Tag: political correctness

The University of Minnesota is Paying ‘Diversity’ Staffers Almost $1.5 Million Annually

The University of Minnesota is paying ‘diversity staffers’ almost a million and a half dollars every year. And people still wonder how college has gotten so expensive.

What exactly do diversity staffers even do? Does anyone know?

Parents and students must understand that when they take out massive government loans to pay for college, this is part of what they are paying for. The exorbitant salaries of these pointless employees.

Campus Reform reports:

University of Minnesota pays DEI staff nearly $1.5 million annually

The University of Minnesota pays its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) staff members more than $1.4 million annually, according to publicly available state payroll records.

Despite federal executive orders restricting DEI offices and activities, the University of Minnesota maintains an Office for Equity and Diversity, which consists “of over 15 offices and major initiatives.”

“Equity and diversity is fundamental to everything we do at the University of Minnesota,” the office’s website says.

The central office employs four leadership staff and five administrative staff. Five of those staff members are receiving six-figure salaries, according to OpenPayrolls.

Record from 2025 list Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández ($391,759), Associate Vice President for Equity and Diversity and Faculty Development Keisha Varma ($238,540), Associate Vice Presidents Tina Marisam ($230,444) and Malinda Lindquist ($196,267), and Chief of Staff Elizabeth Martinez-Podolsky ($164,800).

The payroll data also lists Kate Klosterman ($74,298), John Michael Bradshaw ($50,086.40), Jenna Olien ($47,237), and Tia Phan ($99,194).

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B.C. municipality considers recognizing legal rights for trees

A councillor in Saanich, B.C., is asking the municipality to recognize what supporters describe as the “rights of trees” by endorsing the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree.

The motion, introduced this week, would have Saanich formally implement the declaration, which sets out three core principles. It states that trees are living beings and a common good shared by humanity, that all life on Earth depends on their existence, and that people have a responsibility to act toward trees in “fraternity and solidarity.”

The proposal is intended to guide the municipality’s approach to protecting urban forests and recognizing the ecological importance of trees. Supporters argue the declaration reinforces the role trees play in biodiversity, climate resilience and public health.

If adopted, Saanich would join a growing movement to incorporate broader environmental rights into local government policies. The declaration itself is not legally binding, but supporters say it provides an ethical framework for municipal decision-making involving forests and green spaces.

Council is expected to consider the proposal as part of its ongoing discussions on environmental and urban forest policy.

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California’s Civil Rights Mafia

In 2018, two women filed a class-action suit against Riot Games, the video-game colossus responsible for League of Legends, Valorant, and other popular titles. They claimed that the company had denied them and other female employees “equal pay,” favored men for promotions, and created a “hostile work environment.” The women wanted Riot Games to pay out and to “cause social change.”

One year later, the parties agreed to a $10 million settlement. It was a massive sum, but not enough for California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which intervened to block the agreement and claim that Riot Games could be on the hook for a staggering $400 million. Facing a court battle against a deep-pocketed state agency, Riot Games later agreed to a $100 million settlement, about ten times the original amount.

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, now called the Civil Rights Department, has turned the Riot Games strategy into an entire playbook. For years, the state’s civil rights apparatus has enabled nonprofits and lawyers to shake down major companies, spinning small-dollar claims into massive, multimillion-dollar settlements.

The system operates like a mafia. Its “don,” Governor Gavin Newsom, sits at the top. His capo, CRD director Kevin Kish, runs the shakedown campaigns. And the state advances the interests of the entire Democratic apparatus: the Civil Rights Department secures settlement cash for radical NGOs, labor leaders can use the cases to create pressure for unionization, and left-wing lawyers “cause social change” at scale. For the first time, we are revealing the inner workings of California’s civil rights mafia – and exposing the corruption of state government.

California’s Civil Rights Department was created in 1980 as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The department was initially tasked with enforcing nondiscrimination law, but in the wake of the #MeToo and George Floyd social movements, the state’s power structure saw an opportunity to turn the agency into a powerhouse. They rebranded the organization as the Civil Rights Department in 2022, in keeping with the agency’s focus on shaking down companies for “civil rights violations.”

The shakedown campaigns have been remarkably successful. In the last four years alone, the CRD has coerced corporations like Microsoft ($14 million), Snap Inc. ($15 million), and Riot Games ($100 million) to shell out eight- and nine-figure payments. These settlements have variously included provisions for class members, interest groups, and the CRD itself, which is allowed by state law to recoup fees associated with its prosecutions.

The CRD’s enforcement actions often include one or more predictable features. First, the CRD finds a handful of women or minorities who claim that a large corporation has mistreated them. Then the agency initiates or intervenes in an action against that corporation. Finally, to spin small-dollar claims into massive payouts, the CRD generates outrageous liability estimates, which goad the company to the negotiating table.

