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