diversity Archives - Page 2 of 2

‘Majority of Faculty Agree with Many or Even Most of My Positions’: Canceled Professor Speaks Out

October 11, 2021October 10, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A University of Chicago professor, whose prestigious lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was cancelled at the behest of a Twitter mob who disagreed with his viewpoints, warns that “free society is at risk” as “woke ideology” and cancel culture takes hold.

Dorian Abbot, a professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, had his appearance at the Carlson Lecture cancelled on Sept. 30 “to avoid controversy” just eight days after a Twitter mob consisting of MIT students, postdocs and recent alumni went after him, according to a written account published on Common Sense by Bari Weiss

For 10 years, Abbot has been teaching and researching climate change and the possibility of life on extrasolar planets, never considering himself a very political person until about five years ago when he noticed a shift in attitude toward discussions involving a difference in opinions, Abbot wrote on Weiss’ Substack.

The Number of White People in America Has Declined for the First Time Since 1790

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Crowd of people walking in New York City near the subway

The number of white people in the United States has dropped for the first time since 1790, according to new data from the 2020 Census.

Data from the 2020 count of people living in America shows that the country has become substantially more ethnically diverse, particularly in the under-18 category. Additionally, the country’s population grew 7.4% in the last ten years, a slower rate than any decade since the 1930s.

The numbers indicate that growth in the American population for the last decade has been driven by minority populations. While whites still make up a little less than 58% of the American population, that figure dropped below 60% for the first time since the census-taking began.

Memo Reveals University of North Carolina Plan to Sideline ‘Diversity of Thought’ Ahead of Nikole Hannah-Jones Appointment

August 10, 2021August 9, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A memo obtained by Campus Reform reveals that the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media considered “diversity of thought” to be in conflict with its efforts to achieve social justice objectives.

Hussman Dean Susan King wrote the August 1, 2020 memo to university Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. She stated, “There is a fundamental conflict between efforts to promote racial equity and understandings of structural racism, and efforts to promote diversity of thought. These two things cannot sit side by side without coming into conflict.”

King wrote the memo in anticipation of Nikole Hannah-Jones joining the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty and teaching a class based on the “1619 Project.”

Biden Administration Approves Rule Forcing Companies to Hire Minority, LGBTQ+ Executives and Publicly Disclose Diversity

August 8, 2021August 7, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

group of people in an office watching a presenter

The top U.S. financial regulatory agency approved a rule that forces publicly-traded companies to reveal the diversity of their executive boardroom to investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted in favor of the rule, which will apply to all companies traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange, according to the text of the approval released Friday. The rule, first proposed by Nasdaq in December, will also require companies to hire at least one female director and one either minority or LGBTQ+ director to their boards.

Arizona State University Debuts New Degree in Social Justice Activism

July 6, 2021July 5, 2021 Corinne Murdock

Arizona State University (ASU) debuted a new undergraduate degree geared toward social justice activism, called community development. The course description describes education on the basics of activism, citing concepts like diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, equity, and social and environmental justice. If students enjoy studying community development, they may also earn a graduate degree in it.

“The BA program in community development equips students with tools to collaborate with, empower and educate diverse community constituents by drawing on grassroots and inclusive frameworks such as sustainable development, social and environmental justice, participatory democracy, social and economic equity and social accounting,” reads the course description.

Commentary: Fighting Back in a Woke World of Cancel Culture

June 8, 2021June 7, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

By now there are enough “cancel culture” stories to fill volumes. After my own story about standing up to a woke mob – and succeeding – went viral on Twitter, I decided to speak out, because I am convinced that Americans need more encouraging stories about standing up to cancel culture, and information on how they can do it themselves.

In order to withstand attacks, you’ll need to be armed with an understanding of the ideas in play, and the courage to stand up to bullies. I hope my story can help give you both.

My story began in 2010, when my husband and I founded a nonprofit organization that trains people around the world who are providing care for survivors of trauma. We were pleased with the success of our organization for the first several years, but around 2016, we noticed a change.

BLM Cofounder Patrisse Cullors Called for End to Israel in Newly-Unearthed Video

June 2, 2021June 1, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Patrisse Cullors, one of the three original founders of the national Black Lives Matter organization, is revealed to have called for the total destruction of the state of Israel in a recently unearthed video from 2015, as reported by Fox News.

