is that if you must say, “I’m not a racist/sexist/misogynist/asshole, but…”, then you should stop talking at that moment or you are a racist/sexist/misogynist/asshole.
The words “I’m not” are not a magical incantation that absolves you and shields you from criticism.
Jerzy Russian
Is this a real person? I would like to think that she is some elaborate internet hoax, since the alternative is too depressing to think about.
The Thin Black Duke
Does this racist idiot still have a job?
Amir Khalid
These people sincerely believe that their racist convictions are not racist, no matter what others have told them.
sukabi
@Belafon: also, unless kids have been fed a steady diet of racism and hate, a fourth grader wouldn’t be expressing those opinions. Hate and racism are taught.
Tim F.
@The Thin Black Duke: Her school is in damage control. I think the parents of the next black kid she suspends or flunks will have her scalp. Further I expect the parents of black students who already had a bad experience in her class to be making the principal’s life hell as we speak, or lawyering up, or both.
People don’t put up with shit like they used to.
rp
Look, I think Marx was on to something. Society functions better if we take from each according to his ability, and we provide to each according to his need. #Iamnotacommunist
Belafon
@rp: Hey, Mark Rubio. Glad to see you here.
Belafon
@The Thin Black Duke: This is Texas we’re talking about, but Florida removed the principal who supported the police officer on his facebook page, thought his school was 98% minority.
redshirt
She can’t be racist – she likes Oprah!
shawn
im sadly less surprised by the racism than i am by the stupidity of saying this outloud.
the only “I’m not (x) but…” that is true is “I’m not hungy but yes I will have another handful of peanut butter pretzels”
The Thin Black Duke
@Tim F.:
Ironically enough, that’s what makes media platforms like twitter so valuable. Back in the day, bigoted idiots like this schoolteacher used to get away with racist shit all the time because they committed their crimes anonymously. Thankfully, in this Brave New World we live in, fools spew their hateful nonsense in public, even though they should know better.
Betty Cracker
@Tim F.: A principal in Miami got shit-canned for commenting on that case yesterday in a newspaper comments section using his Facebook ID. His comments were a thousand times less offensive but were still considered controversial enough that the district yanked his command. I realize the racist “I’m-not-racist” lady is in TX, but will she really be allowed to keep her post after that?
ETA: Belafon got there first…
srv
You can only keep people down so long before they blow up.
scav
Has she commented yet under the I’mnotstupid, I’mnotevil, I’mnotdesparatelyseekingattention and I’mnotlookingformonetarysupport hashtags?
Betty Cracker
@shawn: It’s so stupid that it makes me wonder if she’s just tired of teaching and is looking to hit the wingnut GoFundMe jackpot…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tim F.:
Thanks FSM for that. Technology has helped a bit. While 30 years ago this racist teacher might have made this comment to a local paper or television news show, but those of us not in TX may or may not have heard about it. Now, we all know it the next day.
There can be some solidarity in not putting up with this shit anymore. How much damage control the school can do will be interesting. The BoA vendor put the “go back to Section 8” shouter in McKinney on leave.
Germy Shoemangler
History Repeating
MomSense
@rp:
You may not be a communist but you very well could be an apostle. Acts 4:32-37
Also, too the apostles did not look kindly upon people who held any of their possessions back.
bobbo
It’s her “true and honest opinion,” which makes it a science fact, I’m pretty sure.
ranchandsyrup
As my FB feed constantly reminds me, only the KKK are racist and moderate christians tamp them down so their actions are irrelevant.
Joel
“Not to be an asshole, but…”
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: Yep, we’ll see if my state is at least good as yours in this situation.
MomSense
@ranchandsyrup:
I’m told that the real racists are those of us who play the race card by calling people out on their racism or something.
C.V. Danes
See what happens when you let them sit in the front of the bus? Next thing you know, they’ll want to vote.
Karen in GA
Once again, a white person who thinks saying black people are inferior is simply stating a fact, and believes that just letting them live their lives is doing them some kind of favor.
Moron.
mdblanche
“I am not a racist, but… and this is a big but…“
Haydnseek
“Let me tell you something about the Negro…..”
