Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

W&L Students Trained in Privilege, Identity, and Intersectionality

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Once upon a time university students spent their college years, to use the vernacular of the time, “finding themselves.” It was a journey they undertook on their own by sampling from a wide range of courses, experimenting with sex, alcohol and drugs, and floating ideas — and shooting them down — in dormitory bull sessions.

Now they have help. Whether they want it or not.

In November the entire Washington & Lee University freshman class was required to participate in mandatory training titled, “Continuing Education: Diversity, Inclusion and Community.” Under the direction of university representatives, students were walked through an exploration of their “identity” using a leftist oppressor/victim paradigm by race, class, sex, gender, age, ability, etc., according to The W&L Spectator.

Wrote the Spectator:

The facilitator asked questions including “Which part of your identity are you most open to exploring?” or “Which part of your identity gives you the most privilege?” Then, facilitators instructed students to stand by the sign that signified their answers.

When defining identity, the slideshow stated that “all identities are fluid,” whether visible or non-visible.

The session was designed as an opportunity to explore identities — not ideas.

Presenters asked students to volunteer to read portions of the slides. For one slide, the facilitator forced a student to read after no one had volunteered.

When asked to read, the student replied: “I’d rather not.” The presenter stated, “I’m going to make you.” The student sighed and reluctantly read the slide out loud.

Intellectual coercion was evident also in a statement on privilege taken from the training materials.

“Privilege is often invisible to those who have it, as they have not necessarily been forced to understand the world through a different lens….”

How much do parents shell out to have their children subjected to such indoctrination?

The annual cost of cost of undergraduate attendance at W&L: $87,000.

— JAB

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36 responses to “W&L Students Trained in Privilege, Identity, and Intersectionality”

  1. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Navel gazing over privilege at W&L may be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard of. The place reeks of it, exists to maintain it. Hilarious.

  2. Bob X from Texas Avatar
    Bob X from Texas

    Next door to W&L at VMI, the entire VMI D.I.E. Department cheered as the statue of Stonewall Jackson was desecrated.

    1. Drive-by Commentator Avatar
      Drive-by Commentator

      “. . . the statue of Stonewall Jackson was desecrated”

      Was it torn down, or, did they merely piss on it?

  3. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    I saw this in the comments section at the W&L Spectator.

    A person calling his/herself “Truth Matters” defined “intersectionality” as follows:.

    “Intersectionality”: A comprehensive system of stereotyping that ensures that everyone is assigned to a specific box of group-based generalities and stereotypes that will promote a sense of guilt, victimhood, resentment and hatred towards people assigned to other group identity boxes, thereby justifying all sorts of discriminatory acts in the name of rectifying wrongs attributed to the members of each identity group, regardless of whether those members actually engaged in or experienced any of the wrongs attributed to them.

    I like think it is a lot m ore accurate than the definition included in the W&L forced indoctrination session.

  4. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Also, the complete article at the Spectator included some post-forced-indoctrination-session comments from the student who was “made” to read a slide:

    When asked to read, the student replied: “I’d rather not.” The presenter stated, “I’m going to make you.” The student sighed and reluctantly read the slide out loud.

    After the seminar concluded, the student was interviewed by The Spectator. He said that he “felt afterwards that the facilitator intruded on my personal opinions and infringed on my right to conscientious objection.”

    The student explained further how “Many of my religious viewpoints conflict with the ideologies expressed in the presentation. I felt that the curriculum was engineered to appear as the middle socio-political ground, when in reality it was heavily biased towards the political left. In light of this, it was my intention to listen respectfully but not participate by reciting statements which I didn’t necessarily agree with.”

    “When I was asked to read, I said that I would rather not, but the facilitator told me she would make me. I did not want to make a scene or offend anyone and so I conceded and read what I was asked to,” he said.

    It’s nice to know there are some young people out there who can still think for themselves. I wish he had actively rebelled by refusing to read the slide, but given the aggressiveness with which DEI is being pushed at our colleges today, he would probably have faced expulsion.

  5. James Kiser Avatar
    James Kiser

    All hail the dictators.

  6. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Future employers of W and L grads will ask, “and what is it again you can actually do?”

