{"id":116571,"date":"2024-10-25T17:05:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116571"},"modified":"2024-10-25T10:00:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T08:00:32","slug":"26-05-102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116571","title":{"rendered":"The DEI scam destroying education and fomenting antisemitism must end"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The DEI scam destroying education and fomenting antisemitism must end<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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An insightful case study of how it works at the University of Michigan demonstrates the danger of allowing woke ideological rule. The next administration can do something about it.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

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\nA runner passes the pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas and anti-Israel Gaza solidarity encampment on University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor on May 4, 2024, Photo by Nic Antaya\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Give credit where it\u2019s due. In recent years,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0has become an almost unreadable publication. Left-wing bias is present in nearly every article as a partisan agenda has been weaponized by a business plan in which the so-called \u201cnewspaper of record\u201d has marketed itself almost exclusively to affluent liberal readers. This has resulted in a cascade of biased reporting and editing aimed at affirming those readers\u2019 prejudices and pre-existing opinions about issues, candidates and lifestyle choices. Though other major papers, as well as broadcast and cable channels, have taken similar paths, no other news outlet better exemplifies the way legacy corporate mainstream media has discarded journalism for political activism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, the organization is large enough that every once in a while, articles that are more in line with the traditional purpose of journalism\u2014seeking the truth and exposing corrupt practices no matter who is the guilty party\u2014seem to sneak into the\u00a0Times.<\/em>\u00a0An example of such a piece was published in its Sunday magazine and written by veteran investigative reporter Nicholas Confessore.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article ran under the headline, \u201cThe University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?\u201d It took a deep dive into the way one of America\u2019s elite public universities had embraced the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and how this ideological commitment had not merely consumed a considerable portion of its budget but also transformed the institution into one in which students, faculty and staff have been pitted against each other in an endless racial war that serves only to exacerbate divisions and undermine academic freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story is far from perfect. It fails to adequately trace the origins of the woke catechism of DEI, and its progression from the radical left\u2019s toxic neo-Marxist ideas of critical race theory and intersectionality. Instead, Confessore seeks to tie it to failed liberal attempts to deal with racial disparities in education like affirmative action. Anyone who wants to understand how and why DEI came to dominate education in the United States, in addition to the arts, corporate business culture and even the government, would do well to read Christopher Rufo\u2019s brilliant 2023 book,\u00a0America\u2019s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Behind what happened in Michigan<\/strong><\/h5>\n

But Confessore\u2019s article is nevertheless essential reading in that it provides an intensive case study about how DEI worked at the University of Michigan. In doing so, it shows how it is destroying American education, worsening race relations and fomenting antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dead hand of efforts to racialize everything extends far beyond top-rated schools like Michigan. It has been rejected by a few institutions like the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Alabama, and many state legislatures in red states\u2014mainly in the South\u2014are working on passing laws to ban it. However, it has become ubiquitous throughout higher education as schools have employed more and more administrators solely devoted to enforcing DEI rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

These woke commissars who dominate hiring and admissions replaced merit with racial quotas and the pursuit of excellence with an emphasis on tearing down the Western canon to elevate ideas about a perpetual conflict between the races.<\/span><\/p>\n

It replaced the principle of equal opportunity\u2014the goal of the civil-rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2014with equity, its polar opposite, which gave designated minorities rights and privileges that were now denied to others, including other minority groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

A flier handed out on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the University of California, Berkeley, on Nov. 10, 2016. Credit: Quinn Dombrowski via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And though this was not touched on in Confessore\u2019s monograph about Michigan, it has also spread into primary and secondary schools throughout the nation, as teachers unions and administrators\u2014whose ranks have become dominated by those indoctrinated in DEI ideology in college\u2014thus deepening its poisonous hold on the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story of DEI at Michigan is a dismal one. As the writer reports, over several years, the school spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on such programs, as every university department was forced to adopt a plan to implement its ideas. Most of this was spent on hiring a new class of administrators dedicated to enforcing its doctrines that were (as soon became apparent) antithetical to free and open inquiry while failing to do anything to make minority students feel more welcome on campus or increase their numbers, as was the stated goal of the institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

A culture of grievance<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Instead, it promoted a culture of grievance rooted in the idea that \u201canti-racism\u201d\u2014a catch-all phrase that is primarily focused on waging war on the precepts of Western civilization that are the foundational principles on which higher education was founded\u2014was the only acceptable point of view. Students turned on each other and their teachers as they decided to be offended by any idea, thought, word or subject that supposedly triggered their feelings of being oppressed or endangered. Those who didn\u2019t fit into the victim class\u2014whether white, Catholic, politically conservative, or as became apparent after Oct. 7, Jewish\u2014found out that the principle of \u201cinclusion\u201d did not include them.<\/span><\/p>\n

And rather than make African-American and Hispanic students feel better about their place in the university, DEI culture had the opposite effect, as the emphasis on ferreting out racism where it actually barely existed left them feeling worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

