There has been much discussion about the controversial mandatory lecture for first-year medical students at the University of California Los Angeles from a pro-Palestinian speaker accused of anti-Semitic postings and racist rhetoric. However, there is less attention to the fact that Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia was appearing because she is one of UCLA’s paid Activists-in-Residence.
Gray-Garica is described by UCLA as “a formerly unhoused and incarcerated poverty scholar who prefers to keep their face covered in public.”
UCLA also faced a controversy this week over a scheduled lecture by Dr. Helena Hansen titled “Beyond Magic Bullets: Whiteness as a Structural Driver of the Opioid Crisis.” Hansen blames whiteness for the recent opioid crisis. She is also the author of “Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America. The Hansen lecture was reportedly changes without any comment from UCLA. ”
In her two-hour lecture, Gray-Garcia dismissed modern medicine as “white science” and told the medical students to engage in a prayer to “mama Earth.” Students were expected to pray and affirm that “Mama Earth was never meant to be bought, sold, pimped or played.”
It was part of what was billed as a talk on “Housing (In)justice in LA: Addressing Unhousing and Practicing Solidarity.”
A complaint filed after the lecture alleges that students were expected to chant “Free, free Palestine” and when one student refused to stand during one prayer, an unidentified UCLA faculty member asked for the pupil’s name. The complaint alleges that students were concerned that they would face repercussions if they did not chant and pray on command.
In the lecture, posted online, Gray-Garcia keeps her face covered with a keffiyeh while veering off into a diatribe over the Gaza Strip. She also attacked the concept and defense of private property as “crapitalist lies” that kill “black, brown and houseless people.”
On the video, she exclaims “Not only are our bodies considered unclean in public, not only are our lives criminalized for being outside without a roof, but politricksters use us for their campaigns.”
Gray-Garcia was undeterred by the complaint or the criticism, posting on X the next day: “As we hold our relatives in Occupied Palestine, and all of Mama Earth in prayer and love, we need to make connections.”
There have been ample objections to this indoctrination session at UCLA, but the school has been criticized for years for its viewpoint intolerance and orthodoxy.
However, what is most disturbing is the decision of the university that higher education should have paid “activists-in-residence.” At a school notorious for excluding conservative and libertarian voices, it is doubtful that it would embrace a pro-life or anti-transgender activist in residence. Instead, the faculty can enlist the support of activists to push an ideological agenda in mandatory sessions like this one.
UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy has gushed with praise for Gray-Garcia’s “rousing remarks presented in the form of spoken word poetry.”
UCLA Luskin Professor Ananya Roy, who created the residency program, heralded how the activists-in-residence is part of “our effort to turn the university inside out.” Roy added that “at the Institute, we organize knowledge within, against and beyond the university. The Activist-in-Residence program brings to the university the movement scholars and public intellectuals who are teachers and guides for this praxis.”
The faculty, including Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris who is the Interim Dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, obviously support this view of higher education.
The question is why taxpayers and donors should support such school-sponsored activism. I previously wrote about the “radical chic” of academia as well as the new focus on “activism” as a field of study.
Arizona State University offers a BA program entirely on “community advocacy and social policy” that focuses on “historically under-served individuals, families and communities.” Students “complete courses in two core areas: diversity and oppressed populations and social issues and interventions.”
Many schools offer “advocacy and social justice studies.” At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, students are offered the opportunity to “study social justice with distinguished instructors from a wide range of academic departments, from Afro-American Studies to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.”
Camden County College offers a diversity and social justice degree based on the advocacy work of the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, which “revealed the depth of social inequality and its life-or-death consequences.” Others offer “a certificate of proficiency in social justice and an A.S. degree in Human Services, Social Justice Advocacy.”
Many of us encourage political activism and engagement of our students. They need to bring their passion and voices to the debates today over issues ranging from abortion to the environment to wars.
We have long benefited from intellectual activists in our country, but they were intellectuals first and activists second. They were thought-leaders who used classic education to advance societal change.
Gray-Garcia embodies how academics are destroying the very intellectual foundation for higher education. Incorporating such “activists-in-residence” are extremely popular moves for faculty at schools like UCLA. However, they are hijacking higher education for their own political and professional purposes. The problem is that few have the courage to oppose such programs out of fear that they will be the next to be targeted in a cancel campaign or university investigation. Most remain in cringing silence as bizarre scenes like the one at UCLA play out on campus.
The one UCLA student who refused to pray on command was a courageous exception. However, we should all pray for the future of American higher education if Gray-Garcia is the measure of American intellectual thought.
Karla Marx
Why in G-d’s Holy Name are we funding this crap??! STOP IT!!
