Weekly Roundup
Coleman Hughes wants a colorblind America. So should we.
For FAIR’s Substack, Grayson Slover writes a detailed review of Coleman Hughes’ new book, The End of Race Politics.
When the two philosophies are compared in this way, I believe that the vast majority of Americans still instinctively align with the optimistic goals of colorblindness. Like Dr. King and the other liberal Civil Rights leaders, they are eager allies in the “revolution to get in,” to extend the promise of America to all of the people who have historically been excluded from it. The hopeless worldview of the neoracists and traditional racial supremacists alike is bound to fail if people are able to understand and recognize the ideas that comprise it. To bring about the ideal colorblind society will be a challenge, but it’s a challenge worth the effort, and The End of Race Politics provides a compelling blueprint for taking it on.
Andrew Sullivan: What I got wrong about Trump
For UnHerd, FAIR Advisor Andrew Sullivan speaks with Freddie Sayers about what he got wrong about Trump.
I also think that regarding the wokeness stuff, even though I really find Trump horrid on so many levels, if he’s the only thing that can stop this stuff from being imposed across the country and across the United States Government, then you can see why I might prefer him over Biden, who is giving in to woke at every level. The federal government is involved in systematic DEI: in all of its capacities it now has putting equity at the heart of everything as a policy. He would remove that and there would be support for ending DEI in corporate America and in universities. He’s clearly taken out a position — even if he’s not interested in that stuff, he’ll find someone who is. And that’s a huge thing for the base. It would happen, I think.
‘Separate but Equal’ Is Still Wrong — and Illegal
For National Review, Leigh Ann O’Neill and William E. Trachman write about how seventy years after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in education, it’s somehow making a comeback.
Yet now is the time to course-correct. Anything other than a full investigation into Evanston is a complete abdication of the Department of Education’s legal responsibility to stomp out federal funding going to support racial discrimination. With classrooms once again being literally racially segregated, it’s never been more clear that the Department of Education isn’t doing enough to crack down on race discrimination in K–12 schools.
As Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion striking down affirmative action once and for all, “eliminating race discrimination means eliminating all of it.” And in Evanston, Ill., they have 70 years of progress to start catching up to.
I Was Told to Approve All Teen Gender Transitions. I Refused.
For The Free Press, therapist Tamara Pietzke writes about how she could no longer go along with the pressure to transition her patients.
My biggest fear about the gender-affirming practices my industry has blindly adopted is that they are causing irreversible damage to our clients. Especially as they are vulnerable people who come to us at their lowest moments in life, and who entrust us with their health and safety. And yet, instead of treating them as we would patients with any other mental health condition, we have been instructed—and even bullied—to abandon our professional judgment and training in favor of unquestioning affirmation.
I am speaking out because nothing will change unless people like me—who know the risks of medicalizing troubled young people—blow the whistle. I am desperate to help my patients.
Law schools must adopt free speech policies, after ABA passes rule
For Reuters, Karen Sloan writes about how law schools must now adopt free speech policies in order to maintain their accreditation from the American Bar Association.
The ABA’s House of Delegates approved a new requirement that law schools develop and publish policies that “encourage and support the free expression of ideas.” Those policies must protect the rights of faculty, staff and students to communicate controversial or unpopular ideas and safeguard robust debate, demonstrations or protests.
They must also forbid disruptive activities that hinder free expression or substantially interfere with law school functions or activities.
The ABA’s law school accreditation rules have long protected the academic freedom of faculty, but this is first time they address free speech for the entire law school community.
The change comes after several high-profile incidents at elite law schools where student disrupted speakers and amid campus tensions over conflict over Israel’s war with Hamas.
FAIR News Podcast
For audio versions of our FAIR News and FAIR Weekly Roundup newsletters, subscribe and listen to FAIR News Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or via RSS feed.
Join the FAIR Community
Join us, and become a member of FAIR.
Become a FAIR volunteer, or join a FAIR chapter.
Take the Pro-Human Pledge and help promote a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.
Sign-up for a Welcome to FAIR Zoom information session to learn more about our mission.
Share your reviews and incident reports on our FAIR Transparency website.
Remember the good old days, when the Right's contribution to the free speech debate was embodied by George H. Bush's attack line on opposing presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, "He's a card-carrying member of the ACLU!"
Ah how times have changed.
The ACLU is still the Right's boogeyman, but now for completely different reasons. Now it's the Left in the role of over-reaching authoritarian and the Right in that of free-speech lovers.
And the ACLU now stands for "Free speech for me, but not for thee", and FIRE had to be created to fill the gap.
Thank you again FAIR, for remaining constant (so far....).
Weird error in the Reuters article on the ABA .
It says "The change comes after several high-profile incidents at elite law schools where student disrupted speakers and amid campus tensions over conflict over Israel’s war with Hamas", then goes on to name 3 specific incidents at elite law schools - that took place long before Israel's war with Hamas.
Editors, anyone?