This DEI is simply what Marxism-Leninism was in the Soviet Bloc. Students all had to take courses in it, admission to universities was on an affirmative action points system based on ancestry/origins, and of course one had to lie. Dissidents were dismissed, imprisoned, their children barred from higher education. Party faithful could get degrees for mediocre work, and there were many useless people supposedly working as professors, though also many very good people. The party mediocrities quickly departed the scene after Soviet Communism fell, the Marxist-Leninist institutes closed up shop. The dissidents took over, while generously allowing those ex-Communists not too tainted by the past to still take part in democratic politics (at least in Poland).
Xi Jinping Thought is now taught in China, together with all that I mentioned above.
Some of he most influential critics of Soviet-style Communism were actually idealistic Communists who from within saw the hypocrisy and inhumanity of the system and rebelled, becoming dissidents. By analogy, I see black, female or gay dissidents as being those most likely to effectively expose the betrayal of civil rights ideals by the DEI Critical/Queer Theory complex in the Anglosphere. They are doing a great job already, but the simultaneous insanity on the Right in the US means that getting over the hump will take a longer time than it should. In normal times, these extreme and irrational movements should have no chance of wide acceptance.
It seems that extremes, government shutdowns due to no budget, educational institutions collapsing are going to be the answer. Hitting bottom so to speak. The irony now becomes joe's promise to cure cancer. He has just insured it won't happen for a lot longer time if at all. Yes Margret, these -people are this stupid.
I have been following the precursors of the DEI movement (Diversity departments, Critical Race theory, as well as going far back as Afirmative Action) for decades. I have been warning about this and what leftist (not liberal) ideology leads to.
Thank you for a thorough and excellent summary and report of just how deep and insipid this rot has become in so many of our once great institutions. Great article!
This is very frightening and eye opening. The thought of going to a physician that was recently trained at Mount Sinai 's Icahn School which was at one time not long ago above reproach should make a patient think twice. How can this be happing in our country?
"Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the 'color of their skin.'"
You're all operating on narrative, not principle -- as you have no qualms about eating up that quote while evaluating people purely on perception whenever it serves you (truth be damned). Until you have the guts to take a hard look at yourselves, you're wasting your time complaining about others. Then again . . .
Do You Want to Solve Problems or Protest About Them?
This makes me sad. Obama and now Biden have pushed this through Federal grant funding. There was no legislation to push this. This is indoctrination towards socialism or communism. pushed by corrupt tyrants. You must believe what we say and pledge allegiance to the state or be expunged. Scary sad. I will not comply. I refused to fill out the DEI evaluation of a potential faculty hire and will continue to do so. It was totally irrelevant to the position we sought to fill.
We desperately need investigative reporting in support of these college students who are trying to stand up to this madness - it is insane even at 'God, Family, Country" schools that claim to be more balanced. The students who want to stand up to this are silenced.
First we need to eradicate these anti academic free speech mandates in public universities through state legislatures in red states. This has already started in Florida and must be followed up in all states. Hearings need to be held so the public is aware of the damage to academic freedom on our campuses. Most students and faculty are afraid to speak up,but there are heroes in every state who could testify. Lobby your state legislator to do this and educate them by sending articles like this. When academics longing for free speech find out they can teach freely in these states, they will move there. When The University go Austin was started, they were deluged with top notch applicants from the “top” academic institutions. This is called competition and the market place of freedom.
At American universities, civil rights laws need to be fully and consistently applied to admissions, hiring, and other policies. And we need to have an open discussion about whether higher ed should continue to hold the special position it has had in American society for many decades, with the many perks: exemption from taxes on both operations and endowments, exemption from antitrust enforcement, the system of tenure for both administrations and faculty. And what about accreditation bodies? Where are they?
Certainly university administrations have taken everyone for a costly ride over the last generation, destroying the affordability, quality, and openness of many campuses. Trustees and alumni have failed in their duty, in many institutions.
Love all the commentary, and am amazed at how much DEI has been so much a part of the conversation, in my non-profit and volunteer efforts, in the last week alone! The speed at which this taking over is head-spinning.
All I want to say is that this term "woke" deeply disturbs me because I liken the word to being "awake, or awakened" (enlightened) and therefore if you differ in viewpoint, you are somehow "asleep" or unenlightened. I wholeheartedly disagree. Being "woke" is synonymous with being "duped", or fooled, or foiled, and the opposing view remains on that of objective empirical truth. I believe there is also a similarity between that and being a TRUE liberal, instead of a totalitarian leftist, unable to tolerate dissent or anything that threatens their (self-imposed) arrogant elitist positions.