  7. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    seems like a simple solution especially at 69K per.

  8. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Well, forced labor and compliance were no strangers to the namesakes, now were they?

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Helpful.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Traditions.

  9. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    I saw this in the comments section at the W&L Spectator.

    A person calling his/herself “Truth Matters” defined “intersectionality” as follows:.

    “Intersectionality”: A comprehensive system of stereotyping that ensures that everyone is assigned to a specific box of group-based generalities and stereotypes that will promote a sense of guilt, victimhood, resentment and hatred towards people assigned to other group identity boxes, thereby justifying all sorts of discriminatory acts in the name of rectifying wrongs attributed to the members of each identity group, regardless of whether those members actually engaged in or experienced any of the wrongs attributed to them.

    I think it is a lot more accurate than the definition included in the W&L forced indoctrination session.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Yep. Nailed it.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Isn’t that how it works at VMI, too?

  10. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Also, the complete article at the Spectator included some post-forced-indoctrination-session comments from the student who was “made” to read a slide:

    When asked to read, the student replied: “I’d rather not.” The presenter stated, “I’m going to make you.” The student sighed and reluctantly read the slide out loud.

    After the seminar concluded, the student was interviewed by The Spectator. He said that he “felt afterwards that the facilitator intruded on my personal opinions and infringed on my right to conscientious objection.”

    The student explained further how “Many of my religious viewpoints conflict with the ideologies expressed in the presentation. I felt that the curriculum was engineered to appear as the middle socio-political ground, when in reality it was heavily biased towards the political left. In light of this, it was my intention to listen respectfully but not participate by reciting statements which I didn’t necessarily agree with.”

    “When I was asked to read, I said that I would rather not, but the facilitator told me she would make me. I did not want to make a scene or offend anyone and so I conceded and read what I was asked to,” he said.

    It’s nice to know there are some young people out there who can still think for themselves. I wish he had actively rebelled by refusing to read the slide, but given the aggressiveness with which DEI is being pushed at our colleges today, he would probably have faced expulsion.

  11. Teddy007 Avatar
    Teddy007

    Washington and Lee hasa 25% admission rate. Thus, the school knows that the students who are accepted and enroll will do what they are told. One of the big issues with the college application process for highly selective universities is that it turns students into maze runners who will just do as they are told.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      People can and should vote with their feet. That will cause Universities to change course faster than having anti-wokesters complaining.

      1. Teddy007 Avatar
        Teddy007

        How many of the students was Washington and Lee got into a better university than W&L but decided to go there to be a frat member? Where would they go? Would any other highly selective university be any different. The last thing those universities want is to be blamed for a racial or sexist incident.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I don’t know but I do know if enough people tell W&L they’ve decided against attending it over
          these policies – it will get their attention more so than vocal critics who have no skin in the game.

          In terms of where would they go? They’d go to colleges that compete and make a point of saying “we don’t do this”. I expect there are quite a number of Conservative higher-ed that have policies that
          would suit those who have those concerns.

          There are people who won’t go to Liberty or other Conservative higher ed over THEIR policies.

          So, it’s a market and if higher ed with policies like W&L don’t lose too many customers, the
          market has “spoken”.

          If you want “better”, you gotta play by their rules, not just on this, but a range of things some
          folks have to decide if it is worth it.

          In the end, if a policy is universally disliked, and the number of applicants plunges, they will change.

          1. Stephen Haner Avatar
            Stephen Haner

            No one ever went broke underestimating the taste or the intelligence of the American people. I made that up. I could be prez of Harvard now.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            think they”ll lose any would-be applicants over that issue?

          3. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            think they”ll lose any would-be applicants over that issue?

            Maybe.

            https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/15/business/harvard-early-applications/index.html

          4. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Or, the GOP front runner.

          5. Teddy007 Avatar
            Teddy007

            Once again, for highly selective universities, it is a seller market. If the customers are going to get demanding, then the point is to tell the applicants to go somewhere else. Change is very hard to do from the outside at a university that accepts 25% of the students who apply. Liberty hasa 50% acceptance rates (low for the quality of the university) and has a six year graduation rate of 57%. Not a place that compete for the very qualified students.

