All the Lovely People

Welcome Instapundit Readers!

A woman's name came up in polite conversation recently. She runs one of the school boards of which I have been critical of late. That board has been doing a horrible job, a complete disservice to the kids at that school.

"She's perfectly lovely," I was told by someone who knew her. "Yes, lovely," someone else agreed.

Here's the thing: I'm sure she is. I know many of these people. They're all lovely. Boards everywhere are populated with delightful, successful people who would be wonderful table partners at a dinner party. Politically, they are largely centrists.

And yet, woke perversities and the insanity of Critical Race Theory are being institutionalized on their watch. 

And it's not just school boards. It's institutions of all kinds - corporations, foundations, NGOs...all of them, really. And, arguably, they are overseeing the dismantling of Western culture, of the Great Experiment. 

This is not an exaggeration.

How can this be?

This is a source of some interest to me, so I decided to talk to a number of people about it. There are several factors at play.

First, about a decade ago, boards made a laudable effort to diversify themselves. In the process, they got what they asked for, which was not merely skin color diversity but opinion diversity. At least, they thought they wanted that. Or perhaps they thought their new members would smile and keep to themselves, just happy to be there.

Some of the new faces were considerably more radicalized than anyone may have realized. It's also possible they became more radicalized, as was the fashion, post Ferguson, and in particular, post George Floyd. Either way, most boards now found themselves with one or two very different voices in their midst, voices pushing for radical change.

Normally, this wouldn't matter. Boards are usually twenty or more people, and an extremist or two would easily be voted down.

But this time was different.

You see, if the extremist voices are "of color," it changes the social dynamic entirely. Remember, we are dealing with Lovely People here. Lovely People are virtuous. Lovely People don't make a fuss. Lovely People embrace diversity, and they want to be sure you know that.

So much easier to go along. 

Plus, these new advocates for social justice were just so damn passionate. They pushed their agendas with vigor.

This has long been a crucial aspect of the American polity. The left cares about what it cares for more strongly than the right. They write letters to the editor, they go to town meetings. They hashtag ad infinitum. If it's Tuesday, it must be a women's march. Or a climate march. Or a food justice march. (Not kidding, it's a thing.)

Conservatives don't do these things. Or rarely, anyway. They get outworked, out hustled, and outshouted.

Many of the radical changes that have happened in our institutions also happened during the Trump administration. This is no coincidence. You see, Lovely People couldn't be seen to be Trump supporters. In places like Manhattan it was social suicide. 

Lovely People didn't approve. 

So, if you stood in the way of these new voices, the others would be on to your scent. They would sniff a Trumpist inside their boardroom walls.

Like I said, suicide.

There's also the matter of board...comity? No board likes dissension, and they especially don't like it when word of dissension leaks out. Group dynamics create groupthink.

But lastly, with private school boards, there has been an entirely unique factor at play. Most school board members have enrolled children. Put yourself in their place. Assuming you even had qualms about having your kids labeled "supremacists" and "oppressors," you were all too aware there could be real consequences if you resisted the New Order.

You see, the administrators and teachers were all enthusiastically on board. Stand in the way of this train and that letter of recommendation to Yale might not have the necessary adjectives.

Don't think they're above it, because they're not.

You might even have to find another school, and that's certainly a hassle, and it might not be a brand, like Dalton or Brearley, and that will be an issue next time you compare familial notes at the club. So where's Taylor now?

So, you see, if you're a Lovely Person, there's just no incentive to raise your hand, no incentive to say, "but wait."

The Lovely People don't get ahead by throwing bombs.

The problem is, as the Naked Dollar has repeatedly pointed out, progressive movements are never sated. The goal posts are always moved. The Lovely People will go along and go along until one day the revolution comes for them.

Next Up: The Trinity School

I previously wrote about Trinity College. This is about the Trinity School in Manhattan, another elite private school like Dalton, Brearley, etc. 

A year ago, they decided to get in on the "antiracism" bandwagon, like the others. We now know the fruits of their labors.

If you haven't been following this space for the last few months, antiracism specifically means judging people entirely by their skin color and setting up a system of reverse racism to make up for America's past sins. It is the practical application of Critical Race Theory, and has nothing to do with simply "not being racist." It is, itself, highly racist.