The video is from a panel at Harvard Law School seven years ago, featuring Cullors and other far-left activists. The panel was titled “Globalizing Ferguson: Radicalized Policing and International Resistance,” and was hosted by Harvard’s Human Rights Program. During the panel, Cullors recounted her experience visiting Gaza and the West Bank, and described alleged “violence” and “terror” carried out against Palestinians by the Israeli government, despite offering no evidence to back up any of these assertions.

She then went on to describe Palestine as “our generation’s South Africa,” and said that “if we don’t step up boldly and courageously to end the imperialist project that’s called Israel, we’re doomed.” To this end, she voiced her support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a far-left and jihadi-sympathizing movement that seeks to force American companies and government entities to condemn and boycott Israel.

Joint Special Operations Command Personnel Requested to Attend Conference on ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’

May 30, 2021May 29, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Both civilian and military personnel with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) are being asked by the Pentagon to attend virtual conferences focusing on “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” in order to boost their “professional development,” according to a Breitbart exclusive.

The emails making the requests were sent in April and May by JSOC’s Civilian Training Office, claiming that the conferences that would normally cost “$500 a session per person” are now available “at no cost” to personnel, and would both be virtual and broadcast at JSOC’s compound in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

There were three different conferences promoted by the email: “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” “Change & Transformation,” and “Emotional Well-Being.” The diversity conference would include four different panels: “Inclusive leadership for building equitable organizations,” “psychological safety and belonging,” “restorative justice, community trauma, and the partisan divide,” and “racism, white supremacy, and anti-racism.”

Coca-Cola Faces Challenge to Race-Based Hiring Quota

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The massive soda company Coca-Cola is facing a challenge to its internal efforts to force diversity on law firms that are contracted to work for it, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

In January, Coca-Cola announced an initiative that would target law firms contracted to work on behalf of the company, wherein all firms would be hit with a 30 percent reduction in their overall payment unless 30 percent of that firm’s workforce was “diverse.” Of those 30 percent, 15 percent had to be black.

Commentary: Put the Woke Corporations to Sleep

April 3, 2021April 2, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Georgia finally enacted some laws to protect ethical voting. My American Spectator colleague, David Catron, refers to these laws as “election integrity laws” — and that is what they are.

“Jim Crow”? What on G-d’s Earth are the leftist Crazies talking about? What are the Leftists saying?

… that Blacks and Hispanics do not want election integrity?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, do not have access to a photo ID?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, cannot figure out how to vote honestly and need vote harvesters?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, do not want integrity at the voting booth?

Intellectual Magazine Removes Professor’s Column Critiquing Critical Race Theory

March 29, 2021March 28, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A lengthy column by a professor that critiques critical race theory and the concept of “whiteness” and “blackness” was removed by an online intellectual magazine after it generated controversy.

Alaric Naudé, a linguistics professor at Suwon Science College in South Korea and head professor of its English Department, said his essay “Blackness, Whiteness and Other Mythological Creatures” was removed by the UK-based online magazine Res Publica.

The publication bills itself as providing “an academic platform where ideas and concepts can be praised and challenged.” It did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment on the matter.

Disney to Launch a New ‘National Treasure’ TV Series Starring an Illegal Immigrant

March 29, 2021March 28, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Disney has announced that the beloved “National Treasure” film franchise will be rebooted into a TV series that will feature a young female DREAMer as its main character, as reported by Breitbart.

The new series will premiere on Disney’s exclusive streaming platform Disney+, with the show’s description declaring that the story will be told “from the point of view of Jess Morales, a twenty-year-old DREAMer who, with her diverse group of friends, sets off on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure.”

“DREAMer” refers to the failed amnesty bill known as the DREAM Act, which Barack Obama tried to get passed through Congress while he was in office. When the bill could not garner bipartisan support to pass, he took the highly unconstitutional action of implementing most of the DREAM Act via executive order, which came to be known as the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” or DACA order. This order pledged to give blanket amnesty to illegal aliens who arrived in the United States as minors, and since the signing of the executive order, has become a legal and political football that has bounced from one court to another trying to determine its legality.