“bring their passion and voices to the debates today over issues ranging from abortion to the environment to wars.”
From human rites to the Green blight to ethnic Springs…
“Many of us encourage political activism and engagement of our students. They need to bring their passion and voices to the debates today over issues ranging from abortion to the environment to wars.”
**********************************
“… [P]assion and voices”? And I would have thought their logic and reason would be in greater demand and serve a more worthy purpose. There’s voices and passion aplenty but ask the kids why they’re so worked up and you’ll get blank stares or Red Guard talking points. As the Sage of Monticello reminds us about Passion and its progeny, Coercion:
“What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth…. [Instead] reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves?”
~Thomas Jefferson (Notes of the State of Virginia, Query XVII (1782))
“P]assion and voices”
All sound and fury.
“And I would have thought their logic and reason would be in greater demand and serve a more worthy purpose.”
Well said.
If Abraham Lincoln had had the benefit of a UCLA education, he would probably never have gotten elected president or had the opportunity to end slavery. Fortunately for all of today’s social justice warriers, Lincoln had an estimated ONE YEAR of formal education, AT BEST.
Lincoln had an opportunity to end slavery in Congress.
Considered in context, slavery was a British-cum-American institution of 241 years, and American voters and Congress were not amenable to the concept of abolition at that point.
Lincoln had an opportunity to act legally through a legislature of laws in a society of laws.
Lincoln chose to act illegally and unconstitutionally to become a barbarian criminal dictator like Hitler and Stalin through the liberal application of savage violence.
Everything Lincoln did after his initial illegal act of denying not-prohibited and fully constitutional secession was and remains illicit and unconstitutional, including Karl Marx’s “RECONSTRUCTION Amendments,” the very “RECONSTRUCTION of a social world” Marx commended Lincoln for in his letter of 1865.
Americans can only hope that one day they will regain their Constitution, their Bill of Rights, and their freedom, which is more dubious every day as “Population Replacement” Czar Alejandro Mayorkas has been hard at work destroying America and facilitating the illegal immigration invasion of America since his appointment as director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services by Comrade Obama in 2009.
“Many schools offer ‘advocacy and social justice studies.’ At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, students are offered the opportunity to ‘study social justice with distinguished instructors from a wide range of academic departments, from Afro-American Studies to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies’.”
Everything that might make an interesting hobby doesn’t make for a profitable career. They should be required to rename these dubious fields of study as a “Roadmap to a career flipping burgers.”
It was a painful step in the 19th centruy to abolish slavery, but it was necessary. It is now a painful prospect to abolish “liberal arts” college education, but it is even more important. The lunatics running the asylums are not going away anytime soon. It is an easy way for them to make a living.
Are federal judges required to maintain a current list of people they are not allowed to serve if they come before him? The chief judge must maintain a machine/tool which randomly selects judges for cases as they come in to the court with a few justifiable exceptions. Who is allowed to inspect the “process” to ensure all is on the level in federal courts?
Many breaches of these rules are destroying our courts. There is no one who represents a fair/disinterested position in authority to refer these and other violations to. Even the DOJ inspectors do nothing when attempts are made to inform them of these crimes. The judiciary is the most corrupt ortganization in the world and it will continue to usurp justice for Americans until someone intervenes.
Our courts are largely unmonitored by authorities. In fact, complaints of outlawed behavior must be brought to the U.S. Senate for their evaluation. Pathetic. Good luck trying to get senators to look at federal judges for improprieties. They love risking prison for our complaints!
Try asking a lawyer what to do in a situation like this. Lawyers eagerly get in line to sue other professionals. They will not even listen to our complaints of forbidden, often illegal behavior. They have us by the balls.
Why parents who are supposed to “raise their children” allow their children to go to these institutions is beyond me. Gen-X’ers are the final hope for our country.
Jonathan: Time for some other news that no one on this blog will want to miss.
Business News: The clock is ticking for DJT–and not just about the first criminal case he faces next week in Manhattan. It’s also about his Trump Media shares. The stock took another beating–closing at $37.17 on Monday–down another 8.4%. This represents a 53% decline since the stock first traded. The short sellers are making out like bandits. I suspect DJT is trying to strong arm his board to let him get out from under the 6-month lock-up period so he can sell his shares before they tank completely.
Entertainment News: Anyone watch the solar eclipse on Monday? Quite exciting. Fox News reported from the southern border. The Fox host pointed out migrants in dark clothing waiting, presumably for the eclipse to sneak across the border. Stephen Colbert was quick to point out the Fox clip: “Yes, oh yes, immigrants in dark clothing are using the eclipse to sneak across the border. They won’t get another opportunity like that—until night”.
