‘Diversity’ Debacle at Dartmouth: ‘Transformative Justice,’ Really?

Posted on | April 8, 2014 | 171 Comments

Dartmouth radicals after their protest last week.

To understand what is wrong with America’s elite institutions of higher education, we need look no further than the manifesto issued by radical students at Dartmouth College:

The Plan for Dartmouth’s Freedom Budget:
Items for Transformative Justice at Dartmouth
The document, sent to 13 Dartmouth administrators on Feb. 24, lists demands that seek to eliminate systems of oppression including racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism. . . .
We, the Concerned Asian, Black, Latina, Native, Undocumented, Queer, and Differently-Abled students at Dartmouth College, seek to eradicate systems of oppression as they affect marginalized communities on this campus. These systems — which include racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism — are deployed at Dartmouth and beyond as forms of institutional violence. We demand that Dartmouth challenge these systems by redistributing power and resources in a way that is radically equitable. We believe that dialogue and resistance are both legitimate and necessary ways of disturbing the status quo and forcing parties to deal with the roots of the issues. . . .

Simple question: Where did these Dartmouth students learn to write such turgid and lifeless jargon? Even if one were sympathetic to these petulant brats, isn’t their rhetoric kind of tedious?

If Dartmouth has failed at nothing else, it has certainly failed to teach its students effective techniques of persuasive prose. The minute any responsible adult sees a phrase like “Transformative Justice,” the skeptical eye-roll reaction is reflexive.

The “marginalized communities” rant continues:

This Freedom Budget focused on redistributing power and restoring justice for communities who suffered economic oppression at the hands of rich, white power structures. This budget was not a proposal for better interpersonal interactions, but a proposal to transform oppressive structures. Dartmouth epitomizes power being isolated to rich, white males. As such, there is no better place than this campus to campaign for a Freedom Budget that will address the consequences of white male patriarchy today.

OK, let me intrude a few helpful points here:

As for “rich, white power structures,” exactly who the hell do these kids think built Dartmouth College and is currently footing the bill for their Ivy League education? Permit me to suggest that these “marginalized” students research who are the top 100 donors to the Dartmouth alumni fund in the past decade. If it weren’t for “rich, white males,” these kids wouldn’t even have a college to complain about.
These punks whine about “oppression” — did somebody kidnap them at gunpoint and force them to attend Dartmouth? No, they were among many thousands who applied to attend this elite school, and were fortunate enough to be accepted. Rather than being grateful for the opportunity thus afforded them, however, the miserable ingrates expect Dartmouth to throw them a pity party because of how they’re victims of “oppressive structures.”
Why are these kids so obsessed with white people? First, it’s “rich, white power structures,” then it’s “rich, white males” and “white male patriarchy” — white! white! white! The repetition conveys the intensity of their fixation, but why? Let’s see: Dartmouth College is in Hanover, N.H., and the census says New Hampshire is 94.4% white. So if you have a problem with white people, maybe Dartmouth isn’t the place you want to be, but since you decided to go to Dartmouth, whose problem is this? It’s as if you moved to Tijuana and then started complaining, “Hey, why are there so many Mexicans around here?”

Anyway, you can go read the whole list of silly “demands” issued by the Dartmouth radicals, but last week a few dozen of the aggrieved students “occupied” the administration building:

A group of about 35 students from a range of campus communities entered College President Phil Hanlon’s office during his open office hours on [April 1], stating their dissatisfaction to the administration’s March 6 reaction to the “Freedom Budget.” They demanded a point-by-point response to each of the student-authored document’s 70-plus demands for change regarding issues of diversity and inclusivity.
Equipped with poster paper, sleeping bags and pizza, many students displayed the intention of spending the night. As of press time, about eight students planned to remain in Hanlon’s personal office overnight and about seven others intended to stay in the outer atrium of Parkhurst Hall.
As students filed in to Hanlon’s outer office around 4 p.m., they were greeted by administrative assistants, who noted that they had been expecting them. Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson then told the students that she and Hanlon would be available to talk in a few minutes.
When Johnson asked why the group was there, Dondei Dean ’17 spoke first.
“We’re here to see President Hanlon. You probably know most of us already, but, just to sum up, we are extremely dissatisfied with the response that he issued,” Dean said. “It was not on our terms. We are here to see him and demand a point-by-point response, and we are not going to leave until we get one.”
Approximately 10 minutes later, the entire group was invited into Hanlon’s office. Dean, acting as primary spokesperson, told the president that the students were “deeply enraged” by Hanlon’s response to the “Freedom Budget,” stating dissatisfaction with both the length of the administration’s press release, which they said encompassed only three points, and their choice not to respond through The Dartmouth.

