Free Republic

It wasn’t long ago when the activist Left had a whole laundry list of systems and impersonal forces that it was battling against: sexism, homophobia, white supremacy, ableism – you name it. The Millenial Left may have nodded along to Bernie Sanders’ old labour-Left leanings. Still, they largely abandoned the class struggle of old for a struggle against boutique oppressions that were contingent but intersecting, hence the rise of so-called “intersectionality.” That’s the once-trendy academic philosophy that relies on a view of power relations of society, where advantages and disadvantages are filtered primarily through identities: race, gender, and sexual orientation....

Lois Banner, a renowned USC professor emerita of history, was rebuked by her colleagues as well as others on social media after she claimed her life would have been easier if she were Black. She, however, reportedly refused to apologize after making those comments. According to The Daily Beast, Banner, a White woman, made the controversial comments while speaking at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians over the weekend. The event, which has been held biennially since its inception in the 1970s, was co-founded by Banner. The academic is also known for authoring a Marilyn Monroe biography in 2012. Besides...

Native American leaders are furious with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after she abruptly replaced the first-ever Native American commissioner of the Department of Water and Power (DWP) with a “queer” white male. Mayor Bass removed Cynthia Ruiz, who had only been in office a year, and is well-liked by stakeholders, with George McGraw, a “a leading queer voice in social entrepreneurship, environmental justice, and water.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the Biden White House, a quartet of four female judges in Colorado encapsulates its mission when it comes to the federal judiciary. Charlotte Sweeney is the first openly LGBT woman to serve on the federal bench west of the Mississippi River and has a background in workers’ rights. Nina Wang, an immigrant from Taiwan, is the first magistrate judge in the state to be elevated to a federal district seat. Regina Rodriguez, who is Latina and Asian American, served in a U.S. attorney’s office. Veronica Rossman, who came from the former Soviet Union with her family...

Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock is under fire after sending out a homophobic tweet about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. In the tweet, Maddock calls Buttigieg, who is gay, a "weak little girl," and references his move to Michigan. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, moved to Traverse City with his husband, Chasten, who grew up in Traverse City. He also served in the U.S. Navy Reserve for eight years and was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months in 2014.

There is no place for the individual in Critical Race Theory

On July 11, the American Jewish establishment tried to prove that it could fight anti-Semitism and be progressive at the same time. It failed. Outside of Congress that day, dozens of American Jewish groups co-sponsored a rally against the rising tide of Jew-hatred in America. The organizers had hoped that tens of thousands would show up for the event, and for good reason. In April 2002, a hundred thousand American Jews from all over the country congregated in Washington on short notice to rally in support of Israel during “Operation Defensive Shield.” And here they were supposed to rally...

The confluence of multiculturalism, intersectionality, and extreme wokeness has led to its own rapid climate change. The confluence of multiculturalism, intersectionality, and extreme wokeness has led to its own rapid climate change. And this one is far more certain, much more concrete, and eminently easier to spot. It is cultural climate change… to the nth degree. We are once again seeing preference given to people strictly on the basis of their skin color. Black Lives Matter, All Lives Do Not. Racial preferences abound in college admissions practices. Black? You’re in! Asian? You’re out! We are now, once again, segregating dorms,...

The identity politics that come from intersectionality are designed to separate peopleThe recent revelation that a senior Navy task force is proposing an oath to be taken by every member of the Navy was a warning of how deep woke-think has penetrated American institutions – even the Defense Department. Consider this pledge proposed by Task Force Navy One, which was formed in June to develop strategies to combat discrimination in the Navy: "I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every sailor in the Navy. I pledge to engage in ongoing self-reflection, education and...

Jeff Iorg, president of the Southern Baptist funded Gateway Seminary in California, claimed in a baffling essay that Christians should not be too concerned with “concepts or conspiracies” like socialism, Critical Race Theory or Intersectionality. Dr. Iorg writes, “Many Christians today are captivated by discussions, arguments, and speculations about concepts or conspiracies like socialism, Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, QAnon, the 1619 Project, etc. American Christians have been duped into believing these are pressing issues which deserve our undivided and intense attention.” I’m dumber for having read this essay. Who thinks those issues deserve undivided attention? This is a typical strawman...

I will never forget the revulsive, heart-wrenching image of George Floyd’s face and neck crushed into the pavement and the coldly passive face of the white cop who refused to let him up in spite of his gasping cries for mercy. The whole world, whatever its ethnicity or nationality, is outraged. Because it was a white cop and a black detainee, the incident immediately raised the race issue in America, once again. While maintaining my distress watching the slow death of George Floyd, I nonetheless felt a certain disquiet as I watched the mayhem in so many cities. Systemic racism...