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Don’t delete honey, be honest….
And she doesn’t want segregation…she wants what White folks were able to do Black folks during segregation
CONGRATULATIONS!
Everybody is at last a little bit racist. Everyone. It’s perfectly normal.
But when you say shit like this:
or this:
You are motherfucking Grand Dragon caliber racist. And you should at least own it and be proud, instead of claiming that you are somehow “not racist”. Because you are. And not just a little bit.
PS: my hometown newshole finally woke up to the fact that their comment sections were less attractive than an open sewer, and thought changing to Facebook logins only would clean it up. So did I; I didn’t think these people would dare attach their real names to the filth they spew daily out of their rancid cakeholes.
BOY WAS I FUCKING WRONG ABOUT THAT
Gimlet
Via Rawstory
An Arizona pastor said he prayed for God to rip out the heart of Caitlyn Jenner and cast her soul into the fiery depths of Hell.
Pastor Steven Anderson, who predicted an “AIDS-free Christmas” if all LGBT people were put to death, explained to his congregation at Faithful Word Baptist Church that it was not wrong to pray for the deaths of your enemies – like he had done for President Barack Obama.
ranchandsyrup
@MomSense: So many hurt whitey feelings out there. That’ll happen when society slaps a band-aid on a gaping wound and expects for there not to be any infections.
MattF
On a (slightly) more serious approach to Ms. Fitzgibbons’ attitudes, one sees that, most likely, she’s never had her prejudices challenged and never really considered that she might not be seen as a ‘good’ person because of those prejudices. There’s a social context here in which her views are just ‘what everyone thinks’ but virtually never says.
scav
They also better be careful as these sorts of incidents creep out of the poorer areas and into their precious gated middle-class communities. What are the odds that those kids are all ‘dropouts’ etc? Are we moving into circumstances where families might have not only the interest but the means to pursue defamation cases? That stupid assumption about the educational attainment of kids should hit hard on a purported educator (maybe she just needs to shavel enough bible at those in her classroom so it doesn’t matter). So district, what’d ya think?
bemused
Another example of a racist never learning self-awareness due to growing up surrounded by racists never learning self-awareness. To be this ignorant, people are living their entire lives in a bubble.
Germy Shoemangler
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
My local media did the same thing. And the most racist bullshit comes from from facebook people who list their occupations as for-profit colleges or public highschools.
Rommie
“Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something”
It’s equally, and sadly, possible she’s referring to the 1850’s and 60’s rather than the 1950’s and 60’s. Or perhaps both.
Hard to say you’re misunderstood when you use True and Honest Opinion, however – she failed the Weasel Word lesson.
Betty Cracker
@Belafon: I’m not entirely convinced getting rid of the Miami principal was the right thing to do. I disagree with what he said 100% and think he showed poor judgment in commenting on a story with his FB account. But it wasn’t in the same league with what the TX teacher said. She certainly deserves an immediate shit-canning. I’m not sure he does.
RSA
@The Thin Black Duke:
It’s reasonable to assume that this teacher has the Texas equivalent of tenure. It’s a good question what would count as just cause for terminating her contract. That is, she has the same job protection as an English teacher who has students read Huckleberry Finn or a biology teacher who covers evolution. Her Facebook post is good evidence, though, that she’s unable to treat black kids fairly in her classroom, and to me that seems like enough. I suspect that she’ll resign, maybe move elsewhere and get another teaching job.
scav
Oh, what a conundrum for the district. Plus, idiot woman is making massive assumptions about the educational attainment about a lot of kids (silly “educator”, but maybe logic, reason and kindness are a part of your classroom offerings, just bible-shoveling and test-prep). Really should be careful about this especially as these incidents move into the green-lawned gated elysiums of whatever. That’s a lot of kids to slander with assumptions and some of them increasingly might have families with not only the desire but the means to do something about it.
Amir Khalid
@Gimlet:
I guess Reverend Anderson’s not big on that “Love thine enemy” part.
scav
Whatever I’m trying to say in’t making it past the filters, but miss idiot is slandering a lot of kids with assumptions about their educational attainment that are problematic for a supposed educator and about a specific set of individuals that increasingly might have not only the desire but the means to do something about it.