Very well put. "Woke" means "asleep," "brainwashed," and "intimidated and befuddled by lazy, illiterate, and pseudo-intellectual junk" -- the opposite of being awake or enlightened.
There's are a few ways that I see this ending. Both are in early stages of development. College enrollment will continue to plummet. Down 6% already. The proposition of being an in-debt oppressor with a path to less prosperity is a bitter pill. The other is sweeping litigation for the inherent prejudice based on race against what is now probably hundreds of thousands of applicants for degrees or jobs. This will be one of the great money orgies for attorneys that DEI has created. It may be even better than tobacco and asbestos suits combined. That's one way to shake the money free from the endowments.
1. The assertion that simply being white makes one part of an “oppressive system” is problematic for different reasons. It is also self-defeating.
If being white is fundamentally being racist, then why bother? If white people are guilty for being white, then there is no “redemption” as skin color will never change. Therefore, no matter what White folks do, they will remain “racist”.
2. The rise of the DEI bureaucratic elite at universities is another manifestation of long simmering tensions between faculty and administration over the concept of shared governance. Giving so much weight and credence to DEI bureaucrats marginalizes faculty. How can faculty possibly refute what is analogous to a “divine right” that was historically claimed by royalty and clergy? After all it’s the faculty who preached and promoted this fixation on race.
3. DEI statements are not unique to faculty of course. I was heavily recruited to apply for a position with a mega nonprofit. With decades of service to organizations promoting women’s health, social services, civil rights and higher education, I naively thought my resume spoke for itself. I was not ready to present a personal DEI statement as requested at the last round of an exhaustive interview process spanning several weeks. I spoke about commitment to the above causes, respect for constituents and mission, and excellence. I was met with stony silence and promptly ghosted.
4. Are we far from a future where we will need to be card-carrying members of the DEI party in order to be economically secure and able to provide for our families? We saw how quickly the COVID vaccine card became a staple of our times to travel, attend public events, and even gain employment. (Spoken by someone fully vaccinated and boosted.)
Why only higher education? It is rampant in public schools, up and down the grade levels.
This DEI is simply what Marxism-Leninism was in the Soviet Bloc. Students all had to take courses in it, admission to universities was on an affirmative action points system based on ancestry/origins, and of course one had to lie. Dissidents were dismissed, imprisoned, their children barred from higher education. Party faithful could get degrees for mediocre work, and there were many useless people supposedly working as professors, though also many very good people. The party mediocrities quickly departed the scene after Soviet Communism fell, the Marxist-Leninist institutes closed up shop. The dissidents took over, while generously allowing those ex-Communists not too tainted by the past to still take part in democratic politics (at least in Poland).
Xi Jinping Thought is now taught in China, together with all that I mentioned above.
Some of he most influential critics of Soviet-style Communism were actually idealistic Communists who from within saw the hypocrisy and inhumanity of the system and rebelled, becoming dissidents. By analogy, I see black, female or gay dissidents as being those most likely to effectively expose the betrayal of civil rights ideals by the DEI Critical/Queer Theory complex in the Anglosphere. They are doing a great job already, but the simultaneous insanity on the Right in the US means that getting over the hump will take a longer time than it should. In normal times, these extreme and irrational movements should have no chance of wide acceptance.
It seems that extremes, government shutdowns due to no budget, educational institutions collapsing are going to be the answer. Hitting bottom so to speak. The irony now becomes joe's promise to cure cancer. He has just insured it won't happen for a lot longer time if at all. Yes Margret, these -people are this stupid.
I have been following the precursors of the DEI movement (Diversity departments, Critical Race theory, as well as going far back as Afirmative Action) for decades. I have been warning about this and what leftist (not liberal) ideology leads to.
Thank you for a thorough and excellent summary and report of just how deep and insipid this rot has become in so many of our once great institutions. Great article!
V
Maybe it’s changing! https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/university-of-north-carolina-moves-to-ban-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-statements-in-anti-woke-backlash/ar-AA17U8J0
This is very frightening and eye opening. The thought of going to a physician that was recently trained at Mount Sinai 's Icahn School which was at one time not long ago above reproach should make a patient think twice. How can this be happing in our country?
"Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the 'color of their skin.'"
You're all operating on narrative, not principle -- as you have no qualms about eating up that quote while evaluating people purely on perception whenever it serves you (truth be damned). Until you have the guts to take a hard look at yourselves, you're wasting your time complaining about others. Then again . . .
