Althouse: "She was accused of saying in a conversation at a conference in March that the university was 'controlled by wealthy Jews'...."

१३ डिसेंबर, २०२४

"She was accused of saying in a conversation at a conference in March that the university was 'controlled by wealthy Jews'...."

"She was also accused of saying that Jewish students were 'wealthy and privileged' and not in need of her office’s diversity services, and that 'Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel,' according to the documents, which were part of a complaint from the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan.... Ms. Dawson had been in charge of an office that oversees efforts to mentor and retain racially, culturally and economically diverse students.... Ms. Dawson’s lawyer, Amanda Ghannam, denied that she said anything antisemitic.... 'The university has clearly, blatantly violated Ms. Dawson’s First Amendment rights.... It’s deeply troubling that they would escalate the situation to termination based on one conversation in somebody’s private capacity'...."

From "D.E.I. Official at University of Michigan Is Fired Over Antisemitism Claim, Lawyer Says/The official, an administrator of multicultural programs, was accused of making antisemitic remarks in a conversation. Her lawyer said that the school fired her this week, and vowed to sue" (NYT).

५८ टिप्पण्या:

Tarrou म्हणाले...: "It’s deeply troubling that they would escalate the situation to termination based on one conversation in somebody’s private capacity"

Isn't it? And yet, that's what DEI offices are for! How many students have been kicked out of college for one conversation in private? How many working people have been fired for crossing some lunatic lefty shibboleth at the wrong time?

Crack your knuckles driving a plumbing truck, and the nearest representative of peace, joy and love will have you unemployed before you get home from work.; १३/१२/२४, ४:५२ AM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: She's got free speech rights, of course, but you can't discriminate against students and deny them services because they're Jewish.; १३/१२/२४, ५:०० AM
jaydub म्हणाले...: It's a start.; १३/१२/२४, ५:०३ AM
rhhardin म्हणाले...: Alienation is a creative resource in Jewish scholarship - call it connection to prophets rather than early Greek philosophers. Among not so scholarly Jews it's a strategy to prevent assimilation. In short, find anti-semitism everywhere whether it's there or not, to preserve cultural alienation. It's a culture survival strategy.

In the early 90s at work it was complaints about company Christmas decorations, there being nothing else to complain about.

In the 80s my U Chicago book catalogs would have a Holocaust for Children section.

None of that belittles the actual height of Jewish scholarship, at the smart end of the IQ curve, but that's mostly not what's always in the public eye.; १३/१२/२४, ५:१२ AM
rhhardin म्हणाले...: Jews don't need DEI help because they're smarter than whites already. It's like east Asians.; १३/१२/२४, ५:१६ AM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: I don't even know what a DEI office does. It sounds like the student wanted some financial help in traveling to Israel?

“I think my colleague wanted to know, ‘Does the D.E.I. office work with these students?’” Dr. Yavneh Klos said. “‘Should the student go to the D.E.I. office?’ She said no. Jewish students are all rich. They don’t need us. That was the gist of what she said. It was really horrifying.”

It seems to me the University has gotten itself into this pickle by having a DEI office in the first place. You could get rid of your DEI office, and that would solve the problem. You have an Identity Politics organization, and students wondering if they have the right identity or not. You're begging for lawsuits with that approach.

The other thing is that most university officials who discriminate against human beings are embarrassed about it, and so they do it on the down low, and hide their sins like we sinners always do. You really don't want employees who are proud of their bigotry and are announcing it openly at academic conferences.; १३/१२/२४, ५:२१ AM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: "It's okay to beat them up because they're superior."; १३/१२/२४, ५:२३ AM
Eric the Fruit Bat म्हणाले...: That's one hell of a good-paying, cushy, do-nothing job to piss away out of stupidity.; १३/१२/२४, ५:३६ AM
Zavier Onasses म्हणाले...: If there were no DEI office at the university, there would have been no problem.
Saint Croix beat me to it. The whole idea of a DEI office is incongruous, like trying to end discrimination by discriminating.; १३/१२/२४, ५:४० AM
Christopher B म्हणाले...: From Instapundit this morning

