UNC moves to dismantle DEI programs (05-16-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:00] What's going on?

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[00:00:29] DEI, I have been saying that this election, this is your pivot point, your segue from

[00:00:34] the last two hours of conversation and topics.

[00:00:40] The segue here is that I've been saying that this election is the DEI election for Joe

[00:00:46] Biden, right?

[00:00:47] Joe Biden's DEI election, dementia, right?

[00:00:54] Economy, immigration.

[00:00:58] These are the three big things that Joe Biden is wrestling with in order to win reelection

[00:01:04] DEI.

[00:01:06] And speaking of the DEI, it's it's it seems to be getting a critical mass of pushback

[00:01:14] at this point.

[00:01:17] I am kind of curious, curious what's going to go down with this, with this football player

[00:01:22] from the Chiefs who said some Catholic things at a Catholic graduation ceremony.

[00:01:28] And everybody's all outraged that Catholics are Catholics.

[00:01:30] Not sure.

[00:01:32] I'm not sure people were aware of that, but whatever.

[00:01:36] UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted.

[00:01:40] The reason I mention this because the NFL put out a statement and it came from their

[00:01:43] DEI person.

[00:01:45] But what has been happening at a lot of universities because of the political pressure, but also

[00:01:50] at the corporate level, too, there's there's this hesitancy now to continue down this DEI

[00:01:56] path because spoiler alert, DEI makes everything worse inside your organization.

[00:02:01] Like if you want, I'm not aware of a better way to, you know, destroy your business from

[00:02:09] within than to pit everybody against each other based on their immutable characteristics,

[00:02:14] right?

[00:02:15] To have everybody sit down and yell at each other in racialized and and genderized and

[00:02:22] sexized and whatever kinds of eyes, kinds of arguments.

[00:02:27] Well, OK, there is a better way, I guess, if you're trying to ruin a business, particularly

[00:02:32] like a gambling establishment or like a vodka deal or water or meat, you just put Trump

[00:02:38] in charge.

[00:02:39] I kid.

[00:02:40] Oh, come on.

[00:02:41] I kid.

[00:02:42] I kid.

[00:02:43] So the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, you may have heard, voted to divert millions

[00:02:50] of dollars spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs into publicly public safety rather

[00:02:56] instead ahead of an expected policy change statewide aimed at restricting DEI.

[00:03:02] The Raleigh News and Observer, sister paper of the Charlotte Observer, reporting that

[00:03:09] at a special meeting earlier this week, the board unanimously moved to reallocate two

[00:03:15] point three million dollars that the university currently spends on DEI programs.

[00:03:20] They're going to now reallocate that towards police and other public safety measures as

[00:03:24] part of its annual budget approval process.

[00:03:27] Oh, defunders hardest hit.

[00:03:30] Am I right?

[00:03:31] Think about how far they've come.

[00:03:33] Right.

[00:03:34] All of you people in Chapel Hill, the People's Republic of Chapel Hill that have been calling

[00:03:37] for the defunding of police.

[00:03:39] And now you've got the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees turning around and taking the

[00:03:45] money from the DEI program and using it to buy more cops.

[00:03:49] You know, that's got a sting.

[00:03:51] Oh, my goodness.

[00:03:52] Yeah, I hate to see it.

[00:03:54] The university's operating budget is more than four billion dollars.

[00:03:58] So two point three is not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

[00:04:01] Right.

[00:04:02] And so David Bollick, who, by the way, is now the Republican nominee for state auditor.

[00:04:09] He told the News and Observer that he expects jobs would be eliminated as a result of the

[00:04:13] reallocation.

[00:04:14] Quote, My personal opinion is that there's administrative bloat in the university.

[00:04:19] That is true.

[00:04:21] That is true.

[00:04:23] There's administrative bloat.

[00:04:24] You can look at all of the growth charts and spending and priorities for not just UNC Chapel

[00:04:29] Hill, but all across academia.

