Tuesday, October 11, 2022

quantifying the "diversity" cancer in academia

By An Old Friend
tue, oct 11, 2022 7:30 p.m.

quantifying the "diversity" cancer in academia

Bruce Gilley is a political-science professor at Portland State University.  He is a very brave man, writing about -- e.g. -- the positive aspects of colonialism and, when subjected to the obligatory s--tstorm, not conceding an inch.  And he's about more than his academic cloister, as is evident in the following article.  (Too bad he didn't switch the acronym to "die," instead of "dei"!)


A constant concern in my academic sub-field of comparative politics is how to create concepts and measurements that stand up to scrutiny when applied to several cases. When we hear someone claim that politics in Country X are "corrupt," our first questions are "What do you mean by corruption?" and "Compared to where?"
This concern with measuring things consistently and properly motivated me, in my advocacy role with the National Association of Scholars (NAS), to develop a way to measure the spread of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) ideology in colleges and universities. The oft-heard complaint that a given institution has been "taken over" by DEI raises the question of whether such a takeover is the same and is equally extensive in all places. Surely not, and if we can compare the worst affected to the least affected, perhaps there are lessons to be learned about the conditions that cause DEI to spread or be arrested.
Last week, the Oregon Association of Scholars, which I head, released a diagnostic tool following consultations with my colleagues in the NAS. This tool conceptualizes "DEI sickness" as an institutionalization of DEI ideology within a given college or university. This includes, for instance, DEI-based policies and practices, mandatory DEI-based trainings and litmus tests, and DEI-based funding models.
No one in our collaborative planning group had any idea that universities would ever consider such a blatant political litmus test for students. But that only shows how much worse the problem is than we initially recognized, despite the fact that many of our members (including me) work in these environments and have seen such tests applied to all sorts of other personnel and administrative decisions. (On a personal note, my university tried to ban my course on conservative political thought on the grounds that it failed to advance DEI goals).
An old adage of management is that you can't improve or fix what you don't measure. Our diagnostic is a first attempt to create a simple way to measure the scourge of DEI ideology in American higher education. Our hope is that a thousand flowers will bloom as people take the tool up themselves and as a common coding approach emerges via the sharing site.
Time is of the essence. One of the ironical aspects of our diagnostic tool is that it embodies all of the values of logic, empiricism, and the scientific method toward which the DEI agenda has become so hostile. The shared standards of justification and inquiry, often decried by DEI mavens, are precisely the sort of truth-seeking values that will become more difficult to assert, and less resonant on campus, as DEI spreads.
To return to the cancer analogy, DEI is like a particularly aggressive form of cancer that can jump from patient to physician, thus rendering the physician incapable of treating either the disease or himself (sorry, "zirself"). In that sense, our DEI-sickness diagnostic tool will play a dual role: charting and measuring the spread of DEI institutionalization on campus in a way that allows us to make comparisons and treat the disease and providing a model and example of what it means to uphold Western Enlightenment values in an age when the very idea of truth is being infected with a painful malignancy. If we don't act, it will eventually kill off the patient entirely.
Bruce Gilley is a professor of political science at Portland State University, a member of the board of the National Association of Scholars, and the author, most recently, of In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

When we hear someone claim that politics in Country X are "corrupt," our first questions are "What do you mean by corruption?" and "Compared to where?"

GRA:Simple definition of corruption:Things are being done that shouldn't be--either in return for money or favors.

The cancer metaphor I brought up years ago,pertaining to blacks invading our neighborhoods--though I'm sure I'm not the first.Cancer has filled the body USA,probably beyond a cure.

I declared our country deceased at least two years ago--and I haven't seen any sign of Lazarus since then.

Today,Tulsi Gabbard referenced anti-White sentiment,as a reason for her leaving the Democratic party.It's a hopeful sign,but is she attempting to fill a role--similar to Candace Owens latching on to a pro-White philosophy--or is she sincere?AND will she receive coverage on media?

I scanned through today's "negro nightly news" on YouTube and saw no mention of her leaving the Dems.Why?nbc did not want to publicly broadcast her very valid reasons which she says forced her to act:Dems are anti-White,anti-law and pro-war.

Can she start a groundswell,is the question.In this instance,it is what's needed to cure "the cancer" in our country.

--GRA

Anonymous said...

jerry pdx

Los Angeles city councilman Nury Martinez resigns over "racist tirade" at Mike Bonin, a gay city councilman and his adopted black son: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/10/12/fuera-angry-residents-demand-resignations-at-l-a-city-council-over-racism/


Check out the names involved in this affair: Nury Martinez, Councilmember Kevin de Léon Councilmember Gil Cedillo and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.

Is there a true straight White man even left in Los Angeles politics?

No wonder the city is becoming more and more of a cesspool. Check out the comments, here are a couple that about sum it up:


Cali refugee
I lived in L.A. for 39 years before bailing out for out of state. All 4 of these councilcreatures are awful. Both Cedillo and DeLeon are grifters who were term limited out of Sacramento. Cedillo is particularly odious as he fought for years to get illegals drivers licenses in California and was known as "One Bill Gil". If it takes a petty racial slur to get rid of otherwise unremovable deadwood on the city council, so be it. Problem is, the replacements will be at least as bad, most likely government union hacks as unions have a hammerlock on California's big citers.


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islandpilot Cali Refugee • 44 minutes ago
In other words, LA and California have become just like the filth they allowed to infest for decades. Just like Mexico and Honduras, Haiti and Nicaragua.

Garbage culture.

Anonymous said...

DIE is more correct than DEI. YES.

Anonymous said...

I recall reading an article--in The Economist, I believe--that talked about the how the countries which had been European colonies were better off that those which had never been colonized. This flies in the face of the current doctrine that everything White is bad and that the Turd World savages are so enlightened without the influence of White civilization.

Anonymous said...

Invasion complete in California.

--GRA