Bostondreams
@Betty Cracker: I’m working in Miami today, at the district office actually, and my understanding is that he still has job, but has for now been ‘reassigned’, in part because of the demographics of his school.
scav
test
eta. Don’t kniw what’s tripping filter but this “educator” is skating on thin ice in multiple directions. this event in thie green-lawned gated elysiums is making thing increasinly intersting in the cockroaches scuttling out.
PurpleGirl
@sukabi:
You’ve got to taught to be afraid
of people whose eyes are oddly made,
of people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to carefully taught.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
Lt. Cable, South Pacific
(Apologies to Richard Rodgers if I’ve misremembered the words.)
scav
elysium?Well, that’s not the trip word. but golly is this woman dense, can I go so far?
I give up. what an exemplar for TX heart and education. oh golly.
Frankensteinbeck
I am not even slightly surprised. Racists rarely think ‘I hate blacks.’ They believe horrible things about blacks. Since she sincerely believes everything she’s saying is true, and she’s just stating facts, she also sincerely believes her reaction is totally reasonable and not racist and anyone who calls her that is judging her unfairly. The racism she sees is that blacks are shielded from and whites are persecuted for telling the obvious truth.
You have to understand, guys, they believe this shit. Mild racists believe much milder versions – such as that young black man looks a little scary, like he might be a mugger or something, and it’s better not to take a chance.
EDIT – Honestly, the only thing at all unusual here is that she hasn’t learned that saying certain things in public gets you publicly shames. Except from her resentful tone, she obviously has learned, and she’s fed up with being discriminated against and won’t let racism stop her from telling the truth anymore.
EDIT EDIT – Tea Party in a nutshell, really.
Hal
Why can’t she just admit she’s racist? She’s willing to express an opinion that segregation was right and that black people are all thugs and criminals, but she’s still worried about being labeled a racist?
Betty Cracker
@Bostondreams: Thanks for the info. I wonder what will ultimately happen to him…
Bill
I’m constantly amazed that people who support an “original intent” interpretation of the constitution, and insist words have fixed meanings, then seek to completely redefine a clear word like “racist.”
I have a feeling this teacher is one of those people.
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
I’m not gay, but the guy sucking me off sure is.
Frankensteinbeck
@Bill:
She’s pissed off at being called a racist for telling what she believes is the obvious, factual truth.
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
@Frankensteinbeck:
That’s it, exactly.
Racisms is ugly hatefulness, and they just pity blacks who are stupid, criminal, and promiscuous, so therefore they aren’t racist.
There’s a reason some of these people call themselves “race realists”.
J
My question for people like this–not that I’ll ever have a chance to put it to anyone-is: ‘OK, then what would a real racist say?’ or ‘OK, then who is a real racist?’ (possible answers: Hitler, the grand dragon kleagle of the KKK or black people who aren’t demanding to be re-segregated or re-enslaved??
She should just be honest and say ‘I am a racist & proud of it’.
gelfling545
@The Thin Black Duke: I was wondering that myself. I pity the kids subjected to being “educated” by this person.
Bill
@LWA (Liberal With Attitude): @Frankensteinbeck:
Here’s the definition of “racism” (per our good friends at Merriam-Webster):
“1. : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2: racial prejudice or discrimination”
Whether you believe these abhorrent views to be “facts” or not, they are clearly racist as that word is defined.
Amir Khalid
@Hal:
Racists are bad people. She is not a bad person, not her, oh no!
Bill
@J: The irony of course being that Hitler and the KKK would say exactly the same things she’s saying.
Kylroy
I think twitter could save us and the world a whole lot of time by automatically replacing #imnotaracist with, say #racistindenial.
khead
Shorter Karen: I want my country back!
Roger Moore
@Rommie:
I think the 1860s have something to teach us: you have to crush the racist assholes completely if you want to get anywhere.
