Free Republic

North Carolina school reassigns DEI staff amid statewide crackdown The University of North Carolina Wilmington is the most recent college to close its “diversity and inclusion” office. The school announced the decision to shut down its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion last week, ... “Based on policy requirements and consistent with System Office guidance, UNCW will close the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion (OIDI), eliminate the Chief Diversity Officer position and shift the cultural and identity centers from OIDI to Student Affairs,” Chancellor Aswani K. Volety wrote in a message to the school. “Careful and deliberate thought was...

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology made headlines in May when its leaders told faculty to discontinue the practice of requiring mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion statements in faculty hiring. It blazed a trail for elite colleges, as Harvard did the same a few weeks later, and Cornell also appears to have followed suit. But a prominent MIT alumni group argues the move is not enough to protect free speech, academic freedom and intellectual diversity, and is calling on campus leaders to go further. The MIT Free Speech Alliance in mid-June released a set of recommendations urging the university to establish...

University hired 6 new DEI deans in 1 year The Massachusetts Institute of Technology added more than 1,200 new administrative/support staff positions in less than a decade – including six “diversity, equity, and inclusion” assistant deans in one year, a College Fix analysis found. Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2022, undergraduate student enrollment remained basically flat. The administrative hiring increase coincides with concerted efforts by the research university to “advanc[e] diversity, equity, and inclusion” throughout its programs. During the 2022-23 school year, the most recent data available, the university employed 6,693 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school...

Senior Vice President at The Walt Disney Company details discriminatory hiring practices: "Nobody else is going to tell you this, but they're not considering any white males for the job," says Michael Giordano, a Vice President of Business affairs, "there’s no way we’re hiring a white male.” Giordano reveals Disney uses "code words and buzzwords" to avoid legal action and even mentions a candidate being rejected for not looking black enough. Giordano also admits Disney gives bonuses to executives for practicing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), agreeing that "diversity helps with financial incentives." Giordano further claims he’s been denied promotions...

Dean says goal is to promote ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ An Alabama college is offering $75,000 in scholarships for trade programs – but only to female students. The goal “is to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in Gadsden State’s career technical programs,” according to a news release from the community college. The list of “qualified programs,” include welding, construction technology, and civil engineering. “This scholarship program is an initiative to get more women into manufacturing, construction, and transportation careers in order to help develop the workforce in our area,” Dean Alan Smith stated in the news release. Smith did not...

On April 28, 2023, the Santa Monica Daily Press ran this headline on page one: "Metro Rider Violently Beaten by Eight Teenagers at Santa Monica Station." The article, written by Magnolia Lafleur, reported the incident (which occurred on April 19) as a case of simple assault. But buried on page eight was this: "the teens jumped on him screaming insults and racial slurs". Now, when violent thugs shout "racial slurs" during an attack, is that not a hate crime? Yet LaFleur's long article -- 30 paragraphs -- never mentions "hate." Nor are we told the races of the "teenagers" or...

United Methodism’s largest overseas jurisdiction has voted to quit the denomination in response to the church’s divorcing sex from marriage at its governing General Conference earlier this month. The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast voted on May 28 to exit the denomination. In 2022, this conference reportedly had over 1.2 million members. So, its departure means over one tenth of United Methodism has in one day left the denomination. Oddly, United Methodist News Service reported the vote very briefly in an emailed news digest but as of today has no article on its website. Perhaps it will post...

A controversial bill being pushed by lefty legislators in Albany is trying to make the Empire State less “white,” critics say. The legislation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas (D-Queens) and Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), would mandate state agencies and other entities use separate categories for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) New Yorkers when collecting demographics data – rather than relying on the US Census, which classifies them under one “white” umbrella. The state Senate on Thursday voted unanimously to pass it, but González-Rojas’ version of the bill is still facing pushback in the Assembly. Both pols argue “MENA” individuals...

Ford’s electric vehicle (EV) division lost $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024, which adds up to a $132,000 loss for each of the 10,000 EVs sold. Sales of Ford EVs also plunged by 20 percent compared to last year, and “its revenue plunged 84% to about $100 million, which Ford attributed mostly to price cuts for EVs across the industry.” Ford expects losses on its Model e to hit $5 billion by the end of the year. More: The losses go far beyond the cost of building and selling those 10,000 cars, according to Ford. Instead the losses...

Rico Tice, a well-known Evangelical leader and former Church of England clergyman, has left the denomination in reaction to what he perceives as its growing departure from biblical values, especially concerning same-sex marriage and repentance. Tice, best known for co-writing the evangelism course Christianity Explored and co-founder of Christianity Explored Ministries, cited the denomination's recent decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples and its lack of substantive response to concerns laid out by him and five other leaders of CofE-connected parachurch organizations last October.In an interview with Evangelicals Now, Tice, the former senior minister at All Souls, Langham Place...

