I mentioned in the last post that I was in a newspaper article about the abhorrent behaviors of Paula Langley, the deeply bigoted Circulation Manager at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Here is the new article. The article is titled “Past and current AOK Library employees reveal negative experiences with supervisor”. I wanted to point out a quote of mine for clarification.
In the article I said, “I think she hits on almost every single pin of bigotry except for race and gender”. I believe I said at the time of talking to the reporter (who did a great job with the article!) “race and sexism”, not “race and gender”. However, I asked them to check the record (I allowed to be recorded) so I could also see which version I said, but while we find that out, I usually say “Paula has hit on almost every pin but racism and sexism.”
Actually, after saying this to the reporter, I had then sat down a few days later with the Department of Justice Title IX investigators during their campus visit. (Title IX covers gender discrimination, for those who are not in the know.) The investigators were there because of Paula’s behavior (she’s really good at wracking up investigations, I don’t think there has been a single year where Paula didn’t get investigated for something she has done or said). I learned from the sit-down I had with the investigators that transphobia falls under sexism in the eyes of the DoJ (especially now since Trump is gone). Usually when I say “sexism”, I mean the more “classical” version of sexism, such as general misogyny (like making derogatory comments about women in general, sexual assault, etc). Basically, I meant, “I never heard Paula say or do anything negative about women in general, just transwomen.” Just like I have never heard Paula say or do anything negative about anyone as it pertained to race. That’s why I went “I have no idea how come she hasn’t hit Yahtzee”. Since Paula Langley sure despises people based on age (ageism), trans identity (transphobia), religion (religious bigotry), disability (ableism), orientation (queerphobia), it’s a surprise she doesn’t bother with the two more “popular” types of bigotry.
Oh, and this is the document that the article references, where Paula uses the term “Dyslexic” in a pejorative manner:
The little handwriting in the upper right corner is mine. The date says 2/5/18, in case someone has a hard time seeing it.
I have the problematic bit highlighted in pink. (For the investigators, I had the computer pathway mapped out for their convenience, hence why part of it is whited out for the internet.)
And yup, one of Paula’s reasons for not liking me is because I have disorders. And that I’m … chatty? And I admit that while I am talkative (this blog is 12 years old, should be obvious by now), if Paula kept her mouth shut from the start, she wouldn’t be staring at investigation after investigation on nearly every government & university level. I may be a chatty cathy but at least I don’t get endlessly investigated for spouting hate.
Also, I have heard some people say, “Oh, this is because Paula is Black and Vivien is White. You’re ganging up on a Black woman.”
I’m Black (it’s even part of this blog’s name, Black Witch). Many of the people Paula treated like trash actually are Black. Perry is Black. Dakota is Black. Joe is Asian. So, no it’s not a race issue. Paula doesn’t see race – because she’s too busy staring at everything else.
Actually, Paula is of Jamaican heritage. Fun fact: So am I. Paula isn’t just the same race as me, she even shares the same island heritage! So, nope, it’s not “ganging up on a defenseless Black woman”, she really is as bad as the article paints her to be. And she’s not that defenseless … the university seems to defend her quite a lot – to the point that the Department of Justice paid a physical visit. In other words, Paula is super okay with treating other Black people like literal trash so, nope it’s not a race thing or else I and a lot of other people would have been spared. Even if we were, her other behavior is still not okay.
Paula Langley has got to go.
Black Witch 
If someone is being offensive, I’d like to know more of the details of the offensiveness. The dyslexic is just a rediculous example and part of cancel culture. I’m personally not offended when people have mindsets other than myself and I definitely don’t believe in cancel culture if someone doesnt share my beliefs, etc. I feel these days people are just offended by “everything”. I am a free speech advocate, however if someone is working for an establishment, they should also adhere to its rules. Being rude to customers is unacceptable.
Read the articles linked, and you’ll see some of the worse stuff. You should have done that prior, free speech also includes reading, I would imagine.
Now, two things: 1) Cancel culture has been around for *centuries*, this is just the new name. Also, that’s covered under free speech. As a “free speech advocate”, that should dawn on you. When I worked in the Library of Congress, we would say “‘Freedom of Speech’ does not mean ‘Freedom from Consequences’.” I have noticed the part that people who are squeamish about “cancel culture” is exactly the “consequence” part. Yes, being judged by your behavior sucks but that’s how the cookie crumbles.
2) Just because something doesn’t personally hurt *your* feelings, that doesn’t mean it isn’t hurtful. Yes, it sucks to learn that the world does not personally revolve around you but it’s a fact. I’m not dyslexic either but that doesn’t change the fact that “be dyslexic” is still ableist, plain and simple.