I have been supplied with the documents involved, and Trinity wins the award for the most heavy-handed problem-solving approach. Apparently, systemic racism is a really big problem at Trinity because they set up a task force with - get this - 188 members and 11 working groups. I think fewer people negotiated the Paris Climate Accords.

Needless to say, that many hammers were going to find a lot of nails. They produced a 17-page document, which, if you're a masochist or just really, really bored, you can read in its entirety here.

It's the usual nonsense, but let's highlight a few items:

-Expand the number and type of affinity spaces.

If you're not familiar, an "affinity" space is racially segregated. You know, like the fifties. And by "expanding the number and type," Trinity means dividing us into smaller and smaller subgroups based on our skin color or gender (remember there are pushing 100 of those now). Intersectionality comes into play here, presumably. So if you are both, say, genderqueer and muslim, perhaps you get your own space. (I'm thinking that's a pretty small space, but these days who knows.)

-Collect identity data from from student applicants, allowing applicants to self-identify.

So, if gender isn't totally up to the individual, why not race, a la Rachel Dolezal? Trinity is clearly doing this climb the ladder of intersectionality, but it strikes me as rife for abuse.

-Create opportunities for students to practice the act of respectful disagreement and of nuanced exploration of orthodoxies.

Excellent words on a piece of paper. Except I am just blown away by the lack of understanding for the very things they advocate. Ibram Kendi, the Grand Poobah of the CRT/antiracism movement, has specifically said that if you aren't "antiracist," you are by definition a racist. Translation: if you don't sign up for CRT's full instruction manual, including dividing our kids by race and by "oppressor" and "oppressed," you are a racist.

So, if you're some kid at Trinity who doesn't want to be labelled as an oppressor for things his great-great-great-grandfather may or may not have done, you are a racist. Are you going to raise your hand in class and engage in an act of "respectful disagreement?" 

And as for the "nuance" part, CRT has as much nuance as Joseph Stalin. It is a blunt hammer that allows no deviance from the party line.

-Undertake an earnest, community-wide exploration of the principles of restorative justice to see if its main principles - of meeting and listening circles, of teaching and learning together about ethical behavior, of deliberate embracing of active empathy and the awareness of the power of mutual care - could make improvements to our current disciplinary model.

Presumably well-educated people produced these words. Interestingly, the closer you get to the academic world, and in particular the progressive world, the worse and more opaque the writing gets. Andrew Sullivan wrote an excellent piece about this recently.

I could go on, there's pages and pages, but if you're a Naked Dollar reader, you know the drill. In fairness, the Trinity document is not as militant as, say, the teacher demands at Dalton. Also, Trinity does not appear to be a client of the odious DEI consultants Pollyanna, so perhaps they won't go down as self-destructive a path as the others. But a breathtaking amount of time went into the document's creation, all so they could come up with ideas like "listening circles."

Here are the Perfectly Lovely People on the Trinity Board:

Philip Berney, President Chair, Executive Committee 

Adrienne Barr, Secretary 

Andrea C. Roberts ’73, Treasurer Chair, Finance Committee 

Joseph Frank, Vice President Chair, Audit Committee 

Lisa Kohl, Vice President Chair, Committee on Trustees 

David Perez, Vice President Chair, Development Committee 

Jeffrey Scruggs, Vice President Chair, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee 

Maria Garzon, M.D., Vice President Chair, Education Committee 

Jeff Blau, Vice President Chair, Facilities Committee 

Serena Moon, Vice President Chair, Investment Committee 

Igor Kirman, Esq., Vice President Chair, Law Committee 

James Deutsch ‘96, Vice President Chair, Personnel Policy Committee 

Shiva Farouki, Vice President Chair, Trustee Awards Committee 

John P. Arnhold ’71 (emeritus) 

Joseph Baratta 

Andrew R. Brownstein, Esq. (emeritus) 

Lisa Caputo 

Margaret Hess Chi ‘97 

Rex Chung 

Geoffrey Colvin ’70 (emeritus) 

Mahmood Khimji 

Victor “Tory” K. Kiam, III ’78 (emeritus) 

Jo Ann O. Kruger (ex officio) President, Parents Association 

William P. Lauder ’78 (emeritus) 