The point man on this scheme is Kevin Kish, a Yale Law School graduate and the CRD’s director. On its website, the agency notes Kish’s reputation for taking “a creative approach to advocacy,” which involves “collaborations” with nonprofits and “organizing campaigns” – in other words, using the department to advance the interests of unions, nonprofits, and other left-wing groups.

Kish mastered this approach during his time in the progressive legal movement. Before starting in state government, he worked as director of the Employment Rights Project for Bet Tzedek Legal Service, where, in one instance, he helped turn a small-time wage-and-hour case into a multimillion settlement against Walmart and one of its contractors.

Apparently pleased with Kish’s efforts, then-Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to lead the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in late 2014. Gay activists celebrated his appointment, with one LGBT group calling Kish a “strong and passionate legal champion.”

In his first few years at the DFEH, Kish oversaw several small-time suits: in 2015, he got a Mexican restaurant chain to cough up $130,000; in 2017, he induced a rural welfare nonprofit to shell out $152,000. Then, in 2019, he intervened in the Riot Games case, which later delivered a nine-figure payout and apparently encouraged him to expand his ambitions. For Kish, who has argued that “there is almost no [adult] transgender person who has not experienced . . . some form of discrimination,” the role represented an opportunity to enforce his broad understanding of “hate.”

By 2021, Kish had perfected the shakedown model and picked a new target: Activision Blizzard, the video-game giant that owns titles like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. The CRD sued the company, alleging, among other things, that it had discriminated against female employees and cultivated a “frat boy” culture. According to a criminal referral that we obtained, which was filed by a group tied to former Activision CEO Robert Kotick, the pretext for the department’s action was an earlier federal complaint, which concluded that charging Activision would “send a message to the industry as a whole.”

The original class-action suit included just ten of Activision’s more than 9,000 employees. The complaint claimed, among other things, that “only about 20 percent” of the company’s employees were female, that some of its employees riffed “about their sexual encounters,” and that a female employee had committed suicide, potentially in connection with an alleged relationship with a supervisor.

Activision initially tried to placate the CRD. Kotick reportedly “pledged to add resources to ensure that Activision Blizzard’s hiring practices are more diverse.” The company’s then-president, J. Allen Brack, said that he “disdain[ed] ‘bro culture'” and had spent his “career fighting against it.” Activision apparently even offered paid time off to workers who wanted to participate in a staged “walk-out.”

It didn’t work. In fact, things got worse: later that year, sensing the company’s vulnerability, a labor union called the Communication Workers of America (CWA) filed a suit with the National Labor Relations Board. The union accused the company of trying to prevent workers from demanding a “more equitable, sustainable, and diverse workplace.”

The CRD and the CWA apparently had shared ambitions – to punish and to unionize Activision – and even hired the same law firm. Kish’s CRD hired the same firm (Outten & Golden) that represented the CWA in another suit. The firm’s lawyer said that he believed it was the “first time the State of California has retained a private firm to prosecute employment law claims in trial court.” (In response to a question about Outten & Golden, CRD pointed us to a ruling in California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment v. California State Personnel Board.)

In September, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought its own misconduct suit against Activision. The agency claimed, among other things, that Activision had exposed “female employees to sexual harassment.” The two sides agreed to an $18 million settlement, but the CRD wasn’t satisfied.

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Rep. Brandon Gill Makes Head of American Bar Association Squirm by Asking Her Questions About DEI in Law Schools

Republican Rep. Brandon Gill grilled Michelle A. Behnke, the president of the American Bar Association this week about DEI policies in law schools, the future of the U.S. Supreme Court and more.

If you have ever seen Gill in this type of environment before, you know how good he is at this.

He asked this woman very simple questions but she kept falling back on answers that sounded like rehearsed legal responses.

Here’s a partial transcript:

GILL: According to the ABA’s website, quote, all of us have implicit biases, would you agree with that statement?

BEHNKE: The ABA believes that, uh, diversity, equity and inclusion, improves the lives of…

GILL: Would you agree with the statement? That, quote, all of us have implicit biases, from the ABA’s website?

BEHNKE: The ABA believes that diversity in all of its…

GILL: Is that a yes? Can I take that… It’s a yes or no question. Do you believe that all of us have implicit biases as your website says?

BEHNKE: The ABA looks to remove barriers and…

GILL: That’s not my question, ma’am. Do you believe that all of us have implicit biases?

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DOJ: UCSD med school favored black, Hispanic applicants over more qualified white, Asian ones

The University of California San Diego School of Medicine illegally used race in its admissions process to favor black and Hispanic applicants over more qualified white and Asian candidates, the Justice Department announced Monday.

The med school continued affirmative action in violation of civil rights laws and even after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race discrimination in higher education.

