What Students Really Learn at University
Perhaps no one has written more about the plague of identity politics on America’s college campuses than MTC's contributor, Philip Carl Salzman. Salzman, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at McGill 
University, and a contributor to many public policy organizations, has now published some of his most powerful essays in an e-Book collection called Universities Today. Salzman writes, "Since the 1980s, universities have increasingly turned away from producing and disseminating knowledge and taken up as their objective neo-Marxist radical social reform, often labeled ‘social justice.’ Today, universities focus on political propaganda and activism and are increasingly like closed religious cults."
Attention Middle Easterners! You Don’t Have to Be White Anymore
So says Harvard University in a convoluted explanation of race, identity, culture and white privilege. According to Harvard, “Since 1944, Middle Eastern- and North African-Americans have been legally “white,” having to check the “white” box on demographic surveys like the U.S. census.” OMG—what a burden! Well, fear no more my Lebanese and Syrian friends, my pals from Iraq and Iran—you no longer have the burden of being white—you can be a MENA! A middle-eastern north African. What a joy to shed the mantle of white privilege once and for all. How wonderful to have such a joyous moniker of peace, achievement, cultural contribution, and tolerance to wrap around oneself.
If You're On Time, You're a White Supremacist
The National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, or NCORE, will feature a “pre-conference” session led by an educational consultant who believes being on time is a form of “white supremacy.” The story appears in The College Fix. NCORE is a function of the University of Oklahoma’s Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies. This year, Heather Hackman of the Hackman Consulting Group will speak about “…Racism and Whiteness and Achieving Racial Justice.” Hackman is a former professor of multicultural education at St. Cloud University who, at 2016’s “White Privilege Conference,” informed attendees that “the racial narrative of White” includes “making sure you’re not tardy.” Individualism, honesty, discipline, and rigor were other factors.
Peggy Noonan on the Coming Fall of ‘Woke’ Progressives
"The past decade saw the rise of the woke progressives who dictate what words can be said and ideas held, thus poisoning and paralyzing American humor, drama, entertainment, culture and journalism. In the coming 10 years someone will effectively stand up to them. They are the most hated people in America, and their entire program is accusation: you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist, your day is over. They never have a second move. Bow to them, as most do, and they’ll accuse you even more of newly imagined sins. They claim to be vulnerable victims, and moral. Actually, they’re not." -- The Wall Street Journal, January 4 -5
Let's Ban the SAT and ACT!
That's what a coalition of civil rights lawyers wants to do in California in order to end discrimination based on merit for Latinos and African Americans. According to a report in The New Yorker, the only tests the lawyers would allow are Advanced Placement exams. The shell game of accepting test results, then distorting them to achieve a "racially balanced outcome," has been known for years at some of the most prestigious schools in the country. But two events have prompted this action in California: One is the ongoing challenge by Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard to level the playing field for Asian students, who score high on grades and tests. The other is the changing makeup of the Supreme Court, which has become more conservative in the last few years. Does anyone care that American students continue to decline in global matchups against other developed countries?
If You're White, You're Wrong
Following a growing trend in higher education, a Dartmouth professor called for mandatory white privilege courses. Dr. Emily Walton wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for all students to take courses in white privilege and black history. She accuses white people of being afflicted with "white blindness" or a state in which racial privilege is invisible. She also claims the K-12 public schools perpetuate "white blindness" (read discrimination) by not mandating ethnic studies classes. To top it off, she equates the meritocratic system of hard work with white discrimination against minorities.
If you think it is worth while, send them your money.
Sure, among the millions of noxious activities a couple American activities sneaked through. Too big a chance that the evil continues to the detriment of the country. Risk analysis says blow it up and defund entirely.
Aren’t all the humanities full professors with lots of “research time”, thanks to underpaid adjuncts, expected to expend effort into resolving the enduring questions? But of course, they are the ones getting the NEH grants.
So double dipping with no output again.
I’m with Vanderleun. The only way we can “save” the NEH is to rip it out by the roots and start over. It’s simply too far gone in its current state.
What’s not to like? I don’t like that government must have its finger in every cultural activity. This is not the proper role or place for government. If the art is worthy of notice, it will generate funds for itself. I’ve long hated the idea that a working musician must play long hours, crappy clubs and music they would rather not play in order to make a living, while government funded elitists get their operas and symphonies for free. Same with art. Artists who are worthy will find an audience and a payday. If not, then the hell with them . The government shouldn’t be subsidizing art in any way, shape or form, however worthy you think it is. Who made you arbiter of what is good and what is not? Who made the NEH arbiter? Oh yeah, the democrats. Enough. Defund.
Please cite in the constitution where taxpayer funds are to be allocated for NEH and other non essential operations, then I’ll agree to their funding.
BTW – I’m not going to hold my breath because this is something you simply cannot do.
From 2013 until 2016, what has the NEH done ? That should either justify its continuing, or confirm its misuse which justifies its elimination …
Wrong. NEH has to go. And one reason for that, quite specifically, is the Enduring Questions program. You see, it depends entirely on the question. You may think the program rings in Socrates or some such luminary from days bygone, and puts him in touch with the smart phone youth of today.
Judged by my school, nothing could be further from the truth. From where I sit, it’s all climate change, imperialism, gender bias and the like. Not to mention that any university that wants to pursue these notions can do so on its own dime. You are totally wrong on this. And, heck, it comes from an Obama appointee. Sheesh.
Sorry, it’s got to go. Too much depravity and too many SJWs infesting it.
Ditto National Propaganda Radio and the Corporation for Propaganda Broadcasting.