DEI statements are culty. I see it no different than a religious fundamentalist college asking faculty to sign an oath of allegiance. At least in such a case, you can always know beforehand the BS you'll put up with, unlike secular universities that are adopting DEI statements.
MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
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Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#12The American focus on race is a bit insane to outsiders. Putting such a big focus on race in university applications is just weird. Even worse, having top universities openly discriminate against people based on their race or heritage with affirmative action or similar policies, all in the name of equality, is unbelievable to Europeans like me. What the hell is wrong with the US if a person has a worse chance to be a…
Race is a distraction from the ultimate divide: class. IMO, every policy that wants to promote equality should revolve solely around class.
In every place on earth, richer upper-class people are more advantaged than those from the lower classes. Every social policy should focus on lessening that gap (I recognize that the gap can't be closed entirely).
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#13Although the intentions behind DEI are good such a top down approach doesn't seem to get the desired results (i.e optimal use of everyone's talent, irrespective of their colour, sex and/or identify). Unfortunately the name (and perhaps ideas?) are now tainted and I hope this doesn't impact the bottom up approaches (i.e support kids and young adults with extra classes, trainings, and in general just being chill and ac…
Were the intentions behind colonialism good, too, in your opinion?
Probably depends on the colonialist. I expect many were in it for money at the expense of the colonised population, but I expect just as many did it to "civilize and raise up the barbarians as good christians".
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#14Although the intentions behind DEI are good such a top down approach doesn't seem to get the desired results (i.e optimal use of everyone's talent, irrespective of their colour, sex and/or identify). Unfortunately the name (and perhaps ideas?) are now tainted and I hope this doesn't impact the bottom up approaches (i.e support kids and young adults with extra classes, trainings, and in general just being chill and ac…
"The path to hell is paved with good intentions"
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#15So what are the actual statements being banned? The article gives zero useful details.
Seconded.
Futhermore, the counterexample cited, teaching adult literacy, seems like a good way of furthering equity and inclusion to me. This sounded like the author contradicting themselves.
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#16Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#17Clicked through some links in the article. Really mind boggling material. How did such garbage end up in top universities is really weird.
I don't understand how this crap got into America of all countries
Certain people, discovered how easy it is, to change entire institutions, by applying targeted pressure towards individual managers of those institutions.
No manager dares to refuse these initiatives because they'll be instantly named by the activist, with the help of journalist friends, and ensure they lose their job.
Hence by going one at a time, a small group of activists can change far larger organisations.
Of course, every action has a reaction. Enough resentment has built up, that made anti-woke a legitimate position to take in the public eye, with no longer much risk of losing the job. This makes all the previous tactics lose their power.
Also, the 'anti-woke' crowd is learning these tactics too. From congressional grilling of university presidents, to gamers explicitly documenting the DEI consultancy involvements, its all targeting and absolutely destroying individuals to cause a chilling effect on the populace at large.
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#18Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Were the intentions behind colonialism good, too, in your opinion?
Probably depends on the colonialist. I expect many were in it for money at the expense of the colonised population, but I expect just as many did it to "civilize and raise up the barbarians as good christians".
Other thought “And clean our cities of the crooked nose vermin” so it’s all good?
Re: MIT abandons requirement of DEI statements for hiring and promotions
#20Clicked through some links in the article. Really mind boggling material. How did such garbage end up in top universities is really weird.
If you see yourself (or your group) as a victim it's easy to rationalize rather extreme measures to "fix" the world. The intentions behind a lot of these things are good but the sensitivity of the subject has made it hard(er) to have a healthy discussion about these issues.
But we're not talking about protected classes. They did not take "extreme measures."
We're talking about large institutions adopting policies to shield themselves from potential lawsuits from protected classes.