[00:04:32] And you will find that the administrative bloat has been accelerating in the tenured

[00:04:37] positions and all that stuff is not so much right.

[00:04:40] And the student population growth, not so much.

[00:04:42] The administration costs are far outpacing all of the other costs.

[00:04:49] And he says any cuts in administration and diverting of dollars to rubber meets the road

[00:04:54] efforts like public safety and teaching is important.

[00:04:58] Trustee, one of the trustees, Marty Kodes, said law enforcement needed the money following

[00:05:04] all of the pro-Palestinian campus protests.

[00:05:07] Well, you guys did it to yourselves.

[00:05:11] Oh, you had to set up the tent to Fada and there you go.

[00:05:18] It's important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that

[00:05:24] may want to disrupt the university's operations.

[00:05:27] Kodes said.

[00:05:29] Bolliak said the policy was in consideration even before the protests began.

[00:05:36] But I would submit maybe a little bit of a nudge kind of occurred, maybe.

[00:05:42] The move comes as the UNC Board of Governors, so this is over the whole system, they govern

[00:05:47] all the public universities in the state.

[00:05:49] They're expected to vote on restricting DEI programs statewide and that votes next week.

[00:05:58] And their governance committee already passed the policy out of committee, so it's going

[00:06:02] to the full board now, but it has to be approved by the full board.

[00:06:06] If they do approve, the UNC system's legal staff would be expected to then provide the

[00:06:15] university leaders with guidance on how it should be implemented and what steps they

[00:06:20] should take.

[00:06:21] Finally, from the McClatchy piece, this is how they conclude.

[00:06:27] Oh, and by the way, remember, they always look for a way to give a punch at the end

[00:06:33] of the story.

[00:06:35] That's kind of like journalism 101 or 102.

[00:06:37] Yeah, because 101 is like teaching reporters like Republicans pounce and Republican sees.

[00:06:45] That's 101.

[00:06:46] 102 is where they teach you at the very end of the story, you want to leave the reader

[00:06:51] or the listener or the viewer, you want to leave them with like the thing that sums it

[00:06:58] all up and like a BAM and like a punch.

[00:07:03] That's what I always called it was a punch.

[00:07:05] You want to punch that last part.

[00:07:08] So here's how they punch.

[00:07:10] The board's decision caught UNC faculty off guard.

[00:07:14] Quote, frankly I was stunned, said Beth Moraka.

[00:07:21] She's an associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior and she is the chair of

[00:07:25] the faculty at Chapel Hill.

[00:07:27] She said, I have heard from faculty who are very concerned, who are concerned because they

[00:07:31] see the value in what we're doing to increase equity and inclusion on campus.

[00:07:36] I mean, except for the Jews.

[00:07:38] This is a little bit of the cart getting ahead of the horse, said Wade Mackey, chair

[00:07:42] of the faculty assembly and a professor at UNC Greensboro.

[00:07:46] The way the board of governor's policy is written is campuses are supposed to take a

[00:07:51] few months and figure out who was doing what.

[00:07:53] Okay, well, I mean that sounds rational, right?

[00:07:57] Like, hey, we're going to unwind this thing so you guys kind of figure it out.

[00:08:01] They're telling you don't do this anymore, so figure out how you unwind it.

[00:08:06] During Monday's meeting, here comes the punch, UNC Chapel Hill student body president, Jaleah

[00:08:11] Taylor, raised her own concerns.

[00:08:14] Quote, would it not be advisable to wait further guidance, to await further guidance before

[00:08:22] considering any adjustment to the budget, she asked.

[00:08:26] Her question was ignored.

[00:08:30] Boo.

[00:08:31] Boo.

[00:08:32] Her question was ignored.

[00:08:39] They just don't care.

[00:08:41] Well, no, she's, look, she's asking would it not be advisable.

[00:08:44] First off, that's a terrible way to ask a question.

[00:08:47] Would it not be advisable?