The feds argued the med school uses “hardship” criteria to skirt the laws.

“To racially diversify its classes, San Diego Med created an evaluation process that uses ‘hardship’ as a racial proxy, specifically to achieve its diversity agenda,” according to an eight-page findings memo it sent to the school.

The memo stated:

The Department finds that San Diego Med discriminated against white and Asian applicants to benefit black and Hispanic applicants. This is evident from the data analysis and confirmed through the information provided by San Diego Med and publicly available data. The school intended to tinker with the racial representation of its incoming classes, even after SFF A was decided. The data shows a significant disparity in objective academic metrics between black and Hispanic applicants compared with applicants from other races. San Diego Med’ s internal documents, including communications among the admissions staff, confirm that San Diego Med intended to racially discriminate in favor of so-called underrepresented minorities, such as blacks and Hispanics. As a result of these practices, more qualified white and Asian students were denied admission to San Diego Med on the basis of their race.

A UC San Diego spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times the university is reviewing the findings.

The medical school “is proud to produce some of the highest-performing physicians and researchers in the nation,” the spokesperson said, adding all applicants “must meet strict academic thresholds, a requirement that is and was applied uniformly to all applicants.”

The university “remains committed to full compliance with federal law” and “welcomes the opportunity to work collaboratively and constructively with the federal government to affirm that commitment.”

The Hill reported that the department seeks a voluntary settlement with the university to correct its admissions practices or the department will file a lawsuit.

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Smithsonian history museum director stumbles over basic questions on sex: ‘I’m not sure’

Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig appeared stumped by a basic question on sex and gender from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

During a House hearing on alleged “extreme political activism” on display at the Smithsonian, Mace asked Hartig, “Do you believe that men can become women?”

Hartig hesitated before answering, “Ma’am, as the director of the museum, that’s not relevant in this case.”

“It’s very relevant,” Mace shot back. Motioning to images of Smithsonian displays featuring drag queens, Mace continued, “You’ve got men dressed up as women, and you have them on displays in front of kids. Do you think men can become women? Yes or no?”

Hartig did not answer the question but instead began to discuss one of the drag queen displays pictured on the board behind Mace. The congresswoman interrupted her.

“What is a woman, Dr. Hartig?” Mace demanded.

Hartig began to answer that “as a director and as a historian, it’s not my-” before Mace cut her off again, saying, “You sexualized the American History Museum. So, this is a fair question. What is a woman?”

Looking down for a moment, Hartig responded, “We strive to represent and not categorize all Americans.”

“OK, I have another question for you,” Mace continued. “There’s a glossary at the museum that informs visitors that while American culture traditionally recognizes two genders, other countries recognize three or more.”

“So, enlighten me this morning: how many genders are there?” Mace asked.

Hartig hesitated again before asking, “Ma’am, which glossary?”

“This is a display, and it has a glossary that says other countries recognize three or more genders. So, I would like you to enlighten me today; you’re the director of the American History Museum, who’s sexualized things in front of kids. I want to know, I want to ask you, how many genders are there?”

Finally, Hartig responded, “I’m not sure which glossary you’re speaking,” before adding, “I’m happy to get back to you about that glossary.”

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Rep. Brandon Gill Completely Humiliates Smithsonian Director with This Brilliant Line of Questioning While Catching Her Pushing Insane Anti-White Agenda

One of the Republican Party’s rising stars left the director of the Smithsonian stumbling by utilizing a brilliant line of questioning that exposed her organization’s anti-white agenda.

During Tuesday’s House Oversight hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) tangled with Dr. Anthea Hartig, Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, over a mass toolkit her organization had been promoting that characterizes so many cultural manners and icons as white supremacy.

These include politeness, objectivity, and even Mickey Mouse.

Hartig stumbled, froze, and stammered at various points during her confrontation with Gill when confronted with this toolkit. Making it even worse, Gill used important yet easy-to-answer questions that an honest person could nail.

But not Hartig. What follows is nearly four minutes of complete destruction.

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UK: Historic pub accused of ‘misogyny’ as influencers complain of ‘sickening’ 200-year-old name

Ahistoric pub has been branded misogynistic as American influencers complain of its “sickening” 200-year-old name.

The Henry VIII pub sits opposite Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and has stood proudly in the heart of the Kent village for five centuries.

After going viral on social media, Londoners looking to have their fill of English history now run rampant through the manicured castle grounds, seeking out the perfect Instagram spot outside the Big Smoke.

Tourists’ gaze will often fall upon the country pub opposite the attraction, whose name some visitors blame on the “patriarchy”.

Deirdre Rae, an American self-acclaimed life coach who moved to London, was one of the first to rage over the pub’s name.

