Jonathan— great piece. We just had the dei operation shit down at New College. In this case, they wanted no interference with right wing board. Have enjoyed seeing you talk about Jimmy Carter. Even found my peanut button from the Chicago campaign 👏
Although through much of my life I identified with the Dem Party, I was often alienated from it.
I wonder if your staunch identification with the Dem Party stems from being from
Chicago, where Dem Party tribalism was very intense. As I read your reference to Chicago, I IMMEDIATELY THOJUGHT OF SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL. Years ago, I read something he wrote to the effect that Chicago's intense loyalty to the Dems nurtured his fierce loyalty to the Dem Party.
A funny aside: I knew an Irish Catholic Republican who was in Chicago in 1960. He was very upset because, he said, the nuns at his daughter's parochial school told the kids to tell their parents to vote for Kennedy.
Great interview, if depressing. I spend part of the year ten blocks from New College, which DeSantis is savaging, and I look at all our yard signs defending academic freedom and feel…pitiable.
Yesterday, though, I found myself behind a car with a lot of pro-DeSantis bumper stickers, one of which read “Don’t New York my Florida!” So I pulled alongside, honked and smiled and waved, and then politely asked to go ahead of him, which he nicely agreed to. Then he had to follow my NY license plates on my NY Subaru for ten blocks of very slow traffic. Just being friendly.
I applaud this article. Most of what I read bores me to tears. Nietzsche used to say that a good writer says in 10 sentences what other people fail to say in a book, and his sage counsel is usually rejected. (And I must concede that this post is no model of conciseness)
This piece is damn good because in addition to being truthful and fair, it is both wickedly left of center and wickedly right of center.
So much of what I read adheres to the dogma of either the staid and predictable and slightly prissy left or the dogma of the histrionic, hateful and Hunn-like Right.
This article veers to the "right" in attacking Wokism, but it also adheres to the Left by noting that Wokism is fueled by capitalism's subversion of education: To Get more students, universities will teach the favorite poisons of the day. This reminds us that the market, contrary to the Republican delusion, is certainly not a solution to all our ills.
Nice piece. I'm a Black woman civlil rights lawyer and I am horrified by what is happening on some campuses. The law professor at the University of Illinois who recently was disciplined for using an abbreviation or cover term for "the N word" (itself a bad construction from good motives) in an employment discrimination class is another egregious example. These kids are going to have terrible shocks when they get out in the real world. Worse, this is bad tactics and makes serious civil rights issues into a joke that can be dismissed as "cancel culture." I've been doing this for over 30 years and I still don't know what people mean by the term DEI (probably, many things). It seems to be turning into at best a gauzy label that includes everybody but able bodied, straight White men who didn't serve in the military and at worst, a cudgel to silence those who might ask questions.
Thanks for weighing in. I've had such respect for you since we were (near) classmates more than 50 years ago. (Hard to believe!!!). I hope you have or will write about your experiences someday.....
While Hannah Gray was right – I received my diploma from her in 1979– it's easy to forget now how truly hostile Yale was when I arrived on campus in 1975. I was one of a group of women who filed one of the first Title IX actions to get women's restrooms on campus. It was certainly "uncomfortable" to race across campus trying to find a toilet. I'm not sure our daughters today would have survived in that environment, where it was clear we were considered interlopers into the rich, White man's club. We weren't asking for protection of our "feelings." We were demanding protections for our basic civil rights. Young people need to keep their eyes on the prize, not on their navels.
If this Wikipedia entry is accurate, Hannah Gray herself encountered at least somewhat analogous challenges when entering the "Old Boys Club" at Harvard in the 1950s:
As well, there's a description here of how University of Illinois at Chicago law professor Jason Kilborn was (effectively) suspended for a time for giving a final exam that included a hypothetical scenario where two highly inappropriate slights were made by a manager and/or colleague (the article isn't consistent about this) to an "imaginary woman of color in a pretend civil case" about workplace discrimination:
In this exam's scenario, these slights – a racial slur and an insult, respectively – were single words, each represented by their initial letter followed entirely by underlines. (Hence that "abbreviation or cover term" representation which you mentioned, when referring to this recent case.)
