So, our Legislature’s very, very white Republican knights are busy slaying Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices on Iowa’s university campuses. They will not accept any diversity of opinion on this.
Two of our universities, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa, have done the knights’ bidding. Their presidents told the Board of Regents recently they have closed DEI offices while eliminating related jobs. The knights are pleased.
“The closure of these ideological enforcement centers at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are a positive step forward in returning the focus of our institutions of higher education back to the pursuit of academic excellence, and most importantly — merit,” declared state Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, in a statement after the regents meeting.
Merit. My, what a big dog whistle you’ve got there.
Those liberal laggards at the University of Iowa also eliminated positions but renamed their DEI office the “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.” Collins is not pleased.
“The University of Iowa may think they can slap a different name on these bureaucracies, but after the passage of Senate File 2435, they are wrong. I have already been in contact with Attorney General (Brenna) Bird's office to ensure these offices are shuttered once and for all,” Collins said.
Look out, Hawkeyes. The Bird signal is lit.
Collins has degrees from Drake and Iowa State, where he led the college Republicans, and somehow avoided indoctrination. Mediapolis has a population of 1,688 people as of the 2020 Census, including 23 people who reported being Black or African American and 23 who reported as Hispanic or Latino.
Senate File 2435, passed in the final hours of the 2004 session, bans universities from having DEI offices and spending public or private money on such efforts. Part of the definition of DEI includes the promotion of “contested opinion,” including “Implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege or any related formulation of these concepts.”
So, conservatives are cleaning out their racial anxiety closet. You don’t need “antiracism” if there is no racism, am I right?
The public argument by critics against DEI is it inflicts policies on campuses that deny free speech to conservative students and faculty. Also, DEI creates a political atmosphere where conservatives feel uncomfortable sharing their views. We need “ideological diversity” more than anything, they claim.
Getting at those complaints could be done without carpet bombing DEI out of existence. Surely, as Iowans, we’re smart enough to figure this out. An Iowa solution. You remember those. Free speech and academic freedom? We can handle that.
But, as usual, we’re buying bombs manufactured by conservative think tanks that have already been dropped on other red states. You thought you elected leaders, but you just elected sheep.
And for the people who were on the ground floor of the national attack on DEI, this is about more than free speech or academic freedom.
“In support of ridding schools of C.R.T., the Right argues that we want non-political education,” said Thomas D. Klingenstein in an August 2021 email obtained by the New York Times. “No we don’t. We want our politics. All education is political.”
Klingenstein is chairman of the Clermont Institute, a California-based conservative think tank that has been a leading light in the push eliminate DEI. The Times obtained a pile of records and emails detailing the origins and development of the movement and published a story in January.
These are emails containing casual discussions of concepts such as the criminalization of homosexuality and how “a healthy society requires a patriarchy.” One writer criticized working mothers who employed child care help from “the low IQ 3rd world.” They hope to purge liberals and their ideas from academia and make social justice education disappear.
The American sweet spot, apparently, is somewhere between 1840 and 1950.
“America is under attack by a leftist revolution disguised as a plea for justice,” Claremont’s president, Ryan P. Williams, wrote, comparing it to Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.”
Holy hyperventilating hyperbole.
DEI now is a catchall scapegoat. DEI is the reason we’re seeing pro-Palestinian protests on campuses. Former Trump aide Larry Kudlow blames DEI for the president’s plan to tax wealthy Americans.
“The Biden budget has come up with this crazy idea of taxing white people because they own more assets than people of color,” Kudlow said on his Fox Business Show.
But Iowa’s Board of Regents, with five Republicans, including three generous GOP donors, three independents and a single Democrat, will do its duty in decimating diversity efforts with nary a complaint. They’re just following orders.
This will do wonders for Iowa’s efforts to attract businesses and talent to the state. Not to mention university efforts to recruit students and faculty who don’t see diversity as threatening. Iowa’s universities have long struggled to recruit diverse students and instructors. This will not help.
We can land a Google data center, but let’s hope no one Googles “Iowa and diversity”
And the white students we’re packing in ideological bubble wrap will be ill-equipped to live and work in the diverse world as it exists. We’re doing them no favors.
Telling racial minorities and marginalized groups the comfort of white conservatives should trump their desire to be spared from discrimination, shielded from hate, and treated fairly doesn’t mean racism is dead. It means it’s alive and well and thriving.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
Two of our universities, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa, have done the knights’ bidding. Their presidents told the Board of Regents recently they have closed DEI offices while eliminating related jobs. The knights are pleased.
