January 23, 2024 - 6:00pm
After Claudine Gay’s dismissal as Harvard president, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) complex is already regrouping after suffering one of its rare setbacks. Exhibit A is Harvard’s latest move: the appointment of Derek Penslar to chair its new antisemitism committee.
Not only did Harvard feel obliged to create an anti-Islamophobia committee alongside the antisemitism committee, but it nominated an anti-Zionist in Penslar to lead the latter effort. Clearly, it is staff and students, not disgruntled donors, who are calling the shots. What signal does it send when the university nominates someone who has signed an open letter calling Israel “a regime of apartheid” and who endorses the Left’s postcolonial conceit that “settler colonialism” is a useful way of thinking about the country? These are legitimate views, but come across as tone-deaf after an institution has been raked over the coals for coddling students who pinned Hamas’s 7 October massacre “entirely” on Israel.
In response, critics including financier Bill Ackman and former Harvard president Larry Summers have been scathing. But faced with pushback from outside its walls, the university has circled the wagons. Led by centre-leftists like politics professor Steven Levitsky, the faculty and administration are doubling down on the “it’s a conservative plot” narrative.
Gay’s ouster emboldened a set of optimists who desperately want to believe that elite institutions can reform themselves, ditching progressive illiberalism and its totalising “oppressor-oppressed” framework. They see corporations slashing DEI budgets, a consumer backlash against the likes of Target, Disney and Bud Light, a drop in cancellations of professors for wrongspeak, editorials in mainstream Left outlets such as the New York Times and CNN, and bipartisan disgust at the antics of pro-Palestinian campus activists.
Time for a reality check. Instead of falling over itself to advance free speech and political neutrality, the DEI complex on campus is shape-shifting, hiding affirmative action under misleading euphemisms here, bolting on some anti-antisemitism there. In response to the congressional hearings and PR debacle, Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania said the university had been too protective of speech. Illiberalism, not free speech, is the direction of travel.
Donors are not the anti-woke heroes some believe them to be. They have punished elite universities for alleged antisemitism rather than their poor record on freedom, with Harvard reputed to have lost $1 billion on the back of the debacle. For instance, in response to a pro-Palestine event that took place before the Hamas attack, donors pressured Penn to amend its constitution to tighten the definition of hate speech, abridging free speech. The lesson for a prudent college seeking to triangulate between its DEI and Jewish constituencies is to simply upgrade the status of antisemitism within its DEI apparatus. Yet a broad definition of “hate speech” toward Jews is likely to buttress the idea that emotional safety trumps free expression. “They reinforced cancel culture,” warns Penn historian Jonathan Zimmerman. “There’s going to be yet more fear and anxiety over what you can say.”
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SubscribeThe only way to stop this is to categorize Critical Theory and DEI as forms of hate propaganda and deal harshly with its disseminators much like Germany does with regard to those spreading N8zi ideology. They’re pretty much the same anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
This is stupid even by your own comical standards.
https://medium.com/@tamarajulaton/how-not-to-be-an-internet-troll-72c03f9b6d5c#:~:text=Remember%20to%20avoid%20being%20an,t%20chime%20into%20the%20conversation.
All the best
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
You lose.
Again.
Pipe down Fisher you know nothing.
Early signs of dementia are showing, Racist Grandpa. Seek help. I’m sure your family hate you but there are services available for lonely old people.
Only losers self-congratulate, loser.
You’re quite the Oscar Wilde, aren’t you!
You’ve proven yourself again and again to be the expert on stupid.
What’s deeply stupid is using (everyone’s) time and energy in this kind of idiot ten-year-old stuff – nobodies opinions are changed, dogma is reinforced, nobody gets any nearer the truth. If we assume that most ppl here (i think they are) are trying to gain understanding through exchange of info/interpreting that info then CS is dragging him/her/itself and us away from that and into flaming – its fundamentally destructive. CS would be better off in a dogmatic echo chamber reflecting his views – might get some affirmation and wouldn’t be as destructive (which I think may be one of his main underlying motivations, but it’s a ‘failure’ motivation). As far as poss, best not to ‘feed the ducks’.