MattF
@Hal: I think ‘racist’ has various social implications. She’s not one of them.
bemused
@J:
That’s an excellent question! I’m definitely going to use that when the opportunity arises. It should be entertaining listening to “I’m not a racist” folk’s reactions. I predict a lot of mental struggling to come up with answers demonstrating how they are different from “real” racists.
scav
She somehow seems likely to be one of the people that announces that Jesus has forgiven them, thus seemingly putting themselves above their so-called Lord and Savior and knowing exactly what will be in his mind on Judgement day. God’s ways are mysterious in many ways but he’s totally for absolutely sure forgiven me my trespasses while totally condemning yours.
shawn
@Betty Cracker: a few people have alluded to this in a few posts of late – is there some evidence of a rash – like more than 5 – of people just giving money to people who have said outlandishly things?
boatboy_srq
Just two words for Ms. Fitzgibbons: Ennis Cosby.
D58826
@Roger Moore: And sad to say that didn’t happen. Post WWI Germany had it’s stab in the back conspiracy which lead to WWII, and the American South has been nurturing it’s lost cause for even longer. It won’t end well.
Look around the country and see what ‘responsible’ republicans want to do or how they behave:
1. Walker in Wisc. – destroy the labor movment and gut the university system
2. Brownbeck in Kansas – among other things destroy the public schools and eliminate the judiciary if they continue to issue opinions he doesn’t like
3. Christie – cuts a deal with the public sector unions on pensions and benefits and then promptly goes back on the deal. And it’s legal
4. the clown in Maine – will veto every bill until the democrats do as he says
5. Scott in Fla. – he is pro-life as long as you don’t get sick so no medicaid expansion
6. Jindahl in La – the list is to long
7, abbot of tx – Obama is going to invade Texas.
8 Mitch the Turtle – he won’t confirm any more of Obama’s judicial nominees in site of his constitutional duty.
9. Calgary Ted making bad jokes about Joe Biden last week.
We have gone way past 3rd rate banana republic. Even give the failed state of Somali has a better government.
boatboy_srq
When (as an “elementary school teacher”) your livelihood means being surrounded by fourth graders all day long, it becomes less surprising that you sound like one yourself. Just an observation – plus my earlier pithier comment is in moderation…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
always warms my heart when it’s a teacher, especially an elementary school teacher, spewing this shit
One of her favorite students was black, and they still exchange Christmas cards. And that black lady she used to teach with is one of her closest friends. They had lunch several times and Karen even invited her into her home. She never uses that word. Only white trash are racists, and Karen can trace her lineage back to a Civil War colonel and a next door neighbor of Sam Houston’s sister. Or something.
NorthLeft12
Another item to be filed under people not putting up with shit anymore;
Not sure if this is playing in the US, but here is a story about a Nobel prize winning scientist getting himself into trouble by making sexist remarks about women in the Lab [ie. his workplace].
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/tim-hunt-nobel-prize-winning-scientist-resigns-honorary-u-k-post-after-sexist-remarks-1.3108936
A fair number of the comments on the CBC site are predictably apologetic under the “it was just a joke” and “people are too sensitive” to ” he was right”.
Personally, I am very glad that people are getting called out on their racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. bullshit. ITS.ABOUT.TIME.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gimlet:
Then there’s Pat Robertson, who told a caller it’s probably a good thing her 3-year-old child died because he might have grown up to be Hitler.
Chris
@Hal:
Because racist is a bad LABEL, and it’s vitally important that she not be labelled something that society says equals “bad person.”
It’s phenomenally important to conservatives that they be able to consider themselves the heroes of the story.
Betty Cracker
@shawn: I don’t track every crackpot wingnut cause, but the fact that the anti-gay pizza people banked around a million and hundreds of thousands were raised online for the cop who shot the kid in Ferguson, etc., probably isn’t lost on losers who seek professional martyrdom like the teacher in question. It’s obvious from her message she knew it would cause a massive blow-back. Wouldn’t surprise me if she thought maybe she could profit from it.
Shakezula
And a lovely swan dive into the victim pool.
“Go ahead and bash meeee!!” [Splash!]
schrodinger's cat
@NorthLeft12: If that bastard felt free to tell this “joke” to a bunch of reporters, what he must be like when there are no cameras around. I can only imagine what the women in his lab or his female PhD students must have had to go through. I guess a Nobel doesn’t make you noble.
