At Tolerance Camp, Intolerance Is Not Tolerated

Before this blog could even jump all over it, the University of Delaware ends their outrageous "diversity program":

The University of Delaware has ended a residence-life program on diversity and cultural identity after students complained that they were pushed to accept the university's political views and to answer embarrassing questions about their sexuality.

President Patrick T. Harker said in a posting on the school's Web site, "There are questions about [the program's] practices that must be addressed and there are reasons for concern that the actual purpose is not being fulfilled."

The program will be stopped immediately and administrators will work with the faculty Senate on any future programs, he said. Harker made the announcement Thursday evening after returning from a trip to China on university business.

Michael Gilbert, Delaware's vice president for student life, said he had gotten numerous calls from parents, students, faculty and alumni this week.

"There's a general agreement from what I've heard that this is the appropriate time to terminate the program," he said.

There was never an appropriate time to start it: According to the program's own documentation, the training sessions are called "treatments", making it clear the program's managers believed the students' moral and political values to constitute a disease in need of curing, and assume the Original Sin of being born a melanin-deficient American, while mandating that students participate in environmentalist and race-oriented activities (including "advocating for an oppressed minority"), driven by curriculum material that condemns individualism, capitalism and Christianity as manifestations of racism:

A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination. (This does not deny the existence of such prejudices, hostilities, acts of rage or discrimination.)

So, black teenagers screaming "get whitey" as they chase an NYU student into traffic are not racist, because they don't have "the power to back up their prejudices or hostilities", despite having in fact murdered "whitey". The definitions make it clear that all white people are inherently racist, and that people who deny the concept of race are doing so only to evade guilt. Even the concept of "assimilating" immigrants is described as a term used to veil "white nationalism".

One article in a campus magazine advocated "improving" the program by assigning residence hall staff to "identify behavioral factors that can be observed and recorded by hall staff members". Students were compelled to fill out (allegedly confidential) questionnaires for their RAs demanding details of their racial and sexual identities, were told the floor meetings and one-on-one therapy sessions were mandatory, that if they missed the meetings, they would have to schedule makeup sessions.

In reality, the "confidential" questionnaires were read by RAs, who were then told to inform on the student body, identifying those most "resistant" to "treatment", and while meetings were not actually supposed to be mandatory, group emails implying consequences and constructing rules for non-attendance were widespread. Some were even falsely told it was a requirement for the honors program. Participants in the public meetings were forced to take absolute "yes or no" positions on gay marriage, abortion, and other controversial topics, forcing them to publicly endorse radical positions. One student who tried to confront their RA was allegedly told that they being tricked by evil Republican propaganda:

I was told that FIRE was simply a conservative group spreading lies... I reminded him that there is evidence and was simply told [by the RA] that FIRE misinterpreted it and portrayed it incorrectly... He also said that they know that there was a leak in Res Life because FIRE had access to documents that they would not otherwise have had. This statement really bothers me. When we talk of a leak, we are referring to a government secret or classified military plans, not plans for residence life training.

RAs who raised questions were told their jobs were on the line. Other documentation expressed the urgency of "leaving a mental footprint" on all students, a quote that would do Orwell proud.

I'm skeptical of it being enough to simply stop the program: Are the vile little Pol Pots responsible for this Milgram Experiment going to be removed?

What about Dr. Shakti Butler and the "World Trust", the source for this dehumanizing curriculum? (She reportedly personally conducted the training of this year's crop of RAs.) The material for one of their videos claims to show "examples of what must be addressed when worldviews and experiences...interfere with creating an equitable and humane society", reminding us that we can't have people's individual opinions and ideas getting in the way of imposing Dr. Butler's vision. Another is "for advanced use only", which is presumably similar to how Scientologists only find out about Emperor Xenu once they reach Operating Thetan III, and, by merit of having paid enough money to reach Operating Thetan III, are therefore incredibly gullible. My favorite, however, is the image used for "Transformative Learning".


How many taxpayer dollars, if any, have been shoveled to her cultish organization? Shouldn't we expect answers?

Congratulations to FIRE on their victory in this matter. I remember their founding, and they've grown into a fine and crucially important organization.

Update: According to this University of Delaware document, the hate-mongering definitions were taken from something called "The People's Institute".