After focusing on K-12 schools for a while, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis decided yesterday to train his guns on universities:
DeSantis, a Republican, took his most aggressive swing yet at the education establishment, announcing a proposed overhaul of the state’s higher education system that would eliminate what he called “ideological conformity.” If enacted, courses in Western civilization would be mandated, diversity and equity programs would be eliminated, and the protections of tenure would be reduced.
Hmmm. So DeSantis is going to attack "ideological conformity" by forcing every freshman to take a specific class about a specific culture. That doesn't really add up, does it?
The funny thing is that I support a World History requirement for freshmen—but it ought to be world history, not just white history. As for diversity programs, I've heard from a few people that some of them have indeed become counterproductive. Requiring faculty interviewees to explain how they'd address diversity, for example, seems like it's producing little more than annoying pro forma boilerplate these days. But that hardly means all diversity programs need to be killed off.
In any case, it seems clear that DeSantis is mostly just preening for the MAGA vote. He's not opposed to ideological conformity, he just wants college students to be indoctrinated in his ideology.
DeSantis is really going all in on owning the Culture war crown, does he have any idea how weird this stuff looks to the vast majority of people who don’t live in a Fox News outrage of the day bubble?
Besides the education stuff he also just:
- proposed a budget that exempts gas stoves from sales tax (like huh? Who besides the gas company thinks this makes any sense at all)
- signed a law requiring girls who play sports to report when they have their periods (like WTF, who doesn’t find that creepy as hell?)
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He’s trying to elbow out Donald Trump in the GOP primary.
The rabble on the right has known this all along: This stuff is nothing more than sharply poking lefties in the eye. Nobody knows or cares what it all means, as long as it's mean-spirited enough to piss off the libs. Time the libs figured it out and stopped acting as if it were real.
Elsewhere in DeSantistan...
College Board caves ... a win for the enemies of academic freedom.
After heavy criticism from Gov. Ron DeSantis, the College Board released on Wednesday an official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies — stripped of much of the subject matter that had angered the governor and other conservatives.
The College Board purged the names of many Black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience and Black feminism. It ushered out some politically fraught topics, like Black Lives Matter, from the formal curriculum.
And it added something new: “Black conservatism” is now offered as an idea for a research project.
...
In light of the politics, the College Board seemed to opt out of the politics. In its revised 234-page curriculum framework, the content on Africa, slavery, reconstruction and the civil rights movement remains largely the same. But the study of contemporary topics — including Black Lives Matter, incarceration, queer life and the debate over reparations — is downgraded. The subjects are no longer part of the exam, and are simply offered on a list of options for a required research project.
And even that list, in a nod to local laws, “can be refined by local states and districts.”
The expunged writers and scholars include Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a law professor at Columbia, which touts her work as “foundational in critical race theory”; Roderick Ferguson, a Yale professor who has written about queer social movements; and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author who has made the case for reparations for slavery. Gone, too, is bell hooks, the writer who shaped discussions about race, feminism and class.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/us/college-board-advanced-placement-african-american-studies.html
Michael Hiltzik with the appropriate summary:
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-01/facing-attacks-from-right-wing-the-college-board-waters-down-its-ap-black-studies-curriculum
To be fair, the board’s actions related to the African American Studies course are as good a workshop in allowing students to draw their own conclusions as one might hope. Any reasonably bright AP student is likely to see this affair as a demonstration of abject cowardice.
...
DeSantis has made no secret of his determination to turn Florida education into a shallow pool redolent of white supremacy by avoiding any hint that American society and politics have been infused with racism and class discrimination.
The shame of the College Board’s rewriting of its AP course is that it effectively places DeSantis and his henchmen in the position of dictating educational standards to the rest of the country.
...
But if institutions like the College Board continue to let DeSantis transmit his virus of ignorance beyond Florida’s borders, no one will be safe from the contagion.
And yet, Texas still gets to dictate what goes in textbooks. DeSantis is just the latest wannabe. Sadly unlikely to be the last.
Over at the Daily Kos a nice suggested list of topics that does just that. I don't think it's what DeSatan had in mind, but it definitely meets the letter of the law...
Good list there. I myself would add the opium wars since 1) they weren't that long ago 2) the west really did fight a war with China with the goal of addicting the Chinese to drugs sold by the west (and succeeded) and 3) it's super important to understanding how China sees the west these days.
Good addition to the curricula.
Looking forward to when DeSantis mandates Intelligent Design be taught in biology classes.
Anyone who takes a close look at the design human upper body will become an immediate convert to the school of stupid self-plagiarizing design.
"He's not opposed to ideological conformity, he just wants college students to be indoctrinated in his ideology."
Well dur, of course. Just as he and his party insist that social media networks publish their propaganda, and that cable TV stations broadcast their propaganda channels. And if they don't do it voluntarily, they'll be badgered and bullied until they change their minds.
MY ideology is NOT an ideology! DeSantis is not the only one to believe this
May DaSatan trip on a banana peel and fall on his face with his electric toothbrush in his mouth.
"He's not opposed to ideological conformity, he just wants college students to be indoctrinated in his ideology."
