Responding to allegations that they’ve been deliberately quoting disgraced University of Sydney poetics professor and National School Curriculum reviewer Barry Spurr out of context (as if there were ever a context in which his statements would be acceptable) New Matilda have today published the partial email transcripts that last week resulted in the noted academic and distinguished [alleged] bigot being suspended from his tenured post.
The leaked emails, sent over a two year period to friends and colleagues at the university, reveal the extent of the indefensible “whimsical linguistic game” Spurr maintains he was taking part in with a friend and ultimately confirm that the notion that it was little more than a friendly game of oneupmanship with absolutely no malice or discriminatory intent is, unequivocally, horse shit.
In the seventeen emails published today, Spurr compiles a semester’s worth of readings that wouldn’t look out of place on the curriculum at Barry’s School of Discrimination and Bigotry, including, but in no way limited to:
- Viewing recommendations of documentary footage from schoolrooms in the 1950s, bereft of “Abos, Chinky-poos, Mussies, graffiti, piercings, jeans, tattoos… Not a woman to be seen in a sanctuary anywhere. And no obese fatsoes [sic]. All the kiddies slim and bright eyed. Now utterly gone with the wind.“
- The graphic description of a sexual assault sent to Spurr by a friend, to which he responds with an anecdote that reeks of misogyny and transphobia.
- Repeated disparaging references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as “human rubbish“; Adam Goodes in particular is singled out after receiving Australian of the Year, as Spurr believes “[Tony Abbott] can combine it with the inclusion of Abos in the Constitution later this year – his version of Rudd’s apology and perpetuating the black armband – to show that he really is a sensitive guy after all.”
- Spurr later describes a Human Centipede like procedure “(resembling stapling) reversing that which is used to separate Siamese twins: Abo-lover Tony Abbott and Adam Goodes; Quentin Bryce and Bill Shorten – oh, it’s going to be lovely.“
- An email that had to be redacted in its entirety because it attacks the Chancellor of Sydney University by referring to her as an “appalling minx” amongst other defamatory allegations, also notable for the fact that it was shared among two senior members of staff.
- Multiple pained and pedantic emails about the Vice Chancellor’s usage of ‘alumni’ as a singular noun, which are almost as boring and way more insufferable than one of Spurr’s interminable poetry seminars.
They’re the absolute pits. You can read the full transcripts over on New Matilda.
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