Uh, “Dondei Dean ’17”? This kid’s just a freshman. He only arrived at Dartmouth in September, and already he’s issuing demands? The Wall Street Journal took notice, and the Dartmouth Review editorializes:

If there is any lesson to be learned from the sit-in, it is that the Freedom Budgeters are dead set on an approach that is not friendly to collaboration and compromise. Their hostile response to overtures of reason from President Hanlon, Dean Johnson, and their fellow classmates has made that abundantly clear. Instead, they intend to maintain their “struggle” by any and all means necessary, even if it takes them beyond the limits of civil discourse expected of Dartmouth undergraduates.

Expel these brats. Let ’em be “oppressed” somewhere else.

In other words: Fetch My Latte.

(Hat-tip: American Power.)

<br />

Category: Education

Comments

171 Responses to “‘Diversity’ Debacle at Dartmouth: ‘Transformative Justice,’ Really?”

jdp
April 8th, 2014 @ 11:33 pm

Oh, I didn’t recognize you at first.
jdp
April 8th, 2014 @ 11:37 pm

The biggest problem I see is that we’re just letting them win. Where’s the champions of Western Civilization? We can’t just cloister ourselves away in Hillsdale. Proclaim the good news, Cal.
jdp
April 8th, 2014 @ 11:42 pm

75% eh? I’d rather be right than popular. Young people are more idiotic than older people, generally. Someday even you could see that the social justice things you hold so dear are silly and wrong. And the good old US of A has no rival in the world for being most right most of the time.
jdp
April 8th, 2014 @ 11:47 pm

The West was every bit as benighted and backwards as the rest of the world until it bought into Western Civ/Judeo-Christian values. That is the difference. Not some imagined finite-sized pie that whitey happened to gobble up at the expense of all the other shades of mankind.
Adjoran
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:24 am

I used to call her an imbecile.

But then the imbeciles began to complain, and they had a point.
Adjoran
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:26 am

Other than getting rid of the white people but keeping their money, what is this group’s actual demand, precisely? They lost me around the 15th enumerated victim group or so.
Adjoran
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:29 am

I often ask such complainers to spend a week without using and product or service created or brought to them by white males or corporations, and then come tell of their experience.

No takers, so far.
Adjoran
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:32 am

I didn’t spot any in the group photo that I would bet on lasting ONE week.
bobbymike34
April 9th, 2014 @ 1:58 am

I say Kent State the lot of them.

How’s that for maximum political IN correctness
K-Bob
April 9th, 2014 @ 2:51 am

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/first-world-problems-0.jpg
Greg
April 9th, 2014 @ 4:40 am

I suspect that the reason they have been “marginalized,” is that they are catastrophically stupid.
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 4:40 am

You must now confess and your confession must be on my terms …
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 4:43 am

And elevated …
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 5:30 am

Are “Latinos” now part of the “rich, white patriarchy”? I noted “Latinas” but not “Latinos” included in this insane rant. Is this an extension of the “White Hispanic” meme of the George Zimmerman affair?
Lastly, why should a minority, or group of minorities (many adopting minority identity for victim status) rule the majority? You proclaim “democratic” ideals yet, in the same breath, demand power and control over the majority. This does not compute! Stacy noted the turgidity of your prose, perhaps this is a result of your inability to formulate clear, concise examples of the supposed oppressions you (collectively) experience as undergrads at Dartmouth? As opposed to say, the oppression you would experience at any University in any third world shithole? Do tell how you are so oppressed in your comfortable, heated and air conditioned (with unterrupted electric power, potable water and a reliable and safe waste removal system) dorms and residences with cafeterias and fast food within sniper-free walking distance. How oppressive it is to have free and confidential health services at the college’s student clinic for treatment of that rectal bleeding after your ‘date’ or confidential treatment of that STD and free contraception drugs and supplies before the bid weekend hook-ups?
Expel the lot of them. Then, perhaps, they will be actual ‘victims’ of something. Their own idiocy in fact.
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 5:37 am