            And who wants to attend a university that is hostile to women, minorities, homosexuals, etc. That does not look good for the the resume or on the linkedin page.

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            What would W&L do if you refused to take that class? Boot you?
            re: ” And who wants to attend a university that is hostile to women, minorities, homosexuals, etc.”

            there you go.

          7. Teddy007 Avatar
            Teddy007

            I assume that Washington and Lee has a hefty honor code.

  12. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    The right not to speak is every bit as integral to the 1st Amendment as the right to speak. W&L’s action forcing speech is an egregious violation of free speech.

    In the session’s own terms that explicitly defines W&L as an oppressor and the students as victims. It was an exercise of the force that privilege empowers and that the “facilitator” both consciously and visibly exerted. That is perhaps not the lesson the session thought it was teaching.

    It is secondary to the issues of speech and institutional oppression, but just out of curiosity what was the content of the slide that was so underwhelming that none of the students wanted to read it aloud?

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      “I had the right to remain silent. I just didn’t have the ability.”

  13. Turbocohen Avatar
    Turbocohen

    A psychologist by the name of John Gottman coined the term emotional flooding to describe the “flood” of stress hormones that can emerge in situations that evoke physiological arousal, feelings of helplessness and threat, such as a situation you described with a teacher that can feel insoluble for an impressionable freshman. Educators who have been trained to weaponize DEI/DIC abuse kids by identifying their triggers turning immature adults with dysregulated temperaments into hardened activists. This is happening all over the USA.

    These “educators” indoctrinate by identifying students with negative thought patterns they can exploit with emotional flooding, especially those with a history of depression or heightened levels of anxiety.. particularly kids with tendencies to catastrophize with “all-or-nothing” thinking. Students that hold negative internalized beliefs about themselves are more prone to this overwhelming sense that Ibrahim Kendl X has brilliantly exploited. Sending kids to schools run by the hard left today is kind of like sending your kids off to the wolves.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Thank you for your service.

      1. Turbocohen Avatar
        Turbocohen

        xAI says you are welcome.

  14. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Wait a minute?! Lemme see if’n I got the gist. A little snowflake felt that he was compelled to do something he found abhorrent.

    It’s called a “Draft Card”, Kid; you burn it.

  15. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Wait a minute?! Lemme see if’n I got the gist. A little snowflake felt that he was compelled to do something he found abhorrent.

    It’s called a “Draft Card”, Kid; you burn it.

  16. Turbocohen Avatar
    Turbocohen

    Another AI take from xAI’s Grok @grok

    “It seems that there have been concerns and discussions about Diversity, Inclusion and Community (DIC) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at Washington & Lee University (W&L). Some people have expressed that the mandatory training sessions for students, such as the “Continuing Education: Diversity, Inclusion, and Community” event in November 2023, might be seen as an example of “DIC abuse” or “DEI abuse.”

    In this context, “DIC abuse” or “DEI. abuse” might refer to a perceived overemphasis on identity politics or a heavy-handed approach to promoting diversity and inclusion. Critics of such initiatives may argue that they can lead to a hostile or uncomfortable environment for some students, particularly those who feel targeted or pressured to conform to a particular ideology.

    On the other hand, proponents of DIC or DEI initiatives might argue that these programs are necessary to address historical and ongoing inequalities and to foster a more inclusive and welcoming campus environment for all students. They might also point out that these programs are not intended to single out or shame any particular group, but rather to raise awareness and promote empathy and understanding.

    Ultimately, the effectiveness and appropriateness of DIC and DEI initiatives at W&L and other institutions of higher education will likely continue to be debated. It is important for all stakeholders to engage in open and respectful dialogue to ensure that these programs are serving their intended purpose and not causing unintended harm.”

    Not my views, this is an AI cut and paste from xAI Grok.

  17. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    I prefer the GOP and Conservatives use AI. It beats no I at all.

  18. Drive-by Commentator Avatar
    Drive-by Commentator

    “W&L”??? You mean Washington and Lee, the final resting place of Saint Robert E. Lee and his faithful steed Traveler? You know, the Saint Robert E. Lee was is descended from King Arthur of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales?

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