Hugh Lawson 

Emily F. Mandelstam 

Matthew McLennan 

Nicole S. George-Middleton '93 

Iva Mills 

Janna Levine Raskopf '03 (ex officio) President, Trinity Alumni & Alumnae Association 

Samuel W. Rosenblatt '78 

John Sexton Benjamin R. Shute, Jr. ’54 (emeritus) 

Alyssa Tablada ’89 

Douglas T. Tansill ’56 (emeritus) 

Camille Hackney Thornton 

Robert Wolk 

Yadwa Yawand-Wossen

Dalton Just Can't Get Out of Its Own Way

Dalton and Jim Best

I really thought I was done writing about Dalton, but they just can't seem to get out of their own way.

First, they screwed up in-person classes. Then, there was the meltdown over faculty demands and Critical Race Theory ("antiracism"). Then their head of DEI was made a sacrificial lamb. Then Jim Best, their headmaster, announced he was "leaving" at the end of the year.

This whole beat, the Naked Dollar's covering the private school woke wars, started with the story of Dalton's misadventures back in December. I didn't do it because I care, particularly, about Dalton. I didn't go there, and I don't live in Manhattan. But I do care about education, and Dalton was illustrative of a broader, deeply illiberal, trend towards the politicization of the classroom. 

Dalton was not unique, in other words.

Having said that, it does seem like they go out of their way to be capital of Wokeistan. 

A couple of days ago, an anonymous group called Prep School Accountability paid to have mobile billboards park in front of several Manhattan schools, including Dalton (and Brearley, which I have also chronicled). 

One truck said this:

Another said...

For the record, I have no idea who did this. It's interesting, though, because the battle against K-12 indoctrination doesn't seem as lonely as it did a few months ago. People are stepping up. Mostly anonymously, for reasons that are perfectly understandable, but more and more people are willing to come forward and put their names on the line. Soon, we will have what sociologists call a "preference cascade."

In any case, I knew I could count on the Naked Dollar's old friend Jim Best to give us a response so risible that he make his peers look like mere pretenders. Perhaps Jim's newly acquired occupational freedom has lent him the rhetorical license he craved all along. It's a short note, but there's just so much to unpack.

Here's what Jim wrote just yesterday about the trucks, along with my comments (in bold)...

To the Dalton Community:

This action is antithetical to what Dalton stands for and negatively impacts the welfare of our children and our community members.

Jeez, really? How is that? Apparently because

It attempts to create a climate of intimidation and harassment and evokes some of the worst moments in our nation's history.

We literally just marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, where as many as 300 people were killed and 2,000 homes torched. So, moments like that, Jim? Perhaps words like, "Teach our kids how to think, not what to think" evoke My Lai or 9-11 for you? I'm sorry, you are not a serious person.

We took, and will take, necessary steps to ensure the well being of our students, faculty, and staff.

Did any staffers or kids see the signs? Please tell me everyone's alright!

At Dalton, we encourage constructive discourse consistent with our values of creating "a climate of respect in which creativity, curiosity, individual risk-taking, and personal excellence are achieved and can flourish." 

It's true. Dalton loves discourse, just loves it...as long as it's "consistent with their values," which also include telling you you're a racist if you disagree with those values, and if you're white, you'd better "check your privilege," otherwise known as "shut the f*** up."

We continue to listen closely to community members who engage in respectful dialogue and work together to help build an educations environment grounded in empathy and compassion.

This is what all these administrators say. Jane Fried of Brearley, and George Davison of Grace Church said exactly the same thing. And it's such crap. Why do so many "community" members fear going on the record? Because they know there will be repercussions. And as for compassion, does that include telling minority students they are permanently oppressed? That they should live in a state of perpetual grievance? How is that compassionate?

The tactics we saw this morning are neither dignified nor persuasive.

No doubt you said the same about the last year of BLM and Antifa street violence...just kidding. Let's face it Jim, it isn't the method that bothers you, it's the message.

They only redouble our commitment to stand by our mission, our values, and every single member of our community.

Except for those of you who are racists for opposing my agenda, and as soon as I figure out who you are, I will inform Yale.

Jim Best, Head of School

Yom Fox, Interim Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion