Free Republic

Discrimination is often understood as acting out of prejudice against persons who differ from us and do not share our views, traits, values or lifestyles. The word “discrimination,” however, has an older meaning as well; namely, to draw a clear distinction between proper and improper, good and evil, to differentiate and recognize as different. This older meaning generally carried favorable connotations with it: a person of discrimination was someone of good judgment and detailed knowledge, as in the case of one who could discriminate between fine wines, detecting subtle but relevant differences, or someone on Wall Street who could...

Students at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, are demanding the removal of white and European authors from a mandatory humanities course at the college. Reed College caved to student protesters in April after they demanded that white authors be removed from the college’s Humanities 110 course. Now, the course will focus primarily on ancient Mediterranean authors. Reed College professors have responded with confusion at the allegation that the Humanities 110 course is “too white.” “The idea that Hum 110 is a ‘white’ course is very strange to me,” Jay Dickson, a professor of English, recently said in a comment to...

A theatre agent has apologised for a comment she made in a private forum that criticised a casting call for only black, Asian or minority ethnic actors and claiming the decision put “talented white performers out of work”. Gemma Hamilton, who runs Lowy Hamilton Artists, made the remarks in a forum on Facebook, in which she said she was “bored of breakdowns asking for BAME actors” because it “adds that va-va-voom to the cast list”. “And now I see a breakdown for BAME-only that are actor/musos. It’s putting talented ‘white’ performers out of work. I think it stinks,” she wrote....

(Skip) Unfortunately, what Kirch in particular seems to want to create is a medical community that aligns as closely as possible with his particular political views—and to insist that future doctors accept those views as settled fact. This leaves students who don't share Kirch's (and the AAMC's) transform­ative vision with a difficult choice: Will they violate their own integrity in order to succeed? The AAMC is not alone among accrediting institutions seeking to steer professions leftward. The American Psychological Association, which accredits a variety of graduate-level psychology programs, has taken strong positions on topics such as pay equality and gun...

What would you say if I told you that the faculty at most colleges and universities, particularly the larger liberal arts schools, is predominantly composed of liberal Democrats? You might find that surprising if you happen to have been living under a rock for the past several decades but otherwise, this is pretty much a dog-bites-man story. But just how bad is the imbalance? Mitchell Langbert at the National Association of Scholars (NAS) recently finished a lengthy research project examining the question and has published the results. No matter how bad you think the level of liberal bias is at...

They’re back. This paper has learned exclusively that the Brooklyn Friends of the NRA, whose event featuring a gun auction was booted from two Brooklyn venues over the past couple of months after local residents and elected officials expressed strong objections, will be holding their dinner at the Dyker Heights Knights of Columbus, at 86th Street and 13th Avenue, tonight, beginning at 6 p.m.

Motto: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others – Animal Farm, George Orwell Speaking of activist judges who legislate from the bench, and the immense hypocrisy and double measure which is the main feature of the “left side of the force”, today’s news is about a New York judge who ruled on Wednesday that, let me quote, “supporting Trump is not a religion”, henceforth bars and restaurants can refuse to serve people wearing MAGA hats, i.e. Trump supporters. But no one else? How does this work exactly? This strange ruling comes in the aftermath of...

A Manhattan judge has ruled that a bar that ordered patron who was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat to leave had a right to do so under the New York constitution. The judge rejected Greg Piatek's argument that he wore his MAGA hat to pay "spiritual tribute" to 9/11 victims and was thus discriminated against for his religious beliefs. Instead, the judge cited the state constitution which does not bar discrimination based on politics. Washington Times: “The purpose of the hat is that he wore it because he was visiting the 9/11 Memorial,� Piatek attorney Paul Liggierisaid in court Wednesday, according...

Two African-American women are suing a popular Harlem eatery, alleging they felt “violated” after an employee racially profiled and falsely accused them of dining and dashing. Tara Fitzgibbon visited the Angel of Harlem restaurant on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 122nd St. for the first time on Feb. 10 with her friend Tamara Young. As they ordered drinks, a manager came up behind them and gruffly accused them of racking up a tab during a previous visit.