[00:08:48] Just say, would it be advisable?

[00:08:52] Shouldn't we get further guidance before we adjust the budget?

[00:08:58] The answer is no, by the way.

[00:08:59] No, you don't need any further guidance.

[00:09:01] The answer would be no.

[00:09:04] You're welcome.

[00:09:05] That's what I do.

[00:09:06] See, I answer questions.

[00:09:07] I solve problems.

[00:09:08] It's what I do.

[00:09:09] All right, so diversity programs exploded across the country after George Floyd's murder

[00:09:17] by police amid protests and a racial justice revolution that swept the country in 2020,

[00:09:25] so writes Kendrick Marshall over at the Charlotte Observer.

[00:09:29] This was back in April.

[00:09:32] Companies made pledges about racial equity, crafted entire units to diversify their workforce,

[00:09:38] and invested financially in the interests of minority communities.

[00:09:43] The state's largest utility company, Duke Energy, for instance, admitted the racial

[00:09:47] reckoning America experienced motivated the company to examine its diversity efforts.

[00:09:55] The company, I love that, admitted.

[00:09:57] They admitted that, like, this is one of those words in journalism, 102, you don't

[00:10:02] use the word admit.

[00:10:04] You don't use that word because it implies guilt, and maybe that's by design here, but

[00:10:11] I never used the word.

[00:10:12] The only time you use the word admitted is either into a hospital, right, or mental institution,

[00:10:20] but a hospital of some kind, you were admitted, right?

[00:10:22] Or if you are saying that you did something, you just, you've admitted it in court, right,

[00:10:31] like a confession in court.

[00:10:33] Otherwise, it's a loaded word.

[00:10:36] You should steer away from it.

[00:10:38] Acknowledged is a fine word, or my favorite was always just said.

[00:10:42] Said, and I said it every time.

[00:10:47] They said this, they said that.

[00:10:49] He said whatever.

[00:10:51] You said yada, yada.

[00:10:53] All of it's just said because it's completely neutral, except sometimes I would say, like,

[00:10:58] well, they said, no, I'm kidding, but you just use the word said.

[00:11:02] Anyway, the company said it committed more than $8 million to social justice and racial

[00:11:07] equity organizations along with increasing its in-house diversity councils for employees

[00:11:12] to maintain what the company described as, quote, an inclusive culture, according to

[00:11:17] its website.

[00:11:18] So notice, the money that they dedicated, they took rate payer money, right, money that

[00:11:26] you and I paid for our energy, and they handed it out to, quote, social justice and racial

[00:11:34] equity organizations.

[00:11:36] This was essentially a shakedown of large companies to fund leftist run nonprofits.

[00:11:45] That's what happened.

[00:11:46] It was a buying of indulgences.

[00:11:49] I've been saying it from the beginning because that's what it is, because it is a religious

[00:11:54] organizational structure.

[00:11:57] Some might call it a cult.

[00:11:59] And so here's your indulgence.

[00:12:01] Oh, look at me.

[00:12:02] I gave this money to this organization.

[00:12:05] They gave me a certificate.

[00:12:06] I'm going to put it on my website to prove that I'm okay.

[00:12:09] I get into heaven.

[00:12:11] This is a message from Alan to Pete at the PeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:12:16] Pete, regardless of the UNC saber rattling, DEI is alive and well in the community college

[00:12:22] platform.

[00:12:23] Oh, well, that's interesting.

[00:12:25] I'm going to have to alert the North Carolina General Assembly to that.

[00:12:31] So the Charlotte Observer last month did a story headlined, Are DEI Initiatives in Danger

[00:12:38] in North Carolina?

[00:12:40] What these Charlotte area companies are doing.

[00:12:43] And you know, it's under this book.

[00:12:45] So one of the other rules in journalism is you localize.

[00:12:50] So you take a story that's moving nationally and then you localize.

