Accuses unnamed prof of ‘racist dog whistle,” Penn of ‘fascism’
A prison/police abolitionist social work student this past week accused one of her University of Pennsylvania professors of using a “racist dog whistle” after she refused to grade the student’s assignment.
The student, Zara Raven, ended up reporting the professor via Penn’s bias reporting system, according to one of her tweets on X.
The issue? According to Raven, the “play therapy” professor told her “I will not be grading [the assignment] because I feel unsafe.”
(According to the play therapy course description, play “is the method children use to master and understand their worlds,” and that “when working with children and adolescents, social workers often utilize play as a primary treatment intervention.” The class “approach[es] play therapy from perspectives of multicultural competence, empowerment, social justice, and inclusion.”)
Raven doesn’t say exactly what made the professor feel “unsafe,” but she had created a presentation on “using zines to create mad maps as a form of expressive arts therapy with disabled survivors of state violence.”
Raven’s presentation’s premise was that “state violence targets disabled people, and state violence is disabling. State violence is the use of force against civilians, and it can include police or military violence, or even the ways social workers break families apart under the guise of ‘child welfare.’”
Examples of such (state) violence include that against the mentally ill Walter Wallace in Philadelphia four years ago … and the Palestinian “genocide” perpetrated by Israel with the assistance of the United States.
“We can put an end to harmful practices in social work like mandated reporting, educate ourselves about the ways social work upholds oppressive systems like settler colonialism, and organize toward collective liberation,” Raven noted in her presentation.
MORE: ‘Truth doesn’t matter’ at Penn, Amy Wax says
In her complaint printed in The Daily Pennsylvanian, Raven (pictured) claimed Penn had fallen victim to “fascism” as the school “refuses to use the word ‘genocide’ to refer to the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
Penn also uses police raids against unarmed students, and has implemented “repressive guidelines” regarding free speech.
And now, professors like hers (allegedly) openly believe they “can get away with blatant acts of discrimination,” Raven said.
Pretty serious stuff. Since it’d be nice to know the professor’s side of the story, I asked Raven via email for offending prof’s information. But like to the many on X who likewise had inquired, she did not respond.
I also emailed Penn School of Social Policy & Practice Dean Sara Bachman asking for comment on the situation. She didn’t respond either.
Lastly, I emailed the School of Social Policy & Practice’s general media inquiry address asking which professors are teaching play therapy this semester. Again, no reply.
In response to Raven’s original tweet about her complaint, people wondered if the professor is a Zionist/Jew:
I went to Penn in the 90’s and a bunch of Zionists were trying to get one the few Palestinian profs fired because he made them feel “unsafe”.
— FTouhami (@lasfarishtas) October 25, 2024
Name her please. This is for the safety of the students.
It is troubling students are being targeted by Zionists, if nothing is done about it more people could be harmed, there will be more victims.https://t.co/OfKLN8ET4m
— Quibble (@JonDohNumbers) October 26, 2024
If she sees kinship with IOF she deserves to feel unsafe, just the same way that everyone who identifies as a N*zi deserves to feel unsafe.
— Matt McGowan (@mattkmcg) October 27, 2024
Was your teacher perhaps a zionist jew?
— Mystical Owl (@fijiflowers8888) October 25, 2024
ZioNaZ dystopia.
— Thomas Collins (@TommytheObscure) October 26, 2024
The ultimate irony of this imbroglio is that the as-yet-unknown professor allegedly invoked that which far-leftists do routinely — the notion of the “safe space.” But if the professor is indeed Jewish/a Zionist, it won’t matter — leftists don’t recognize them on the unofficial progressive oppression hierarchy (to which Raven, I suspect, subscribes).
On X, Raven describes herself as a “mad queer mama, care worker, zinester,” and “#8toAbolition cocreator.” In May of last year, she “shared [her] wisdom” regarding “youth liberation” in a Truthout article blasting the parents’ rights movement as a “right-wing justification” for its “anti-trans, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, ableist onslaught.”
She believes the concept of children as their parents’ “property” is a “problem” … because kids are “autonomous human beings with their own feelings, needs and experiences.”
MORE: Jewish Penn staff received ‘vile’ ‘disturbing’ emails, but Penn says ‘no credible threat’
IMAGES: HBRH/Shutterstock.com; Zara Raven/X
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.