Only in the la-la land of the special snowflake can a "diversity" policy prohibit activities by the diverse.

.yad sdrawkcab s'tI

"White" society doesn't have a single custom it won't abandon out of self-manufactured guilt for being successful.

No angels or stars on top of the tree? What do you put up then?!

Snowflakes may decorate with snowflakes. Isn't that special.

Has anyone on top of the hill in Ithaca noticed that snowflakes are white?

No angels or stars on top of the tree? What do you put up then?!

The corpse of free speech and free inquiry.

City Journal piece on "triggering."

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon1221am.html

To be “triggered” means to have a feeling, an immediate sensation of repulsion culminating in aggrievement. The aggrieved seek flattery, but by making feeling the sovereign standard of judgment, the trigger doctrine actively denies the existence of wisdom higher than individual sensation. Unjustified feeling becomes the standard of rule. Such doctrines are infectious because, as the Athenian Stranger says in Plato’s Laws, they make believe that “everyone is wise in everything.” Everyone has feelings and therefore everyone has a claim to wisdom.

...Grave consequence for education and the university await those who elevate the unreasoned perspective of aggrievement. Little imagination is required to see that giving equal weight to knowledge and untutored feeling undermines the possibility of education itself. The standard of feeling presumes that human beings do not require perfecting. Feelings have the appearance of purity. They purport to be sincere and authentic; as such, they need not be clarified or contradicted by reason. Feelings appear to be self-contained, incontrovertible revelations. But education presumes that minds are imperfect—that they are distorted by various admixtures of opinions, passions, and images and in need of correction.

Genuine education aims to destroy false feelings of self-importance, while creating doubt about ideas and doctrines that distort the mind. Feelings tell us that there is nothing to learn. Intellectual authorities worthy of reverence and imitation don’t exist. For philosophers like John Locke, education was liberation from prejudice. The modern university, by contrast, too often flatters and protects prejudice. Gaining and preserving wisdom takes a back seat to the creation of safe-spaces—shelters, in other words, for prejudice, not from it.

A menorah would count as eight micro-aggressions, I suppose.

Eight crazy slights!

One of our trees (we have 3 up. . . ) has an Angel on top.

A ***WEEPING*** Angel.

You don't want to blink near THAT tree.

Of course, the tree also has a TARDIS, Sonic Screwdrivers, K-9, and a Dalek.

And Starship ornaments. Fallout Bobble-heads.

And some Firefly-inspired balls.

Yes, we have a Geek Tree. It is, of course, lit with fiber-optics (grin)

First, Keith has an awesome tree.

Second, if menorahs are prohibited, would't that count as a prohibition of religion? One could argue that trees/lights/angel decorations/etc aren't part of the religious aspect of Christmas (although they are for many, the only celebration), but you can't make that argument (reasonably) about the menorah and Chanukah. You just can't, because lighting the menorah is the central part of the observance of the holiday. It'd be... I dunno, like taking the ashes out of Ash Wednesday.

Mistletoe? At first I couldn't figure out what was wrong with Mistletoe. Then I remember, this is a college campus, and it might provoke some young mail to "rape" (aka kiss) a young lady without her signing a 13 page consent form.

My employer says you can't put up "Merry Christmas," but you are permitted to put up "Noel."

Well, this atheist is wishing you a Merry Christmas.

Great, weeping angels. It had to be weeping angels. We're so humped.

One could argue that trees/lights/angel decorations/etc aren't part of the religious aspect of Christmas (although they are for many, the only celebration)

My pagan ancestors are on line 1 for you, something about hey, those are our religious symbols. Who is Cornell to say that I can't be a pagan?

What's the phrase...wait...I got it, prior restraint. Oh, there's all kinds of prior restraint. Sure, they're a private school, but they're also a land grant university and they accept federally provided/backed monies for students, and apply for federal research grants.

Noël, isn't that French for Christmas? how does you employer feel about "feliz navidad"? or, as they say in Greece, καλά Χριστούγεννα?

So, we've taken a religious holiday (initially loaded on top of an amalgamation of pagan festivals) and we've told the religious that they can no longer publicly celebrate it as a religious holiday - instead of telling the non-religious to accept the religious overtones of what started as a religious holiday and enjoy it as a day of goodwill.

Happy Pseudo-Religious Commercial Holiday everyone.

Cutting down trees of any sort to bring inside and decorate is a pagan tradition, condemned by Jeremiah. So Cornell needs to get its act together and ban indoor trees completely.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm

It's amazing to me that a working group was appointed to deal with this issue, they worked on it over the course of probably 3 months; then sent it to the full committee for review and approval, and finally the President of Cornell's signature.
What a complete waste.

You can't be diverse AND inclusive in the way they think.

Diversity would be to allow a Nativity scene AND a Star of David. But, either of those define a group, that is, they exclude outsiders.

The only way to be diverse AND inclusive is to allow everything, exclude nothing, and let each person show respect to others and their traditions as they see fit (as many Jews happily acknowledge the values of Christmas, even while they do not celebrate the birth of Jesus).

-Jut

I assume that all of those on the committee will be at work today since taking a day off for Christmas would be an insult to all of the other religions.

"Diversity would be to allow a Nativity scene AND a Star of David."

Then you would have to have some symbol of Islam, possibly a severed head or a stoned adulteress.

Steamer,
No, it does not mean you HAVE to have anything. All the school has to do is allow it. That is how you be diverse and inclusive.
-Jut

The only way to be diverse AND inclusive is to allow everything, exclude nothing, and let each person show respect to others and their traditions as they see fit (as many Jews happily acknowledge the values of Christmas, even while they do not celebrate the birth of Jesus). ~ Posted by: JutGory at December 25, 2015 1:52 PM

You're operating under the delusion that multiculturalism is a quest to show respect for all. In reality, it's a quest to show the progressive's narrow-minded neighbors and parents how clueless and bigoted they really are and how worldly and sophisticated the "progressive" is.

One doesn't include symbols meaningful to one's narrow-minded neighbors in a quest for diversity. In fact, those symbols must be excluded as punishment for making the worldly progressive grow up in a house or neighborhood with a Bible, an American flag, or a Republican.

Because inclusiveness is all about whom and what we exclude, tolerance is all about the ideas we won't tolerate the mention of, and diversity is all about everyone being exactly the same.

Showing my age here but what happened to "Live and let live."?