I promise, the pronoun leans toward irony, with some attempt toward anonymity. I will rarely insert any amusement amidst a communistic wave of behavior and ideology. I'm glad folks caught that, aside from any low e.q. reactions.
DEI is a complete drain, intellectually, culturally, and financially. Doc Hammer did a couple if pieces on his substack about how much the DEI BS costs just in the state of VA (enough, for example, to pay the full tuitions of several financially needy or POC students, if they cared about that), and that's just one state: https://dochammer.substack.com/p/discussion-of-dei-costs
I'm just wondering how you're wondering it happened. Because as a lower class citizen with few advantages, even less of an iconic childhood, I can tell you: try working endless jobs with little pay, mobility, or even Healthcare. Try living in a 700 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with five people in a town where single adults are pariahs, poor people are "them", and mental health care is hard to come by. My 30s and 40s were marked by these things, not by home buying, or traveling, or a few steady jobs, but debt, more college thinking of better pay, more debt. My elderly parents subsidizing with their small pensions, for clothing or food or even a few days to visit other family. I live in a trailer, a giant tax shelter (as I came to the awful realization) for a single LLC or corporate entity. I can't find a job making over 40k because I was told about gaps in my employment due to caring for kids (and working part time using loans and public aid) and so years and year of working, at 52 my income has increased exactly .5% a year since the last full time job I had and the time I first returned to college. If DEI is the biggest thing bothering you about colleges and universities, then you're not seeing the bigger picture. Capitalism is obviously the global agreement these days, it's the way things work. Yet it's also not working for some people as well and frankly, the game is rigged in favor of a few, while popular culture is really wreaking havoc on kids and families.
Great article, thanks. One note though: "They are an awarded professor for pedagogy" "They", really? I realize you are not identifying Hypatia's gender for privacy but having "they'" , the ultimate woke idiocy pronoun in this article is a bit ironic. You could have just said "Hypatia is an awarded professor of pedagogy". Sorry, I've been dealing with gender crap for a long time and I am "easily triggered".
DEI, (or as it was formerly known 10 years ago as DIE , until the purveyors realized the acronym revealed all too soon) is nothing more than a slightly more sophisticated form of signaling adherence to state communism. Thats it. It is, and always was intended to act as a Trojan horse ( along with its handmaiden SEL ) to indoctrinate and subjugate and control the masses into cowardly compliance to totalitarian control. It’s high time we name it for what it is: Communist Ideology.
I remember growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, a university town, having the same last name as one of the professors. It was assumed I was a university brat. Nope. My father was in business. The far Left professors had their own cabal back in the '60s, and their cavalier attitude regarding illegal drugs and sex with students was duly noted (drop those classes, my father said, to my older sister) and then in the 1970s, it was all about the sexual revolution. I managed to steer clear of all of that, as did most students, actually. The institutional capture is complete, now that the reasonable profs I studied under have retired. Here is expert testimony from Dr. Stephen B. Levine in a school district where secret "transsing" of students was "official."
It's not just academia. I was removed from a position in human resources and replaced with someone who checked more DEI boxes than I did, regardless of the fact that I built the culture, championed my team (won approval for tuition reimbursement, an extra week of PTO annually, built a from-scratch onboarding program for new hires, created a curriculum that allowed those in production roles to learn and cross-train easily for promotions, built a world-class benefits program along with a 401(k) and financial advisement gratis), and had 30+ people reach out to me the day I was shown the door telling me everything from "you WERE the culture" to "what the hell are they even doing?" I was a good soldier and have remained publicly silent on this issue because I was raised properly by two beautiful parents who just did the best they could and never complained once about what did or didn't happen to them. I was happy to work for more than four years with a company that I loved and a team that I absolutely would've taken a bullet for (in the end, I took all the arrows--many times those that were directed at our one-time CEO--and covered for leadership, trusting that their decisions were "well-intended." With new ownership, DEI took center stage. It was clear from the other portfolio companies that no one wanted it but someone important somewhere was afraid that if we didn't "do DEI," we'd be labeled as racist, bigoted, or whatever adjective the DEI thought police could come up with. Men, women, all races, they would note to me on the side that "this isn't what (they) signed up for."
It will destroy academia for the reasons you've clearly noted. It will also destroy manufacturing. The legislation of good behavior rarely results in that good behavior being practiced more. It more typically results in animosity, the exodus of amazing people and talent, and the destruction of beautiful things.
I rather imagine that the readers know Hypatia. The historical allusion is apt: she was a mathematician, an astronomer, and the last Librarian of the Library of Alexandria. She was murdered by a crowd of religious zealots (Christians) who skinned and dismembered her.
It is important to note that any unproductive labor exists solely because of productive labor. University professors, lawyers, physicians, and many other illustrious careers all fall into the category of unproductive labor. This is for a simple reason, their professions exist solely because of the surplus wealth created by productive labor. As a hunter gatherer you have no incentive to create furniture, mine for metals, create art (except at certain ceremonial places of Gathering), create complicated music, etc. This had nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with environmental circumstances.
