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Two-thirds of US colleges, universities require DEI classes to graduate: report

Valletta

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The classes “place students into identitarian groupings based on racial, sexual, and political characteristics to create a rigid framework amongst students where they only see each other as either the ‘oppressor’ or the ‘oppressed,’” the executive summary of the 33-page report states.
And now everyone should realize why there is so much division in our country. So many universities are teaching Marxist-based ideology. Will our freedoms survive?
 

rambot

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Oh look.
Another New York Post article. Well, if there's one thing I know about about a New York Post article, they DEFINITELY are really good at "bringing people together". Let's see.

The classes “place students into identitarian groupings based on racial, sexual, and political characteristics to create a rigid framework amongst students where they only see each other as either the ‘oppressor’ or the ‘oppressed,’” the executive summary of the 33-page report states.
Huh...interesting intellectual exercise. Of course, I'm not so fragile as to get upset by an activity like that.

And now everyone should realize why there is so much division in our country.
Because of THEM. Oh...I know all about THEM.

So many universities are teaching Marxist-based ideology.
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Will our freedoms survive?
Why wouldn't they? What if just did cool stuff like help a bigot recognize what they are doing? Maybe help a racist come to terms. Or perhaps keep an incel from killing women.
 
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Valletta

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Oh look.
Another New York Post article. Well, if there's one thing I know about about a New York Post article, they DEFINITELY are really good at "bringing people together"
People attack the messenger because they can't win an argument on substance. Remember who actually promised to unify the country?
 
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PloverWing

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Thanks for the chain of links to the Speech First document. It's useful to listen to that point of view, and I've filed it away for future reference.

Obviously, I don't think it's a bad thing that lots of colleges and universities are teaching ethics to their students. But the document is a good reminder that rules and laws have limits in teaching ethical behavior. If we don't actually persuade people that inclusion of others is a good thing, then all those rules and laws will just be perceived as persecution.

It's also a good reminder that the academic environment has to carefully balance free speech on the one hand with the need to teach what is good and true on the other hand. Part of it, I think, is always being prepared to explain why the inclusion of others is a good thing; explaining stuff is our mission, after all.
 
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Pommer

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The classes “place students into identitarian groupings based on racial, sexual, and political characteristics to create a rigid framework amongst students where they only see each other as either the ‘oppressor’ or the ‘oppressed,’” the executive summary of the 33-page report states.
And now everyone should realize why there is so much division in our country. So many universities are teaching Marxist-based ideology. Will our freedoms survive?
Learning about other peoples and cultures in college!?

Odd thing to get outraged over, IME.
 
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Valletta

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Learning about other peoples and cultures in college!?

Odd thing to get outraged over, IME.
Teaching racism and hatred and categorizing people by the color of their skin, for graduation or anything else, is fundamentally wrong and should be opposed by all. Joe Biden was dead wrong in opposing busing, according to Joe's explanation because it would create a "racial jungle." Children should have the same chance no matter what the color of their skin. Marxism and spinoffs of Marxism like CRT and such don't end well for the masses.
 
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Gene2memE

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What are "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)-related topics" or content? The report says that DEI courses are anything that includes the following language:

For the purposes of this report, DEI courses are courses that contain explicit DEI language in their titles, learning outcomes, and/or course descriptions. We also counted any campus that had a gen ed category that was listed as or similar to “Diversity Requirement.”
The DEI language we screened for in the above categories are:
  • “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” “Diversity and Inclusion;” and “Equity;”
  • Social justice, activism, liberation;
  • Power, power structures, intersectionality;
  • Race, racism, and antiracism, systemic racism, institutional racism, white supremacy, white guilt, white fragility, white responsibility, critical race theory, black power, black liberation;
  • Marxism, privilege, class, socioeconomic status, inequality;
  • Sex, sexuality, sexual orientation LGBTQ+, queer, gender, critical gender theory;
  • Feminism, toxic masculinity, male privilege, misogyny, gender roles;
  • Minority, marginalized, disenfranchised studies;
  • Ableism;
  • Bias, implicit bias.
What an absolutely boneheaded list.

I have degrees in economics and history (and I dropped out of a psychology degree). I learned a lot about Marxism (because Marxism is pretty fundamental to the history of economic theory and it's covered in a LOT of economics courses). My history degree also included a lot of learning about issues like race, bias, minorities, feminism, class, social justice and socioeconomic status. Was my university mandating DEI topics? No. They were just teaching me economics and history.

I just went onto the website for my old university, which helpfully lets you search course descriptions.

