University Of Virginia Officially Canceled DEI, But Has A Long Road To Actually Eradicate It
Black conservatives are the ‘tragic mulattos’ of American politics
Ben Shapiro’s recent video arguing President Trump should pardon Derek Chauvin elicited passionate responses on social media. Some conservative commentators thought it was a bad idea that would cost the president precious political capital. Others believed Trump should do it despite the guaranteed outrage it would incite on the left.
For black conservatism to survive, it must aspire to more than just policing the excesses of the progressive left or the fringe right.
The response from Xaviaer DuRousseau, in particular, caught my attention because the popular influencer and commentator jokingly raised an issue that a particular subset of conservatives rarely expresses openly.
Being a black conservative and maintaining your cookout credentials is getting soooo hard.
He ended his post with four crying emojis that made his point crystal clear: Issues that are racially coded and politically charged are hard for black conservatives to navigate.
A unique challenge
Many black conservatives experience this identity crisis — one characterized far more by the “tragic mulatto” trope from 19th- and 20th-century literature than the “Uncle Tom” epithet that is synonymous with racial self-hatred. The tragic mulatto stereotype arose in a culture governed by racial hierarchy. It was associated with mixed-race people who struggled with feelings of alienation in a world that did not accept them as either wholly black or white.
Black liberals are quick to label their conservative brethren “sellouts” for rejecting progressive politics. White liberals, likewise, have no problem questioning the racial bona fides of blacks who don’t vote for Democrats. A growing chorus of white conservatives also blame Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement for diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, and LGBT radicalism.
Black conservatism, in many ways, faces a unique challenge. It exists as a racial subgenre within a broader political movement that has traditionally emphasized color blindness and minimized the impact of racism on the current outcomes of black Americans. The only notable exceptions occur when accusations of bias and discrimination are directed at white liberals or at failed progressive policies.
Anyone paying attention to conservative public discourse in the age of social media, however, can see that the right’s approach to race is rapidly evolving. Conservative commentators are increasingly vocal about what they view as anti-white bias in criminal prosecutions, professional sports, media representation, and the job market. This emerging race consciousness is evident in heated online debates about American identity and culture. It also serves as an underlying theme in policy fights over immigration.
A new generation of ‘reconstructionists’
Race is the most visible source of the black conservative identity crisis, but the movement’s mission is equally important to its long-term survival. Today, the most visible black conservatives in America seem focused on increasing Republican representation in politics and growing their brands as right-wing commentators.
The conservative ecosystem certainly makes room for political operatives and culture warriors. But when black conservatism focuses primarily on boosting voter turnout and participation in elections, it fails to fulfill its core mission.
Donald Trump maintained roughly the same support from black voters as in 2020 — about 13% overall and 20% of men. In fact, he lost black conservatives to Kamala Harris by an 11-point margin. Investing financial, political, and social capital to attract black voters has yielded poor returns. But this does not spell the death of black conservatism.
The movement needs a new generation of “reconstructionists” focused on strengthening local institutions and individuals rather than politicos and media personalities fixated on national elections. The most crucial task ahead is restoring the traditional family structure that prevailed from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement.
From 1890 to 1950, black men and women were more likely than their white counterparts to be married by age 35. In the 1930s, 65% of black women were married before having their first child. The 1960 Census showed that two-thirds of black children lived in two-parent households. Today, only 33% of black adults are married, 70% of black children are born to unmarried parents, and 45% live with a single mother. These outcomes are worse for blacks than for any other group.
The most valuable contribution
Although the family is the most important institution, it is not the only one. The poor educational outcomes in many urban districts should motivate a new generation of black conservative scholars, educators, and activists to take action.
Many have already risen to the occasion.
Ian Rowe, an educator who has spent his career teaching children in the Bronx, opened Vertex Partnership Academies in 2022. This high school’s mission is guided by the four cardinal virtues: courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. Denisha Allen founded Black Minds Matter, an organization that promotes school choice and empowers black educators working to improve outcomes in their communities.
These leaders demonstrate that black conservatives need not feel conflicted between their ethnic identity and political ideology, especially when both are grounded in a Christian worldview of human dignity.
For black conservatism to survive, it must aspire to more than just policing the excesses of the progressive left or the fringe right.
The movement should also avoid the trap of believing that electoral politics alone can drive social progress. The most valuable contribution black conservatives can make today is to leverage their cultural competency, experience, relationships, and expertise to build institutions that can radically improve social and economic outcomes in the cities and communities they care about most.
