Wake Forest University, a private institution in North Carolina, is set to hold a series of “listening sessions” aimed at advancing diversity “inclusion” efforts at the school. Unfortunately, the ideas of Caucasians are not welcome at these events.
An e-mail, obtained by The College Fix, sent to faculty and staff at the university by Dean Michele Gillespie explained, “Dear faculty and staff colleagues, this is a reminder about our upcoming listening sessions on inclusion that I am holding for faculty and staff of color over the next several weeks.”
The e-mail gave specifics for the upcoming listening sessions:
For faculty/staff who identify as faculty/staff of color: Monday, April 22 at 4:00pm in ZSR room 476 (we will be joined by Associate Dean Erica Still).
For faculty/staff who identify as faculty/staff of color: Thursday, May 2 at 11:00am in ZSR 476 (we will be joined by Associate Dean Erica Still).
For staff who identify as staff of color ONLY: Monday, May 6 at 4:00pm in ZSR room 477.
So, no white folks allowed.
The listening sessions come amid a racial controversy as social justice warriors at the school insist that Wake Forest practices institutional racism on the campus and promotes so-called white supremacy.
On Monday, a group of approximately 400 students gathered at Manchester Plaza on the campus to protest the trauma that they say is being inflicted on students of color by an administration they believe allows, and perhaps encourages, white supremacy views on the campus.
“We have gathered in collective resistance to Wake Forest, and the ways that this institution embodies and emboldens white supremacy,” said WFU student and representative for the WFU Anti-Racism Coalition Aries Powell.
Students and faculty at the school are calling for an immediate zero-tolerance policy for anything that can be construed by anybody as white supremacy. Students and many faculty members claim that Wake Forest “embodies, emboldens and perpetuates white supremacy.”
The ginned-up racial tensions stem from a few recent incidents, which aren’t really incidents at all, but deliberate misunderstandings with a little misinformation tossed in for good measure.
In one of the incidents, Dean of Admissions Martha Allman was found to be standing in the vicinity of the Battle Flag for the Army of Northern Virginia, more commonly known as the Confederate Flag. Associate Dean of Admissions Kevin Pittard also appears in the photo. The photo appeared in a Wake Forest yearbook from 1982.
Both Allman and Pittard were publicly shamed into apologizing for appearing in the picture nearly 40 years ago but did not resign. That was not sufficient for the far-left faculty, who voted to condemn the administration’s response to the photo by a vote of 130-16.
The faculty passed a series of resolutions and called the mea culpas of Allman and Pittard “wholly insufficient as apologies.” Yet, the faculty did indicate that they would be open to a forum where both “administrators who appeared in racist photos as students can offer formal and public apologies.”
So, more public shaming, then.
Another alleged “incident” was found in an Instagram post showing that a candidate for president of the student government wanted to “build a wall” between Wake Forest and their crosstown rival college Winston-Salem State — a traditionally black university. Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch has stated that the post “may have been a parody of a national issue.”
And, of course, Hatch is most likely correct. The Instagram post is simply referencing and most likely mocking Donald Trump’s campaign promise from 2016 to build a wall on the southern border of the United States. The student identified in the post had nothing to do with it. But since Winston-Salem State is a black university, the post is de facto racist.
Another mistakenly racist incident was reported when a student was dressed as a cowboy. The student’s lasso — a required accoutrement for any cowboy — was mistaken by hypersensitive students for a noose.
Combating true racism is a worthy endeavor, of course, but that’s not what this is. This is an entirely purposeful attempt to bully and frighten people into silence using public shaming. The pillory has been replaced by mock outrage and the accompanying apology tours, which violators of the unwritten laws of political correctness must make in an attempt to gain back their reputation, which can never be fully recovered.
College leftists — students or faculty — don’t like the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and this is a part of their effort to make it moot. Racism has nothing to do with this. Stunts such as these “listening sessions” do nothing to confront racism. They only serve to destabilize society by allowing professional offense-takers a forum to spout their radical nonsense.