Marxism is mentioned in 11 courses - four in economics, four government/international relations and three cultural and gender studies courses. Marx is mentioned in a further 9 - mostly legal, philosophy and politics courses. Bias is mentioned in more than a dozen courses - most of them statistics related. That includes courses on biostatistics, econometrics, epidemiology and clinical statistics. Gender is mentioned in 159 courses. Sex is mentioned in 30. Sexuality in 51.

I was going to write a long rant about the contents of the report itself. But to do it justice would require words of such intensity that I'd end up banned here.
 
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hedrick

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The classes “place students into identitarian groupings based on racial, sexual, and political characteristics to create a rigid framework amongst students where they only see each other as either the ‘oppressor’ or the ‘oppressed,’” the executive summary of the 33-page report states.
And now everyone should realize why there is so much division in our country. So many universities are teaching Marxist-based ideology. Will our freedoms survive?
It's not so clear that the first sentence is true. I looked at University of Maryland's descriptions. They require a course that looks at diverse cultures and advocates understanding and acceptance, but that would not require classifying anyone as an oppressor. I looked at UMD because they are cited as an example. However their requirement hasn't actually happened,, so no specific courses are listed as meeting the requirement. That makes it hard to assess what it will actually mean. But the wording doesn't seem consistent with the first sentence.

I checked my own University (an East Coast state school with a strong commitment to diversity). It has a requirement similar to UMDs, but it's in effect. It is surely counnted in their 2/3. There's a very long list of courses meeting the requirement. It would be easy to pick courses where classifying a student as an oppressor would be unlikely. E.g. one could meet the requirement by "French Gastronomy and Global Food Culture" or "Ethical and Scientific Challenges in Biotechnology" and "Data 101" (a data science course from Computer Science). The course list includes courses covering a variety of cultures and ethical issues. Many of them aren't even in the US, and would be unlikely to involve students personally. I can't say that no course classifies students as oppressors, because I'd have to talk to students in every one of a very long list of courses, but it's very unlikely in many of them. But for a student concerned about that, it would be easy to pick courses from that group.
 
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hedrick

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What are "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)-related topics" or content? The report says that DEI courses are anything that includes the following language:

For the purposes of this report, DEI courses are courses that contain explicit DEI language in their titles, learning outcomes, and/or course descriptions. We also counted any campus that had a gen ed category that was listed as or similar to “Diversity Requirement.”
The DEI language we screened for in the above categories are:
  • “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” “Diversity and Inclusion;” and “Equity;”
  • Social justice, activism, liberation;
  • Power, power structures, intersectionality;
  • Race, racism, and antiracism, systemic racism, institutional racism, white supremacy, white guilt, white fragility, white responsibility, critical race theory, black power, black liberation;
  • Marxism, privilege, class, socioeconomic status, inequality;
  • Sex, sexuality, sexual orientation LGBTQ+, queer, gender, critical gender theory;
  • Feminism, toxic masculinity, male privilege, misogyny, gender roles;
  • Minority, marginalized, disenfranchised studies;
  • Ableism;
  • Bias, implicit bias.
What an absolutely boneheaded list.

I have degrees in economics and history (and I dropped out of a psychology degree). I learned a lot about Marxism (because Marxism is pretty fundamental to the history of economic theory and it's covered in a LOT of economics courses). My history degree also included a lot of learning about issues like race, bias, minorities, feminism, class, social justice and socioeconomic status. Was my university mandating DEI topics? No. They were just teaching me economics and history.

I just went onto the website for my old university, which helpfully lets you search course descriptions.

Marxism is mentioned in 11 courses - four in economics, four government/international relations and three cultural and gender studies courses. Marx is mentioned in a further 9 - mostly legal, philosophy and politics courses. Bias is mentioned in more than a dozen courses - most of them statistics related. That includes courses on biostatistics, econometrics, epidemiology and clinical statistics. Gender is mentioned in 159 courses. Sex is mentioned in 30. Sexuality in 51.

I was going to write a long rant about the contents of the report itself. But to do it justice would require words of such intensity that I'd end up banned here.
In a statistics course, bias probably doesn't mean anything political. One of the primary goals in statistics is to use methodologies for drawing conclusions from data that are not biased. Yes, the list of boneheaded.
 
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FAITH-IN-HIM

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The classes “place students into identitarian groupings based on racial, sexual, and political characteristics to create a rigid framework amongst students where they only see each other as either the ‘oppressor’ or the ‘oppressed,’” the executive summary of the 33-page report states.
And now everyone should realize why there is so much division in our country. So many universities are teaching Marxist-based ideology. Will our freedoms survive?