DEI does not have majority support among any demographic. Not even blacks.; १३/१२/२४, ६:१२ AM
Rocco म्हणाले...: “Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel”

False. This paper is looking at the genetics of the Palestinians, but the abstract summarizes the relevant point that Palestinians, Jews, and their neighbors are all pretty much the same people from a genetic point of view.; १३/१२/२४, ६:२० AM
Rocco म्हणाले...: Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11543891/; १३/१२/२४, ६:२४ AM
Spiros Pappas म्हणाले...: Are the Ashkenazis originally from Turkey?; १३/१२/२४, ६:५५ AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...: Given that the conversation quoted is almost entirely about her occupation my hunch is that her actual actions in that official role are what got her fired. Even if an hypothetical DEI officer makes no controversial statements ever they should be fired because the job is to enforce quotas and inflame resentment amongst various favored groups towards the white alleged majority oppressors.; १३/१२/२४, ७:१३ AM
gilbar म्हणाले...: "an office that oversees efforts to mentor and retain racially, culturally and economically diverse students"

well, there's your problem, RIGHT THERE! a college shouldn't HAVE an office that oversees efforts to mentor and retain racially, culturally and economically diverse students..
It should have efforts to mentor and retain COLLEGE CAPABLE students.

What difference does your racial or cultural or economic background matter?
if you're TOO STUPID for school?; १३/१२/२४, ७:२९ AM
gilbar म्हणाले...: "The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."
Ibram Xolani Kendi; १३/१२/२४, ७:३३ AM
Rocco म्हणाले...: Gilbar, quoting Henry Rogers:
"The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a racist boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’; १३/१२/२४, ८:०३ AM
RCOCEAN II म्हणाले...: ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.; १३/१२/२४, ८:१० AM
n.n म्हणाले...: Hoisted by her own petard... Fani, what is a Diversitist to do.; १३/१२/२४, ८:१३ AM
Rocco म्हणाले...: No. Ashkenazi are Jews, and like all Jews, the bulk of their DNA comes from their ancestors who developed the Jewish identify while living in the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And like their neighbors, that DNA is closely related to Anatolian substrate of modern Turks.; १३/१२/२४, ८:१५ AM
Bob Boyd म्हणाले...: You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh...; १३/१२/२४, ८:१६ AM
Bob Boyd म्हणाले...: If she'd made the same statements about whites, she'd have been fine.; १३/१२/२४, ८:२० AM
john mosby म्हणाले...: Rhhardin: Holocaust for Children

That would make a great spoof on Highlights. “Goofus and Gefilte,” Connect the Dots (of the Judische heritage youre trying to hide, Jew child!), Colors and Shapes (of the triangles on concentration camp uniforms), etc.

JSM; १३/१२/२४, ८:३२ AM
Aggie म्हणाले...: Note the category results for: Latinos, Blacks, Democrats. And: College Students, just to verify our education system's bent. Quite a picture of an ecosystem.; १३/१२/२४, ८:३८ AM
Mickey म्हणाले...: Imagine people so privileged you can get fired for saying they’re privileged.; १३/१२/२४, ९:४२ AM
Mickey म्हणाले...: A lot of Jews are white, though (especially the privileged ones).; १३/१२/२४, ९:४३ AM
stlcdr म्हणाले...: Wrt. the free speech argument, she is 'yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre' while being charged with keeping those people safe.