“CS would be better off in a dogmatic echo chamber”
This is the echo chamber. The sheep who comment here simply regurgitate standard right wing nonsense. My role is to bring enlightenment and wisdom and I’m doing a really good job. You guys should be thanking me!
It is difficult to thank someone you pity without the notion that you are talking down to them. But many of us appreciate the comedy nonetheless, so well done you.
Perhaps you could provide some examples of the ‘enlightenment and wisdom’ you’ve so generously brought to this forum as I’ve never seen anything from you beyond sub GCSE stupidity.
I think one should just ignore CS’s silly wind-ups. Lewis Carroll’s lines come to mind: ‘He only does it to annoy/ because he knows it teases’
The Germans stayed loyal to Hitler to the very end. The Nazi state fell to foreign armies not to domestic resistance.
I assume you follow James? I tend to agree with him that you can’t beat a dialectical movement by becoming being it’s dialectical opposite. Just because the Left uses tyranny to silence opposition doesn’t mean the Right should do the same thing. Fascist Corporatism evolves out of failed Marxist policies because Marxism can’t produce anything but chaos. Both are Statist Ideologies. One stupid and the other heartless.
I like Milei’s solution better. State bureacracies feed the private bureacracies. Instead of silencing Left Wing speech just cut the Federal Funds off. If Harvard can survive as a purely private entity than so be it but Federal funds should not be going to any entity that funds explicitly Anti-American causes.
Progressives will always win.
…until reality hits. Then you lose.
Where? Cuba, Cambodia, Venezuela…
Try Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Canada, and many, many others.
Did that help you out, bud?
Canada is becoming a basket case. Denmark and NZ had relatively low stable populations but that’s starting to change and their electorates are begin to reject it.
All Looney Left ideologies fail, question is how much damage will be done.
Happy to help, chum.
But you’re not really helping though, are you, slick? You just feel angry that those countries are all progressive and doing great because you are an angry right winger and everything you think you know is actually wrong!
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life
Read ’em and weep!
Their success is mostly down to low stable populations and a mixed economy will extensive natural resources. “Progressive” policies will in time destroy them and you’ll be shaking your head wondering how it all happened as all loony left ideologues do.
Denmark and Norway would severely dispute your statement. While Canada should be so proud of politely turning into a dystopian novel where protesting truckers can be non-personed and Dear Leader can promote “equity” from his $10,000 / Night vacation villa (thoughtfully provided by a monied friend of the family)… Lastly, funny how it’s apparently all about “winning” not about the best policy et all…
The Loony Left always has to rely on authoritarianism to succeed, the electorate routinely rejects their idiocy.
What a weird thing to say!
Was Biden rejected? Trudeau for the last three elections in Canada? Or the upcoming landslide for Starmer?
Its only the MAGA types who can’t accept election results.
I know this doesn’t make you feel happy, Andy lad, but those are the facts!
You’re hilarious. I lived through 4 years of “Russian Conspiracy” and “Trump is illegitimate” narratives.
With the Left it’s always who/whom. You all never let truth stand in the way of your propaganda.
How many people attacked the capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power to Trump?
Why don’t you tell us about all these illegitimate elections of progressives around the world?
I’ll wait. And please remember that Dominion are very litigious before you say anything really stupid!
Let’s hold on and wait for the collapse of N. America, it should take around 10 years whoever is in power.
Justin Trudeau has been voted Canada’s worst prime minister in the past 55 years by three out of 10 respondents in a new public opinion survey from Research Co.
How did he make out in the real votes, Jimbo?
I have explained this to you before. He has the distinction of winning the last two elections with the lowest vote totals in Canadian history. In both those elections he received 33.1% and 32.6% of the vote. The Conservatives received 33.4% and 33.7% of the vote. He has been propped up by the zombie NDP and his ability to win votes in densely populated areas like Toronto and Vancouver. He might win elections – certainly not possible now because he will get obliterated if the Liberal’s keep him – but he is not popular.