[00:12:55] You find some local angle or an impact like, oh, wow, you know, housing starts, national

[00:13:01] numbers are released.

[00:13:02] And then you go and take a look at the local scene, talk to a local builder or realtor,

[00:13:06] whatever.

[00:13:07] You localize.

[00:13:08] That's a story generation.

[00:13:10] Stories are how you generate stories that that fill the news hole.

[00:13:15] That's what you got to do.

[00:13:17] Every newscast, every newspaper, right?

[00:13:19] It's a blank slate and you got to fill it.

[00:13:22] You got to fill the time.

[00:13:23] You got to fill the print space, whatever.

[00:13:28] Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, has criticized DEI,

[00:13:33] particularly in higher education, saying the program encourages radical ideology that does

[00:13:38] not promote equal treatment.

[00:13:40] Quote, Despite its name, DEI has come to represent unequal treatment based on race and exclusion,

[00:13:46] especially towards conservatives, Robinson wrote in a column that was published.

[00:13:53] The North State Journal, they call it the Asheville based based in Asheville.

[00:13:58] But they're in Raleigh, North State Journal.

[00:14:01] Anyway, a North Carolina federal appeals court ruled in March that a white executive, former

[00:14:08] from Novant Health, was discriminated against after it was determined he was wrongly fired

[00:14:14] in order to make room for black female employees.

[00:14:17] White guy fired for black female.

[00:14:21] Make room for her.

[00:14:22] Like, yeah, I could see where you would have a discrimination case, right?

[00:14:25] Because you're not being fired for performance or merit or anything like that.

[00:14:29] It's just the color of your skin and your gender.

[00:14:31] So.

[00:14:32] I don't know.

[00:14:34] Well, your sex and that's clearly in the law.

[00:14:38] So can't do that.

[00:14:40] Novant Health, which was ordered to pay David Duvall four million dollars, wasn't he in

[00:14:46] Thunder Road?

[00:14:49] David Duvall?

[00:14:51] Anyway, four million dollars and and damages in back pay, he said or sorry, Novant said

[00:14:59] it firmly stands by our commitment to diversity and inclusion by excluding all white men and

[00:15:05] to assuring equal.

[00:15:06] I'm kidding.

[00:15:07] I put the part about the white men in there, but they're totally committed and to assuring

[00:15:11] equal employment opportunities to all of our current and prospective team members.

[00:15:18] And then they have this part here.

[00:15:20] A political science professor at NC Central, fellow by the name of Jarvis Hall, said that

[00:15:28] the consternation around oh, by the way, you ever notice DEI is never referred to as

[00:15:34] controversial.

[00:15:35] Right.

[00:15:36] You see that adjective thrown in all the time, usually.

[00:15:40] Well, like, OK, maybe in about like ninety nine point nine percent of like Republican

[00:15:45] proposed policies and such.

[00:15:47] It's always described with the adjective in front of the policy or proposal or the idea.

[00:15:53] It's always a controversial idea.

[00:15:55] Right.

[00:15:56] But DEI is never dubbed controversial, even though it clearly is.

[00:16:01] Right.

[00:16:02] Whether whatever side of the debate you are on.

[00:16:06] On these programs and the growth of these programs and how they are administered and what they

[00:16:11] inspire and people and employees, it doesn't matter.

[00:16:14] There are differing opinions and people get heated when they talk about this stuff.

[00:16:20] It's controversial that that is that fits the definition.

[00:16:24] But it is never described as that because media never wants to sort of give any kind

[00:16:30] of credibility to the idea that it's controversial.

[00:16:33] They would prefer it just be seen as a we're on the right side, you're on the wrong side.

[00:16:39] And I'm going to tell you this story that conveys that meaning.

[00:16:43] And if I call it controversial, then that seems to elevate us to the to the same level,

[00:16:50] same stature in the debate.

[00:16:53] So Jarvis Hall says, for some, the drastic changes that have taken place socially and

[00:16:58] culturally in America has been too much for some people to take.