Ahhh, grape-shot! That leveler of all playing fields!
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 5:40 am

One hour … in wussy Air Force basic …
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 5:43 am

Not until after age 26. Until then mummy and daddy are responsible.
Quartermaster
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:32 am

I would prefer a minigun my self.
Quartermaster
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:36 am

It used to be tougher than it is now. Lackland was my father’s last station and I watched quite a bit. The Navy was actually easier.
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:39 am

I consider the mini-gun the modern equivalent. More effective but not quite as showy …
Quartermaster
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:39 am

That is so insensitive. I denounce you for your insensitivity and judgmentalism.
Anamika
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:42 am

Just a silly advice from an idiot (IQ below imbecile) to a high genius (self proclaimed IQ of 165):

Please don’t use your intellect to further deceive, manipulate and harm conservatives who might trust you.
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:48 am

That will be ten Hail Marys and five Our Fathers . . . in Latin.
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 6:50 am

Good Gaia, man, don’t you realize how many of those things spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, killing the planet?
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:01 am

Easy-peasy. Now try a real penance: A full Rosary (15 decades) while on your knees on terrazzo in Church Slavonic. Now that’s a penance!
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:06 am

I don’t ask anyone to trust me. If fact I prefer to be distrusted in all things. It is safer that way for all concerned. Why do you think I reverted to my real name? So anon’s like you can safely snark? No, so people can know exactly who I am. So stuff your BS up your fourth point of contact.
Mm
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:20 am

Saying someone is Latino is like saying someone is American. It is a geographical description, not a racial one. For example, Alberto Fujimori, former president of Peru, was 100% ethnically Japanese, 100% Asian, and since he was born in Peru, Latino.
Anamika
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:25 am

Jeanne is a gullible conservative and I’m concerned about her well being. I understand where Quartermaster might be coming from when he fails to see the gravity of the situation, but why would a high genius/high criminal(mind) like you (I know you read Jeanne’s comment(s) as you ‘like’ them) not warn and counsel the lady? It’s as if you are enjoying this game by buying her trust (ex: helping her with RipoffReport posting) and encouraging her in escalating her efforts by illegal means like hacking. Jeanne’s activity has been reported to authorities, thanks to your (in)actions.
Matthew W
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:35 am

Thought it was a “moistened bink”
Matthew W
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:36 am

Thanks, but no!!!!
Matthew W
April 9th, 2014 @ 7:40 am

Have to include at least a little of bad parenting too.
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 8:30 am

So, by your logic, the simple act of giving someone a thumbs up is advising and directing their activities? My advice to Jeanette has always been and will always be to report abuse to the proper admins for the fora in which the abusive conduct/comments appear or to report to law enforcement. They will handle it … eventually, if you continue to report the stalking behavior. LE is reluctant to look at or take seriously online harassment/stalking unless you report, report, report. That is my advice to anyone experiencing those actions. That is all. I do not encourage any illegal activity and if I become aware of such, I will report it myself. The fact you make an unsupported accusation about me says much about your intents.Your proof that I am engaging in nefarious and possibly illegal activities is a click on a ‘like’ button? You are an ass.
Anamika
April 9th, 2014 @ 8:53 am

So, by your logic, the simple act of giving someone a thumbs up is advising and directing their activities?

Your proof that I am engaging in nefarious and possibly illegal activities is a click on a ‘like’ button? You are an ass.

Actually, you liked several comments by Quartermaster and Jeanne while I presented troubling information about “hacking”. (in the comment thread) You were following the exchanges closely. But did nothing to warn Jeanne publicly. If you did so privately, it didn’t reflect in Jeanne’s evolving activity in the comment thread. (fwiw no one else “liked” those Jeanne’s/Quartermaster’s comments.) You helped her out with your rebuttal to the disgustingRipoffReport posting(you “know Jeanette Runyon”). You have her trust.

