I am taking a break from my post-baccalaureate studies at Portland State University (PSU) in woke Portland, Oregon. FAIR's report on Professor Zack De Piero's civil rights lawsuit against his employer, Penn State, has inspired me to write the following opinion piece about Portland State.
Stephen Percy, the outgoing president of the university, is a generic-looking middle-aged white guy, but inside that white-bread exterior lives a passionate social-justice warrior you'd expect to look like Che Guevarra or his San Francisco counterpart, the erstwhile district attorney Chesa Boudin. At least that's my opinion on the subject. Others may disagree.
A few years ago, Percy sent a campus-wide email in which he declared:
"My highest priority is sustaining and amplifying our commitment to racial justice.”
Indeed, the web page of the Office of President Stephen Percy lists the following as first among the school's strategic priorities:
"Acting on Equity and Racial Justice. We are fighting racism and advancing social justice across our campus by applying an antiracist lens to everything we do, measuring our progress and holding each other to account. We are taking steps to ensure success for all students, more equitable working conditions and an environment where people feel safe, belong, and prosper."
As a student who is, among many other things, gay, I am alarmed and dismayed by the radicalization at the school's official center for what used to be called sexual minorities.
You see, Portland State University's Queer Resource Center (QRC) recognizes only two types of students: Queer and Trans. The words "gay" and "lesbian" do not appear in the Queer Resource Center's mission statement. In fact, unless my repeated searches missed it, "gay" appears on the QRC's site only when citing unaffiliated outside organizations' use of the word.
As if that weren't bad enough, the Queer Resource Center's politics are stridently woke. It is expected that a good Portland State University queer will model the values of diversity, inclusion, equity and anti-racism. Its activities calendar is a festival of intersectional racial, ethnic and gender identity group culture. If you're BIPOC and trans, well, the Queer Resource Center is your home away from home. You’ll look in vain for a gay men’s board game night.
When I complained to the Queer Resource Center about its erasure of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, the reply as good as admitted that the queer hegemony was intentional. In any case, they added, everyone there was fine with it. If I didn't like it, why, I could click a helpful link to a complaint form.
It is deplorable that PSU’s only official organization for what used to be known as sexual minorities does not recognize or accommodate the university's mainstream gay, lesbian and bisexual students.
That the QRC has so thoroughly embraced the leftist ideology of wokeness is unconscionable. It's as if PSU's French club expected students to support the ideology of Marine Le Pen and organized its programming around it.
Anyone wishing to learn more about Portland State University's Queer Resource Center can visit its site by clicking on this link: https://www.pdx.edu/queer-resource-center/
Turning to PSU's Twitter stream, like any other institution of higher learning, PSU often includes photos of students and faculty in its tweets. Having been looking at PSUs tweets for several years, it is my clear impression that white men are grossly underrepresented in PSU's tweets in relation to their percentage of student population. https://twitter.com/Portland_State
Portland State University's motto is "Let knowledge serve the city." To this, it might be appropriate to add Ibram X. Kendi's infamous proclamation that: "The Only Remedy to Past Discrimination Is Present Discrimination."
I'm sorry this has happened to you. Portland is a town that puts up construction signs to prevent drive-by shootings, and places orange cones next to potholes instead of filling them in--the perfect visual metaphor for, "the city that works." PSU is a joke as far as standards or academic rigor goes. Agreement with administration's policies and warped ideology seems to be the only requirement for graduation. "Representation" has become little more than code for placing one group's interests above all others to achieve supremacy and control over everyone else, while doing one's utmost to stifle dissent, censor or ban intelligent criticism, and deprive all others of a voice. Jacques Mallet du Pan wrote that, "the revolution eats its own children." There was never any doubt that as soon as one identity group was able to strong arm society into obtaining elevated status that all groups would begin attacking each other to vie for superiority. The same thing happened during the French Revolution, until the fanatics literally killed each other off. That's the direction our society is heading in. The idea that so-called "anti racists" represent anything other than their own brand of racism is utterly laughable.
Zack de Piero courageously stood up for truth--and against this terrible form of racism called "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion."
