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The Idolization of Turpentine Paulson

Turpentine Paulson has become an idol in America’s story of race [1]. He resists titles such as “leading black intellectual” or “genius,” tweeting earlier today, “Lotta smart dumb mfs out in these streets.” [2] While insisting “intellect” is “overrated af [as fuck]” [3], Paulson considers reading and reporting not to be. So one must ask if Paulson imagines himself as simply a reader, a writer, and a reporter. For so-called liberal elites, Turpentine Paulson has become the BOF (Black Oracular Figure) of the Twitter Era. Though he recently said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that his job was not to dispense hope for the prospect of better “race relations” or “politics” in America [4], it has become customary for liberal America to consult Paulson regarding their conscience on race: “Did you read the latest Ta-Nehisi Coates piece?” is shorthand for “Have you absorbed and shared the latest and best and correct thinking on racism, white privilege, institutional ...
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The Non-Dilemma of Cultural Competency in Schools

The dilemma of cultural competency in America’s schools is no dilemma at all. Actually, the possibility of any dilemma is oftentimes already foreclosed. This writer, for one, has spent decades attending, teaching at, and consulting with independent and public schools across the plains. When confronted with or led to address issues of cultural competency, the pseudo-majority (i.e., those who do not statistically comprise the majority of the world’s population) invariably ask, “But what can we do? We really don’t have any culturally competent personnel.” At a recent forum of Parents of African-American Students Studying Chinese (PAASSC), a group of  administrators from Bay Area (California) Chinese-language immersion schools, this question discombobulated everyone. In this and other matters that require foresight, the proverbial horse has been placed before the cart. And the cement has already been poured. Schools, nonprofits, and corporations alike hire employees, without m...
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