Friday 30 September 2011

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah?

Patriotic Kool-Aid Cupcake Mom

Sarah Grunfeld, that is. One of her peers tackles that problem, in a zesty manner reminiscent of Molly Ivins' best take-downs of her goofy Texan political foes.
[...]York University senior Sarah Grunfeld [...] made shanda-esque headlines when she put her social science professor’s career in jeopardy over an anti-Semitic remark that turned out to be—well—not. The statement “All Jews should be sterilized,” Professor Cameron Johnston explained in the introductory lecture to his class, was an example of an invalid and dangerous opinion; his point was that in academia especially, opinions must be reasonably qualified. Grunfeld failed to catch that qualifier, though, perhaps because before the prof had a chance to offer it, she had stormed out of class and enlisted the on-campus Israel-advocacy group, Hasbara (Hebrew for “Explanation”), to call for his immediate resignation.

Word of Johnston’s so-called racism exploded virally online by way of what National Post columnist Jonathan Kay has dubbed the “Bubbie-net” (Jewish grandparents frantically emailing their kin with fresh findings of alleged anti-Semitism); at the same time widely-respected Canadian Jewish civil rights association, B’nai Brith (Children of the Covenant), leaped in with equal gusto to champion Grunfeld’s claim. Then came the big reveal: Ms. Grunfeld had made a mistake. Not only was professor Johnston not an anti-Semite, he was a Jew. To borrow a more accessible Yiddish phrase, political correctness at York University had effectively schtupped itself.
Another take on the Sarah Grunfeld problem, here.

Why the pic of Sarah Palin? (which I found at this great blogpost, btw) Well, I couldn't locate a photo of Sarah Grunfeld and Palin looked so ... ah, piquante in pink - well, there it is.

Grand merci to Dr Dawg for the link to Emma Teitel's witty item.

8 comments:

Dr.Dawg said...

A scrumptious piece of writing--I hope we hear more from Emma Teitel in the future.

Ferdzy said...

Hate to say it, but this sounds like a woman with a potentially very successful career in politics ahead of her.

Anonymous said...

Some people seem to wear a huge figurative "offend me" button stuck out so far that, to their delight, normal people can't help but bump into it.

This Sarah, like a few others that could be named, is as dumb as a bag of rocks.

k'in

raych1 said...

FOR ALL YOU FOLK WHO THINK YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN SARAH GRUNFELD, THE PROFESSOR, AND THE UNIVERSITY - YOU KNOW NOTHING. PERHAPS THE FOLLOWING CAN ENLIGHTEN YOU:

The University and the Professor embarked on a smear campaign to make Sarah look like a dimwit student who did not comprehend what she heard. Sarah sat in the front row. She knows what she heard, and she is an intelligent girl. The professor who used the abhorrent comment never clarified the context in which he claimed he was using it. Three other girls in the class have corroborated with Sarah (to a leader in Hillel at York), that they were equally disturbed by what he said, spoke about it with their friends all the way home, and reported it to their parents. However, they are afraid to come forward publicly – can you blame them; look at what the press has done to Sarah? Apparently one of the girls even has precise notes of his wording, which she is afraid to hand over.

The University (Dean of lib arts and Vice Provost, even met with Sarah and admitted the professor's mistake. They said the professor was extremely regretful and apologetic and that he will rethink how he frames his comments in the future. They told Sarah a public apology would likely be forthcoming to the class within 24 hours.
However, CIJA (formerly the CJC) rushed ahead with a statement entirely absolving the professor and blaming it on a 'misunderstanding' on the part of the student; they did this before Sarah had met with the university and without even speaking to Sarah (and now are lying about these facts). The professor's accomplice, the Toronto Star, came out with a story full of fabrications (the professor’s missing qualifiers suddenly appeared as part of his comment) and Sarah words were misquoted and taken out of context. In fact, the Star reporter used dubious means to contact her and to get her to 'be interviewed' over the phone; and he used her name against her wishes. Every subsequent article and internet blog based their story on the contorted version of the Toronto Star, and added their own two twisted cents, creating a spun-out-of-control viral nightmare. There’s more, but that’s the gist of it. For further information, please feel free to contact Shmutzexposer@hotmail.ca.

deBeauxOs said...

DJ! published the above comment to demonstrate the depths of stupidity that Sarah Grunfeld's supporters (or might it be Sarah HERSELF?) will dig themselves into to evade responsibility for a moment of thoughtless inanity.

Fortunately the majority of the Sarahs in the world are ^NOT as clueless as Palin and Grunfeld.

deBeauxOs said...

Oh, and Dr Dawg sent me word that the concern troll putz known as "Schmutz Exposer" is being thoroughly excoriated in the comments at his blogpost, here.

Dr.Dawg said...

Poor old Shmutzie is undermined by the very person s/he is championing. Grunfeld doubled down on her original foolishness, not by insisting that she had heard correctly and had witnesses, but rather by claiming that no matter what the context, those words did come from the professor's mouth. That's pretty revealing.

Shmutzie has another problem. S/he insists that no one in the huge class has come forward to defend the professor (as if he needed defending!), but has a harder time explaining why no one in that class has come forward to defend Grunfeld either.

They're all terrorized by the media, s/he claims, although there was a substantial interval before this absurdity went mainstream in which they could have reported to Hasbara@York or the serviceable B'nai Brith.

Maybe the Grunfeld faction has silenced them! Shmutzie himself offers us this tantalizing possibility, by implication. No one, after all, wants to be called an "anti-Semite," and at York these days everybody is as jumpy as an eyeball.

For me, silence is only silence. Maybe a little less of Shmutzie would be a good thing. When s/he started calling people anti-Semites at my place, I gave her/him the heave-ho.

He's not helping Grunfeld's cause, in any case.
Were I Sarah Grunfeld, at this point I'd be saying "Don't do me any favours!"

fern hill said...

When I approved Shmutzie's comment, I didn't know s/he had a rep. Starting with the ALL CAPS then devolving into linkless assertions and wild paranoia as it does, I just thought it was a marvelous example of, well, something typical of the looniness surrounding all things 'anti-Semitic' these days.

Shmutzie gets no further platform here.

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