Workin’ for the Weekend #32: Kmele Talks ‘Ron DeSantis' War on Wokeness’ w/ Coleman Hughes & Co.

Also: Scenes from a Fifdom Shabbat in the LBC

Yes, yes, was a bit of a down week for us, as the lads hopped onto various planes to (respectively) work the conference circuit, sample some Caribbean norovirus, and spend the February school-break communing with the Fifdom at the best damned Shabbat dinner in the LBC or anywhere else (pictured). Thank you so much for your open-hearted generosity, Chaya Leah and Baruch! Happy 40^th birthday, Ol’ Man Ben Price! Sorry Coco had to murder your offspring!

* There’s gonna be a lot of Fif’-flavored bone-gnawing on the Florida governor’s various schemes to roll back the institutionalization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, ain’t there? The latest entrant, posted Friday, was an episode of Conversations with Coleman titled “Ron DeSantis' War on Wokeness,” in which host Coleman Hughes (#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379) wrangled Kmele, Chloé Valdary, and Woke Antisemitism author David Bernstein. “We discuss Ron DeSantis' and Chris Rufo's war on wokeness,” say the shownotes. “We discuss Kmele's position on race abolition. We talk about the relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, and much more.”

* Remember Moynihan participating earlier this month in a DeSantis-moderated panel on journalism, truth, and opening up the libel laws? Well, last week the other shoe dropped—as Reason’s Emma Camp put it in her headline, “Ron DeSantis Wants To Rewrite Defamation Law.” Young Emma will be on The Reason Roundtable Monday to talk about that and other news items of the week.

* Seems like pal Jesse Singal (#111 & #171) has been in the news a lot (in addition to M.O. #153); here are three recent headlines from the guy (last is a subhed): “I’d Like Gretchen Felker-Martin To Stop Tweeting Violent And Sexual Things About Me” (Feb. 14), “That Might Have Been The Strangest Thing That Has Ever Happened To Me On Twitter” (Feb. 21), “The latest volley in ‘The Times’ Wars demonstrates a certain thoughtless strain in progressive discourse” (Feb. 23).  

* A fun tidbit unearthed from a Google search on “Kmele Foster”—Alabama radio guy Joey Clark name-checking our FreeThinker at the top of a piece about the “long list of newly-minted racial epithets for white people” prepared by Auburn University’s Black Student Union:

My favorite white privilege — one I hope will soon be available to all races — is that I am rarely accused of being a race traitor for having the wrong political opinions. In fact, I can only recall one such accusation in my life.

I am an unrepentant, pigheaded individualist on the question of race. To quote a fellow race abolitionist, Kmele Foster, “Race is a malignant fiction. … Racism. Identitarianism. Race pride. Racecraft. All fruit of the same poisonous tree.”

Closing music? How ‘bout, in honor of my recent trip to the Welch homeland, a tune Moynihan hipped me to last month: Dennis Wilson singing a Beach Boys song that was somehow left off some of those great/weird early ‘70s records.