SiubhanDuinne
@D58826:
FTFY
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: one of my racist uncles, the nastiest, was nonetheless smart enough to hate the Archie Bunker show because he knew he was the butt of the joke
Botsplainer
@Betty Cracker:
I kinda like the idea of him staying at that school and suffering a bit each day.
Patricia Kayden
@The Thin Black Duke: That’s the only thing I want to know. It’s interesting that she deleted her comments after they were widely disseminated on social media as if that would solve the problem.
How dumb is this teacher?
J
@bemused: I’m now curious about my own question. Perhaps some of them would distinguish between ‘scientific’ racism, a matter of genetics or ‘blood’ and their view, which they would see as about ‘culture’. I really don’t know. This school teacher pretty much said ‘I judge people by the color of their skin’ and classify them accordingly.
Aimai
@Eric U.: these people think that something can be classified as racist only if it has no apparent economic, political, historical or philosophical rationale. As long as they think they’ve offered any kind of reason for their racist antipathy they think the comment is fair and non racist.
Patricia Kayden
@Tim F.: I would hope that there won’t be any future students for her to suspend as she should be terminated based on her racist post. There is no way she would be teaching my child.
Anonymous At Work
While it wasn’t on South Park, the South Park people did it best. “I don’t wanna sound queer or nothing…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQegG2MHMs
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
This. The way I usually think about it when somebody uses the “I was only joking” excuse is that he may well have been joking, but the humor would only appeal to an asshole. Telling a joke is no excuse if the humor depends on bigoted stereotypes.
bemused
@J:
I think they really believe they can’t be racist if they don/t use racist terms such as the N word, etc. even though everything do say is obviously, to most people, racist.
Oh and they say they have black & brown friends. I wonder if they have asked their “friends” if they are racist. Doubt it.
J
Trying to think of a context in which the ‘I’m not a racist, but….’ doesn’t collapse immediately. I don’t actually believe this one works, but I believe I can construct a line of reasoning behind this remark that isn’t obviously absurd.
Twenty or more years ago when I was living in Britain, my then very elderly landlady said, if memory serves, ‘I’m not a racist, but the Pakistanis who run the corner shop are rather smelly’. Now in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if one could attribute to her the further thought ‘which is just like those people’ , but it’s just possible that her further thought was ‘I want to forestall any suspicion that it’s the Pakistani-ness of the shopkeepers that I mean to fault’. I rather doubt it though, and it wouldn’t work for the fourth grade teacher whose remarks can be fairly paraphrased as: ‘I’m not a racist, but [fill in blatant statement of racism here]’.
Roger Moore
@J:
I can kind of see that one. It’s hard if you have problems with a particular member of a group that’s usually a target of discrimination, especially if your complaint in that case is that they adhere to a negative stereotype. That said, perhaps the correct response is to keep your mouth shut instead of giving people a reason to think you’re a racist.
Trentrunner
The teacher has now been “relieved from her teaching duties” according to her school district office.
And, yes, in a racist culture, EVERYONE is at least a little bit racist.
In a sexist culture, EVERYONE is at least a little bit sexist.
In a heterosexist culture, EVERYONE is at least a little bit heterosexist.
But that woman was a full-on apartheid-fantasizing freakshow who needs to be nowhere near students of any kind ever.
shawn
@Betty Cracker: eh idk, its clearly not as common as you and some other are starting to paint it, but still maybe she thought that. but i wonder if amending or imagining her motives to include that doesn’t bail her out a little bit on the racism front – like if she is just saying it for the money well… still wouldnt be okay but i have less problem with profiteers who dupe racists than actual racists
NorthLeft12
@schrodinger’s cat: I wonder if there will be any follow-up stories regarding Mr. Hunt’s treatment of women in the Lab? He sure resigned his honorary position fairly quickly after first giving the standard a-hole nopology….”Sorry if I caused anyone any offence.” while restating his belief that women in the Lab are disruptive.
I guess winning a Nobel Prize in science does not ensure that the person has common sense or decency. What a maroon.