DEI is yet another example of nonproductive labor parasitizing our economy. They are a logical extension of the rise of finance and attorneys to undue positions of prominence in our civilization. They also serve a very useful function by creating polarization and misdirecting from the malfeasance of corporations (Norfolk Southern has a DEI division - http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/inclusion-and-diversity.html).
Similar to many in the academy their careers are made by creating sophistry with political intent. It is time to oppose this pernicious group. It will be a long process. Simply put, they do not deserve their intolerant voice.
I have had very similar experiences. I have years of experiences to share, but will in essence say that "DEI" has replaced teaching as the primary goal of universities. Merit, achievement, scores, even correct answers for matters of objective fact (math, science) are being degraded or dismissed altogether. "antiracism", "equity", "citational justice", "representation", "decolonization" etc are much more active topics. The journal Nature is exhibit A. I had a journal force me to fill out a "gender and race" profile so they could "do better" before I was allowed to confirm my authorship on a paper. I am in STEM. One couldn't click past it. Remarkable. No one even is allowed to question these tenets (a core value of scientific inquiry), so the entire enterprise is doubly inauthentic and inconsistent with the primary values of a teaching institution. We now have "DEI speakers" we pay to come in. One told us (unironically!) how wonderful things are for women in Iran - almost gender parity in STEM! I left the lecture.
What does Hypatia want? Support and sympathy? They battle is hardly going to be a revelation, the main difference from many here being they are still in the fortunate position of hanging on to their job. Do they fancy themself some sort of undercover anti woke operative with a secret Substack army of admirers?
Our battle weariness inclines us to favour plain language.
I have retired from the faculty of a leading medical school. The DEI passion is over the top and, while often well meaning, it completely excludes older white men. What about diversity and its manifestations makes my considerable experience in the world irrelevant? It is much like advertising on TV which bends over backwards to include people of color to the exclusion and presumed unemployment of many white actors. Hypatia describes an even more hostile environment in his university, which is so sad and destructive.
The reported % of university administrators hired and working in DEI is a major waste of resources.
I promise, the pronoun leans toward irony, with some attempt toward anonymity. I will rarely insert any amusement amidst a communistic wave of behavior and ideology. I'm glad folks caught that, aside from any low e.q. reactions.
DEI is a complete drain, intellectually, culturally, and financially. Doc Hammer did a couple if pieces on his substack about how much the DEI BS costs just in the state of VA (enough, for example, to pay the full tuitions of several financially needy or POC students, if they cared about that), and that's just one state: https://dochammer.substack.com/p/discussion-of-dei-costs
I'm just wondering how you're wondering it happened. Because as a lower class citizen with few advantages, even less of an iconic childhood, I can tell you: try working endless jobs with little pay, mobility, or even Healthcare. Try living in a 700 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with five people in a town where single adults are pariahs, poor people are "them", and mental health care is hard to come by. My 30s and 40s were marked by these things, not by home buying, or traveling, or a few steady jobs, but debt, more college thinking of better pay, more debt. My elderly parents subsidizing with their small pensions, for clothing or food or even a few days to visit other family. I live in a trailer, a giant tax shelter (as I came to the awful realization) for a single LLC or corporate entity. I can't find a job making over 40k because I was told about gaps in my employment due to caring for kids (and working part time using loans and public aid) and so years and year of working, at 52 my income has increased exactly .5% a year since the last full time job I had and the time I first returned to college. If DEI is the biggest thing bothering you about colleges and universities, then you're not seeing the bigger picture. Capitalism is obviously the global agreement these days, it's the way things work. Yet it's also not working for some people as well and frankly, the game is rigged in favor of a few, while popular culture is really wreaking havoc on kids and families.
If I upgraded to a paid sub would I qualify for a plain-English translation of the preface?
Great article, thanks. One note though: "They are an awarded professor for pedagogy" "They", really? I realize you are not identifying Hypatia's gender for privacy but having "they'" , the ultimate woke idiocy pronoun in this article is a bit ironic. You could have just said "Hypatia is an awarded professor of pedagogy". Sorry, I've been dealing with gender crap for a long time and I am "easily triggered".
Like living in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"
DEI, (or as it was formerly known 10 years ago as DIE , until the purveyors realized the acronym revealed all too soon) is nothing more than a slightly more sophisticated form of signaling adherence to state communism. Thats it. It is, and always was intended to act as a Trojan horse ( along with its handmaiden SEL ) to indoctrinate and subjugate and control the masses into cowardly compliance to totalitarian control. It’s high time we name it for what it is: Communist Ideology.