It is perplexing why some conservatives, including Christians, criticize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. All societies and ethnic groups face challenges related to cultural differences and equality. Why does a framework that advocates for respect towards diversity, equality, and inclusion provoke such strong opposition among many Americans?

Shouldn't college students learn to respect different cultures and treat others respectfully? What aspect of this teaching is incorrect?
 
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FAITH-IN-HIM

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Teaching racism and hatred and categorizing people by the color of their skin, for graduation or anything else, is fundamentally wrong and should be opposed by all. Joe Biden was dead wrong in opposing busing, according to Joe's explanation because it would create a "racial jungle." Children should have the same chance no matter what the color of their skin. Marxism and spinoffs of Marxism like CRT and such don't end well for the masses.

Racism exists globally, with people discriminating against others based on race, culture, or religion. Everyone should learn to treat each other with respect regardless of these differences. What part of this education do you disagree with?
 
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RileyG

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My college required an ethics and critical thinking skill class to graduate...then they dropped it right before I graduated.

That's...odd.
 
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hedrick

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The other example in the report is American University. I checked them out. Like my institution, there's a long list of courses that meet the requiment. Some deal with what you might call oppression. Others are simply about other cultures, e.g. "Intro to Asian Philosophy" or "Chinese Art". Thus this is not a requirement for students to be exposed to claims that they are oppressors. Possibly some courses do that -- there's no way I can know. But it's easy to meet the requirement with courses where that it unlikely.

I'd actually expect that university courses would deal with topics involving racism without treating students as oppressors, but there's no way I can tell whether they're doing that or not. Treating white students as oppressors would not be likely to increase their respect for non-white students. I would think faculty would be smart enough to realize that.
 
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Valletta

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It is perplexing why some conservatives, including Christians, criticize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. All societies and ethnic groups face challenges related to cultural differences and equality. Why does a framework that advocates for respect towards diversity, equality, and inclusion provoke such strong opposition among many Americans?

Shouldn't college students learn to respect different cultures and treat others respectfully? What aspect of this teaching is incorrect?
College students should respect different cultures and treat other respectfully. EVERYONE should do that, as Christianity teaches. But as to DEI, like affirmative action (which the Supreme Court has ruled is against our Constitution), selecting people based on their race is discriminatory. For example, high achieving Asian students should not be discriminated against because of their race. The same goes for gender identity, etc. People should be selected for positions because of MERIT, not because of race or gender.
 
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essentialsaltes

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College students should respect different cultures and treat other respectfully. EVERYONE should do that, as Christianity teaches. But as to DEI, like affirmative action (which the Supreme Court has ruled is against our Constitution), selecting people based on their race is discriminatory. For example, high achieving Asian students should not be discriminated against because of their race. The same goes for gender identity, etc. People should be selected for positions because of MERIT, not because of race or gender.
What has that to do with the content of these classes?
 
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FAITH-IN-HIM

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College students should respect different cultures and treat other respectfully. EVERYONE should do that, as Christianity teaches. But as to DEI, like affirmative action (which the Supreme Court has ruled is against our Constitution), selecting people based on their race is discriminatory. For example, high achieving Asian students should not be discriminated against because of their race. The same goes for gender identity, etc. People should be selected for positions because of MERIT, not because of race or gender.

If we want to establish a society that rewards individuals based on merit rather than skin color, gender, or ethnicity, it is essential to educate our students about diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). This will help them learn to respect every race, ethnicity, and color and evaluate individuals based on their merit. Without an understanding and respect for diversity, people in our society may never learn to reward others fairly and equitably based on merit.
 
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RileyG

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Just like with religion, you can teach about Marxism without teaching Marxism.

You may also substitute "racism", "sexuality" and any number of other things on the report's naughty list.
Yes. Teach it without proselytizing.

I can get behind that.
 
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rjs330

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Teaching racism and hatred and categorizing people by the color of their skin, for graduation or anything else, is fundamentally wrong and should be opposed by all. Joe Biden was dead wrong in opposing busing, according to Joe's explanation because it would create a "racial jungle." Children should have the same chance no matter what the color of their skin. Marxism and spinoffs of Marxism like CRT and such don't end well for the masses.
Remember when dividing people based on their skin color was considered a bad thing?

What the exercise does is continue the oppressed vs oppressor status which is absolutely Marxist.
 
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BCP1928

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Remember when dividing people based on their skin color was considered a bad thing?
Some people believe (rightly or wrongly) that lingering effects of it still exist.
What the exercise does is continue the oppressed vs oppressor status which is absolutely Marxist.
Critical theory is an analytical approach used by Marxists, but it is not uniquely marxist, and the use (or misuse, if you like) does not lead to Marxist economic theory.
 
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