Minnesota Theater Cancels Cinderella Production Because Cast Was ‘Too White’

March 29, 2021March 28, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A suburban Minneapolis theater company has cancelled a production of “Cinderella” because its cast was “too white.”

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres was scheduled to stage Roger & Hammerstein’s classic play later this year before its artistic director stepped in to criticise its lack of racial diversity, twincities.com reported.

“It was 98 percent white,” Michael Brindisi, the theater’s artistic director, told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press on Wednesday after looking at the actors who had been cast. “That doesn’t work with what we’re saying we’re going to do.”

University of Florida Spends $38k on ‘Anti-Racist’ Training that Discourages ‘All Lives Matter’

March 15, 2021March 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The University of Florida spent $38,000 on a new diversity, equity, and inclusion training for students that is “not a requirement,” but has a due date.

The training is similar to those that students take relating to alcohol, drug usage, and sexual harassment. Within the diversity training, students are prompted to take quizzes, watch videos, and read about different issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This new course is part of the university’s wider anti-racism initiative that includes removing its “gator bait” chant, and reviewing name changes for various buildings as well as monuments across campus, according to The Alligator.

Parents, Educators and Activists Fight Back Against Radical School Curriculums: Trend

January 26, 2021January 25, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Parents, educators and activists are taking on left-leaning school curriculums in a variety of ways, from speaking out and filing lawsuits to crowdsourcing solutions and creating alternative educational resources.

In California, for example, a group called “Educators for Excellence in Ethnic Studies” has banded together to lobby for the removal of critical race theory from the state’s ethnic studies model curriculum.

Commentary: Citizenship and the Nation-State

November 21, 2020November 20, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

A prominent immigration scholar, David Jacobson, writes that “[t]ransnational migration is steadily eroding the traditional basis of nation-state membership, namely citizenship. As rights have come to be predicated on residency, not citizen status, the distinction between ‘citizen’ and ‘alien’ has eroded. The devaluation of citizenship has contributed to the increasing importance of international human rights codes, with its premise of universal ‘personhood’.”

Loudoun County Schools Clarifies to Parents That White Children Can Participate, But Not Speak as Equity Ambassadors

November 12, 2020November 11, 2020 Corinne Murdock

A Loudoun County Public Schools Equity Advisor told parents that White students may only become equity ambassadors to “amplify the voice of Students of Color.” When the parent asked for in a followup email if their child could discuss the personal accounts of White students, the advisor said no.

“This LCPS endeavor is specific to amplifying the voice of Students of Color by engaging in discussions about their experiences regarding issues of racism, injustice, and inequity. Though all students (white or otherwise) are more than welcome to potentially serve as ambassadors, their focus would be to raise the voice of their classmates of color during these meetings.”

Seeking Inclusion, Grammys Change Name of a Music Category

November 5, 2020November 4, 2020 The Associated Press

The Grammy Awards have changed the name of their best world music album category to the best global music album, an attempt to find “a more relevant, modern and inclusive term.”

The Recording Academy said in a statement that the new name “symbolizes a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied.”

Carol Swain Commentary: Unity Training Should Replace Failed Diversity Training

September 13, 2020September 13, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

President Trump’s recent decision earlier this month to use his executive authority to end certain forms of diversity training in federal agencies was a bold and necessary action to bring about racial healing and reconciliation. In making his decision, the president was reacting to reports of federal training exercises that singled out white people with accusations that “virtually all whites contribute to racism,” or they benefit from it.

Census Report Shows Widespread Demographic Changes in the United States

June 28, 2020June 27, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Minority populations are increasing and the white majority is on the decline, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.

Over the past decade, the white population grew by 10.5 million individuals, a 4.3% increase, while the Hispanic population grew by 10.1 million individuals, a 20% increase, the Census figures show. Among white people, there were 1.34 births for every death, whereas the Hispanic population had 5.81 births for every death, according to the report.

REPORT: Trump Administration Will End Obama Era Race-Based University Admission Practices

July 4, 2018July 3, 2018 Admin

The Trump administration is preparing to abolish policies that direct colleges and universities to increase diversity by considering race in college admissions, according to U.S. officials. Media reports say Trump administration officials intend to argue against guidelines issued by president Barack Obama’s administration that offered legal recommendations for schools seeking…