[00:17:03] White people, we are talking we are talking about racial issues and gender issues and

[00:17:09] gender identification and the revolution.

[00:17:12] All right.

[00:17:13] I added that last part because remember, the issue is never the issue.

[00:17:15] The issue is always the revolution.

[00:17:18] For some, they feel like American society and culture is changing too much and too quickly.

[00:17:24] And they're being left out.

[00:17:27] OK, Mr. Hall or Dr. Hall, I guess it's whatever.

[00:17:33] No, they're complaining because they are literally being discriminated against and they're being

[00:17:40] discriminated against because they're being blamed for something that they didn't do.

[00:17:48] And this is by design, right?

[00:17:51] The anti-racism movement, Ibram X.

[00:17:54] Kendi, whose Charlotte Mecklenburg schools paid tens of thousands of dollars to come

[00:17:59] and talk in a Zoom call with top administrators and teachers and stuff.

[00:18:05] The only way to correct past prejudice and discrimination is to engage in discrimination.

[00:18:16] That's what he says.

[00:18:18] You got to discriminate now against people who didn't discriminate before.

[00:18:23] They're not to blame, but they they derive the benefits of these systems of oppression.

[00:18:30] And when you ask like because you ask anybody like when I was up in the mountains of Western

[00:18:34] North Carolina, I can tell you there are a lot of people up there that don't take too

[00:18:40] kindly to being told that they have all sorts of privilege.

[00:18:45] As they sweep their dirt floors, you know, the piece concludes that the North Carolina

[00:18:52] chamber is the state's largest broad based business advocacy organization.

[00:18:57] Its website features sections promoting women in leadership and even upcoming DEI conferences

[00:19:03] that aim to foster workplace retention and create, quote, psychological safety.

[00:19:09] By the way, you know what happens when you do these types of trainings in your workplace?

[00:19:15] The studies out of Harvard actually show Harvard like the birthplace of critical race theory.

[00:19:20] Right. But I really guess it's Marxist and Hegelian, but like the modern critical race

[00:19:26] theory came out of critical studies that came out of Harvard.

[00:19:31] And their studies show that when you run people through these programs, through these these

[00:19:37] struggle sessions.

[00:19:39] The workplace culture and comedy actually deteriorates, you end up worse off.

[00:19:46] You've got people now thinking and focusing on things that they never were before to their

[00:19:51] detriment and to your business's detriment.

[00:19:56] They say transformation can be tough.

[00:19:58] What DEI is attempting to do is to transform America into what it claims to be.

[00:20:03] That's what Jarvis Hall said.

[00:20:04] Right. The fundamental transformation of America.

[00:20:09] People thought, right, oh, the the Pollyannish days when Barack Obama won.

[00:20:15] I remember. I remember people thought we are actually going to now make real progress.

[00:20:21] We already have. We have a black president like, holy cow, look at us.

[00:20:25] We've broken through and to a Gen Xer like me, like this is what this is what the United

[00:20:30] Colors of Benetton was all about, man.

[00:20:31] That's what those commercials were all about.

[00:20:34] And I remember a conversation I had with a caller, right, I was sitting right here and

[00:20:39] the caller, he's a black fella, he called in, he said he never thought he would see

[00:20:42] the day when a black man would be elected president of America.

[00:20:45] I said, why?

[00:20:47] And he said.

[00:20:49] Because he didn't think whites were not going to vote for a black person because.

[00:20:53] Of racism.

[00:20:55] And so I said, well, now that this has happened.

[00:20:58] Are you going to reassess that assumption?

[00:21:02] He said no, and that's why it seems like I feel like it's gotten worse.

[00:21:09] I feel like a lot of people had their gravy train jeopardized, you know.

[00:21:13] OK, if you're listening to this podcast, you are obviously paying attention to the world

[00:21:17] around us. You also have really great taste, I might add.

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[00:22:04] Will you be ready when the lights go out?