By pushing the 'free speech' aspect they are deflecting from scrutiny of the DEI movement.; १३/१२/२४, ९:५२ AM
Deep State Reformer म्हणाले...: Ann Arbor is infested by these political equivalents of head lice. UM should fire all the DEI types and do a 1:3 decimation* (selected at random) of the entire administrative establishment.
*"Decimation" after the Roman fashion (gify); १३/१२/२४, ९:५६ AM
Big Mike म्हणाले...: Jewish students were 'wealthy and privileged' and not in need of her office’s diversity services

Looking at a person through the filter of stereotypes, instead of seeing that person as an individual, is the absolute hallmark of a bigot. A university does not need bigots anywhere among its administration staff, and absolutely not heading its DEI office.; १३/१२/२४, ९:५७ AM
rhhardin म्हणाले...: So no more Bayes's theorem.; १३/१२/२४, १०:०८ AM
Laughing Fox म्हणाले...: Jews, like everyone else, don't need to be discriminated against by departments at their schools.; १३/१२/२४, १०:१६ AM
Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...: DEI is a dead man walking. It requires fairly overt discrimination in favor of some groups, and against others, strictly on the basis of prohibited categories, including race and ethnicity. Which means that it violates Equal Protection under the 14th Amdt, for government actions, and the Civil Rights Acts, for non-government actions. Its proponents pretend that this is ok, because they are furthering a higher cause. It isn’t, and they aren’t. Their real purpose is to drive wedges between groups, so that racial and ethnic (etc) privilege can be sold around the big table that is the DNC. For better than a century, that’s what the Dem party was - a mishmash of competing interest groups, often very much at odds with each other, brought together by divvying up the spoils of governance. Exasperating the DEI problem is that much of the left, and esp the academic left, is now driven by Marxists and nihilists, whose aim is to destroy this country, as we know it. Unfortunately for the DEI crew, this has been soundly rejected by the American people who have found more commonality in recent years in class and the like, than in race and ethnicity, capped by Trump’s election.

The Dems have long been the antisemitic party, yet, the Jews sat at their big table because they traded their wealth and influence for security. Then, Obama, himself a Marxist and nihilist, shipped $billions$ to Iran, which fueled Middle East terror, and this was repeated by his acolytes in the FJB Administration. Palestinians, funded by that money, invaded Israel, kidnapped, tortured, killed, and raped ( in no particular order) women and children, and held others for months, if not over a year now, as prisoners. There doesn’t appear to have been any limits to their degradations. And almost immediately, the campus left, filled with Marxists and nihilists, demanding our destruction, came together to celebrate the atrocities committed by the Gaza Palestinians. And this support rapidly turned into virulent Nazi level antisemitism, worse than I have ever seen in my lifetime. And that was a bridge too far for most Americans. This sort of virulent antisemitism is what the Nazis and the Communists did, not us. We were the ones who defeated the Nazis, liberated their Concentration Camps, and hung those responsible (my grandfather was one of the judges doing the hanging).; १३/१२/२४, १०:१९ AM
tommyesq म्हणाले...: Plus, don't they understand that "diverse" means including both/all sides of things - i.e., "economically diverse" means having both poor and rich kids?; १३/१२/२४, १०:२३ AM
mikee म्हणाले...: I, for one, suspect discovery by the defendants in this potential lawsuit will be not just amusing but amazing. Hope she's scrubbed her social media, like wiping it with a cloth. And won't that act be evidence of her unfitness for her DEI role, too?; १३/१२/२४, १०:२३ AM
tommyesq म्हणाले...: Free speech means only that the government cannot prevent her from saying the thigs she said. It does not protect her from the consequences of her stupid speech.; १३/१२/२४, १०:२६ AM
tommyesq म्हणाले...: "Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel."

Of course, the same could be said for vast swaths of the planet Earth, including residents of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to which Rachel Dawson, an Africa-American woman, has no genetic connection.; १३/१२/२४, १०:३१ AM
Jupiter म्हणाले...: Exactly. You can only discriminate against students and deny them services if they are are white or Asian. Although those damned Hispanics are beginning to look just a little bit deplorable.; १३/१२/२४, १०:३४ AM
Jupiter म्हणाले...: Plus, they've got the ADL.; १३/१२/२४, १०:३५ AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...: The ADL dates to a time when Jews were routinely discriminated against and kept out of certain industries. The Bill of Rights theoretically protects all of us but let’s not pretend that there haven’t been times it hasn’t worked as written.; १३/१२/२४, १०:४७ AM
Readering म्हणाले...: Sounds like the alleged remarks (she denies them) were made during a disputatious conversation with two women in her field attending a conference in another city.; १३/१२/२४, ११:०७ AM
Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...: That’s really hard to answer, because we are talking the genes of more than a million people. Genetically, the most Jewish gene is apparently the Y chromosome, and it thus came out of the environs of present day Israel. I always found this interesting because Jewishness today is defined matrilineally, but Ashkenazi Jewish X chromosomes are apparently a mishmash.

