The closet is now home to a historic college.
Southern Illinois University — founded in 1869 and boasting over 250,000 graduates — recently made an enormous announcement.
As it turns out, the entire school is “antiracist.”
On October 20th, officials shared a virtual “Conversation of Understanding.”
During the discussion, leaders revealed how the components of Ibram X. Kendi’s preferred ideology apply to SIU.
Campus Reform has noted that one of the conference participants holds a title which may be new to you.
Sheila Caldwell is the institution’s Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Antiracism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“Antiracism,” critically, isn’t simply the absence of racism.
Rather, it’s a point of view which considers white people as distinctly different than all others.
According to UCLA Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, it’s “the active dismantling of systems, privileges, and everyday practices that reinforce and normalize the contemporary dimensions of white dominance. This, of course, also involves a critical understanding of the history of whiteness in America.”
As laid out by Vox, “The focus (of evolving antiracism) is on white people looking inward and grappling with their own complicity in a racist society.”
And from Emory University’s Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee:
It is essential to continue working towards eliminating white supremacy in one’s own lives, at work and within our communities. Black voices from past and present must lead the charge, decentering from any conversation and taking informed action at all levels. … It is also important to acknowledge the pain and doubt our antiracism advocacy can activate in Black Americans, as the violence against Black life and systemic oppression has been ever present in America since the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Emory’s “antiracism action guide” includes “a series of action items for White people committed to change.”
You can find more details on this subject at Non-racist is not sufficient: Antiracism Actionable for White People
Might an entire state-funded college — a government entity tasked with inculcating facts, teaching students how to think, and preparing young adults for prosperous careers — adopt a highly debatable belief system which views Americans according to race?
This seems to be the case.
In the meeting, Sheila made clear, “It’s not enough to just not be a racist, but to be an antiracist.”
At the conclusion, SIU System President Dan Mahony confirmed the college’s antiracial identity.
And here’s something monumentally newsworthy — Dan knowingly works for a school that employs “racist policies”:
“The SIU System will be an antiracist university system, an antiracist organization. That is our commitment… It doesn’t mean we’re there. It doesn’t mean we’ve addressed all of the racist policies, curriculum issues… It means we’re committed to being on that antiracism journey.”
It’s a curious thing: The president is confidently aware of specific racism, yet such policies aren’t being immediately exposed and forever ended.
Southern Illinois is also trailing behind the School of Medicine in terms of conscious inaction.
From SIUMed.edu
Dean Jerry Kruse MD MSPH announced that the SIU School of Medicine would be an anti-racist school in 2019. OEDI is the leader in the implementation of this pledge across the whole organization.
Furthermore, the School of Law’s April 23, 2021 “Public Antiracism Statement” can be seen here.
We’re living in strange times: While talk of — and separation by — race exceeds by orders of magnitude that of 20 years ago, we’re also being told racism’s being reduced.
Institutions claiming they have identified racism simultaneously refuse to reveal their findings and just remove the mechanisms.
This is how discrimination evolves.
And if there’s one thing evolving as much as racism…it’s education.
-ALEX
Get more information from me
Virginia Public School District asks thirteen-year-olds about oral sex, IUDs, and smoking crack
Nearly a Dozen Medical Schools Undergo an ‘Antiracist Transformation’
University Redrafts Architecture with Nonwhite Wokeness, Redrafts Racism at the University
All my RedState works Click here
Thanks for reading. You are invited to leave comments in the Comment section.
About Post Author
