UF has fired all staff in positions related to DEI.

Doctors... airline pilots... astronauts are professions that need to reward those with the highest qualifications, not some rando' color or ethnic "next up" guy or gal.

 

Beshear is a talented politician. Aptly put:
Kentucky governor marks civil rights event by condemning limits on diversity, equity and inclusion
"DEI is not a four-letter word,” Beshear said in his speech in front of the state Capitol. “DEI is a three-letter acronym for very important values that are found in our Bible. Diversity, equity and inclusion is about loving each other. It’s about living out the Golden Rule. ... Diversity will always make us stronger. It is an asset and never a liability.”

 

22 pages yet you still refuse to recognize the importance of merit.

 

Oh, you're back. Fun. You never did answer that question.

 

People seem to enjoy links, and some demand them. So, here goes. Hope I did it right.



Opinion | D.E.I. Programs Are Getting in the Way of Liberal Education

 

Citing an opinion piece by Christopher Rufo is definitely not getting it right.

BTW, did you know that Rufo believes that sex is for procreation ONLY. You sure you want to tie yourself to him?

 

Id be careful what you learn from posts on social media. That being said there’s some pretty out-there stuff about the whole oppressor-oppressed dynamic. Go read about “decolonizing ” higher education and youll really blow your mind lol.

Decolonizing the Academy

 

Not tying myself to anyone. Earlier in this lovely thread there were some who seemed to view any post as dubious if not supported by a link to an internet site. Just trying to make them feel better. I think Ackman's X (Twitter) message is right on though.

 

Thanks for sharing that. We've heard several colleagues in our discipline calling to "decolonize the classroom" or "decolonize higher education." It's an interesting/important topic. I took issue with this statement from the author:

At its most radical, decolonization means “resisting and actively unlearning the dangerous and harmful legacy of colonization, particularly the racist ideas that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) people are inferior to White Europeans.” It entails interrogating and dismantling “power structures that carry legacies of racism, imperialism, and colonialism.”

I don't think that's a radical description of decolonizing. I think that's it in its most basic sense. Radicalization might involve students acting oppressed about minor issues, while discounting the nature of expertise.

I think of radicals having a complete abandonment of trust. The resistance (and presumably lack of trust) described above is grounded.

 

You did not. Chris Rufo is a racist who was at the forefront of the anti-CRT and anti-DEI movements, and when he got a little power at a public university, he immediately implemented affirmative action programs for conservative men and Republican politicos.

Ackman is in the midst of a multi-months-long meltdown, which has been quite entertaining to watch.

 

If there's a criticism of DEI that has merit, it's how performative too much of it is. People make themselves feel better by engaging in these overt displays to show everybody how enlightened, fair-minded, and dedicated to racial justice they are. But it's all theater. They don't actually do anything substantive to build and sustain more equitable conditions, which allows the preexisting problems to persist or even worsen.

 

One of the basic problems with some of these concepts is a lack of academic consensus about what they even mean. I feel for the author - makes it tough to write about. I agree with you I felt like that part in italics is the most basic premise of “decolonizing” because at its most radical I’ve heard calls for literally throwing out traditional western readings and replacing them all with previously marginalized authors. But that’s crazy imo. Just make a separate class at that point.

 

that and the weaponization. Had “they” avoided using dei as a weapon it wouldn’t be such a divisive issue. However you want to define they.

 

NAACP called for a boycott by athletes of public schools in Florida.
If this begins to impact recruiting, watch how quickly all the right wing football fans ask it to be modified or repealed.

 

Rufo is a dangerous dude.

 

If Trump wins the election, Rufo might be empowered even further. Just as the Trump/DeVos regime tried to burn down public schools, Trump and his stooges will come after higher education. The piece below reguires membership, so I'll do my best to summarize.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/if-trump-wins

Consider Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist behind Republican attacks on critical race theory and anti-racism programs (and now a board member at New College of Florida). He sees universities as having succumbed to “race and sex narcissism” and as having turned their backs on the “pursuit of truth.” He dismisses the idea that universities can reform themselves: Administrators are too “weak,” he argues, and are thus prone to “emotional or social manipulation” by faculty activists. For Rufo, the way forward is to use state power to bring about what he sees as the necessary changes. Triumphant at the resignation of Claudine Gay as Harvard University’s president, he wasted no time in announcing a “plagiarism hunting” fund aimed at exposing “the rot in the Ivy League.” But that’s just the beginning of what Rufo has in mind.

In a panel discussion last May at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Rufo laid out his agenda: (1) mobilization of the Department of Justice to investigate elite universities for admissions procedures that violate the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action; (2) penalties for universities where the department finds free expression to be curtailed by social-justice priorities; (3) the closing of certain departments, particularly ethnic and gender studies, where “ideological capture” is, he believes, most widespread; (4) new hiring procedures that emphasize the importance of a “multiplicity of perspectives”; and (5) termination of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices. His ideal for undergraduate education is a “classically liberal” curriculum, focused on great works.

In a manner consistent with this framing, conservatives are determined to point their pitchforks at the most prestigious universities first, perhaps on the assumption that the rest of higher education will fall in line once the giants are humbled. As U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chair of the Republican Study Committee, put it in a recorded call with business leaders, the hearing with the university presidents was just the first prong of attack. “The second step is the investigation, the subpoenas, gathering all of the documents and the records from these universities to prove the point,” Banks reportedly said. “That they’re not just allowing this behavior to occur, they’re fostering it and creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students on their campus because of it.” His third step? “Defund these universities by cracking down on not backing their student loans, taxing their endowments, and forcing the administration to actually conduct civil-rights investigations.” Rufo has spoken of directing the Departments of Justice and Education to “relentlessly degrade the status and prestige” of elite institutions. House investigations of several Ivy League universities are already underway.

And, of course, Trump will have his own ideas about what should be done. We can predict many of the priorities from those expressed in his last budget proposal to Congress. His administration called for a 7.8-percent cut from the Department of Education budget, with sharp reductions for public-service loan forgiveness. The National Institutes of Health budget was slated for a 7-percent cut; the National Science Foundation faced a 6-percent cut. Trump also attempted to eliminate all funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, something he repeatedly attempted — and was unable to achieve.

It won't just be wokeness/DEI/CRT that comes under the gun. It will be the arts and higher education as we know it. The party of anti-intellectualism will be emboldened and empowered to do great damage to education in the U.S.

 

A lot of this is brazenly unconstitutional, but that only matters if we have a judiciary that actually enforces the Constitution. And it is remarkably stupid. But petty grievances, anti-intellectualism, and stupidity are what mark the Republican Party today.

 

Yeah cause lots of white men don’t have a fetish for Asian women lol. That’s not a thing at all. Also there is a reason most Asians in the us are referred to as a “model minority” but I don’t want to derail the thread trying to explain this lol.