Almost anyone who has been forced to sit through diversity training has probably thought, “What a complete waste of time.” No slideshow presentation is going to undermine one’s beliefs, so any real bigots taking such training won’t be swayed, for one thing. For another, it takes time out of doing actual work in a pathetic attempt at indoctrination.
When Paul Griffiths, a professor of Catholic theology at Duke University, said what most of us happen to think about so-called diversity training, however, he stirred up a whole storm of social justice viciousness. The College Fix reports:
The professor of Catholic theology told his colleagues not to “lay waste your time” with the training, which he predicted would be full of “bromides, clichés, and amen-corner rah-rahs”:
When (if) it gets beyond that, its illiberal roots and totalitarian tendencies will show. Events of this sort are definitively anti-intellectual. (Re)trainings of intellectuals by bureaucrats and apparatchiks have a long and ignoble history; I hope you’ll keep that history in mind as you think about this instance.
Now he’s the subject of two disciplinary proceedings – one for “unprofessional conduct” and one for “harassment” – and he is reportedly resigning after the 2017-2018 academic year.
Rod Dreher at The American Conservative obtained documents related to the dispute over the weekend, reprinting a recent open letter from Griffiths to the DDS faculty and the February email chain that started his problems.
After his acerbic response, Griffiths’ dean Elaine Heath responded on the listserv that it was “inappropriate and unprofessional” for him to publicly “humiliate or undermine” his colleague who sent the invitation, Prof. Anathea Portier-Young:
The use of mass emails to express racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry is offensive and unacceptable, especially in a Christian institution.
And here I thought that discussing things was what academics actually did for a living when they weren’t teaching classes. How is it “unprofessional” to voice a dissenting opinion again?
Oh, right, Griffiths assaulted the social justice shibboleth of diversity training, which can never be permitted to stand.
Frankly, the reported actions of those taking issue with Griffiths’ criticisms serve as an ideal case study in how social justice warriors work. First, they push out their ideology in the form of “diversity training,” which is really nothing more than SJW propaganda. Then, should anyone dare to criticize it, they try to punish the person for having a dissenting opinion on the topic, up to and including prison if they can get away with it.
Griffiths offered his opinion of the diversity training. Because it wasn’t what the SJWs like, they labeled him guilty of “racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry.” There’s remarkably little evidence currently available to support this…except that he thinks diversity training is a waste of time.
Which, really, is all these people need to justify their hate speech.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone can blame Griffiths for his plans to resign after the next academic year.
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