Southwest Airlines issued a press statement Thursday declaring their intention to fire around 2,000 employees and cancel service to four airports following financial difficulties. “[W]e are implementing cost control initiatives, including limiting hiring and offering voluntary time off programs. We now expect to end 2024 with approximately 2,000 fewer Employees as compared with the end of 2023,” Bob Jordan, the president and CEO of Southwest Airlines ... Jordan also announced that the company was shutting down its service to three airports in the United States and one in Mexico. “[W]e have made the difficult decision to close our operations at...

“When natural disasters strike, they don’t discriminate based on race and sex. Neither should the Department of Agriculture,” request for federal injunction says. A group of white farmers in Texas is asking a federal judge to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using race, gender or other “socially disadvantaged” traits to determine who gets disaster and pandemic farm aid and how much, arguing the agency’s current administration of eight emergency funding programs is unconstitutionally discriminatory. “When natural disasters strike, they don’t discriminate based on race and sex. Neither should the Department of Agriculture,” the group of farmers wrote in...

Joe Biden is tearing America apart, and the media refuses to report on the impact of Biden’s treasonous policies. Join Ben Shapiro on the ground as he explores the real world consequences of one of the most destructive presidencies in American history.( Watch episodes)

The town of Sheridan is expected to briefly shutdown Friday as 1,000 law enforcement officers from across the United States are expected to pay their respects to fallen police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee who was killed in the line of duty earlier this month. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee, his wife Karla and their daughter. (Courtesy Kane Funeral Home; Cowboy State Daily Illustration) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sheridan, a tightknit northern Wyoming community nestled in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, is about to experience a traffic congestion of epic proportions over the next few days. As many as 1,000 law enforcement officers...

Sony is cutting 900 jobs from its PlayStation division, the gaming company announced Tuesday, becoming the latest tech giant to lay off part of its workforce. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) President and CEO Jim Ryan announced the layoffs in a Tuesday email to PlayStation workers, saying they represent an 8 percent reduction across the company’s locations worldwide. “After careful consideration and many leadership discussions over several months, it has become clear changes need to be made to continue to grow the business and develop the company,” Ryan wrote in the email. “We had to step back, look at our business...

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training is divisive and counter-productive and can even serve to increase prejudice among participants, a new study by a Canadian professor says.David Haskell released his study for the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy on Feb. 12. The social scientist and associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University says DEI training does more harm than good and calls his findings a “reality check.”“A growing number of high-profile cases suggest that diversity workshops and their supporting materials regularly promote questionable claims—particularly about the overarching, malicious character of the majority population. Similarly, hostility toward those who challenge DEI claims...

This coming Sunday, at the most widely viewed sporting event in America, the Super Bowl, the National Football League will feature the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the song first known as the "Negro national anthem" and now known as the "black national anthem." In order to ensure that those present at the game and the more than 100 million people watching on television cannot avoid hearing it, the "black national anthem" will, according to the schedule I have seen, be played after the actual national anthem of the United States. If that is the case, this will...

'Words or actions that are disrespectful, racist, discriminatory, hostile or harassing are not welcome and will not be tolerated,' the doctor says ... Milford Regional Medical Center’s announcement about rules for its "inclusive environment" caused a recent stir with a warning to potential patients that they must follow a specific code of conduct to access their services. Dr. Peter Smulowitz, chief medical officer at the Massachusetts medical center, had released a now-unlisted video on the hospital’s official YouTube channel Jan. 3 explaining how not just staff, but patients themselves, are held accountable for causing offense, ranging from rhetoric to a...

Ah, the grand old art of making people hate one another. It’s as easy as telling Group A that Group B think they’re a bunch of lowbrows who wouldn’t know culture if it came up and bit them on their mass-market jeans. Then you flip the script and inform Group B that Group A look down on them with the kind of disdain usually reserved for unflushed toilets. Don’t even try to use logic; we’re dealing in the commodity of raw, unrefined emotions here. Groups C, D, and E may also get involved, depending on the size of the conspiracy...

Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) said Tuesday on CNN’s “News Central” that former President Donald Trump’s Christmas message shows how he is contributing to division in the county to the point that “violence is becoming normalized.” Anchor Sara Sidner said, “I want to ask you about some new information we’ve just been saying the FBI is now involved because of threats to those Colorado judges who ruled that Donald Trump cannot be on the ballot. I’d like to get your thoughts because I know in your state several of your state leadership has faced threats. And you yourself, I think, have...