Kate Clanchy: no one is safe from the woke mob
A handful of out-of-context quotes are enough to damn a liberal author as ‘racist’.
‘In a world where you can be anything, be kind.’ This sickly sweet meme, often attributed to the late Caroline Flack, is now emblazoned on walls, mugs and t-shirts. Yet those who most forcefully command the rest of us to ‘Be Kind!’ are the least likely to take their own advice. The super-woke have neither generosity of spirit nor capacity for forgiveness. They condemn others off the back of spurious allegations and disingenuous interpretations. They take trivial points out of all context and ignore intent. Nothing is off limits when the opportunity arises to point the finger at a sinner.
Author and teacher Kate Clanchy is the mob’s latest victim. Reviewers on Goodreads denounced her book, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, for employing racial stereotypes. They also accused her of ‘ableism’. In today’s cancel culture, what begins as a couple of comments soon gathers momentum and rapidly swells into a woke tidal wave of condemnation. This ‘scandal’ is now threatening to engulf children’s author Philip Pullman, who initially defended Clanchy.