Category: Culture wars
-
VMI Eschews Standards of Excellence, Devalues Diploma
by Joseph D. Elie As an alumnus living in Florida, I have a dearth of information about what is happening at the Virginia Military Institute on a day-to-day basis. I see the superficial social media postings from the public relations department, the Superintendent, and the Commandant; but I crave the scuttlebutt that tells the truer…
-
UVA As a “Maze of Predatory Systems”
by James A. Bacon If you visit the latest exhibit at the University of Virginia’s Ruffin Gallery, “EscapeRoom,” it takes no more than five or ten seconds for the artists’ message to sink in — the amount of time it takes to read the signage at the entrance: The University of Virginia (UVA) is a…
-
In Their Own Words: Jefferson, Whiteness, and Dicks in the Sky
Meet Marisa Williamson. The Harvard-educated assistant professor in the University of Virginia art department works in video, image-making, installation and performance art around themes of “history, race, feminism, and technology,” according to her UVA faculty page. Most recently, she co-curated the EscapeRoom exhibition at the Ruffin Gallery, which we highlight in a companion article.…
-
The Use and Misuse of a UVA Lecture Series
by James A. Bacon The “fixation” of modern-day Israelis on the Holocaust has become a “vast and ugly fig leaf” hiding oppression of Palestinians and giving Israelis license to brush aside moral qualms about their response to the October 7 terror attacks, Brown University historian Omer Bartov told an audience of 60 or so people…
-
Marriage Promotes ‘White Supremacy,’ George Mason Professor Says
by Jerome Woehrle “Marriage fundamentalism” promotes “white supremacy,” according to a professor at Virginia’s largest university. “Marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarchal supremacy,” wrote George Mason University Professor Bethany Letiecq in the Journal of Marriage and Family. “Marriage fundamentalism can be understood as an ideological and cultural phenomenon,…
-
War on Fossil Fuels Reaches Court of Appeals
By Steve Haner A climate alarmism publicity stunt masquerading as serious litigation had a hearing in front of the Virginia Court of Appeals on Monday, seeking to revive its rejected petition to shut down the fossil fuel industry in Virginia. Why? Because some of the plaintiffs suffered from heat exhaustion while exercising on summer days,…
-
San Francisco’s “Algebra for None” Policy and How Virginia Avoided a Similar Fate
by Todd Truitt On March 5, 84% of San Francisco voters voted in favor of a referendum for San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to bring back Algebra for 8th graders, overturning their prior ill-fated math reform (a “no middle schooler let ahead” math policy). What does this vote have to do with Virginia? The Virginia Department…
-
University of Virginia Spends $20 Million On 235 DEI Employees, With Some Making $587,340 Per Year
It takes tuition payments from nearly 1,000 undergraduates just to pay their base salaries! Bacon’s Rebellion is reposting this article published by Open the Books, a nonprofit group dedicated to transparency in government spending, and republished on the Jefferson Council blog. Open the Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski will speak at the Jefferson Council 3rd annual…
-
Youngkin and Confederate Heritage
by Donald Smith Does the Virginia GOP want the help and support of the Confederate heritage community? We should get a pretty good indicator this week. Three bills just passed by the General Assembly will soon land on Governor Youngkin’s desk, if they haven’t already. They will remove the tax exemptions of the United Daughters…
-
UVA Leadership Squelches Debate About University’s Antisemitism Problem
by James A. Bacon During the University of Virginia Board of Visitors meeting Thursday, Provost Ian Baucom briefed board members on what the administration was doing to defuse tensions in the UVA community between Jews and the vocal pro-Palestinian faction over the Israel-Gaza war. He mentioned “sustained academic programming” to illuminate sources of the decades-long conflict. He…
-
Virginia Dems Have Their Panties in a Twist
by Kerry Dougherty This is what triggers Virginia Democrats today: There was an exchange at the Virginia Capitol between Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, who presides over the State Senate, and Sen. Danica Roem of Prince William County. Roem identifies as a woman, although Roem was born a man. The politically correct crowd insists that failing…
-
New Admissions Policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Will Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the appeal of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson challenging the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the changes in the admissions policy for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The result is that the changes in the school’s admission policy…
-
In Their Own Words: Lanice Avery
Editor’s Note: To document the spread of “wokeness” — short-hand to describe the philosophy of intersectional oppression — The Jefferson Council has begun publishing profiles of University of Virginia faculty members in their own words. Not our words. Not our spin. Not our interpretation. Their words. — JAB Assistant Professor Lanice Avery has a…
-
We’re Doctors. Implicit Bias Training Has No Place in Medicine.
by Martin Caplan, MD, and Kenneth Lipstock, MD Apparently, Virginia’s doctors and nurses are racist. This is the message of two bills that are moving through the state legislature. The bills would force medical professionals to take ongoing “implicit bias training” to get and keep their license. The problem is that such training is insulting, dangerous, and…
-
Moving the Goalposts (for Banning Books)
by Joe Fitzgerald Everybody probably already knew what moving the goalposts meant, but with Taylor bringing in a new set of football fans, the sports-related metaphors can probably be used more widely. Moving the goalposts is of course a reference to changing the standards in the middle of a process. Latest example: the Rockingham County…