Tag: political correctness

Democrats Planning to Run in 2028 Are Desperately Trying to Distance Themselves From Wokeness

Democrats clearly know ‘wokeness’ is a loser, because the ones who we know are planning to run for president in 2028 are running away from it as fast as they can.

The real trick is going to come as we get closer to the election and Democrat base voters start paying attention. How do you suppose they are going to feel when their presidential candidates start trying to publicly backtrack on issues like trans people in sports, or trying to take a hard line on the border and immigration?

These Democrats will find themselves in an impossible position. People on the right won’t believe them and people on the left will feel betrayed by them.

They have painted themselves into a corner.

Politico reports:

The Great Un-Awokening

Ambitious Democrats with an eye on a presidential run are in the middle of a slow-motion Sister Souljah moment.

Searching for a path out of the political wilderness, potential 2028 candidates, especially those hailing from blue states, are attempting to ratchet back a leftward lurch on social issues some in the party say cost them the November election.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who is Black, vetoed a bill that took steps toward reparations passed by his state legislature. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called it “unfair” to allow transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports. And Rahm Emanuel has urged his party to veer back to the center…

Keep reading

How ‘Equity’ debases education

In the current backlash against DEI, most criticism is focused on the “D” — diversity — which replaces the principle of meritocracy with racial criteria in hiring, admissions, and promotions. Notorious examples of implementation include police and fire departments lowering requirements for education and physical fitness, or aviation authorities adopting  biographical assessment in place of traditional skill-based hiring evaluations.

The “E” — equity — is more complex. Equity has replaced the concept of equality, which progressive ideology in the U.S. deems discriminatory because of its emphasis on individual effort that may result in unequal outcomes. A symbolic definition is that the educational equity must provide every child with what he needs to achieve his full academic and social potential. This vision resembles Karl Marx’s idealistic communism that provides resources “to each according to his needs.” Although formulated in the Marxist sense, equity is more restrictive because it is supposed to benefit children from only “underprivileged” backgrounds. But, beyond empty reasoning, equity’s actual goal is absolute equality in the educational outcomes regardless of individual ability or effort. To accomplish this, curricula and teaching methodology are being drastically rewritten in many parts of the country.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have come under increased scrutiny. Critics argue that these disciplines have historically been tools of nationalism, colonialism, and systemic inequity. As a result, some school districts across the country are scaling back advanced curricular offerings. Mathematics has especially faced pressure due to its perceived role in perpetuating discrimination and cultural dominance. Many equity-focused proposals aim to reduce the emphasis on mathematics in school programs.  Common suggestions include eliminating accelerated mathematical tracks in middle school, removing early-entry algebra for gifted students, and consolidating high school algebra and geometry into an “integrated math” course.

Aligned with these equity principles are significant changes in teaching methodology. Traditional grading practices are increasingly viewed as inequitable and are being reconsidered or eliminated in some districts. Proposals often include removing homework deadlines and allowing late work without penalty. In subjects such as reading and mathematics, achievement levels are being abolished, with all students placed in honors classes regardless of academic performance.

In terms of student discipline, many schools have adopted “restorative justice” approaches as an alternative to traditional punitive measures. This model focuses on mediation and rehabilitation rather than suspension, emphasizing support not only for the victim, but the offender too. More than 20 states have already enacted policies introducing restorative justice in schools. These practices involve allowing misbehaving students to avoid traditional consequences and even receive incentives such as snacks or breaks in quiet spaces. The restorative justice programs let misbehavers blame factors outside their control, that is, typically societal injustice.

Keep reading

UNCC official ‘no longer employed’ after being caught on video saying she covertly pushes DEI

A University of North Carolina Charlotte administrator who was secretly recorded admitting to finding ways to advance diversity, equity and inclusion ideology despite a ban on the ideology is no longer employed.

Accuracy in Media released a video of Janique Sanders on May 28 telling undercover journalists she and other university officials have “renamed,” “reorganized” and “recalibrated” to continue pushing DEI ideology.

Her comments seemed to contrast with a one-year-old University of North Carolina Board of Governors ban on DEI offices and programs systemwide.

“If you’re looking for an outward DEI position, it’s not going to happen,” she said on the edited video. “But if you are interested in doing work that is covert, there are opportunities.”

In a statement to The College Fix on Wednesday, UNCC’s spokesperson Christy Jackson said the “employee’s statements were inaccurate and do not reflect the University’s actions.”

“…The individual featured in the video had no policymaking authority, no role in compliance matters and was not authorized to speak on these issues. Following an internal review, the individual is no longer employed by UNC Charlotte,” Jackson said via email.