In other words, it doesn’t matter what *you* personally feel. No one should be violating the rights of others or harassing them for simply existing. And the old world you’re thinking of isn’t much better – White people literally would freak out if a Black person used a “White Only” fountain and men freaked out when women said “we have rights, just like you”, and straight & cis people still get their panties in a bunch over the existence of queer and trans people. Now *that* was “easily offended”. Now people who historically had to put up with such behavior can instead make those folks face the actual consequence of their behaviors.
People are still free to do what they want, but there are consequences. Basic “cause meets effect”. Paula was free to use her speech, and now the people she affected, me included, are using our freedoms of speech to newspapers, the internet, UMBC HR and Civil Rights investigators. And, if Paula has the brains for it, she’s free to use her freedom of speech to get herself out of this mess.
The DoJ doesn’t visit because someone has hurt fee-fees, they’re visiting because Paula’s behaviors are Civil Rights violations. Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean Freedom of Hate Speech nor Freedom to Violate Other People’s 1st Amendment Rights.
Also, libraries don’t have “customers” they have “patrons”, libraries are free to the public.
Hi Olivia. I’m wondering if/how your experience of words is related to your experience of witchcraft?
Like Anon Witch, I did not find “be dyslexic” to deserve Condemning Pink Highlight. What I see here is a spell – and not an evil one. Search 3 calls us to mix up the numbers of the cutter, and to do so magically. We might automatically meet this step with hesitation or resistance: there are many possible number scrambles, we are not accustomed to intentionally scrambling numbers. Yet the phrase “be dyslexic” invites us to assume the powers of a person who scrambles numbers intuitively and automatically. Herein lies the magic: this is not merely a new method, but a new power.
As Paula uses “dyslexic” in this form, it has a takes a different meaning than its meaning applied as a diagnosis to an individual. She transforms the energy of a word created to mark a “disability” to label and create a new ability. This does erase the definition of dyslexic! It only adds a new meaning. It is good and useful that words are used for all their good and useful meanings.
Personally, I have no use for this spell, as I do not shelve library books, but I have appreciated similar ones. My friend would sometimes say “I need to go manic [tonight],” meaning something like they needed to experience a state of unrestrained energy unencumbered by the rational mind’s doubt. It always made me happy to here this, as I recognized it as an affective (and, as I observed, effective) spell. Within the pronunciation of the word was an attitude of desire, a concentration on a future state of mind to be attained, and a recognition of their power to attain it. It is a good thing I kept the offense I felt at first to myself, because I could have taken this power away (how sad that I had thought the meaning of manic could only be the one I discussed with my psychiatrists).
Words can be powerful spells. Slurs place real binds on the minds of the people they are used against — those are spells too, and evil ones. But a fear I have with what Anon witch calls “cancel culture” (the culture of word-fear ?) is that we are clipping our own wings and preventing ourselves from creating powerful positive spells, for fear of disrupting words. The words with power – the ones that do not fall flat on our tongues – are precisely the words with a broad range of meanings and impactful negative uses.
So I’m wondering… do you use words as spells? Would you be afraid to add a meaning you perceive to a word?
I hope you still have an eye on this website as you claim!
Gramercy & blessed be,
Eden
Here is the thing – While witchcraft is great and I do practice it, UMBC has an insanely systemic problem of allowing messed up behavior. They even allowed a swim coach to rape both swim teams for basically a decade and the coach was even tipped off to move his camera because police were coming – the camera he would use to watch students change in the locker room
Plus, who is to say someone’s spellwork didn’t help bring the DOJ? This isn’t Disney, we don’t get to see sparkles coming out of wands and things like that
I already replied to Anon Witch about them calling it “cancel culture” and it’s the same thing here – there is no such thing as cancel culture, just dodging accountability. Even in magick we have a theory of repercussions, it doesn’t change in the mundane world.
I don’t think taking the side of rapists and bigots is a bright idea because what makes them so much more valuable than the people they very clearly harm? What happened didn’t seem to disrupt the words of the Department of Justice, which made UMBC take note. I think it’s good to clip a rapist’s wings – or have him clip his own throat, fun fact: he killed himself when he read the words on the charges against him. That is a good thing. He can’t hurt more people and he genuinely believed he had rather die than not rape, good riddance. If Paula did the same, it would be fine by me, some people are just wicked and if being dead is preferable to being a better person, that’s on them. But no one is taking anything from them, they were both intensely defended by university lawyers as if victims themselves.
Stop trying to make the bad guys look like the good guys. They aren’t. Raping people is wrong. Being ableist & transphobic is wrong because those words are *much* more harmful to them than it is to the person saying it. It’s almost like saying “we should ignore people who always get hurt in this situation, what about the person who makes the choice in doing/saying it?” You might support rape & bigotry by trying to give it a soft place to land and an abundant place to thrive – I don’t