We previously discussed the lawsuit of Dr. Zack K. De Piero against Penn State over an alleged hostile work environment and racial discrimination linked to antiracism training and material. Judge Wendy Beetlestone just denied a critical motion to dismiss in De Piero v. Penn State with strong language concerning DEI programs.
De Piero brought his case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. As previously discussed, there were roughly 40 defendant trustees, professors, and administrators named in the complaint below. This includes Professor Liliana Naydan who was an Associate Professor of English and served as De Piero’s Supervisor and Chair of the English Department and Writing Program Coordinator.
De Piero alleges that he was “individually singled out for ridicule and humiliation” due to his race. He also alleges that he was expected to follow and support the view that “White supremacy exists in the language itself, and therefore, that the English language itself is ‘racist.”
De Piero also alleges that faculty were encouraged to participate in anti-racist workshops and trainings, including one titled “White Teachers are the Problem.”
What is most interesting about the complaint is that it alleges policies that would violate core academic freedom principles from the content of his classes to grading. He alleges that he was told to adopt a race-based grading system. Specifically, he alleges that the failure to grade minorities on par or better than whites would be treated as de facto racist:
“Defendants instructed De Piero that outcomes alone — regardless of the legitimacy of methods of evaluation, mastery of subject matter, or intentions — demonstrate whether a faculty member’s actions are racist or not. Defendants call this “social justice” and “antiracism.” At the core of their ideology, Defendants discriminate twofold on the basis of race. First, Defendants’ bigotry manifests itself in low expectations. They do not expect black or Hispanic students to achieve the same mastery of academic subject matters as other students and therefore insist that deficient performance must be excused. Accurate assessment of abilities, if it happens to show disparate performance among different racial groups, is therefore condemned as “racist.” econd[sic], Defendants’ bigotry manifests itself in overt discrimination against students and faculty who do apply consistent standards, especially white faculty.”
In her denial of Penn State’s motion in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge Bettlestone explored the record, including how the DEI Director emailed all employees ‘calling on white people’ to ‘feel terrible’ about their ‘own internalized white supremacy’ and to ‘hold other white people accountable.’” She also noted that the Assistant Vice Provost for Educational Equity “‘led the faculty’ in a breathing exercise in which she instructed the ‘White and non-Black people of color to hold it just a little longer—to feel the pain.’”
The court also recounted how
Defendant Carmen Borges, Associate Director of the AAO, asked to meet with De Piero to discuss his bias report. At that meeting, she responded to De Piero’s concern that he had been made to feel “humiliated, disgraced, harassed, and discriminated against,” by telling him that “[t]here is a problem with the white race” and he should “broaden [his] perspective.” “Until you get it,” she told De Piero, he should continue to attend anti-racism workshops. By November 2021, Borges had resolved De Piero’s initial complaint and had decided that no further action would be taken. She concluded that the “White Teachers are a Problem” training, “while it may be offensive to [him], does not constitute discrimination towards you as an individual and does not rise to a violation of the University’s Non-Discrimination policy.”
In a balanced opinion, Judge Bettlestone stated
“Training on concepts such as ‘white privilege’, “white fragility’, implicit bias, or critical race theory can contribute positively to nuanced, important conversations about how to form a healthy and inclusive working environment [. . . ] But the way these conversations are carried out in the workplace matters: When employers talk about race—any race, [. . .] —with a constant drumbeat of essentialist, deterministic, and negative language, they risk liability under federal law.”
These lawsuits are mounting against universities, which continue to burn through funds to defend these controversial statements. In other cases, we have seen officials immediately remove statements when they become public. For example, at Johns Hopkins Hospital chief diversity officer Sherita Golden issued an apology after an outcry over her “privilege” list from the Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity program.
The newsletter stated
“Privilege is an unearned benefit given to people who are in a specific social group. Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels, and it provides advantages and favors to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of other groups…
In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one or more of these social identity groups: White people, able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, males, Christians, middle or owning class people, middle-aged people, and English-speaking people.”
As is sometimes the case, when exposed publicly, officials will often disavow their own program material or statements. This was in a newsletter that the office obviously reviewed, edited, and released. Now, however, Golden insists that it does not capture the views of the office and expressed “deep regret.”
In the case of Penn State, the school appears set on trying a case that will only increase the costs and negative coverage for the school. It is often the case that administrators lack the courage to challenge DEI programs or material. The alternative of spending potentially millions on litigation and damages can be viewed as rational rather than risking personal backlash for reversing course.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of only security and infrastructure.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “…general (all, the whole) Welfare…,” omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
“IS IT OK TO BE WHITE?”
– Rasmussen poll
________________
“[NO]!”
– Black respondents
_______________________
Only 53% of blacks disagree.
________________________________
“Blacks are a hate group.”