Keep reading

Major bank announces end of de-banking policies on guns and political affiliation

After years of criticism from the right about unfair “de-banking” practices, a major U.S. bank announced the end of the policy as it relates to political affiliation and gun sales.

Citigroup announced that they changed their firearms policies, which had been instituted after the heinous 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“We appreciate the concerns that are being raised regarding ‘fair access’ to banking services, and we are following regulatory developments, recent executive orders and federal legislation that impact this area,” the bank said in a statement.

The statement said Citigroup had updated its employee code of conduct to ensure that no one was discriminated against on the basis of their political affiliation.

Among those who claimed they were the targets of political de-banking were first lady Melania Trump and Eric Trump, who said the Trump Organization had been negatively affected.

In October, the first lady recalled in an interview the shock she felt on finding out a bank had “suddenly informed me they will not be able to do business with me anymore.”

She also said that a university returned her money when she tried to contribute to a philanthropic effort to fund scholarships for foster kids.

“They didn’t want to do business with me because of political affiliation, my political beliefs,” she added.

Keep reading

School board tells teachers ‘family’ is a white supremacist term

A school board distributed the teachings of a faculty member who was hired through a race-based initiative to tell staff that families are a product of white supremacy.

The faculty member, Dr. Laura Mae Lindo, focuses her research on “addressing social justice” and was hired at a local university through what is known as a “black hiring cluster.” The “equity-based” hiring initiative was for black and “Indigenous” people only, with Lindo being one of 10 ethnicity-based hires.

Given Dr. Lindo’s past discourses on “race in comedy” and the “whiteness” of philosophy, her teachings on families should come as no surprise.

Internal training documents obtained by True North reporter Melanie Bennet showed that not only were staff at the Waterloo Region District School Board in Ontario, Canada, given materials that said “family” is a white supremacist term but also that ideas like “objectivity” and a “sense of urgency” are part of a white supremacist culture, as well.

Keep reading

Student Suspended For Saying ‘Illegal Aliens’ Will Receive Cash, Public Apology

The perceived overreach of administrators at one North Carolina high school sparked a nationwide conversation about whether students should be kicked out of school for using terms some others might find offensive.

At the heart of the case is Christian McGhee, who was 16 when he received a three-day suspension for uttering the words “illegal aliens” during a class lesson.

He insisted he was only trying to clarify the assignment, but the supposed violation was nevertheless deemed severe enough to warrant a suspension.

The ensuing backlash has resulted vindication for the student, as the New York Post reported:

McGhee’s mother, Leah, had filed a lawsuit in which she accused the school and the Davidson County Board of Education of violating her son’s First Amendment rights.

However, McGhee’s family and the school board settled on Wednesday after a year-long battle in the courts, according to court documents.

The board has agreed to remove all references to racial bias in McGhee’s school record and issue a public apology “for the mischaracterization of racial bias” in his record, documents show.

The board will also provide him with $20,000 in compensation to help his family with the costs of tuition at his new private school, to which he was forced to transfer after being suspended.

Keep reading

Supreme Court Issues Unanimous Ruling In Key Case

The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision on Thursday involving an Ohio woman who alleges reverse discrimination. The decision could become a key victory in ongoing ideological wars against diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives.

In a 9-0 decision that, believe it or not, was penned by left-leaning Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the highest court in the land ruled that Marlean Ames was not required to meet a “higher burden of proof to prove that she was discriminated against despite being part of a ‘majority’ group,” the New York Post said.

Ames filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Youth Services in November 2020. In the suit, she made allegations that she was wrongfully passed over for a promotion in favor of a lesbian. This individual, she claims, was not qualified for the position, and Ames was later demoted and then replaced by a gay man. This individual was also not qualified for the job, she said.

Ames’s complaint will now be sent back to the lower courts for review.

“The ruling from the Supreme Court makes it easier to pursue claims of reverse discrimination in 20 states and the District of Columbia that are covered by federal courts of appeals that still applied the standard,” CBS News reported.

In the decision, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that SCOTUS’ case law “makes clear that the standard for proving disparate treatment under Title VII does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group. … The ‘background circumstances’ rule flouts that basic principle.”

She also pointed out that the requirement places all majority-group plaintiffs under “the same, highly specific evidentiary standard in every case.”

A federal district court had previously ruled in favor of the Ohio Department of Youth Services after it found that it offered “legitimate, nondiscriminatory business reasons” for not giving Ames the promotion.

Keep reading

BEYOND PARODY: Anniversary Edition of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Includes ‘Trigger Warning’ by American Professor

A new anniversary edition of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel ‘1984’ has been released and it includes a ‘trigger warning’ in the introduction that was written by an American professor.