The flamboyant video blogging duo of "Diamond and Silk" will testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week as part of a "hearing to examine social media filtering and policing practices." The House Judiciary Committee announced: On Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to examine social media filtering and policing practices. This hearing will focus on what metrics social media platforms use to moderate content, how filtering decisions are made, and whether viewpoints have been silenced on some of the most popular and widely used platforms.

If you want to empower women, stop talking about the mythical gender pay gap. ... It’s important to understand how the left is twisting numbers for political purposes, but it’s also vital to rebut the destructive message they’re sending. The subtext of Equal Pay Day is that women can’t. No matter how hard women work, no matter how smart they are, no matter their choices, women can’t earn as much as men. Try your hardest, sister, but your gender will keep you down.

Most media outlets reported on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on disparities in school discipline without much follow up, but Manhattan Institute fellow Heather McDonald took a closer look at federal school and crime data and found the GAO study misleading, to say the least. "The GAO found that black students get suspended at nearly three times the rate of white students nationally, a finding consistent with previous analyses," MacDonald wrote in the City Journal on April 6, 2018. "The Obama Education and Justice Departments viewed that disproportion as proof of teacher and principal bias." "Administration officials used litigation...

And might never have but for two independent-minded economists–Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell. In his review of Sowell’s new book on Townhall.com, Dr. Williams makes note of two data points that make the discrimination nation narrative about the United States look questionable, to say the least: ~"A study of National Merit Scholarship finalists shows that firstborns are finalists more often than their multiple siblings combined. Data from the U.S., Germany and Britain show that the average IQ of firstborns is higher than the average IQ of their later siblings. Such outcomes challenge those who believe that heredity or one's environment...

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured two grueling days of testimony on Capitol Hill this week, during which he was peppered with questions from members of Congress -- some of whom did not evince a strong grasp of how social media works -- in both the House and Senate.  His testimony was deeply apologetic and deferential, and was generally well-received by many observers, as well as the markets (even as fact-checkers picked apart some of his assertions).  The reason he was dragged to DC stemmed from a freakout over news stories about the Trump campaign-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica...

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The hilarious duo of Diamond and Silk is a danger to society. That’s according to Facebook. The pro-Trump pair posted on the embattled social media platform on Friday night, saying after months of correspondence, they were deemed to be “unsafe to the community.”

I don't mind saying that this column represents a grossly understated review of "Discrimination and Disparities," just published by my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell. In less than 200 pages, Sowell lays waste to myth after myth not only in the United States but around the globe. One of those myths is that but for the fact of discrimination, we'd all be proportionately represented in socio-economic characteristics, such as career, income, education and incarceration. The fact of business is that there is no evidence anywhere on earth, at any time in human history, that demonstrates that but for...

Located just north of Atlanta, Kennesaw State University is a school enrolling some 35,000 students. Arguably, the most noteworthy thing about it is the fact that its officials keep making decisions that land it in court. In February, the university’s “speech zone” policy came under attack. A student group, Ratio Christi, wanted to put up a pro-life display but a KSU administrator told them that they would be allowed to put up their display where they wanted on campus only if they agreed to remove certain posters that she said were “too controversial.” If they would not agree to that,...

It slashed IBM’s U.S. workforce by as much as three-quarters from its 1980s peak, replacing a substantial share with younger, less-experienced and lower-paid workers and sending many positions overseas. ProPublica estimates that in the past five years alone, IBM has eliminated more than 20,000 American employees ages 40 and over, about 60 percent of its estimated total U.S. job cuts during those years. In making these cuts, IBM has flouted or outflanked U.S. laws and regulations intended to protect later-career workers from age discrimination, according to a ProPublica review of internal company documents, legal filings and public records, as well...

Folsom Police Chief Cynthia Renaud announced she has accepted the position of Police Chief for the City of Santa Monica, effective late April 2018. Chief Renaud has served as Folsom’s Police Chief since May 2011. During her tenure she has led a full-service police department of 105 personnel and an operating budget of $22 million. Chief Renaud has developed strategies that reduced crime citywide, built neighborhood policing programs, and guided key initiatives that foster relations between the police department and community. She is Folsom’s first female Police Chief and serves as third vice president of the International Association of Chiefs...