“As you know, I’ve been identifying as Black for a while – years now – because I like – you know, I like to be on the winning team.”
“The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
“Just get the f*** away.”
“Wherever you have to go, just get away because there’s no fixing this.”
“You just have to escape, so that’s what I did.”
– Scott Adams, “Dilbert”
__________________________
“THERE’S NO FIXING THIS!”
There’s no fixing this even for the anti-American, unconstitutional, deranged, hysterical, incoherent, bleeding-heart, communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs).
“There’s no fixing this.”
There is only surrender, capitulation, and relinquishment.
Did the American Founders lose a major motion in their race discrimination case?
They wrote the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, and 1802, and guided their successors to proceed on to their Manifest Destiny.
They wrote fundamental law, decided who would populate their nation, and built that nation from scratch.
They must certainly have been creators and criminals simultaneously—the cure that was the curse.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) have actual Americans intellectually twisted, dazed, confused, and wrapped around their fingers as phantom-guilt-ridden milquetoasts afraid of their own shadows, having comprehensively lost their conviction and resolve.
DEI is just more Dim racism but with the added treat of a new victim. What is it with these cowards? I’m guessing an insecurity problem/penis envy/low self-esteem caused by the misery in their own lives coupled with a God-complex and Will to Power, but what do I know? I was educated by these liberal clowns.
” by telling him that “[t]here is a problem with the white race” .
She has a point, the problem is they’ve become sheep who cower when called unfounded names like racist, instead of being proud of a race whose intelligence, individuality, generosity and exceptionalism has brought more good to mankind.
I would also think that a university could open expose itself to charges of fraudulent behavior, if they are engaging in any sort of DEI practices, such as the altering or determining of the class grades of members of specific groups, irrespective of actual academic performance. Don’t they advertise themselves as having high academic standards and brag about the placements of their graduates in the work force? Thus, if I were a black student at Penn State, and did not receive the same benefit of academic rigor as white students, I would consider myself to have been defrauded of the same level of education as white students.
Interesting point.
There are multiple legal liabilities – though Penn State is a State school and mostly immune from lawsuit.
Regardless, if you are a less qualified minority student and you fail at a prestigious schoo, or you get an education that is crap because you were allowed to fall short of the requirements – you have a cause of action against the college.
There is even potential 3rd party liability – a college that graduates an engineering student that is unqualified and subsequently causes a catastrophic failure may have some liability.
Going the opposite direction a minority student that excels may have a cause of action for being discounted as an affirmative action graduate and not be trusted with the difficult work that employers expect of graduates from top schools.
Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin abandoned his post.
Does anyone remember the book Animal Farm?
I wonder if its still required reading….
In it there’s a statement… “All animals are created equal, although some animals are more equal than others…”
Or something along that line of thought.
When we talk of privilege, we do need to acknowledge that it exists.
To be clear, those who come from wealth, have rank and privilege.
But its not racist or based on the color of your skin.
Take LeBron James and his kids.
Do you think that if LeBron wasn’t his kid’s father, that basketball scouts would have taken a closer look at him?
Or heck… lets say it. Hunter Biden. Baron Trump. Obama’s daughters…
Or we could look at actors who are 2nd and 3rd gen actors/directors/entertainers.
They all got a step up over the competition because of who their parents were and who they knew.
Now to be clear, the had a step up. With the exception of Hunter, the skills of the individual took them forward.
(Although some could argue that Hunter’s skill as a grifter follow on from his father…)
But that’s about it.
We used to be a meritocracy, and while nepotism and privilege gave some an advantage, in general, you rise to the level of your own skills.
Now, I’m sure Denise or Svetlana will argue that we also had racism which impacted many, which is true, but that’s a different issue and its been an on going issue.
-G
Though the judge’s decision is commendable, her appeal for more nuanced language to enforce DEI’s anti-white racism is not reassuring.
I agree. Glad to know I’m not the only one who read it that way.
Good for the Court
Sherita Hill Golden is another too black DEI subversive agent who appears to have benefited from ‘privilege’ as she defines it: “Privilege is an unearned benefit given to people who are in a specific social group,” which in reality translates to black privilege and sharply lowered standards.
Would you trust your care to a black doctor knowing even medical schools are lowering standards for blacks? How are lowered standards for DEI working out for Boeing? How about Harvard?
There are great black physicians, two of them friends of mine, but they have a question mark on their competence for those who don’t know them because of DEI and neither of them favors lower standards for black medical students.
Instead of treating people on their character and talents and individual qualities we have sunk to looking only at the color of their skin. To use one of their favorite expressions, “it is racist” and one might add often illegal, as if law meant anything under the Biden/Obama devolution of society.
“requirements of civilization—including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain—without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.” Thomas Sowell, a true genius whose wisdom needs to be heeded.