I remember growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, a university town, having the same last name as one of the professors. It was assumed I was a university brat. Nope. My father was in business. The far Left professors had their own cabal back in the '60s, and their cavalier attitude regarding illegal drugs and sex with students was duly noted (drop those classes, my father said, to my older sister) and then in the 1970s, it was all about the sexual revolution. I managed to steer clear of all of that, as did most students, actually. The institutional capture is complete, now that the reasonable profs I studied under have retired. Here is expert testimony from Dr. Stephen B. Levine in a school district where secret "transsing" of students was "official."
https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Expert-Affidavit-Stephen-Levine-2023.02.0333.pdf
It's not just academia. I was removed from a position in human resources and replaced with someone who checked more DEI boxes than I did, regardless of the fact that I built the culture, championed my team (won approval for tuition reimbursement, an extra week of PTO annually, built a from-scratch onboarding program for new hires, created a curriculum that allowed those in production roles to learn and cross-train easily for promotions, built a world-class benefits program along with a 401(k) and financial advisement gratis), and had 30+ people reach out to me the day I was shown the door telling me everything from "you WERE the culture" to "what the hell are they even doing?" I was a good soldier and have remained publicly silent on this issue because I was raised properly by two beautiful parents who just did the best they could and never complained once about what did or didn't happen to them. I was happy to work for more than four years with a company that I loved and a team that I absolutely would've taken a bullet for (in the end, I took all the arrows--many times those that were directed at our one-time CEO--and covered for leadership, trusting that their decisions were "well-intended." With new ownership, DEI took center stage. It was clear from the other portfolio companies that no one wanted it but someone important somewhere was afraid that if we didn't "do DEI," we'd be labeled as racist, bigoted, or whatever adjective the DEI thought police could come up with. Men, women, all races, they would note to me on the side that "this isn't what (they) signed up for."
It will destroy academia for the reasons you've clearly noted. It will also destroy manufacturing. The legislation of good behavior rarely results in that good behavior being practiced more. It more typically results in animosity, the exodus of amazing people and talent, and the destruction of beautiful things.
Discrimination - against white people
Exclusion - of white people
Inequity - for white people
I rather imagine that the readers know Hypatia. The historical allusion is apt: she was a mathematician, an astronomer, and the last Librarian of the Library of Alexandria. She was murdered by a crowd of religious zealots (Christians) who skinned and dismembered her.
It is important to note that any unproductive labor exists solely because of productive labor. University professors, lawyers, physicians, and many other illustrious careers all fall into the category of unproductive labor. This is for a simple reason, their professions exist solely because of the surplus wealth created by productive labor. As a hunter gatherer you have no incentive to create furniture, mine for metals, create art (except at certain ceremonial places of Gathering), create complicated music, etc. This had nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with environmental circumstances.
DEI is yet another example of nonproductive labor parasitizing our economy. They are a logical extension of the rise of finance and attorneys to undue positions of prominence in our civilization. They also serve a very useful function by creating polarization and misdirecting from the malfeasance of corporations (Norfolk Southern has a DEI division - http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/inclusion-and-diversity.html).
Similar to many in the academy their careers are made by creating sophistry with political intent. It is time to oppose this pernicious group. It will be a long process. Simply put, they do not deserve their intolerant voice.
I have had very similar experiences. I have years of experiences to share, but will in essence say that "DEI" has replaced teaching as the primary goal of universities. Merit, achievement, scores, even correct answers for matters of objective fact (math, science) are being degraded or dismissed altogether. "antiracism", "equity", "citational justice", "representation", "decolonization" etc are much more active topics. The journal Nature is exhibit A. I had a journal force me to fill out a "gender and race" profile so they could "do better" before I was allowed to confirm my authorship on a paper. I am in STEM. One couldn't click past it. Remarkable. No one even is allowed to question these tenets (a core value of scientific inquiry), so the entire enterprise is doubly inauthentic and inconsistent with the primary values of a teaching institution. We now have "DEI speakers" we pay to come in. One told us (unironically!) how wonderful things are for women in Iran - almost gender parity in STEM! I left the lecture.
What does Hypatia want? Support and sympathy? They battle is hardly going to be a revelation, the main difference from many here being they are still in the fortunate position of hanging on to their job. Do they fancy themself some sort of undercover anti woke operative with a secret Substack army of admirers?
Our battle weariness inclines us to favour plain language.
I have retired from the faculty of a leading medical school. The DEI passion is over the top and, while often well meaning, it completely excludes older white men. What about diversity and its manifestations makes my considerable experience in the world irrelevant? It is much like advertising on TV which bends over backwards to include people of color to the exclusion and presumed unemployment of many white actors. Hypatia describes an even more hostile environment in his university, which is so sad and destructive.
The reported % of university administrators hired and working in DEI is a major waste of resources.
Thank you, Hypatia. I eagerly await your next chapter. Please take good care.
I fear you have given enough background in this article to be outed before you come up for review.