New College teaching workshops focus on DEI training
Inclusive only for those who agree to DEI assumptions
ASU West held a teaching workshop on how to be inclusive. That sounds great, right? I know in my own case, I have endeavored to teach about every idea and system that I can from all of the history of human thought. I include everyone. And any straightforward reading of “inclusive” would understand it that way. But that is not what ASU West’s New College wants for its students.
This inclusive teaching workshop is similar to inclusive workshops at ASU, whose goals are to “contribute to a national plan for diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice.” You know from other posts of mine that while these are all positive words anyone should support, when they are used in this context, they refer to a philosophical system that teaches there is systemic racism, sexism, and classism, that can only be changed by re-educating society about oppression and oppressors (Communist Manifesto), reorganizing society to be ruled by these elites, and redistributing wealth according to their feelings about what is fair.
Their argument is that differences between people and groups can only be explained by oppression. And that the only solution to this oppression is to re-educate society about oppression and oppressors, reorganize society, and redistribute wealth. If these differences can be explained in some other way, then their belief system is false. If there are other ways to solve these differences, then this belief system is false. Why believe their explanation of society or their philosophy of history? Why accept their belief system?
These are questions we should be able to ask. And no state university should enshrine one philosophical/religious system as “the way” everyone must think. What you should get at a state university is the freedom to question assumptions.
If you object to this DEI philosophy and question its assumptions about human nature, history, and justice, then you are not welcome and won’t be included in the discussion. Parents and students should know what ASU’s New College means when it uses these words and ask if students will be forced to accept this philosophical/religious system.
The Left claims they want to “reverse power structures”. To most, that sounds like “eliminate power structures.” Reversing something does not entail elimination. The thing reversed endures through the reversal. So power structures will remain after they are reversed. The only thing that will change is who is in power - rather who is oppressed and who is oppressing.