Coming to aviation control centers soon thanks to the FAA’s belief that severely mentally challenged Americans are under-represented in aviation. What’s next? A suicidal pilot in the cockpit because he/she is mentally challenged and under-represented in the pilot ranks? Where does it end? One need only watch a couple of episodes of Air Disasters to know how one slip by ATC can alter whether a flight lands safely…or not.
Frank Sinatra’s mother was killed when a controller vectored the plane she was in into the big mountain by Palm Springs.
I was in a light plane flying at night out of Las Vegas and we were set on a course directly to a mountain. The controller began to chew out a private pilot who blundered into the ILS landing system. It went on and the mountain was getting closer. Finally the pilot in our plane interrupted and asked how long we should keep going on this heading. “Stand by” PAUSE “Assume navigation at own discretion”. We were cut loose and turned away from the mountain.
Sometime listen to approach control at San Francisco International. It is almost unbelievable that anyone can think and talk and give directions so fast while so many lives are at stake.
There is no sane room for DEI in the control tower or the cockpit. It is too challenging and the stakes are too high. But then sanity doesn’t seem to be a feature of the Biden administration.
The claimed privilege is really that you ( the provileged) have made a lot of good decisions and as a result have advanced your life and career. When (the anti racist) play the race card now it is only to mask their lousy decision making and that they should advance or be superior in spite of their incompetence and they have now become that which they condemn others ie: their”whiteness” and privileged. The anti- racist only has to look in the mirror to find the illness in our society. Kudos to this Judge.
That multitude of decisions you make every day puts you where you are . No one wants to admit that their decisions were terrible. Better to blame someone else than realistically look at one’s self and then correct yourself. God forbid.
GEB,
Well said.
My grand parents legally immigrated to this county. English was their second language. Grandmother only had a sixth grade education. Grandfather not much better.
But they worked hard. Obeyed the law. Saved money. Integrated into American society. They were proud of America.
They were the exact kind of people whom DEI cultists would of denounced as racists.
They were not white.
“They were not white.”
Upstate, I am still trying to figure out what is white, but that is not your problem. It is the problem of the dumb leftist.
Jews are considered white. Are all Jewish converts white? Are Sephardic Jews white? Are Ethiopian Jews white? Is a Jew with a tan white? Are people from Spain white? If they are Muslim, are they white, and if Jewish, are they white?
Is a well-tanned ‘white’ person white?
I am not criticizing your use of the term, Upstate. Instead, I am doing what you do and pointing out that the left is crazy.
@Seth Meyer,
Jews are only white until you meet a white supremacist.
-G
Asians are also white.
That is how insane all of this is.
if they can fund RACSIST DEI…then they should BE Defunded!
Democrats are Fascists….no different than 1930’s Germans and Italians!
Name me a STEM program that allows white or asian males.
Every STEM promotion program I have seen targets, POC, Women, etc!
Time to end Federal Aid to Colleges…along with non-profits where anyone gets $100k+
Any Non-profit where anyone gets $100k+ should pay ALL taxes…property, federal, local and state…including Colleges, hospitals, sporting groups, and other “non-profits” where people MAKE MILLIONS!
There is NO ONE more Hate Filled, Greedy, Hypocrite than a Democrats
#DefundDemocrats!
It is heartening to find judges and other functionaries who understand our constitution and also comprehend the perniciousness of the prog/left attempts to “fundamentally transform” this nation through surreptitious and unconstitutional methods and are doing their best in their positions to end this march to socialism/communism and totalitarianism achieved through various methodologies including division via race relations and the utter destruction of our education industry.
will make NO difference.
Just listened to a President of a highly ranking elite liberal college…state categorically in a speech to parents they will USE race on Admission…and IGNORE the Supreme Court Ruling!
TAKE AWAY THE Money is the only thing Democrats Respect! End all Federal Aid and Backing of Student Loans!
“Privilege is an unearned benefit given to people who are in a specific social group. Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels, and it provides advantages and favors to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of other groups…”
Sort of like the black woman that is a member of SCOTUS and can’t tell you what a WOMAN is.
How about the woman presidents at Harvard, MIT and Penn who don’t have a problem with the harassment and killing of Jews.
If you are a white male and believes that DEI should be mandated by the federal government, you should shut up, step down, so a more deserving person can have your job.
Practice what you preach!
The rhetoric that Piero experienced is indistinguishable from that of KKK members and actual white supremecists.
There is no difference between claiming that entire groups of people are inferior because they are white, than it is to say an entire group are inferior because they are black.
The way to stop discrimination based on race is to stop discrimination based on race.
John Say,
That would make sense.
Clearly, making “sense” is no longer common trait among a sizeable portion of America.
I’m not sure what I just read. Who won and who lost?
A federal Judge is allowing a lawsuit against Penn State to move forward based on overt evidence of anti-white Racism.