In Whose Interest Are College Educational "Diversity" Initiatives?
EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) is the name of a Canadian version of these, aimed at the "decolonization of the university," and Lenny Pier Ramos writes about it at Quillette:
I attended a conference on education hosted by my university. The panel included an Indigenous scholar and white academic "accomplices" (a term that now is replacing "allies" in the jargon of some activists) who referred to themselves as "settlers," and spoke of "Canada" in scare-quotes. They described the need to dismantle the oppressive colonial power relations whereby a professor standing before a class imparts knowledge to his or her students (more egalitarian sharing circles are now preferred). They argued for a practice of "epistemic resistance" and "epistemic disobedience" to counter the condescending hegemony of "white knowledge." As I see it, these demands seem tailored to ensure that students learned absolutely nothing in university except a bloated regard for their own internal realities.Midway through the week-long EDI seminar, I struck up a conversation with one of the guest lecturers, a physics professor from South America. I pointed out that what many of her fellow lecturers seemed to be advocating for was the outright rejection of reason and logic in the evaluation of knowledge claims, something which, to my mind at least, amounted to rejecting much of the scientific method. "Well," she said with a knowing smile, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."
This line, of course, belongs to the poet Audre Lorde. And one now often hears it cited to signal the need to unmask a racist essence at the core of our liberal institutions. But if the goal of EDI is really to help students of colour succeed in the sciences, does it not do them a disservice to suggest that their unique ways of knowing are somehow at odds with those of their white peers--and, indeed, with the very subject matter itself? Do Dr. Tajmel and her fellow diversity experts care about their students gaining the knowledge required to, say, advance their lives as employable physicists, engineers, researchers, and academics? Or is the point here to proselytize their hatred of the Western intellectual tradition? The two projects seem mutually exclusive.
" "Well," she said with a knowing smile, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."
Truly dumb analogy. The master's tools probably include axes, crowbars, etc...all very useful for house-demolishing.
But, of course, the more important point is the focus on destruction rather than creation.
David Foster at July 20, 2020 8:21 AM
In Whose Interest Are College Educational "Diversity" Initiatives?
Easy question. The answer is: the people getting paid to run these Marxist indoctrination sessions.
Isab at July 20, 2020 8:24 AM
The two projects seem mutually exclusive.
A. That's racist.
B. The point is to destroy the West. In all its endeavors. They believe they'll be able to usher in a new glorious era of socialism. Without the body count.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 20, 2020 8:32 AM
The size of the body count doesn't bother them. It never bothers them.
Conan the Grammarian at July 20, 2020 10:36 AM
The size of the body count doesn't bother them. It never bothers them.
Yes, yes. But they always promise that this time, for the first time in human history, their version of socialism will get done right. No body count needed.
Twenty years hence? real socialism has never been tried.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 20, 2020 11:03 AM
HA! David beat me to it... why on earth would you not be able to destroy his house with his tools?
NicoleK at July 20, 2020 12:38 PM
The phrase isn't saying the master cannot dismantle a house. The tools are 'the master's'. They belong to him. As does the house. Assuming 'the master' isn't an idiot he will not act against his own interests, and hence won't use his tools to take apart the house he is living in.
Either way in it's context here the phrase is an intentional non-answer. She may as well have yelled 'I LIKE MASH POTATOES!!!' at the top of her lungs.
Ben at July 20, 2020 1:33 PM
the diversity industry is about 70-80% white women, mostly middle aged. Their clients are even less diverse, typically HR and institutional clients who are 80%+ middle aged white women. This is an open secret in the diversity community, but also a big reason for their success. They look out for each other and ensure that white women are the major beneficiaries of 'diversity'.
For example, white women aren't typically 'white employees' for equity purposes, though Asian and Indian men effectively are. Rumor has it that Google's recent move to contract out its diversity management to a 3rd party firm was motivated, in part, by the realization that their internal group was conspiring to ensure that white women received the lions share of 'equity placements' arising from the equity programs they'd implemented a couple of years ago. Those resulted in a bit more minority hiring in entry level and junior positions but a lot more promotions and hiring for white women in more senior positions. It was actually a small group of Indian women who documented this and publicized their findings.
So to answer Amy's question - cui bono? White Lady mui bono!
murray at July 20, 2020 2:25 PM
MASH POTATOES partake of obsessively white heteronormative dietary rules which have been used to systematically disenfranchise eaters of color. No more MASH POTATOES for you Ben,
Sweet potatoes are now required as a gender-positive statement of racial-dietary wholesomeness and healthy unconcern with the oppressive Solanum-tuberosum-industrial-patriarchy.
Oh, and also, remember to smash the state!
Ken McE at July 20, 2020 2:27 PM
Tubers what don't got their own channels:
(1) Mash potatoes - these are the potatoes used in distilling.
(2) Mashed potatoes - these are female potatoes who have successfully fended off a randy zoot-suited hepcat's advances.
Next week: good gravy.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 20, 2020 3:51 PM
That is what my son has told me Ken. Though he is a bit more concise, 'MASH POTATOES!?! Yuck.'
Ben at July 20, 2020 4:22 PM
Yeah but the point is, you can take the Master's tools and use them against him.
NicoleK at July 21, 2020 7:06 AM
Nicole:
No doubt. I'd take that the "master's tools" argument more seriously if it wasn't expressed in . . . English. Heck, it shouldn't even be argued in Swahili, since that was the lingua franca of the East African slave trade.
halflight at July 21, 2020 9:26 AM
NicoleK, then they aren't the master's tools. They are now your tools. You took them. Yay sophistry.
If you want you can go to the full source. If you want to say the statement is idiotic I have no disagreement with you. The original made the assumption you cannot take or use 'the master's tools' and that said 'master' cannot be overthrown. And yes, Audre Lorde intended to say white people are and always will the 'the masters' and black people will always be slaves. She is wrong. I understand she also expressed the view that logic and reason are white traits and thus not acceptable for black people to use. Which is also retarded. In the end the words aren't intended to communicate anything more than tribal affiliation. There is no significant meaning. May as well say "What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?" Now you know I watch Monty Python. The actual phrase is intentionally meaningless.
Ben at July 21, 2020 12:52 PM
NicoleK, a few days ago you wondered what pushback that museum would get over their racist poster. This is why there isn't any. The museum didn't write anything atypical for it's community. Their only mistake was putting what they considered common knowledge into an easy to understand infographic.
Ben at July 22, 2020 6:36 AM
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