While that clearly wasn't anywhere near the level of the extraordinary care that Dr. Erika López Prater took, when preparing her students at Hamline University for the display of an image depicting the Prophet Muhammad, neither of these attempts to avoid giving offense while yet introducing concrete details, proved successful.
I'm so glad you raised the Kilborn case. It is outrageous. It's like he was forced to go to re-education camp just for preparing his students for the real world.
To a greater or lesser degree, any student body in an institution is a pluralistic aggregation of thoughts, beliefs, heritages, histories, religions (or non-religions), associations, orientations, backgrounds, and perspectives. How then does a faculty member tread that thicket to avoid offense? It's impossible. Scholarly activities should not be allowed to be actionable by students or DEI counselors.
Infantilizing college students is the last thing the academy should be doing. As a former student radical I am horrified by this decline in academic freedom and academic standards. Thank you, Jonathan for this important post.
How ironic, that those of us promoting civil LIBERTIES must now be on guard against obsessively "woke" liberals who are determined to snuff out the freedom to be "wrong"in the name of promoting their tyrannical "DEI."
And amply providing the pseudo-conservative statists with ammo for their own nonsense.
It's so confusing. It makes me just want to go lie down and eat donuts.
So this is really a cover for racism. I ll be dropping my subscription. Enjoy your all white environment. I don’t
Jonathan— great piece. We just had the dei operation shit down at New College. In this case, they wanted no interference with right wing board. Have enjoyed seeing you talk about Jimmy Carter. Even found my peanut button from the Chicago campaign 👏
From the Illinois Carter campaign in 1976? I remember being in Carter HQ in Chicago as a college student that year.
Jon,
Your reference to Chicago got me thinking.
Although through much of my life I identified with the Dem Party, I was often alienated from it.
I wonder if your staunch identification with the Dem Party stems from being from
Chicago, where Dem Party tribalism was very intense. As I read your reference to Chicago, I IMMEDIATELY THOJUGHT OF SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL. Years ago, I read something he wrote to the effect that Chicago's intense loyalty to the Dems nurtured his fierce loyalty to the Dem Party.
A funny aside: I knew an Irish Catholic Republican who was in Chicago in 1960. He was very upset because, he said, the nuns at his daughter's parochial school told the kids to tell their parents to vote for Kennedy.
Great interview, if depressing. I spend part of the year ten blocks from New College, which DeSantis is savaging, and I look at all our yard signs defending academic freedom and feel…pitiable.
Yesterday, though, I found myself behind a car with a lot of pro-DeSantis bumper stickers, one of which read “Don’t New York my Florida!” So I pulled alongside, honked and smiled and waved, and then politely asked to go ahead of him, which he nicely agreed to. Then he had to follow my NY license plates on my NY Subaru for ten blocks of very slow traffic. Just being friendly.
Nice move, Margaret!
I applaud this article. Most of what I read bores me to tears. Nietzsche used to say that a good writer says in 10 sentences what other people fail to say in a book, and his sage counsel is usually rejected. (And I must concede that this post is no model of conciseness)
This piece is damn good because in addition to being truthful and fair, it is both wickedly left of center and wickedly right of center.
So much of what I read adheres to the dogma of either the staid and predictable and slightly prissy left or the dogma of the histrionic, hateful and Hunn-like Right.
This article veers to the "right" in attacking Wokism, but it also adheres to the Left by noting that Wokism is fueled by capitalism's subversion of education: To Get more students, universities will teach the favorite poisons of the day. This reminds us that the market, contrary to the Republican delusion, is certainly not a solution to all our ills.
Thanks for noticing, David!
Excellent piece. Thank you.