It reached a peak during the moral panic that swept the nation after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020. As Confessore describes, \u201cEvery part of the university seemed to stage its own auto-da-f\u00e9,\u201d in which heretics were tried or subjected to Cultural Revolution-style \u201cstruggle sessions,\u201d with the drama being amplified on Twitter and the school newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nor is dissent against the new secular faith permitted. Michigan, like many other schools and institutions, requires new academic hires to swear fealty to DEI in documents that bear a striking resemblance to the \u201cloyalty pledges\u201d in which Americans were forced to disavow communism during the McCarthy era in the 1950s.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was all rooted in pseudo-scientific notions about the impact of so-called \u201cmicroaggressions\u201d in which subtle alleged racial slights are treated as the moral equivalent of Jim Crow prejudice. The truth is that, as the article states, \u201cteaching students to view the world chiefly through the lens of identity and oppression can leave them vulnerable instead of empowered. Psychologists have questioned whether implicit bias can be accurately measured or reduced through training.\u201d Confessore continues by noting that \u201cthe notion that microaggressions are not only real but ubiquitous in interracial encounters is widespread in D.E.I. programs; a 2021\u00a0review<\/a>\u00a0of the microaggressions literature, however, judged it \u2018without adequate scientific basis.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a tragic story of how ideologues were undermining the purpose of higher education at an elite American institution. While the argument to eliminate DEI was already strong, it became obvious a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oct. 7 is DEI\u2019s denouement<\/strong><\/h5>\n

What Confessore rightly depicts as the denouement of DEI at Michigan\u2014the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism as college campuses became battlegrounds dominated by pro-Hamas mobs targeting Jewish students\u2014was repeated in many other places. At Michigan and elsewhere, universities that were supposedly dedicated to preventing prejudice because they adopted DEI standards became hotbeds of Jew-hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the article succinctly puts it, the essence of DEI culture\u2014the \u201celaborate codes of speech and behavior\u201d and \u201cits ceaseless instruction around microaggressions and harm\u201d didn\u2019t apply to even the most open prejudice and public threats against Jews. Indeed, such concerns were \u201cvaporized\u201d when the targets of bias were people that the toxic ideology behind DEI had falsely labeled \u201cwhite\u201d oppressors\u2014Israelis and Jews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And rather than seek to correct this, as the article reports, \u201ccivil rights officials at the federal Department of Education found that Michigan had\u00a0systematically mishandled<\/a>\u00a0such complaints over 18 months. \u2026 Out of 67 complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry that the officials reviewed\u2014an overwhelming majority involving allegations of antisemitism\u2014Michigan had investigated and made findings in just one.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes the tale of DEI at Michigan so depressing is that rather than admit that they failed, the new class of DEI administrators who had cowed the university into submission for fear of being falsely accused of racism refused to admit that their programs haven\u2019t achieved their goals. Instead, they continue to double down on their ideological agenda. At Michigan, the answer to DEI\u2019s failure is more DEI.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is more than an issue for that one school. The question facing the country now is what concerned citizens can do about this toxic ideology, which has spread its tentacles throughout society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Individual states are in some cases rolling back DEI, with Florida providing an outstanding example, thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis. But that\u2019s not enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

What must be done<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The pervasive hold of DEI is\u2014as much as any other issue that worries voters\u2014a real threat to the nation\u2019s future as well as to its hopes of maintaining itself as a free country. Yet, as I\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0last month, it is being largely ignored in the presidential campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s unfortunate since the best way to roll back DEI is for the next president to rescind the executive orders issued by presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that allowed its spread in the federal government. More than that, the next president needs to appoint an Attorney General who will direct the Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division to focus on enforcing laws against racial discrimination, which are comprehensively violated every day by DEI programs that make race the focus of hiring, admissions and curricula.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such moves would also enable the government to take real action against the way antisemitism has been allowed to become a respectable form of prejudice in American society and education. Slaps on the wrist or reports from the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s civil-rights division have not done a thing to deal with the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the DOJ were to act in this manner, then there is little doubt that the woke tide in education, culture and business would be rolled back. That the reason for doing so has been strengthened by Confessore\u2019s report on the University of Michigan is highly ironic since the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>has done as much to defend and spread DEI as any news outlet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this case study should be read and understood by policymakers in the next administration as they plan their priorities for the next president. As much as there are other important problems to be solved, ridding the country of the DEI scam should not be relegated to the status of a \u201cculture war\u201d issue. As long as it is allowed to continue at Michigan and so many other places, racial division will be worsened and antisemitism will become further entrenched in American society.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong> is editor-in-chief of JNS\u2014Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him @jonathans_tobin.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The DEI scam destroying education and fomenting antisemitism must end Jonathan S. Tobin An insightful case study of how it works at the University of Michigan demonstrates the danger of allowing woke ideological rule. The next administration can do something about it. . A runner passes the pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas and anti-Israel Gaza solidarity encampment on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116571"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116586,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116571\/revisions\/116586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}