[00:22:10] North Carolina teacher who says he was fired for opposing CRT has won his settlement.

[00:22:17] The North Carolina Governor's School will adopt a new policy on faculty free speech

[00:22:22] rights and pay $21,000 to a teacher who claimed he was fired for speaking out against

[00:22:30] critical race theory.

[00:22:34] Why wasn't that part of the DEI culture?

[00:22:37] Wouldn't that be part of the I?

[00:22:39] Right?

[00:22:41] Inclusive of different opinion.

[00:22:44] No, no, no.

[00:22:45] It's not opinions.

[00:22:48] In 2021, David Phillips filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired from the popular summer program

[00:22:53] after some staff members complained about his elective seminars criticizing critical

[00:23:00] race theory.

[00:23:02] So these are elective classes, elective seminars in a summer program.

[00:23:08] You didn't have to go to that.

[00:23:10] You could have chose you could have chosen other seminars to attend.

[00:23:15] But apparently people liked him.

[00:23:17] He was a good teacher.

[00:23:18] It was an interesting subject.

[00:23:20] Maybe kids hadn't heard any criticisms of CRT.

[00:23:24] Lord knows if they were going through K-12 GovCo schools, they're not going to hear any

[00:23:28] kind of criticism of CRT.

[00:23:30] Heck, they probably hadn't even heard the term.

[00:23:33] Right?

[00:23:34] But they could probably identify the pedagogy.

[00:23:38] That's the method of teaching.

[00:23:40] Right?

[00:23:41] With your privilege walks and stuff.

[00:23:44] Right?

[00:23:45] The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in April after the settlement was reached.

[00:23:51] Phillips will receive pay for four years of the summer program and the governor's school

[00:23:57] will approve a new policy on the free speech rights of faculty to give elective seminars.

[00:24:05] So the pessimist here, or maybe it's realist, in me says, well, they're just going to turn

[00:24:10] around and only hire people of a specific bent so they can kind of guess, you know,

[00:24:19] what kind of elective seminars they're going to be free speech in.

[00:24:22] Right?

[00:24:24] The state says in the settlement that it denies Phillips claims, but it wants to resolve

[00:24:29] the entire matter on mutually agreeable terms.

[00:24:31] So the governor's school is a four week summer program that serves gifted high school.

[00:24:37] You can't say gifted.

[00:24:38] Oh my gosh.

[00:24:41] I can't say gifted.

[00:24:42] That's a that's a that's a double plus on good word.

[00:24:49] Now the gifted and talented.

[00:24:52] No, they're not.

[00:24:53] Would they like they turn them into things like the Explorers Club or something?

[00:24:57] Right?

[00:24:58] How about the privileged?

[00:25:00] Well, no, I mean, something else.

[00:25:04] Anyway, it serves gifted high school students pursuing academic and artistic endeavors.

[00:25:09] And we'll have campuses this summer at Meredith College in Raleigh and Greensboro College

[00:25:14] in Greensboro.

[00:25:15] The program was started in 1963 by Governor Terry Sanford and is recognized as the oldest

[00:25:21] program of its kind in America and a model for other states.

[00:25:25] It includes daily elective seminars such as women in comic books, the subjugation of superpowers

[00:25:33] or the paradox of Southern feminism or design for ecological democracy.

[00:25:43] I don't even know what these things are.

[00:25:44] So you can have all of those.

[00:25:46] No problem.

[00:25:47] But a guy does one that's like rethinking critical race theory or critical race theory.

[00:25:52] Another view.

[00:25:53] And it's boom, drop the hammer.

[00:25:55] You're fired for DEI purposes, obviously.

[00:26:00] All right.

[00:26:01] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:26:03] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:26:04] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise

[00:26:08] on the podcast.

[00:26:09] So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here.

[00:26:12] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the peak calendar show dot com.

[00:26:18] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:26:20] And don't break anything while I'm gone.