It’s by now a commonplace story: State universities in “red” states, where most of the voters and legislators dislike progressive ideology, are being infiltrated by administrators and faculty who insist on implementing radically leftist policies and courses. Earlier this year, for example, the Martin Center published this article by Jonathan Small on the ways that … Continue reading “Woke Capture at UT-Knoxville”
Over the last several years, a burgeoning new genre has put the book-watching world on notice. “New Adult,” a coinage first used by St. Martin’s Press in 2009, refers to novels with greater depth than standard YA fare but far less than traditional literary fiction. Intended for twentysomethings unready for the challenge of real books, … Continue reading “A Popular Fiction Genre is Unreadable Garbage. Blame Colleges.”
Holden Thorp is a very clever fellow. With a PhD in chemistry from Caltech and after some business ventures and a spell teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he ascended to the chancellorship of the university in 2007 at the young age of 43. He resigned in 2013 amid allegations of … Continue reading “Science Needs Honesty, Not Affirmative Action”
The notion of antiracism now dominates at all levels of education, from infant to university. In a previous piece, I described how the 2017 President of American Educational Research Association (AERA) gave speeches to teachers instructing them that teaching math to kids poses a racist threat, playing a set of video clips to underline her … Continue reading “Credo Quia Absurdum: Education and the Cult of Anti-Racism”
As if landing a college teaching position wasn’t already difficult enough, the powers-that-be have placed another obstacle in job-seekers’ path: the so-called “Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” better known as the “diversity statement” or “DEI statement.” Many (most?) institutions now require such a document as part of the application packet along with the traditional … Continue reading “The Toxic Absurdity of “Diversity Statements” “
The hiring of a critical race theorist to teach music is yet another offering from academics at the temple of the woke. Little good it will do students or individuals and communities interested in rejecting racial prejudice. In July, Arizona State University officials hired a music professor to train K-12 music teachers, emphasizing that the … Continue reading “Arizona State University and Offerings at the Temple of the Woke”
It is hard to fathom the extent to which American colleges and universities have been taken over by Critical Theory, race-based or not. One good indication is that French and Canadian leaders are warning their citizens about the dangers of importing these ideas from the U.S. In an October speech about the dangers of further … Continue reading “Sensitivity by Proxy”
A few years ago, my friend Sheila recounted an incident of alleged racism she experienced at a café in California. While waiting in line to order a coffee, a barista took the order of an older white woman first. The barista didn’t refuse service to Sheila and was polite when she finally took her order. … Continue reading “Motte-and-Bailey: The Academic Threat from ‘Lived Experience’”
The Legal Insurrection Foundation, of which I am the president, has launched a website, criticalrace.org, to provide resources to parents and students regarding Critical Race Training in higher education. The main feature of the website is a database of how Critical Race Theory is put into action on campuses, presented in the form of an … Continue reading “Exposing Critical Race Training in Higher Education”
Penguin Classics is partnering with Disrupt Texts to replace Shakespeare and Homer with Ibram X. Kendi. What is Disrupt Texts? For the uninitiated, it is a new radical movement in classrooms which seeks to disrupt the “hegemony of English” and the Western canon by replacing them. According to its own website, Disrupt Texts is a “crowdsourced, grassroots effort by … Continue reading “Did You Know? Disrupt Texts Is the Latest Attack on the Western Canon”