So embracing Western values within the teaching of various courses is "indoctrinating" in an ideology? What are the alternatives? Nazism? Communism?
You are aware that both Naziism and communism are expressions of Western values, right?
No they are not. Western values are what are embraced by the countries that Freedom House rates as "Free".
Nazism, communism, and fascism all turn Western values on their head - while they claim to give us the bright, glorious lights of the future. All are discredited.
So: a) You really don't know what 'Western values' are, and b) You want to declare that you and only you get to decide what is -- and what is not -- a 'Western value".
As I have ask you a dozen times, please never comment on the things I write.
I wouldn't have to point out your bad-faith idiocy if you had the decency not to post drivel like this, troll.
"As I have ask you a dozen times, please never comment on the things I write."
This may be the most pathetic blog comment I have ever come across. That takes real talent, congratulations. And it's true that you have no understanding of Western values.
What does your question have to do with anything Kevin said? Try to make your reply both precise and accurate.
It appears to me that you are conflating the Freedom House definition of Western Values with the DeSantis mandated course on Western Civilization. I do not believe those are the same things.
I do believe that the purpose of the DeSantis requirement would be the superiority of Western/white civilization/culture over all others. It is my belief that this is DeSantis code for a course on white supremacy. I think his supporters hear it that way.
Regarding this:
"As for diversity programs, I've heard from a few people that some of them have indeed become counterproductive. Requiring faculty interviewees to explain how they'd address diversity, for example, seems like it's producing little more than annoying pro forma boilerplate these days. But that hardly means all diversity programs need to be killed off."
DEI programs, in fact, deserve a lot more criticism than this. And I personally find it extremely frustrating that Liberals tend to shy away from criticizing an "anti-racist" movement which actively, explicitly, and unambiguously advocates for discrimination (Ibram Kendi famously asserts that past discrimination must be met with present and future discrimination).
To the best of my knowledge, Jon Chait at New York magazine is one of the only prominent Liberals out there willing to call out the excesses of DEI, and he also proposes at least one credible explanation for why Liberals generally hesitate to do so:
"[T]here are some examples of schools embracing radical pedagogy or whacky DEI concepts. Christopher Rufo might be an utterly unprincipled operative, but his nationwide search for examples of government agencies, states, and school districts incorporating radical ideas does turn up some real examples. One of the lessons of the [Senator Eugene] McCarthy episode is that smear artists occasionally manage to accuse the guilty along with the innocent... When these examples do materialize, temptation on the left is to withhold criticism of any of this excess and fight Republicans on their lies. This no-enemies-to-the-left tactic makes Democrats hostage to the most radical positions within their coalition" ("Liberals Can’t Win a Culture War Without a Good Defense").
If DeSantis is in fact dismantling DEI in his state then, as a Liberal, I applaud his efforts. Unfortunately, as Kevin points out, DeSantis then seems intent on imposing his own ideology instead, and I do not condone those efforts at all.
It's a mistake to applaud anything DeSantis does. There may be times to analyze policies and decide this one's OK, this one's not OK. This is NOT one of those times. DeSantis is one of the most dangerous leaders in the country today. It's bad enough he's governor of a large state. He's also leading in some polls for the GOP presidential race next year. This fragile democracy of ours may be toast if he were to get elected. So, no, liberals should not be applauding DeSantis, or any of the modern-day conservative equivalents of George Wallace, Lester Maddox, Bull Connor. DeSantis is an authoritarian demagogue whose politics is built on hatred of minorities. History shows what happens when his kind gets power. Don't fall for so-called even-handed crap like "well, he's eliminating DEI and that's good" thinking. It's b.s. Some people liked Adolf's health care programs but that's beside the point.
I'm not a fan of Kendi and I know liberal policies are hardly perfect. But I spend much more time criticizing GOPers like DeSantis for good reason. They're a hundred times the threat to our society and our democracy than liberals who overreach.
"They're a hundred times the threat to our society and our democracy than liberals who overreach."
I actually don't have much if any conflict with Liberals, even when they overreach.
But when I refer to an "anti-racist" like Kendi, of course, I'm not talking about a Liberal.
I acknowledge that we seem to lack a sufficiently broad vocabulary that would allow us to more accurately identify and describe the committed "anti-racists";
nevertheless, we could perhaps refer to them as Leftists or far-left extremists.
One thing they most certainly are not is Liberal.
And I tend to agree with the so-called Horseshoe theory (from Wikipedia): "[T]the horseshoe theory asserts that the extreme left and the extreme right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together."
And, if this theory is true (as I believe it is), it is a potentially grave mistake to discount the illiberal threats posed by Leftists.
I understand your concerns. But if liberals sheepishly go along with DEI ideas, this gives DeSantis, Trump, and others an opening to declare the thinking on the mainstream left has gone off the rails. It get's easier to declare Democrats as a far-left party, which in general they are not.
The MAGA movement doesn't need an "opening" to condemn whatever the opposition is doing. They have proven over and over that they will make an issue out of anything - M&Ms, Mr/Ms Potato Head, Dr. Seuss..... The real issue for MAGAs is protecting White Christian Supremacy, but they are not willing to admit they are racist. So they work themselves up in opposition to whatever they are told is what liberals are doing.