Nice piece. I'm a Black woman civlil rights lawyer and I am horrified by what is happening on some campuses. The law professor at the University of Illinois who recently was disciplined for using an abbreviation or cover term for "the N word" (itself a bad construction from good motives) in an employment discrimination class is another egregious example. These kids are going to have terrible shocks when they get out in the real world. Worse, this is bad tactics and makes serious civil rights issues into a joke that can be dismissed as "cancel culture." I've been doing this for over 30 years and I still don't know what people mean by the term DEI (probably, many things). It seems to be turning into at best a gauzy label that includes everybody but able bodied, straight White men who didn't serve in the military and at worst, a cudgel to silence those who might ask questions.
Hi, Colette:
Thanks for weighing in. I've had such respect for you since we were (near) classmates more than 50 years ago. (Hard to believe!!!). I hope you have or will write about your experiences someday.....
Your thoughts seem to be in sync with a lot of what I have been thinkng about:
The so-called Left offten concentrates on TRIVIAL issues instead of
DIRE AND DEADLY issues.
E.G., Instead of talking about "MICRO AGGRESSIONS" CONCENTRATE LIKE A LASER ON HOMOCIDAL POLICEMAN.
While Hannah Gray was right – I received my diploma from her in 1979– it's easy to forget now how truly hostile Yale was when I arrived on campus in 1975. I was one of a group of women who filed one of the first Title IX actions to get women's restrooms on campus. It was certainly "uncomfortable" to race across campus trying to find a toilet. I'm not sure our daughters today would have survived in that environment, where it was clear we were considered interlopers into the rich, White man's club. We weren't asking for protection of our "feelings." We were demanding protections for our basic civil rights. Young people need to keep their eyes on the prize, not on their navels.
Touche
Thanks so very much for these perspectives!
If this Wikipedia entry is accurate, Hannah Gray herself encountered at least somewhat analogous challenges when entering the "Old Boys Club" at Harvard in the 1950s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Holborn_Gray#Biography
As well, there's a description here of how University of Illinois at Chicago law professor Jason Kilborn was (effectively) suspended for a time for giving a final exam that included a hypothetical scenario where two highly inappropriate slights were made by a manager and/or colleague (the article isn't consistent about this) to an "imaginary woman of color in a pretend civil case" about workplace discrimination:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-uic-law-professor-files-lawsuit-20220217-ogxsiixuxfdmfdfxh6qd4i3p4a-story.html
In this exam's scenario, these slights – a racial slur and an insult, respectively – were single words, each represented by their initial letter followed entirely by underlines. (Hence that "abbreviation or cover term" representation which you mentioned, when referring to this recent case.)
While that clearly wasn't anywhere near the level of the extraordinary care that Dr. Erika López Prater took, when preparing her students at Hamline University for the display of an image depicting the Prophet Muhammad, neither of these attempts to avoid giving offense while yet introducing concrete details, proved successful.
I'm so glad you raised the Kilborn case. It is outrageous. It's like he was forced to go to re-education camp just for preparing his students for the real world.
Thanks, as well, for Colette Holt mentioning it here.
To a greater or lesser degree, any student body in an institution is a pluralistic aggregation of thoughts, beliefs, heritages, histories, religions (or non-religions), associations, orientations, backgrounds, and perspectives. How then does a faculty member tread that thicket to avoid offense? It's impossible. Scholarly activities should not be allowed to be actionable by students or DEI counselors.
Thanks, JoAnne.
Infantilizing college students is the last thing the academy should be doing. As a former student radical I am horrified by this decline in academic freedom and academic standards. Thank you, Jonathan for this important post.
Thanks, Jane
How ironic, that those of us promoting civil LIBERTIES must now be on guard against obsessively "woke" liberals who are determined to snuff out the freedom to be "wrong"in the name of promoting their tyrannical "DEI."
And amply providing the pseudo-conservative statists with ammo for their own nonsense.
It's so confusing. It makes me just want to go lie down and eat donuts.
H. Watkins Ellerson
Don't lie down and eat donuts. Help stiffen the spine of weak administrators.....
I would love to read them the Riot Act! It is so sad that we have so many folks out there afraid of violating somebody else's rules!
Let me add that I have said for years that the First Amendment guarantees the right to be OFFENDED!