After going viral on social media, Londoners looking to have their fill of English history now run rampant through the manicured castle grounds, seeking out the perfect Instagram spot outside the Big Smoke.

Tourists’ gaze will often fall upon the country pub opposite the attraction, whose name some visitors blame on the “patriarchy”.

Deirdre Rae, an American self-acclaimed life coach who moved to London, was one of the first to rage over the pub’s name.

“Imagine being Anne Boleyn and finding out people thought it was a good idea to open a pub dedicated to the man who beheaded you right in front of your childhood home,” she said.

“I’m just finding out about this and I’m sickened by the disrespect,” one said, while others cried out for a petition to change the “disrespectful as f**k” name. Some proposed the “Anne Bole Inn”.

“It’s how they’ve always treated women, nothing changes if nothing changes,” another added.

“It’s ridiculous to say our pub’s misogynistic,” one local told Britain’s News Channel.

“It’s history. That’s what it is. If influencers out here think they know better than us, they have another thing coming.”

But Ms Rae’s claim was met with some mocking responses as others lamented the “deeply-ingrained misogyny” pervading through British history.

“When you get the chance to ask her, let me know,” one ridiculed, while another mused that the beheaded Queen was unlikely to find out.

Others condemned her “simplistic analysis”, while insisting the story was far more complicated than at first glance.

“I don’t think the pub’s name is intended as misogynistic or offensive to Anne, who was executed in 1536,” royal historian Gareth Russell told the People’s Channel.

“I’m not sure renaming it as ‘The Anne Bole Inn’ has quite the sense of gravitas you might want for honouring a Queen of England…

“But that being said, I’ve always thought it was an odd choice to name the pub opposite her childhood home after the husband who signed her death warrant,” he added.

The Henry VIII was named as such as far back as 1848, although the site has long-served as a boozer for the locals and dates all the way back to the 1500s.

The second Queen Consort to Henry VIII was executed for treason in 1536 following a three-year reign alongside the King.

She spent her early youth in Hever Castle after her father inherited the estate in 1505. The King’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, eventually took over ownership of the property as part of the couple’s annulment settlement.

The pub at that time was renamed to the “Bull and Butcher”, a pun on “Boleyn Butcher”, following her beheading, when the inn was still a part of the castle’s estate.

However, with the site serving as a popular tourist attraction, Hever Castle has embraced the Tudor times, with an extensive annual programme including jousting tournaments and archery displays.

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Teachers’ Union Doubles Down On Crazy Leftist Policies Of Division

New NEA President Princess Moss is just what you would expect from the newly elected National Education Association President, a leftist idealogue who will continue the union’s slide to the left in support of indoctrination of our nation’s students into Marxism/Communism, gender ideology, and anti-family politics.

How do we know? We know because she, like former President Becky Pringle, tells us. Here is a quote from her acceptance speech at the recent NEA Convention. Moss is the current NEA Vice President and will take over as President September 1st, allowing Pringle to continue to prance around as if she is some kind of deity for just a bit longer. From the beginning of Moss’s speech:

“Together, we will build the power to defend public education, advance racial and social justice, and ensure every educator has the respect, resources, and voice they deserve,” new President Princess Moss said in announcing her win at the union’s Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly last week.

As you can see, there is no reference to academic achievement for children, parental rights, or American values in that announcement. It’s more of the same divisive rhetoric that has carried Pringle through her term, especially if you dig past the initial phrases.

The National EDUCATION Association has NOTHING to do with education, or kids, or even the rank-and-file teachers. In fact, less than 10 cents per dollar of member dues goes to educator advocacy and representation. The rest is salaries for six figure administrative salaries, payoffs to politicians, and millions into political action committees that don’t mirror the beliefs of many of their members. These facts have caused U.S. Representatives to introduce legislation to decertify the union.

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Woke U: University at Buffalo Funds Research on ‘Queer Theory,’ ‘Racial Capitalism’

In the latest example of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and wokeness at educational institutions, Campus Reform reports that the University of Buffalo is funding research on ‘queer theory’ and ‘racial capitalism.’

“The University at Buffalo’s Gender Institute will fund grant projects with up to $7,000 to advance scholarship related to women, gender, and sexuality.”

In January 2025, President Trump signed the Executive Order ‘Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.’

It targets DEI and DEIA programs across the federal government, private sector, and institutions of higher education.

The University of Buffalo’s grants seem to fly in the face of the order.

“Funding, which ranges from $1,000 to $7,000, can support “data collection, archival research, fieldwork, research assistance, supplies, books, software, travel integral to the development of the project, and other forms of research support and curriculum development expenses.”

“A grant from fall 2025 supported a monograph about Shakespeare’s Macbeth and abortion. The project was titled “Queering Birth, Queering Death: The Problem of Life in Early Modern Literature.”

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