The religion of anti-racism proved itself the only force in American discourse powerful enough to end the lockdown.Every once in a while, something happens that is simultaneously absolutely amazing and perfectly predictable. This past week, one of those instances occurred as months of brutal lockdown meant to fight the Chinese virus melted away on the streets of our nation’s cities. In the wake of the brutal police killing of George Floyd, the only thing more powerful in the progressive mind than stopping the virus emerged. Racism. For many Americans, especially among the affluent, celebrity, and opinion-making portion of the population,...

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has produced a report titled "Social Justice Education in America." Written by David Randall, it defines, describes, and delineates many of the destructive and deceptive ideas behind the innocent-sounding social justice programs that have mushroomed in American institutions of higher learning. According to this December 2019 report, "in the last twenty years, a generation of academics and administrators has transformed higher education into an engine of progressive political advocacy." Identity politics plays a major role in how social justice will be administered. Social justice activists work to increase the "state's coercive power" to decide...

Here's a part: Let’s say you’re a progressive. In fact, let’s say you are a progressive gay man in a gay marriage, with two adopted children. The civil rights version of the country is everything to you. Your whole way of life depends on it. How can you back a party or a politician who even wavers on it? Quite likely, your whole moral idea of yourself depends on it, too. You may have marched in gay pride parades carrying signs reading “Stop the Hate,” and you believe that people who opposed the campaign that made possible your way of...

On November 27, 2019, Harvard University denied tenure to an ethnic-studies professor specializing in Dominican identity. Students and faculty at Harvard and across the country sprung into protest mode. The failure to tenure Lorgia García Peña, they said, resulted from Harvard’s racism. NBC Nightly News, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other outlets covered the controversy from the same angle. In fact, García Peña had been catapulted into the academic firmament with a speed that most non-intersectional professors can only dream of. She has been showered with benefits. Thirty-one percent of Harvard’s tenure-track professors lost their tenure bids...

Two school districts in the Phoenix, Arizona area have implemented educational programs promoting racial divisions and social justice. The two programs attack students on the basis of their skin color and other characteristics. Chandler Unified School District passed the equity and inclusion initiative in February 2018. Kyrene School District also implemented it. Word has gotten out on how awful these programs are. On November 8, Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired a piece on one of the two programs, called Deep Equity. Carlson described the teaching this way, “America is based on a hierarchy of various oppressions: men oppress women, Christianity...

You’ve almost certainly heard some of the following terms: cisgender, fat shaming, heteronormativity, intersectionality, patriarchy, rape culture and whiteness. The reason you’ve heard them is that politically engaged academicians have been developing concepts like these for more than 30 years, and all that time they’ve been percolating. Only recently have they begun to emerge in mainstream culture. These academicians accomplish this by passing off their ideas as knowledge; that is, as if these terms describe facts about the world and social reality. And while some of these ideas may contain bits of truth, they aren’t scientific. By and large, they’re...

(Skip) Cries of "social justice," "affirmative action," "racial prejudice," etc., ad nauseam, enfranchise the Left to wallow in a fictitious self-regard of moralizing sentimentality. Anyone who opposes leftists is automatically demonized as inhumane. Cowardly Republicans, large corporations like Procter & Gamble, and bureaucrats are shaken down and extorted to comply, for fear of appearing insensitive toward "oppression." Any evidence of political incorrectness can damage employment prospects or even get one fired. We are being thought-controlled and speech-tyrannized. How can we push back against such imperious "bleeding heart" compassion? The ideology has a stranglehold on academia and is being rolled out...

If you need an accurate update on some of the madness at the nation's institutions of higher learning, check out Minding the Campus, a nonprofit independent organization. John Leo, its editor in chief, says that the organization's prime mission is dedicated to the revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education at America's colleges and universities. Leo's most recent compilation of campus madness leaves one nearly breathless. In a USA Today op-ed, Emily Walton, a sociology professor at Dartmouth University, said that all college students should take a mandatory course on black history and white privilege. She...

---- The question of what exactly we are meant to do now – other than get rich and have fun – was going to have to be answered by something. The answer that has presented itself in recent years has been to live in a permanent state of outrage. To find meaning by waging constant war against anybody who seems to be on the wrong side of a question to which the answer has only just been altered. ---- The interpretation of the world through the lens of ‘social justice’ and ‘identity group politics’ is probably the most audacious and...