“The closure of these ideological enforcement centers at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are a positive step forward in returning the focus of our institutions of higher education back to the pursuit of academic excellence, and most importantly — merit,” declared state Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, in a statement after the regents meeting.
Merit. My, what a big dog whistle you’ve got there.
Those liberal laggards at the University of Iowa also eliminated positions but renamed their DEI office the “Division of Access, Opportunity and Diversity.” Collins is not pleased.
“The University of Iowa may think they can slap a different name on these bureaucracies, but after the passage of Senate File 2435, they are wrong. I have already been in contact with Attorney General (Brenna) Bird's office to ensure these offices are shuttered once and for all,” Collins said.
Look out, Hawkeyes. The Bird signal is lit.
Collins has degrees from Drake and Iowa State, where he led the college Republicans, and somehow avoided indoctrination. Mediapolis has a population of 1,688 people as of the 2020 Census, including 23 people who reported being Black or African American and 23 who reported as Hispanic or Latino.
Senate File 2435, passed in the final hours of the 2004 session, bans universities from having DEI offices and spending public or private money on such efforts. Part of the definition of DEI includes the promotion of “contested opinion,” including “Implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege or any related formulation of these concepts.”
So, conservatives are cleaning out their racial anxiety closet. You don’t need “antiracism” if there is no racism, am I right?
The public argument by critics against DEI is it inflicts policies on campuses that deny free speech to conservative students and faculty. Also, DEI creates a political atmosphere where conservatives feel uncomfortable sharing their views. We need “ideological diversity” more than anything, they claim.
Getting at those complaints could be done without carpet bombing DEI out of existence. Surely, as Iowans, we’re smart enough to figure this out. An Iowa solution. You remember those. Free speech and academic freedom? We can handle that.
But, as usual, we’re buying bombs manufactured by conservative think tanks that have already been dropped on other red states. You thought you elected leaders, but you just elected sheep.
And for the people who were on the ground floor of the national attack on DEI, this is about more than free speech or academic freedom.
“In support of ridding schools of C.R.T., the Right argues that we want non-political education,” said Thomas D. Klingenstein in an August 2021 email obtained by the New York Times. “No we don’t. We want our politics. All education is political.”
Klingenstein is chairman of the Clermont Institute, a California-based conservative think tank that has been a leading light in the push eliminate DEI. The Times obtained a pile of records and emails detailing the origins and development of the movement and published a story in January.
These are emails containing casual discussions of concepts such as the criminalization of homosexuality and how “a healthy society requires a patriarchy.” One writer criticized working mothers who employed child care help from “the low IQ 3rd world.” They hope to purge liberals and their ideas from academia and make social justice education disappear.
The American sweet spot, apparently, is somewhere between 1840 and 1950.
“America is under attack by a leftist revolution disguised as a plea for justice,” Claremont’s president, Ryan P. Williams, wrote, comparing it to Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.”
Holy hyperventilating hyperbole.
DEI now is a catchall scapegoat. DEI is the reason we’re seeing pro-Palestinian protests on campuses. Former Trump aide Larry Kudlow blames DEI for the president’s plan to tax wealthy Americans.
“The Biden budget has come up with this crazy idea of taxing white people because they own more assets than people of color,” Kudlow said on his Fox Business Show.
But Iowa’s Board of Regents, with five Republicans, including three generous GOP donors, three independents and a single Democrat, will do its duty in decimating diversity efforts with nary a complaint. They’re just following orders.
This will do wonders for Iowa’s efforts to attract businesses and talent to the state. Not to mention university efforts to recruit students and faculty who don’t see diversity as threatening. Iowa’s universities have long struggled to recruit diverse students and instructors. This will not help.
We can land a Google data center, but let’s hope no one Googles “Iowa and diversity”
And the white students we’re packing in ideological bubble wrap will be ill-equipped to live and work in the diverse world as it exists. We’re doing them no favors.
Telling racial minorities and marginalized groups the comfort of white conservatives should trump their desire to be spared from discrimination, shielded from hate, and treated fairly doesn’t mean racism is dead. It means it’s alive and well and thriving.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Holy hyperventilating hyperbole. We’ve got to end DEI and save America
Iowa conservatives are cleaning out their racial anxiety closet.
www.thegazette.com