Betty Cracker
@shawn: You must have data that I haven’t accessed to conclude that it’s not as common as I’m supposedly painting it. As I said, I haven’t done a study on it, so I don’t know for sure, but it seems like lately when there’s a wingnut cause célèbre, a call to show support by throwing money is sure to follow. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the phenomenon, however common or uncommon, attracted hopeful grifters.
bemused
@J:
The answer to the question “Who is the real racist then?” according to Fox propaganda and rightwingers who parrot Fox is that anyone who accuses someone of being a racist is the real racist for calling the racist a racist!
NorthLeft12
Regarding the teacher’s comments, it is hard to imagine that someone with any kind of education or training in teaching can really think like that. Can just anyone teach in Texas?
I agree 100% with any parent that would say “That teacher is not going to teach my kid!”. And frankly, I would not want her to teach anybody’s kid.
shawn
@Betty Cracker: i hear what you are saying and i don’t want to miss the steak for the potatoes but the way you said it “the wingnut GoFundMe jackpot” sounded to me, and maybe I was reaching, like you think it happens all the time. when i asked if it was really a thing, you listed two before you got to etc. and it was your claim in the first place (at least on this thread) – i was just wondering if it was very common or just a couple of isolated incidents – you guys paint with a very broad brush around here and sometimes that is absolutley appropriate but sometimes it isn’t – that why i asked
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@NorthLeft12: I fear that in Texas, there will not be a surfeit of parents who would say “That teacher is not going to teach my kid!”
shawn
an example of the broad brush I was talking about
97.a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) says: June 11, 2015 at 3:38 pm [email protected]: I fear that in Texas, there will not be a surfeit of parents who would say “That teacher is not going to teach my kid!”
Betty Cracker
@shawn: Here are four more examples of fundraising for wingnut martyrs I found in just a few minutes on Google with searches that are solely regarding cases I remember off the top of my head:
Sweet Cakes by Melissa
Arlene’s Flowers
George Zimmerman
Patricia Jannuzzi
Add that to the Memories Pizza people and the hundreds of thousands raised for Officer Wilson, and that’s the “more than five” examples you asked for, and I’m sure there are many others. So is it a thing? I would say yes. YMMV.
shawn
@Betty Cracker: cool, thanks
Brachiator
@NorthLeft12:
It might be useful to consider some of the background here. Hunt taught at University College London. A statement from the school notes:
What was the background occasion to Hunt’s remarks?
He insults women at an event meant to honor them. This kind of thing has to be sad and dispiriting for those attending,
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Hunt also has the longest fucking nose hair on the planet. Jesus God. He must not be married — a male or female partner would surely tell him to take a hedge clipper to that gnarly growth!
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
I will never be able to get that image out of my head!
They don’t give a Nobel for nose hair. But maybe a Pullit Sir?
Hunt is married to Mary Collins, professor of immunology at University College London. They have two children, and my sympathies.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Maybe she’s sick of the sexist knob and secretly enjoys exposing him to ridicule by not warning him about the nose hair.
When I was in college, I had a professor with unbelievably bad body odor. I could literally find his office through the maze of hallways by following my nose, and everyone sat in the back of the class to escape the olfactory assault, even though it was a relatively small seminar-style class. We all wondered if he had a spouse, and if so, why she (or he) didn’t gently inform Professor Stank about his little problem.
D58826
@NorthLeft12:
Well I can imagine someone thinking like that regardless of their education. What I find so hard to believe is that a decade into the social media revolution the number of people who are stupid enough to actually post it to the internet and then be surprised when it blows up in their face.
There is an old joke about engaging brain before opening mouth. Well I think that can be updated to refer to the enter key
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
There must have been a number of these musty professors roaming the college plain. I had one, too.
And yeah, Hunt’s wife is either getting back at him or is extremely understanding.
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: Wingnut gravy train, all aboard…. these poor folks are just trying to get in on that sweet cash that their ‘betters’ have been bathing in for decades…. Huckabee, Palin, any and all televangelists…. ;they’ve been sending their money to them for a while, they’re just trying to get what’s due them…
/gag
NorthLeft12
@Brachiator: I did not realize that the conference was for female scientists. It is hard to imagine what Mr. Hunt was thinking to believe that this “joke” would go over with this crowd.