DJT was also quick to take advantage of the event. Of course, he made it all about himself. He posted an ad by a MAGA supporter showing a profile of DJT’s head blocking out the sun. Colbert also nailed that ad with this: “That is a hellava campaign message. I will bring darkness upon the Earth, blocking out all the life-giving warmth, driving animals to stark madness”.
When it comes to poking fun at Fox and DJT Colbert is the master!
Dennis should do his own blog. Why not? Oh, whoops, he needs to post his opinions relentlessly on this one because no one would read one he authored.
He’s too lazy and unskilled.
-Dennis,
We all expect to see President Donald Trump wearing a seasonally fashionable orange jumpsuit (Late September through November 5th – The Fall Season Collection). The bright Orange will set off the highlights of his hair and draw attention to the candidates lasting stay power. Much like Snoop Dog or Martha Stewart, his incarceration will have earned him that lovable persona of which the rest of Us understand. Who hasn’t of the 99% of the rest of Us been treated like Donald has over the course of their lifetime. Yes, the Orange attire will give Us something we can relate to. So there you have it, the Shadow Gov and DNC can have their day, but to the rest of Us it just another day in the USA.
Orange is the new Red, White, and Blue 🇺🇸
Nah. Just red, the color of the rivers of blood soaking the soil in Rwanda even as Slick didn’t hear a thing about the holocaust that took a million innocents in 4 months. You cannot prevail in an argument against Trump until you put slick behind bars where he belongs. Aiding and abetting murder.
Rwanda was 30 years ago. Slick Trump wasn’t even close to Washington at that time.
Blame the your Boss for it, After Idi Amin killed 500,000 in Uganda, Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) started an invasion of northern Rwanda and worked their way into the heart of Rwanda. The Tutsis inside Rwanda thus became pawns in a power struggle between the RPF exiles and Habyarimana’s government. Five years later, they would be crushed altogether in one of the worst genocides ever recorded.
Paul Kagame, Presidents Museveni and Habyarimana, the French and Zairean commandos fighting for power killed the Tutsis.
Slick sat at his desk in the WH waiting for word about conditions in Rwanda. He said that as he apologized to the Tutsis for not acting sooner. He never acted at all, ever, and he was fully aware of the bloodshed as it occured. FOIA documents released later proved he knew all about the slaughter underway.
Babe, don’t think you are going to get away with justifying what that filthy animal didn’t do as Monica worked her magic. You will not win. You can not win. You are detested, you and the far left wing rebels in the propaganda news outlet, are in deep, deep trouble. You are finished. Until you put that wretched cowardly pervert in prison and apologize to the Tutsis and Americans for his aiding and abetting the Holocaust, you will be as despicable as the Germans who approved Hitler’s destruction of millions of innocent citizens. There is no escape for you.
You are a disgrace. Who’s next? Who dares to try to defend why clinton is not in stirs? No one.
Slick also gave us the problems we have today Central America (Sandinistas & Daniel Ortega, Cartels, etc.) and all the problems South of the Boarder pouring into the Country today.
That’s what you get, when you take things for Face Value. – Slick.
william f wade said: “Who dares to try to defend why clinton is not in stirs?”
Those tallying Slick Willie’s moral baggage would also do well to recall that it was on his watch that the BATF and FBI perpetrated the slaughter of 76 men, women, and (28) children at Mt. Carmel, Texas, for the capital crime of seeking to exercise their First and Second Amendment rights. For those here who do not recognize the place name “Mt. Carmel” as signifying anything of import, the MSM referred to the situation as the “Waco siege”.
Denny, when you compare Trump’s worst crimes with Clinton’s turning his back on a million black folks who were slaughtered, how does Trump look to you?
You will not respond. Far left fanatics cannot address the disparity. Fools. That’s why you are despised. Not because Trump is so wonderful, but because of your preverse unwillingness to recognize the putrid behavior of your own kind.
You choose Your Wars/Fights.
Because You can’t Fight them All.
The Holocaust of the Tutsis was not a priority. Thanks you idiot. You got it. Trump inflated the value of real estate and slick is responsible for a million murders and slick goes scott free. What a moron u r.
You’re so angry, Why don’t you go find a War front and go fight. I’m sure there’s one suitable for you somewhere.
NIght is when that big gaseous incandescent blob called the moon comes out. Just as Sheila Jackson Lee.
Ask.
Crap.
Most of us know better than to bother reading anything you post. You are never on topic, and usually factually challenged, Plus, your writing skills are nonexistent.
End of PSA.
