opinion
This week, Claudine Guy resigned from her position as president of Harvard University, creating a firestorm of outrage on the left and celebration on the right. Mainstream media and progressive talking heads were quick to denounce the resignation as a conservative move by a minority woman rooted in misogyny and racism.
The leftist rhetoric machine quickly produced alternative language to explain an act that would result in any student being lawfully expelled from the university. Ms. Gay's theft was characterized as unintentional double language, an excuse that would no doubt not have been made if it were not for Ms. Gay's arbitrary demographics.
This touches on the real issue: how was an unqualified person allowed to rise to such an influential position in academia. Fortunately, Bill Ackman provided a well-written and thoughtful article on this topic – the DEI virus.
It's not about Israel
Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square and one of the harshest critics of Harvard and other institutions of higher education, wrote an article for X this week explaining how he invested in the ouster of Claudine Gay. Immediately after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, colleges and universities came out in protest against Israel and, in many cases, in support of Hamas itself and the “intifada.”
This is what prompted Mr. Ackman to delve deeper, specifically into Harvard University.
he wrote:
“I learned that the root cause of anti-Semitism at Harvard was the ideology propagated on campus, an unjust/oppressor frame, which provided the intellectual bulwark behind the protests, helping to generate anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech.” And harassment.”
The ideology Mr. Ackman refers to is diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. He admits that he, like many others, has always believed that DEI was a fundamentally positive thing for organizations to embrace.
However, after delving into the practices at Harvard, he learned the following:
“…DEI was not about diversity in its purest form, rather DEI was a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology.”
To deconstruct this idea, DEI ideology claims that by virtue of one's race, gender, and other arbitrary characteristics, one is inherently oppressed or oppressed. For example, being a woman means that I am always at a disadvantage despite Whether you have encountered the mentioned defect.
On the other hand, if someone is unlucky enough to be born a heterosexual white male, they are inherently racist. despite About any actions they may or may not take or thoughts and beliefs they may or may not have in their minds and hearts.
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It's everywhere
Mr. Ackman makes a direct statement that would be enough to damage someone with less influence and ability:
“DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (it is interesting that I need to point that out).”
Unfortunately, systems within the United States have embraced the idea that oppressing white people is a virtue. As an example, Mr. Ackman explains how widespread this ideology is:
“…here we are in 2024, where we are being asked, and in some cases, to use skin color to produce results in admissions (which the Supreme Court recently deemed illegal), and in businesses (likely illegal but happening nonetheless) And in government (I also believe in most cases to be illegal, except apparently in government contracts), not the content of one's character.
The DEI mind virus is omnipresent in every company's hiring process. It is found in academia, science, medicine, merit programs, and the US military.
Despite claims made by senior officers of the once-respected US Army, our arms profession has and continues to make promotion and strategic decisions based on DEI. I was affected by this virus when I was passed over for a position for which I was told I was unanimously voted most qualified, but I did not “seem diverse” enough.
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How did this happen?
Not only did DEI ideology begin to infect; It has taken a long, slow march through our institutions fueled by good intentions and bad actors. Many believed, as Mr. Ackman did, that DEI was a good thing and, in principle, that diversity and inclusion were positive attributes.
Diversity of ideas and experiences is a definite advantage for any team, and fostering an environment that includes these ideas and experiences is a noble trait for any organization. When the focus became on fixed characteristics such as skin color, biological sex, gender identity, and other traits, it distorted notions of diversity and inclusion and created a society that favored basic demographics over meritocracy.
Billionaire Elon Musk has long criticized the DEI movement and received a lot of criticism for it. A recent Forbes article written by James Hudson titled What Elon Musk doesn't understand about DEI programs Try to claim that Mr. Musk and those who agree with him don't understand DEI.
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Mr Hudson explained:
“Given that about 50% of the population is female, it makes sense that 50% of the senior leaders in the organization would also be female, although this rarely happens.”
Unfortunately, this example only highlights the simplistic, at best, statistical knowledge that Mr. Hudson and others in his camp understand. The demographics of a community or group are not automatically related to their abilities, let alone their interests.
The above argument assumes that 50% of females want to be, or can even become, senior leaders in organizations. This is shameful given the impossibility of measurement and general cultural implausibility.
The same can be said regarding racial demographics and any other demographic statistic.
not finished yet
Claudine Guy's resignation is only a small victory in the battle against DEI ideology. As of today, Ms. Jay is still permitted to teach at Harvard and thus be employed by what was once the most respected institute of higher learning in the world.
Furthermore, there are thousands of other employees in influential positions who sit in their roles solely because of their skin color, gender, or other attributes versus their actual abilities.
Elon responded to Mr. Ackman's article:
“DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”
Unfortunately, everyone uses it, including Elon Musk's Tesla.
Mr. Ackman ended his article with the following:
“We have a lot of work to do. Let's make it happen.”
He's not wrong. Let's not let this small win distract us from the bigger fight. DEI must be eradicated from every aspect of our society from grade schools, colleges, hospitals, boardrooms, battlefields and everything in between.
Only then will we have the opportunity to be what we once were, a land of opportunity and freedom.
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