Do You Want to Solve Problems or Protest About Them?
https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2023/01/17/do-you-want-to-solve-problems-or-protest-about-them/
This makes me sad. Obama and now Biden have pushed this through Federal grant funding. There was no legislation to push this. This is indoctrination towards socialism or communism. pushed by corrupt tyrants. You must believe what we say and pledge allegiance to the state or be expunged. Scary sad. I will not comply. I refused to fill out the DEI evaluation of a potential faculty hire and will continue to do so. It was totally irrelevant to the position we sought to fill.
We desperately need investigative reporting in support of these college students who are trying to stand up to this madness - it is insane even at 'God, Family, Country" schools that claim to be more balanced. The students who want to stand up to this are silenced.
I hope this goes viral.
Night falls at Stanford, and I don't mean sunset over the Pacific:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/stanford-failed-academic-freedom-test
First we need to eradicate these anti academic free speech mandates in public universities through state legislatures in red states. This has already started in Florida and must be followed up in all states. Hearings need to be held so the public is aware of the damage to academic freedom on our campuses. Most students and faculty are afraid to speak up,but there are heroes in every state who could testify. Lobby your state legislator to do this and educate them by sending articles like this. When academics longing for free speech find out they can teach freely in these states, they will move there. When The University go Austin was started, they were deluged with top notch applicants from the “top” academic institutions. This is called competition and the market place of freedom.
At American universities, civil rights laws need to be fully and consistently applied to admissions, hiring, and other policies. And we need to have an open discussion about whether higher ed should continue to hold the special position it has had in American society for many decades, with the many perks: exemption from taxes on both operations and endowments, exemption from antitrust enforcement, the system of tenure for both administrations and faculty. And what about accreditation bodies? Where are they?
Certainly university administrations have taken everyone for a costly ride over the last generation, destroying the affordability, quality, and openness of many campuses. Trustees and alumni have failed in their duty, in many institutions.
yep. for public institutions, there is pervasive legislative and executive failure to properly oversee higher education, or just plain understand it.
Love all the commentary, and am amazed at how much DEI has been so much a part of the conversation, in my non-profit and volunteer efforts, in the last week alone! The speed at which this taking over is head-spinning.
All I want to say is that this term "woke" deeply disturbs me because I liken the word to being "awake, or awakened" (enlightened) and therefore if you differ in viewpoint, you are somehow "asleep" or unenlightened. I wholeheartedly disagree. Being "woke" is synonymous with being "duped", or fooled, or foiled, and the opposing view remains on that of objective empirical truth. I believe there is also a similarity between that and being a TRUE liberal, instead of a totalitarian leftist, unable to tolerate dissent or anything that threatens their (self-imposed) arrogant elitist positions.
Very well put. "Woke" means "asleep," "brainwashed," and "intimidated and befuddled by lazy, illiterate, and pseudo-intellectual junk" -- the opposite of being awake or enlightened.
Love it Nancy!
There's are a few ways that I see this ending. Both are in early stages of development. College enrollment will continue to plummet. Down 6% already. The proposition of being an in-debt oppressor with a path to less prosperity is a bitter pill. The other is sweeping litigation for the inherent prejudice based on race against what is now probably hundreds of thousands of applicants for degrees or jobs. This will be one of the great money orgies for attorneys that DEI has created. It may be even better than tobacco and asbestos suits combined. That's one way to shake the money free from the endowments.
1. The assertion that simply being white makes one part of an “oppressive system” is problematic for different reasons. It is also self-defeating.
If being white is fundamentally being racist, then why bother? If white people are guilty for being white, then there is no “redemption” as skin color will never change. Therefore, no matter what White folks do, they will remain “racist”.
2. The rise of the DEI bureaucratic elite at universities is another manifestation of long simmering tensions between faculty and administration over the concept of shared governance. Giving so much weight and credence to DEI bureaucrats marginalizes faculty. How can faculty possibly refute what is analogous to a “divine right” that was historically claimed by royalty and clergy? After all it’s the faculty who preached and promoted this fixation on race.
3. DEI statements are not unique to faculty of course. I was heavily recruited to apply for a position with a mega nonprofit. With decades of service to organizations promoting women’s health, social services, civil rights and higher education, I naively thought my resume spoke for itself. I was not ready to present a personal DEI statement as requested at the last round of an exhaustive interview process spanning several weeks. I spoke about commitment to the above causes, respect for constituents and mission, and excellence. I was met with stony silence and promptly ghosted.
4. Are we far from a future where we will need to be card-carrying members of the DEI party in order to be economically secure and able to provide for our families? We saw how quickly the COVID vaccine card became a staple of our times to travel, attend public events, and even gain employment. (Spoken by someone fully vaccinated and boosted.)