Great numbers, Jimbo! Does that mean that he hasn’t been prime minister of Canada these last nine years? Or are you just whistling in the wind?
Fact is that he has been a highly popular and successful prime minister for most of his term – three election victories! – but very few prime ministers remain popular after 9 years. That, combined with global economic factors, means he is facing some headwinds. He may have to step aside.
But once the Canadian public get a good look at Polievre and his dollar-store-Trump antics, combined with strong economic recovery and lower inflation and interest rates, I think we may see a significant swing back to Trudeau.
Ya. That ain’t happening.
You’ve been saying that for 9 years, Jimmy, and wrong every time!!!
One day, Harvard will be as diverse as Israel currently is.
But not soon.
After me the deluge wrote the French King. When the reaction to WOKE takes power expect the government, under Trump, to attack Harvard. They better hope the Democrats win. If Trump loses the revolutionary MAGA pressure will just build up until they do win. Then comes the deluge and mass executions.
Mass executions? Coo-coo.
Hyperbole.
This is not surprising. As the author notes, Ackman and his fellow billionaire donors haven’t spoken up about DEI and freedom of speech. Their revolt was strictly in connection with anti-semitism. It was jews protecting jews. The rational response by the universities is to include jews in the DEI victim hierarchy.
So far as I can see, universities are beyond repair. Probably our hope lies in the realization by most students that, apart from professional training (e.g., medicine), a traditional university degree isn’t worth the considerable cost anymore. Cheaper, on-line, degrees, and other accreditations, provided by new organizations created to provide internet-based education are probably our hope for the long term.
It’s already going that way in the USA, eg Heterodox Academy, (Jordan) Peterson Academy.
Their revolt was strictly in connection with anti-semitism – Their major mistake. Anti-semitism is simply the first symptom. Believing that by eliminating it you will cure the disease means that you will drive the disease inside and only worsen the situation. By the way, at the next stage of the disease, anti-semitism will definitely return without hope of eliminating it
The ideological virus is embedded and spreads not via the deranged bigots disgracing universities. This focus is all wrong! Here in the UK (and I presume in the US), the mania is sources in our State Equality Laws. Until the CRT inspired victim/oppressor hierarchial system is reformed/overturned, nothing will stop the virus. It lives on separately..in parallel… in our culture and in the anti discriminatory terror in the heads of our cowardly progressive elite. But it is State law that pulses the poison out. Not mad wgf academics.
Calling Israel an “apartheid state” is not a legitimate view. It’s an ignorant view, and demeans both Israel and the victims of real apartheid in South Africa.
> to simply upgrade the status of antisemitism within its DEI apparatus.
This will just expedite their inevitable implosion. Already today you have infighting between feminists and trans activists, muslims and gays, next it’ll be anti-antisemites against post-colonialists. None of what they do and say makes sense and they won’t be able to keep up their charade much longer before a fatal schism hits that ragtag herd of self-righteous, self-serving troglodytes.
But just to be safe, let’s not let up on calling them out on their bullshit in the meantime.
I hope you are right – and I agree with your prescription.
“Donors are not the anti-woke heroes some believe them to be. They have punished elite universities for alleged antisemitism rather than their poor record on freedom, with Harvard reputed to have lost $1 billion on the back of the debacle.”
It depresses me that the American elite lack all principles except when it comes to Israel.
In the US the ruling class is seriously deficient in patricians.
Oh the tangled webs we weave when at first we try to deceive. I would have added quotation marks and a proper citation, but that’s too much effort. Besides it’s just duplicative language.