Big DEI Booster Revamping K-12 History Curriculum In Republican-Run Iowa
Democratic group has moment of clarity, identifies key reasons the working class hates the party
Democrats lost the White House and both chambers of the U.S. Congress in the November election. President Donald Trump, who won the popular vote and, more importantly, beat his opponent by 86 Electoral College votes, continues to enjoy relatively strong approval ratings.
Third Way, a liberal think tank founded by former Clinton administration staffers that is hostile to populism on both sides of the political spectrum, organized a retreat for Democratic operatives in Loudoun County, Virginia, last month so they could "begin to chart the Democratic comeback."
Third Way produced a summary of the Democratic attendees' thoughts on why their party is loathsome to working-class Americans.
Rather than resume the Democratic practice of blaming imagined racism and sexism for the party's disconnect with voters, the summary obtained by Politico revealed that attendees actually engaged in some soul-searching.
Regarding the party's cultural disconnect, attendees noted that Democrats have alienated working-class voters with their overemphasis on identity politics; progressive elitism; prioritization of imagined issues over voters' real economic woes; intolerance of dissenting voices and political correctness; simultaneous defense of "elite institutions" and criticism of "institutions working-class people value" like churches or small businesses; ideological capture by radical leftists; and negative messaging about America's national identity.
Attendees noted further that the Democratic Party has lost the trust of the working class due not only to its general hostility toward success and Americans' entrepreneurial spirit but to its support for both government overreach and climate alarmism as well as its proponents' inability to own their mistakes.
'Their future is not bright.'
Democratic attendees of the 1.5-day retreat determined that the way for their party to reconnect with voters would effectively be to plagiarize from the Republican Party's playbook — to ditch identity politics; "embrace patriotism"; avoid "condescending messaging"; "allow candidates to express personal faith and values without fear of backlash"; minimize the influence of radical leftists; invade the "real communities" progressive elitists have long thumbed their noses at; and embrace "rugged individualism."
The attendees at the Democratic retreat also acknowledged that their party, whose presidential candidate scraped together only 43% of the male vote in November, needs to "be more accepting of masculinity and male voters who feel alienated from the party."
Doing so would mean breaking from the elements of the liberal media and leftists like Jillana Enteen, a professor of instruction in "gender and sexuality studies" at Northwestern University. Enteen characterized as "harmful" Vice President JD Vance's Feb. 20 suggestion that young men should embrace their masculinity rather than fall into the camp of "androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same."
Many of the suggestions noted in Third Way's summary were previously raised by Democratic strategist James Carville and evidently unheeded months ahead of the election.
Carville told the New York Times' Maureen Dowd, "A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females" dominating the culture of the Democratic Party.
"'Don't drink beer. Don't watch football. Don't eat hamburgers. This is not good for you,'" said Carville. "The message is too feminine: 'Everything you're doing is destroying the planet. You've got to eat your peas.'"
"If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election," added Carville. "I'm like: 'Well, 48% of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?'"
Carville also hammered the party's elitism and leftist bent, suggesting that between the "feminine" browbeating, the "faculty lounge" attitudes, and "woke stuff," the party was headed for trouble.
Third Way noted in a report last month, "If Democrats cannot build a broader cross-class alliance, one that includes a larger share of non-college voters, their future is not bright."
In addition to rebuilding a relationship with the American working class, the liberal think tank recommended stemming the "alarming erosion of their margin in blue states" and generating an appeal in swing states.
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New York Times Ethicist Counsels Reader To Fight Racism By Dating Black Women
Weekend Beacon 1/26/25
January 25 - 26, 2025
We are barely a week into the second Trump administration and the outrage is spilling forth. It's almost too much to grasp, really. Norm violations are busting out all over. And I'm just talking about Lauren Sanchez's inaugural outfit.
But speaking of norms, Tal Fortgang has a review of Olivier Roy's The Crisis of Culture: Identity Politics and the Empire of Norms.
The post Weekend Beacon 1/26/25 appeared first on .
A Farewell to Norms
In my second semester of law school, just after the upheavals of 2020, I studied criminal law under a visiting professor whose progressive bona fides were stellar. She was a full-on prison abolitionist who had imbibed and presented for discussion every critical feminist and race theory imaginable. But she was a good teacher and maintained some degree of subtlety that passed for ideological neutrality in an institution where 90 percent of students and faculty agreed with her.
The post A Farewell to Norms appeared first on .
5 Reasons Why Corporate America Is Abandoning DEI
Dean Phillips Slams Party For Prioritizing ‘Tenure Over Talent, Identity Politics Over Pragmatic Problem Solving’
'we are totally devoid of leadership'
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