Weekly Roundup

Reading, watching, & listening list

Mental Health, Parental Rights, and Explicit Content in Public Schools

For FAIR’s Substack, Doug Kechijian writes about why explicit literature in educational settings raises urgent questions about parental rights and child welfare.

It is vital to recognize that the appropriateness of literature in school libraries should not be determined by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the characters involved. Literature has a responsibility to reflect society, but it should do so in a manner that is age-appropriate and educational—not one that exploits the vulnerability of children. Books in school libraries need not illustrate or reflect every inner thought a child or adolescent might have, especially with regard to sexual desires or behaviors typically practiced in private. Paradoxically, the books in question perpetuate the most extreme stereotypes of groups they allege to protect and empower.

---

Classical Education Makes a Comeback

For The American Enterprise, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about how great books, civic thought, and classical wisdom are reviving American education.

Around the country, academic centers committed to civic thought and the cultivation of civic virtue and classical wisdom are springing up at the university level. At the secondary-education level, too, we see newfound progress. Julia Steinberg of The Free Press described the trend in secondary education as a “new wave of classical education”—schools committed to reading the great books, delving deep into the liberal arts, inculcating virtue in their students, and forming faithful citizens. Some of these secondary schools are not religiously affiliated, while others are Catholic, Evangelical, or Jewish. What they share is an abiding commitment to the pursuit of truth—considered as something good for its own sake, and not merely as a means to other ends—and classical wisdom.

The Mystery of American Diversity

For the Jazz Leadership Project, FAIR Advisor Greg Thomas writes about the perspectives crucial to empower civic leaders in America to leverage and manage our diversity as an asset, not a liability.

Unfortunately, voices and perspectives that could enrich the diversity discourse are lost in the current culture-war environment. For instance, the late pioneer of workplace diversity, R. Roosevelt Thomas (no relation), who in 1991 authored a book titled Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Workforce by Managing Diversity. Thomas argued that workplace diversity—of identity, thought, and style—naturally brings tension. When managed wisely, rather than increasing division and dissension, such tension can be leveraged by teams and organizations. When DEI, on a large scale, doubled down on identity markers and identity politics rather than trying to move beyond them—as per Thomas’ book title—the resulting backlash shouldn’t have been surprising.

Snitch hotlines for ‘offensive’ speech were a nightmare on campus — and now they’re coming to a neighborhood near you

For FIRE’s Newsdesk, FAIR’s chairman of the board Angel Eduardo writes about what bias reporting systems are, how they’ve spread beyond campus, and why they’re a threat to free speech.

However, unconstitutionality isn’t the only concern. Even a bias reporting system that stays within constitutional bounds can deter people from freely expressing their thoughts and opinions. If they are afraid that the state will investigate them or place them in a government database just for saying something that offended another person, people will understandably hold their tongues and suppress their own voices. Moreover, the lack of clarity around what some states actually do with the reports they collect is itself chilling.

---

Is This What Cancel Culture Achieved?

For The Atlantic, Thomas Chatterton Williams writes about the backlash to cancel culture.

After a decade and a half of progressive dominance over America’s agenda-setting institutions—corporations, universities, media, museums—during which everyone was on the lookout for the scantest evidence of racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, and every other interpersonal and systemic ill, it is not at all frivolous to ask what has been achieved. What, to put it bluntly, was all that cancel culture for?

If the genuine but ill-conceived goal was to create a kinder, friendlier, more inclusive and equitable world for all (often paradoxically by means of shaming, coercion, and intimidation), the real-world effect has been an abysmal rightward overcorrection in which norms of decency have been gleefully obliterated. We have not merely been delivered back to the pre-woke era of the early 2000s. Nor is what we’re seeing some insubstantial vibe shift in manners and aesthetics, confined to the internet.

---

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.

• 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.

• View our FAIRstory Learning Standards.