Weekly Roundup
Separate is still not equal
For FAIR’s Substack, Leigh Ann O’Neill and Grayson Slover write about how recent educational trends focusing on anti-racism have led to practices that overtly treat students differently simply on the basis of their ethnicity or skin color.
Teachers and administrators may convince themselves they are doing right by students when they create segregated opportunities for them or emphasize their skin color as paramount to their individuality. They might even find studies or statistics to support their reasons for doing so. But, ultimately, none of that matters. As it stands now, and has for a very long time in our country, separate can never be equal, and schools that create or allow racially hostile environments to persist are breaking the law.
Harvard’s Claudine Gay uses ‘free speech’ as a defense after a history of squelching it
For the New York Post, FAIR board member Angel Eduardo and Connor Murnane write about the hypocrisy of Claudine Gay using free speech grounds to defend anti-Israel protests on campus.
Regardless of Gay’s future, the path back to public respectability for Harvard is clear: consistently defend free expression for all. To do this, it must first review campus policies and reform speech-restrictive codes so they respect the individual rights of students and faculty.
It should also adopt a strong institutional commitment to free speech, such as the Chicago Statement on Freedom of Expression. This will ensure Gay’s stated adherence to open inquiry, freedom of expression and robust debate are more than just talk.
Perhaps most important, Harvard must commit to institutional neutrality. As colleges are increasingly called upon to take positions on current issues, the Kalven Report reminds us colleges are not critics but rather “the home and sponsor of critics.”
The Illusion of Division
For Discourse, FAIR’s Executive Director Monica Harris talks with Ben Klutsey about her decision to move from California to Montana, ‘the System,’ the misleading nature of labels and more.
I’ve given a lot of thought to this, Ben, and I’ve been thinking more that the reason this is happening is because DEI emphasizes what divides us instead of what unites us. It casts all of our relationships into this oppressed/oppressor, victim/victimizer categories. It convinces us that if we’re not in an identity group, then we can’t relate to or understand the experiences of people in that identity group and that there will forever be these walls between us. It teaches us that white people are inherently racist and that racism is an intractable element in American society. It teaches our youth that fundamental American values like freedom of speech, academic freedom, meritocracy, punctuality—those are all tools of white supremacy.
When Kids Say They’re Trans
For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad write about their new book, which explains how parents can help gender-distressed children who’ve come to believe they were ‘born in the wrong body.’
For those parents, our message is: You can do this. You are the adults who are most deeply invested in your child’s flourishing. You have the widest perspective on his or her future potential and past difficulties. The advice that follows, based on experience we’ve accumulated helping families cope with this phenomenon, will help get you started on developing an authoritative, loving stance toward your gender-distressed child.
Picture Book Recommendations for Diversity without Ideology
For Free Black Thought, Connie Morgan offers her list of the best books to give young children this holiday season.
While I don’t believe a boardroom needs to have quotas of black or Asian or white people to be moral and effective, I do love that humans come in a variety of colors. I love admiring art as an outgrowth of different cultures. I love learning about ethnic traditions different than mine. I love listening to other languages even if I don’t understand them. And yes, sometimes diversity is good simply for diversity’s sake. I want my kids to know some people have darker skin tones and some people have lighter skin tones just as I want them to know some people have big feet and some people are very short and some people have freckles and some people have dimples. Appreciating the variety in mankind is admiring the creativity of God.
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The Monica Harris interview in Discourse was beautiful. I wish everyone in this country could read or hear it.