"The real issue for MAGAs is protecting White Christian Supremacy, but they are not willing to admit they are racist."
Who, exactly, belongs to MAGA?
Trump received over 70 million votes in 2020. Are all of those voters MAGA? Some of them? How do we make those determinations?
Clearly, I'm not certain what exactly it is that you're trying to assert;
but, I'll go ahead and reply that it is reductive, and hence misleading, to imply that more than 70 million Americans can be broadly caricatured as racists who want to protect "White Christian Supremacy."
Do some trump voters fit that description? I believe so. But certainly not all of them. And it's just not a good look for the Left to even appear to be blithely condemning a quarter of the US population as irredeemably evil.
Your statement, in fact, may very well be the type of conventional wisdom among Leftists that Liberals and Conservatives alike should be pushing back against.
Not a 'good look' for what you call 'the left'? Seriously? Have you looked in the mirror recently?
+100
On the specific case of racial equality it is mathematically impossible to establish equal rights without taking some power from white people. Most "liberals" who object to "overreach" in these matters want to live in a world where nobody has to pay a price and progress comes free of charge. This is why I do not take claims of "overreach" seriously. For the most part they are just denialism.
On the other hand, it should not be as difficult as it currently is (for the Left or the Right) to point out errors among ostensible allies or to concede a point to habitual foes. Our free society, in fact, benefits greatly from our ability to do just that. But at present, any such attempts at self-correction among allies or productive engagement with “wrong-thinkers” is almost certain to lead to, among other things, ad hominem or straw man responses.
I don't really understand the hyperventilating about Western Civilization curricula by liberals. Western Civilization does not equate to White Supremacism, and it is intellectually lazy to blanketly claim otherwise, as lazy as claiming Diversity and Equity courses are somehow a product of an excessive wokeness.
I am arguably a poster child for having participated in an educational s;ystem that embraced a Western Canon as a part of a Western Civilization. I don't wear a hood or think Trump or DeSantis are great. In my Western Civilization indoctrination, Socrates spends his days seeking virtue while chasing after Alcibiades, King David and Saul's Son, Jonathan are lovers, Augustine is a native African who is also the intellectual force behind modern Christianity, Aquinas' theology is derived from Islamic philosophy's encounter with Aristotle, Jane Austen is the author of the definitive Modern Novel and Langston Hughes writes some of the most powerful poetry of the 20th Century.
If I were a liberal trying to stick it to Desantis and his minions, I would immediately stop thinking that Western Civilization and the Western Canon are a monolith with an essential essence that, if taught, will turn Florida students into mouth breathing MAGAdytes. That's playing his game on his turf. Instead, Liberals and particularly the liberal professors in the Florida system should celebrate the diversity of Western Civilization, perhaps by inviting Desantis to a symposium on social justice writings of the West from Exodus to A Letter from the Birmingham Jail.
Oh yes. There are ways to teach "Western Civilization" in a way that would make their eyes bleed. Let's start with Catullus Carmen 16, shall we?
Did you take those courses voluntarily and were you prevented from studying any other cultures or civilizations? There's the issue.
Ok, so a course in World History: now homo sapiens sapiens is at least 190,000 years old, and may be as much as 300,000. The Australian Indigenes boast a civilisation that is at least 50,000 years old.
So, just how long a time frame would be included in your "World History"?
If I had my druthers people would be taking classes until they retired, perhaps beyond. History, art, literature, etc., as well as or in place of the STEM stuff.
DeSantis is going to be a much worse president than Trump.
Florida wants to win the competition with the rest of the old confederacy for which state can have the worst universities in the nation. DeSantis is not willing to just be in the bottom quarter.
There's no way Mississippi will ever give up that crown. I did time in South Carolina for some years. Once, the state had a competition for a new license plate slogan. The most popular one was "Thank god for Mississippi."
They did not take that one.
I've never figured out how to introduce diversity when I teach Newtonian mechanics. Is there a culturally appropriate acceleration?
However, as someone who has been through the tenure wringer twice and now teaches at a place without tenure, I have to say it isn't what it is cracked up to be. It is basically a way for the provost to make you kiss her ass, and a committee of people who haven't published since they got tenure to act like gods determining your scholarly worthiness. Where I work has been in existence since 2001, and in that time 4 people have been fired. I knew one of them and he kind of deserved it. On the other hand, I've seen more people than that denied tenure in any given years for no good reason.
I have no problem with the idea of teaching Western Civilization as long as the first thing we do before teaching it is to 1. reduce the name to what it truly is: Civilization, and 2. recognize it not as a fixed system but as a dynamic, evolving process. That the swirl of ideas and actions over the millennia which developed into what we think of as Western Civilization arose at all owe as much to random and fortuitous anomalies of geography as they do to the deeds of any specific cultures. The mere fact of the randomness of our births within such a culture of ideas and values should compel us to dispense with any chauvinistic claims of ownership over them, which, we should be clear, is what precisely what DeSantis and his ilk intend by the inclusion of the word "western."