In any case, the ancestors of the Ashkenazim appear to have primarily migrated up the eastern side of Italy, into, and through, the Alps, settling initially in Rhineland, in present day Germany, and thence into neighboring France. They flourished in the Carolingian Empire created by Charlemagne. Eventually, this welcome wore out, and they were ultimately pushed into Eastern Europe in the 16th Century.

Traditionally, different Ashkenazi populations could be distinguished by the populations the migrated into. Hence why many look significantly more Central European than Middle Eastern. And why you can often distinguish visually Russian Jews from, say, German Jews. During the 1200 or so years since the Ashkenazim migrated into Central Europe, there has been a small, but constant, amount of inbreeding, primarily through conversion to Judaism. And the opposite too - Hitler apparently probably had enough Jewish ancestry to have qualified as Jewish under his own laws.; १३/१२/२४, ११:१६ AM
Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...: Actually they do. Ashkenazi males apparently mostly have a stereotypical Jewish Y chromosome, that is shared with other groups of Jews.; १३/१२/२४, ११:२३ AM
Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...: “Exactly. You can only discriminate against students and deny them services if they are are white or Asian.”

I disagree, or at least prospectively. It’s just that college and leftist virulent antisemitism reared its ugly head, in sympathy with the brutal invasion of Israel by Gaza Palestinians, where they kidnapped, killed, tortured, raped, etc, anyone they could capture. Leftist campuses across the country suddenly became much more dangerous to those with Jewish ancestry.

I comment elsewhere here that DEI is a dead man walking. Much of that is a result of litigation against anti white and Asian discrimination. Notably, Trump’s nominee for Asst AG for Civil Rights is Harmeet Dhillon, a Sikh (Non-dot dot Indian). I fully expect the DOJ’s Civil Rights division, under her, to switch its focus to litigation against racist and ethnic set asides and special programs.; १३/१२/२४, ११:४२ AM
Rosalyn C. म्हणाले...: It’s so interesting to see this kind of mental gymnastics. Blame a persecuted minority for feeling alienated by persecution,. Use their alienation as an excuse to persecute them some more. Blame a group of co-workers who want to feel part of the group for feeling alienated when their work environment is decorated in a way that excludes them. Criticize a people who preserve their own history and do this by educating their children because that makes you uncomfortable.; १३/१२/२४, ११:५४ AM
Rosalyn C. म्हणाले...: There actually were Jews in Germany in the early 20th century, who thought that the cure for antisemitism would be total assimilation or non-alienation. They married non-Jews, they stopped being Jewish. And somehow none of that mattered when the Nazis came for the Jews, the assimilated no longer Jewish Jews and their children were included. “Alienation” is BS.; १३/१२/२४, १२:०५ PM
Rosalyn C. म्हणाले...: Exactly right. Not all Jewish people are wealthy and that’s an absurd generalization. The idea that you would automatically not serve a Jewish student because of preconceived notions about them is bigoted.; १३/१२/२४, १२:२१ PM
Spiros Pappas म्हणाले...: Mr. Rocco, alot of (DNA) evidence suggests that Ashkenazi Jews have Turkic origins. Geneticists have pinpointed a region of northeastern Turkey.
This area has very ancient cities with the remarkable names of Iskenaz, Eskenez, Ashanas and Aschuz. Just the names of these villages suggest a link to these people. I know Jewish people freak out over this but I don't see what the big deal is. And the Ashkenazi look a lot like Pontic Greeks. Like a lot. And no way the Ashkenazi Jews had anything to do with the Middle East. It's just dumb mythology.; १३/१२/२४, १२:५५ PM
loudogblog म्हणाले...: 'Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel,'