Fact remains that either your were totally stupid in not seeing the alarm signs or your are still in manipulation mode.
Paul H. Lemmen
April 9th, 2014 @ 9:42 am

You are correct. Thus their inclusion of “Latina” is just as flawed. I guess “Hispanic” would be a more appropriate word although perhaps “South and Central American indigenous persons” as well as “North American indigenous persons” would be more inclusive.
Of course the most accurate for these idiots would be the shorter form of exclusion: “Everyone except white heterosexual males”. But they would never actually say that so bluntly because that would make us an identifiable oppressed group, thus, the real victims of their oppression.
archer52
April 9th, 2014 @ 9:51 am

Has anyone else noticed the most ardent supporters of “black rights” and often the most vicious and vocally offensive (and entitled) are the ones who are not all black? You can tell by their slightly tan skin and European facial features there is a whole lot of whitey in the woodpile! Heck half are lighter than me after a couple of days in the sun!

So, why are they so crazy pissed. They are the end result of the tolerance of the last generation, where marrying outside your race is now okay and often encouraged (unless you are a black woman watching a black man dating that “white wh**e!”)

My theory is overcompensation. Most of those (like that teacher who ripped a sign from a sixteen year old) are liberally educated, often financially well off, bi-racial people who think they have to work really hard to prove they are down with the cause.

Just a theory, but I’m working on fleshing it out. So to speak.
Stanley
April 9th, 2014 @ 10:09 am

How many times does it have to be said: evidence that he engaged in nefarious activities does not rest on concomitant comments and liking supposed “illegal” activities. You have failed to provide evidence that he ever engaged in said activities. So kindly stop wasting everybody’s time with your attempts to pull the wool over our eyes. We are not so easily taken in. It should be abundantly plain that someone who claims to have an IQ of 165 and yet fails to provide evidence has little by way of “brilliance”. You are making a complete and utter fool of yourself.
Anamika
April 9th, 2014 @ 10:32 am

someone who claims to have an IQ of 165

You misread. Lemmen claims an IQ of 165, not me.

Btw I didn’t say he has perpetrated/involved in nefarious activities, he (like Quartermaster) failed in his responsibility towards a desperate conservative woman. But unlike Quartermaster (who could be simply stupid) he claims an IQ of 165.
Stanley
April 9th, 2014 @ 10:45 am

I have just this minute looked at the comments you provided above and saw no evidence of ethical malfeasance. Once again, kindly stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I am not so easily taken in.
Stanley
April 9th, 2014 @ 10:50 am

* I saw no evidence of ethical malfeasance on Quartermaster’s and Lemmen’s part.
MNHawk
April 9th, 2014 @ 10:58 am

Certainly, expel. It’s not like the little snowflakes can’t get their worthless Womyn’s Studies and Poli Sci degrees elsewhere.
MNHawk
April 9th, 2014 @ 11:01 am

Never is a long time, Pajama Boy.

By the way, boy, how is your career at Starbucks progressing? Do they let you work the counter more than 29 hours, yet?
Anamika
April 9th, 2014 @ 11:04 am

I go with “irresponsible” (for both) and “stupid”(for QM)/”smart”(for Lemmen.)
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:04 pm

In English or Latin?
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:06 pm

Our parish church has carpet over hardwood; will that do?
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:10 pm

Herr Schrödinger would like his cat back, please.
Dana
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:12 pm

Well, there are shorter words for Hispanics/Latinos, but if I used them, I’d be angrily denounced . . . .
David R. Graham
April 9th, 2014 @ 12:46 pm

The students are what they have been for 50 years: fronts, stupid cannon-fodder for anonymity-seeking agents provocateurs, domestic and foreign.
londondave
April 9th, 2014 @ 2:02 pm

I have involuntarily entered a re-edjukashion camp.
K-Bob
April 9th, 2014 @ 3:03 pm

Eight freaking hours of homework per night tends to make one highly intolerant of clowns that have the time to participate in that crap.

I’m betting that I was far more sober in college than any of these people, and I remember partying my a$$ off in college.

It’s like the joke about the farm boys who thought joining the army was like a vacation compared to doing farm work.

I always partied hard, and then stayed up late every other night getting work done. You can sleep when you’re dead.
K-Bob
April 9th, 2014 @ 3:13 pm

If the chow’s good, where do I join up?