Kaufman is correct. Ivy league schools have circled the wagons. DEI will be couched in different terms. If Ackman follows through on his threat to use AI to scrutinize dissertations and academic papers for plagiarism, “elite” institutions will take the publications off line. Ackman can afford to be hypocritical and seek retribution for attacking his wife. Small cost to him. But Harvard, along with other high ranked institutions pay a high price. Some highest quality students will go else where, renowned faculty will leave, academic papers will be hidden and therefore uncited. What will remain but the memory? Oh what a tangled web they’ve woven.
Just a short word on terminology: the term ‘progressive’ is a neutral term, whereas the progressivist agenda is a clearly ideological push for dominance and should be rendered visible as such by using the term ‘progressivist’.
I was a lifelong progressive until about three years ago. It was ideology that drove me away, especially because I’m gender critical. Now I’m just a homeless liberal.
Calling Israel, the national homeland of the Jews, an “apartheid” state, should be classified as hate speech. Any attempt to delegitimize or prosecute a national identity and population should be hate speech. Calling for the destruction and death of any religious group or social class is hate speech.
In my opinion, it is actually the notion of ‘hate speech’ itself that is the cause of many of these problems.
The rumour that always circulates about Harvard is that as a community they were known for supporting national socialism in the 1930s.
That makes one think of the Trudeau dynasty and their similar affinities, notably with Ukrainian nationalists who themselves collaborated with the Third Reich (in genocide) and are driven by neo-F-scist blood and soil values today.
Trumps gonna win. Europe is electing right wing governments, their populations are sick to death of unchecked immigration from the 3rd world. Woke agendas from institutions that tell them they need to accept that their way of life is not progressive enough. Ordinary people have had it, they don’t control the media, they don’t control any institutions except Governments thru the ballot box. That’s how they will push back against the zealots.
LGB must not include the T or the Q – the last two are at odds with LGB rights. Please stop lumping them together.
Hear hear.
“the faculty and administration are doubling down on the ‘it’s a conservative plot’ narrative.”
It is a conservative plot, and one deserving of support before these completely anti-democratic wannabe social despots expand their control from the campuses to the rest of the country.
Political neutrality is unacceptable as it just reinforces the status quo. To achieve real change, enlarge the DEI agenda to include the class issues American powers that be prefer to obfuscate.
And demand full disclosure from present and former donors. Those that hold purse strings shouldn’t be able to call the shots behind the scenes.
This, alongside the thought of Trump winning the next election, offers a fairly pessimistic outlook for the USA in terms of unity.
I don’t see universities coming back as bastions of liberalism. Wokeism is a natural result, not a perversion of liberalism. If JS Mill were to live today he’d be a Woke activist.
https://unherd.com/2023/05/js-mill-and-the-despotism-of-progress/
As it stands, universities aren’t a great vocational school. They’re a wasteful and expensive way to learn professional knowledge excepting training with a physical component (e.g. medicine, some engineering, therapy etc).
They’re a great way though for young people to network, socialise and have fun together as well as markers of prestige. There may come a time to more efficiently address these use cases.
Many universities, especially the elite private ones, are well insulated from market pressure through the availability of US government managed student loans and lack of their skin in the game. If a student does pay the loan off, the university does not suffer. Worse, if the student does not pay the loan off, in many cases the loan can be forgiven by the federal government. Thank you Presidents Obama and Biden.
Many colleges have loaded up on non-teaching administrative positions, most perniciously in DEI. I think Yale has as more administrators than undergraduate students. The University of Michigan has over 240 DEI staff with costs exceeding $30 million annually, according to The College Fix.
I would make colleges front their own loans and eat the costs of default or bankruptcy. I do not think that degrees in dance or grievance studies (e.g. gender studies or race studies) are as critical to our nation’s success as medicine or engineering. With cost pressures, colleges would need to trim or jettison the administrative bloat.
We can and should as alumni and donors, shut the money off, and give development officers an earful when they call to solicit. As parents ask probing questions when your child visits the school, such as what are the schools’ DEI policies, how do they enforce speech codes, how many students get kicked out for things such as misgendering or creating an unsafe space (and what is an unsafe space).
‘Progressive’ should be between quotation marks