That's the first time I've heard someone make that claim. I'm no expert in genetics, but that sounds obviously wrong. Just how far back in time do your ancestors need to go to establish a genetic link to a particular area? I think that thousands of years would be sufficient.; १३/१२/२४, १:०१ PM
Skeptical Voter म्हणाले...: The University can can her because she's expressed Anti-Semitic thoughts--just like they can discharge students for saying anti-gay or anti-arab things. Or they can can her because they are shutting down their DEI offices. Either way she's toast.; १३/१२/२४, १:०६ PM
loudogblog म्हणाले...: The problem is that we don't know all the facts. She may have been called in for a friendly talk and admitted to the friendly H.R. person that she said it. It could be that her point is that she has a right to say stuff like that in a private setting. Plus, if she believes it to be an absolute truth, that a lot of her other peers beileve in, she might not have seen what was wrong with saying it in the first place.; १३/१२/२४, १:०७ PM
Jupiter म्हणाले...: I'm not sure what your point is, Bruce. The universities have been discriminating against white and Asian students and faculty for a long time now, and their wealthy donors have been fine with that. The reality is that American Jews have long regarded themselves as victims of discrimination from WASP Americans, and have encouraged the resentments of other minorities against "whites". It was only when the Jews found themselves labelled as "white colonialists" that they got upset about anti-white discrimination.; १३/१२/२४, २:४६ PM
RCOCEAN II म्हणाले...: Constant screeching about antisemitism may have its roots as a "survival strategy" for a small minority, but now that Jews are the most powerful ethnic group in the USA, its become a weapon of control and oppression.

Fortunately, for powerful Jews they've never lacked for Gentile allies. Mostly, gullible rubes who think Mark Zuckerberg or the Rabbi who owns pornhub are the ancient Hebrews. Pat Robertson was one. I remember him saying on TV that Putin was the great Satan, who's number one goal in invading Ukraine was to march down through the Balkans, cross into Turkey, and then destroy Israel. LOL!; १३/१२/२४, ३:५० PM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: My theory is that people who hate the Jews hate them because God chose them as his people, to give birth to our Messiah. Ultimately, hatred of Jews is anger at the Lord. You're in a fight with God. And so you hate his chosen people.

I've never understood so-called Christians who hate on Jews. The Bible is filled with Jews. Jesus is Jewish, his mother was Jewish, his whole family was Jewish, and all his friends and followers were Jewish. You're not following Jesus if you hate the Jews. And you're not in a good spiritual place if you hate the Jews. The worst people in our modern world, from Nazis to Islamic terrorists, always seem to fixate on the Jews. It's a strange phenomenon.; १३/१२/२४, ४:१४ PM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: So no more Bayes's theorem

Speaking of probabilities, why do the wacky people never fixate on Baptists or Hindus or Puerto Ricans? Why do they single out a tiny percentage of the world population and develop an unhealthy and quite weird hostility to them?

Did a Jew beat you up and take your lunch money, rhhardin? I doubt it!

I question whether your hostility is rational at all. So put your math brain to work on that puzzle.; १३/१२/२४, ४:५२ PM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: Mickey, you're aware that universities and other businesses have been discriminating against white people, and males, for decades on the basis of "privilege"? Yes? Even if it's irrational, even if there are white homeless people. It's a Marxist version of hating on people you think are financially higher than you.; १३/१२/२४, ५:४६ PM
Saint Croix म्हणाले...: I applaud the firing of DEI bigots. Especially the ones who are so bigoted they do it out in public.; १३/१२/२४, ५:४७ PM
Ampersand म्हणाले...: Termination has significant legal risk. I suspect that there is a well developed factual record supporting the decision.; १४/१२/२४, ११:०४ AM
Josephbleau म्हणाले...: The problem with DEI Managers is that they don’t realize that they are supposed to collect their 200kpy and sit in the office with their mouths shut.; १४/१२/२४, ७:२९ PM