Apparently, progressives in higher education don’t understand the concept of irony.

Trigger warnings are one of the progressive concepts that sprang out of liberal academia in recent years and assumes that the reader is so mentally fragile that they need a warning for material that could somehow traumatize them.

The College Fix reports:

75th anniversary edition of ‘1984’ contains trigger warning by American U. professor

Courtesy of Dolen Perkins-Valdez, who according to her website has “established herself as a pre-eminent chronicler of American historical life” and teaches literature at American University, the intro makes note that “there are no Black characters at all” in the novel.

For a “contemporary reader” such as herself, Perkins-Valdez (pictured) says this gives her “pause.” She also says a “sliver of connection” is difficult with a book that “does not speak much to race and ethnicity.”

On the June 2 edition of the show “America This Week, Live,” host Walter Kirn had co-host Matt Taibbi in stitches pointing out the paradox of such an introduction in a book whose themes include the use of language and freedom of thought…

“So, this version of ‘1984’ has a trigger warning […] here it goes: Dolen Perkins-Valdez [says] ‘I’m enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic but as a good story. That is, until Winston [Smith] reveals himself to be a problematic character.’

“‘For example, we learn of him he dislikes nearly all women. And especially the young and pretty ones. Winston’s views on women are, at first, despicable for the contemporary reader. He is the kind of character that can make me put a book down.’”

Just unreal.

Keep reading

Biden Made Communities Less Safe By Forcing DEI On Police And Fire Departments

The Trump administration has dropped the Biden administration’s push for onerous consent decrees on police and fire departments. These legal settlements micromanaged police operations and mandated DEI-based hiring and promotion practices.

“These radical requirements seem disconnected from how police departments actually work,” said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon on Friday. “They tie officers’ hands and make communities less safe.”

The proposed consent decrees required departments to change how they tested prospective hires, increasing the share of black and female candidates hired.

Dhillon also warned that consent decrees drain resources, saying, “Once a judge imposes a consent decree, cities typically spend $10 million or more each year to comply with endless legal demands.”

Such money could instead go toward actually policing our streets.

Data on DEI

DEI practices have been pushed on police departments by Democrat presidents for decades, and economists have studied how such decrees impact the effectiveness of police forces, particularly when they change or eliminate testing standards to reshape the racial or gender makeup of departments.

There can, however, be advantages to hiring minority officers. In many cases, residents of minority communities are more likely to cooperate with officers who share their background. Minority officers can also serve undercover more effectively.

Consent decrees increase minority hiring by eliminating or reducing intelligence test standards. Since all new hires take these tests, the practice risks lowering the quality of new hires across the racial spectrum. Such recruiting has led to increased crime rates, and the largest increases have occurred in more heavily minority areas.

The effect is quite significant. On average, cities that had consent decrees for hiring imposed on them saw their violent and property crime rates falling relative to other cities before the consent decrees and rising relative to other cities afterward. The average yearly decline relative to other cities before the consent decree was -5.3 percent for violent crime, and the average yearly increase afterward was 4.8 percent.

Police departments that hired more black officers after changing their hiring rules also tended to lower their hiring standards the most. A 1 percent increase in the share of black officers correlated with a 4 percent rise in property crime and an almost 5 percent increase in violent crime. These crime spikes hit hardest in areas with the largest black population.

Keep reading

North Carolina University Dean Ousted After Admitting to Secretive DEI Push

University of North Carolina Asheville Dean of Students Megan Pugh has been removed after admitting to secretly pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

“I mean we probably still do anyway… but you gotta keep it quiet,” Pugh told an undercover journalist in a video released by Accuracy in Media.

“I love breaking rules,” the university dean said.

Pugh’s comments follow after the North Carolina System Board of Governor voted to virtually ban controversial DEI practices and pivot to “institutional neutrality.”

The video also shows Pugh agreeing when asked if “breaking rules” is “why y’all kind of spread it out and stuff?”

“Part of it is that, part of it is just because we don’t have a dedicated office for it anymore, it’s easier to maintain,” she admitted.

“Until more or less they get mad at us, but they haven’t done it yet,” she continued.

She responded affirmatively when asked if the school administration was generally supportive of the ways that DEI is still being implemented at the university.

A UNC Asheville spokesperson said the school is “aware of a video in which an employee makes comments implying that the University does not comply with UNC System policies or legal requirements and supports employees disregarding such obligations.”

“These remarks do not represent the practices of UNC Asheville. The University remains firmly committed to upholding all UNC System policies as well as federal and state laws, both in principle and in practice,” the statement continued.

Keep reading