I am taking a break from my post-baccalaureate studies at Portland State University (PSU) in woke Portland, Oregon. FAIR's report on Professor Zack De Piero's civil rights lawsuit against his employer, Penn State, has inspired me to write the following opinion piece about Portland State.
Stephen Percy, the outgoing president of the university, is a generic-looking middle-aged white guy, but inside that white-bread exterior lives a passionate social-justice warrior you'd expect to look like Che Guevarra or his San Francisco counterpart, the erstwhile district attorney Chesa Boudin. At least that's my opinion on the subject. Others may disagree.
A few years ago, Percy sent a campus-wide email in which he declared:
"My highest priority is sustaining and amplifying our commitment to racial justice.”
You can read a take on Percy's statement here: https://redstate.com/alexparker/2021/01/05/portland-university-stephen-percy-n305028
Indeed, the web page of the Office of President Stephen Percy lists the following as first among the school's strategic priorities:
"Acting on Equity and Racial Justice. We are fighting racism and advancing social justice across our campus by applying an antiracist lens to everything we do, measuring our progress and holding each other to account. We are taking steps to ensure success for all students, more equitable working conditions and an environment where people feel safe, belong, and prosper."
As a student who is, among many other things, gay, I am alarmed and dismayed by the radicalization at the school's official center for what used to be called sexual minorities.
You see, Portland State University's Queer Resource Center (QRC) recognizes only two types of students: Queer and Trans. The words "gay" and "lesbian" do not appear in the Queer Resource Center's mission statement. In fact, unless my repeated searches missed it, "gay" appears on the QRC's site only when citing unaffiliated outside organizations' use of the word.
As if that weren't bad enough, the Queer Resource Center's politics are stridently woke. It is expected that a good Portland State University queer will model the values of diversity, inclusion, equity and anti-racism. Its activities calendar is a festival of intersectional racial, ethnic and gender identity group culture. If you're BIPOC and trans, well, the Queer Resource Center is your home away from home. You’ll look in vain for a gay men’s board game night.
When I complained to the Queer Resource Center about its erasure of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, the reply as good as admitted that the queer hegemony was intentional. In any case, they added, everyone there was fine with it. If I didn't like it, why, I could click a helpful link to a complaint form.
It is deplorable that PSU’s only official organization for what used to be known as sexual minorities does not recognize or accommodate the university's mainstream gay, lesbian and bisexual students.
That the QRC has so thoroughly embraced the leftist ideology of wokeness is unconscionable. It's as if PSU's French club expected students to support the ideology of Marine Le Pen and organized its programming around it.
Anyone wishing to learn more about Portland State University's Queer Resource Center can visit its site by clicking on this link: https://www.pdx.edu/queer-resource-center/
Turning to PSU's Twitter stream, like any other institution of higher learning, PSU often includes photos of students and faculty in its tweets. Having been looking at PSUs tweets for several years, it is my clear impression that white men are grossly underrepresented in PSU's tweets in relation to their percentage of student population. https://twitter.com/Portland_State
Finally, of the eight speakers at the 2023 commencement ceremonies, not a single one was a white male. https://www.pdx.edu/commencement/student-speakers
Portland State University's motto is "Let knowledge serve the city." To this, it might be appropriate to add Ibram X. Kendi's infamous proclamation that: "The Only Remedy to Past Discrimination Is Present Discrimination."
I'm sorry this has happened to you. Portland is a town that puts up construction signs to prevent drive-by shootings, and places orange cones next to potholes instead of filling them in--the perfect visual metaphor for, "the city that works." PSU is a joke as far as standards or academic rigor goes. Agreement with administration's policies and warped ideology seems to be the only requirement for graduation. "Representation" has become little more than code for placing one group's interests above all others to achieve supremacy and control over everyone else, while doing one's utmost to stifle dissent, censor or ban intelligent criticism, and deprive all others of a voice. Jacques Mallet du Pan wrote that, "the revolution eats its own children." There was never any doubt that as soon as one identity group was able to strong arm society into obtaining elevated status that all groups would begin attacking each other to vie for superiority. The same thing happened during the French Revolution, until the fanatics literally killed each other off. That's the direction our society is heading in. The idea that so-called "anti racists" represent anything other than their own brand of racism is utterly laughable.
The professor is a rebel. I'm glad he's standing up for his rights.