Jonathan: Looks like you have become the “Defunder-in Chief”. In your previous column you called for defunding NPR. Now it’s UCLA–that you call “a school notorious for excluding conservative and libertarian voices, it is doubtful that it would a pro-life or anti-transgender activist in residence”. You’re probably right there. It’s highly unlikely any institution of higher education in this country, including UCLA, would “embrace” anyone would take away a woman’s right to choose or anyone who would deprive a person to be what they want to be.
But you would now take away funding for any school that embraces what you mischaracterize as “radical chic”. Where will it end with all your calls for defunding? For you, not until schools take on an anti-abortion, anti-trans “activist-in-residence”. Ain’t going to happen, Jonathan, and I think you know that because at the end of your column you say “we should all pray for the future of American higher education”.
Sorry, but I don’t think your prays will be answered–and not at UCLA. But go ahead and pray anyway because that’s about all you have left. You are in good company. DJT has also embraced God by hawking $50 dollar Bibles. He prays a lot these days–praying that God will put him back in the WH. If there is a God he/she embraces and loves everyone–regardless of whether they love someone of the same sex or their gender preference! I doubt God will endorse someone who lives and thrives on hatred of the other!
No, Denise. You could not be more wrong. Why should my taxpayer dollars go towards a institution or university that clearly promotes hate with a pro-Hamas chants?
I do not endorse or promote hate as this woman and institution does.
It is no shock to us normal people that it is the leftist Democrats who have supported the antisemitism on college and university campuses that has risen to triple digit numbers since 7OCT2023.
If anyone is promoting hate and thrives on the hatred of others, it is the leftist Democrat party.
Clinton didn’t respond to the cries for help from one million were hacked to death. He was busy protecting his family from Monica and that blue dress.
A traditional and progressive (i.e. monotonic) model of diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry) dogma. That said, murder, rape, and torture in the pursuit of social progress is no ethical vice. #HateLovesAbortion
The grift never ends.
The university classroom has become the American Maoist-style struggle session theater.
Lovers of Enlightenment Freedom and Liberty unite! You have nothing to lose but your Woke NeoMarxist Identity Politics chains!
“RADICAL CHIC MASS DEPORTATION IN THE AMERICA OF ITS FOUNDERS”
If the Ten Commandments still stand, the America of its Founders—the Constitution and Bill of Rights of 1789 and the Naturalization Acts of 1790—must still stand with full legitimacy.
Every act of Lincoln, subsequent to his irrefutably unconstitutional denial of secession, was and remains invalid, illegitimate, illicit, and unconstitutional, including, but not limited to, the “Reconstruction Amendments” of Lincoln’s fellow traveler, Karl Marx, who congratulated Lincoln and Lincoln’s party apparatchiks for their “matchless struggle for…the RECONSTRUCTION of a social world” in Marx’s letter to Lincoln of 1865.
____________________________________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, and 1802
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
F Hamas and F israel, but destroy the marxists pushing this pro-hamas crap.
F You for saying F Israel. You hate leftists, as do I, but you support Hamas if you want Israel destroyed.
The UCLA morgue was selling body parts via the black market a few years back. Don’t donate your body to the med school. 🙁
Two points should not get lost in the shuffle:
1. This garbage is MANDATIRY, and
2. These was MEDICAL SCHOOL, not some Sociology elective.
Seth Goldstein
MANDATORY … sorry
Considering who they hired as Chancellor to replace Napolitano, any student in the UC system should not be surprised what their tuition is paying for. Past graduates of the UCLA Medical School may want to highlight the year they graduated as a disclaimer against this lunacy.
A hallmark of Drake’s long career has been widening access to higher education for students from diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. As vice president for UC health affairs, he increased the diversity of newly minted medical professionals through a program that offered incentives for them to work in underserved communities. He also worked with UC Irvine to launch a groundbreaking program to develop a pipeline of “physician leaders” to serve the unique health needs of the Latino community.
Though I appreciate the Professor giving it a name, ‘radical chic’ is too kind; this is generational, liberal, lily-livered cowardice. They will not stand up for right if it creates cognitive dissonance in the tiny blue worlds they have lived in and raised their children in, never questioning, and most certainly never paying attention. We used to say, ‘Kill your television’; in 2024, that should be kill Silicon Valley, and kill the rotting and stinking remains of what used to be the democratic party. I do not want my tax dollars funding any of their idiocy. I will never vote for another democrat as long as I live, and I earnestly hope with all of my heart that their farce of a party implodes. And you can largely thank Pelosi, as their public face for so long, for my sentiments. These days, actual scum look down on modern democrats.