Just Followed Orders

~ Clarissa

This is very dishonest. They didn’t just follow the rules. They hounded people based on sex and race excitedly, enthusiastically, and with glee. This was not a top-down revolution. This was – and still is – a phenomenon in which the most educated, credentialed, intelligent and privileged people participate completely sincerely. The percentage of scholars who do not passionately believe in DEI is maybe 2%, and I’m being very optimistic.

DEI was created in academia and then exported as a neoliberal cudgel everywhere else. Since Trump’s inauguration, the administration of my university has not used racist language. Even though we aren’t dependent on federal funding, the administration stepped away from this. I did, however, hear a colleague mockingly go on about “mediocre white men getting jobs because they are mediocre and white” to a white male academic who looked very uncomfortable but terrified to say anything. We lived for years amidst this kind of bullying where it was OK to insult people most outrageously based on their innate characteristics. Nobody took responsibility for this. Nobody indicated in any way that they understood why this was wrong and why this shouldn’t happen again.

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Published by Clarissa

40 thoughts on “Just Followed Orders”

    1. The academic community is deeply inhospitable to anybody who isn’t very sincerely and enthusiastically pro-BLM. You feel like a pariah and live in fear if you are one of the tiny minority of dissidents. It’s very hard for most people to exist in that state.

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      1. My mathematics-loving kid wants to be an engineer. At 13 he is basically cramming math and science because he wants to take college physics *so badly*.

        I’m biased because I’m his mom, but I think the field of engineering would benefit from having him: Academia has got five years to fix this, or he’s going to be an electrician instead.

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        1. \ Academia has got five years to fix this, or he’s going to be an electrician instead.

          Why?!!! Engineering is much more rewarding both financially and intellectually.

          Why prevent one’s child from achieving professional fulfillment and happiness merely because of somebody on university campus having views you disagree with?

          I studied engineering for a while, then changed course and earned a degree in computer science. The latter isn’t easy, but engineering is much much harder, truly for the few with exceptional abilities and drive.

          Are you afraid his engineering professors will make him ‘woke’ instead of teaching super challenging courses in their chosen field? It’s not gender studies or even history, it’s engineering.

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          1. This isn’t about someone having opinions. It’s about the kid being publicly shamed and bullied for the color of his skin and his gender. Would you send your daughter to a place where she’d have to apologize in a small voice about being a stain on humanity?

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              1. If I, an adult person, self-mutilated to make myself bedridden for a month to avoid one of these struggle sessions, expecting a young person to go through it unscathed is unrealistic.

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          2. He comes from a long line of men who’ve made worthy contributions to civilization as scientists, engineers, boatbuilders, ship captains, mechanics, foundrymen, linguists, inventors, and farmers.

            All of those professions are noble, useful, and make the world a better place.

            Do you have something against electricians?

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            2. \ Do you have something against electricians?

              No, but not everybody can be happy in every profession, especially when it is a central part of one’s identity, which is true for many men and personally for me too.

              Before graduation, I worked around 2 years in something connected to computers (not programming). Had the nicest place of work imaginable, great co-workers, knew it was temporary, yet at the end of this period couldn’t wait to leave because of feeling bored, intellectually unchallenged.

              If somebody lives and breathes science, he may feel trapped and unhappy as an electrician. In addition, if a man builds a family and has children (and a wife?) to support, getting a degree in midlife is practically impossible.

              People spend most of their waking time, most their lives (!) at work. If a profession isn’t the best fit, imagine how it can blight a life. An unsuitable profession is like a bad marriage, destroying desire to live at all.

              And because of what? What will happen if he goes to university?

              USA had one president, now Trump takes a stand against ‘wokeness.’ Political changes may come, but w/o high education, it’ll be too late to change anything.

              Clarissa, you went to school and to university during FSU times. Your parents didn’t tell you not to go to university because of communist propaganda, which was 100% worse than any ‘woke’ ideology in engineering (!) departments in USA. Now you’re a professor, had great success in your field, while FSU is no longer.

              Would you tell nursing / engineering / Spanish students at your university to drop out because something is too woke? Would they become happier w/o good education?

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              1. You’re assuming a lot here.

                1. That he’ll be able to get a good education, in a uni system that has spent twenty years shoving out white men, and not replacing them with equal numbers or equal expertise.
                2. That it is a good or neutral thing, to have your identity tied up in your job (we beg to differ, and believe this is pathological: as children of God, our identities are internal).
                3. That a higher-paying profession is necessarily a better one.

                I have some hope that science and mathematics at least, have held onto enough essentials (and enough curmudgeons) that in five years, given the current shakeup, we’ll be able to find an acceptable uni program.

                But there’s also a chance that it’s too far gone already (i.e. physics got cancelled because the dean needed a new Merc), that the necessary financial reforms won’t happen, or that the changes being attempted now will get rolled back as soon as we have another election.

                We’ll have to wait and see.

                I don’t see not being able to pursue your dream degree as a tragedy. How many little kids who dreamed of being a princess or an astronaut ever actually realize that goal? Not all goals are reachable, available, or practical. Since engineering may or may not be within reach when we get to that juncture, we are always exploring other options.

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              2. I was at an event for prospective students today, and there was a family from my church with a college-bound son. I asked what he was interested in, and he said math. I think my face kind of crumpled because math is getting mutilated, too, and I didn’t know what to tell these good, honest people who have no idea what a mess we are in.

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              3. You can also consider Canada. Our international tuition is probably lower than out-of-state tuition in most US universities.

                And I assure you that, despite being in the same position as Clarissa, I had to endure zero white-guilt sessions. And not because I ignored them, we just do not have them. Yeah, we do have territorial acknowledgments… I doubt students are exposed to them much outside of major ceremonies such as graduations. Of course, if you want white Christian male environment, or no exposure to anything woke whatsoever, our university is probably not for you.

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              4. My friend, I’m sorry but your political beliefs are liberal. You don’t perceive them as woke struggle sessions but as declarations of truth. I’m sure that 100% of people who sat with me at those struggle sessions would sincerely say they never experienced one.

                A good rule of thumb is that conservatives understand liberals very well but liberals do not understand conservatives. My 15yo niece in Canada had to be dissuaded by her mother from the belief that white people’s lives don’t matter that she acquired in the Canadian secondary education. It was delivered in those precise words.

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              5. Clarissa, I repeat – we do not have white guilt sessions or anything resembling them for anybody at our university except maybe a handful of DEI people (so I do not know about them), despite it having reputation for being more woke than average. It is not about me not noticing them because I am a liberal fish not noticing liberal water. The only occasions I had to undergo any DEI trainings was to sit on the hiring committees. In which case it was a one-hour online (as in – not in public, no possibility of public shaming) “unconscious bias” training and there was nothing on the level of “white lives do not matter”. Only stuff that was considered reasonable 10 years ago. And then one gets a certificate, so one is considered bias-free for a year or even two. 🙂

                Over all those years I was asked ONCE, and in a friendly, non-accusatory manner, why I do not use pronouns in my signatures. I admit, I did give a “liberal” answer – that I am a white heterosexual male and it does not feel right to me to signal that I am as vulnerable to misgendering as a trans- or non-binary person. Besides, I am being constantly misgendered by foreign prospective students who do not know which western names are male and which are female (and write before looking at the webpage). This answer did not affect my relationship with the person who asked the question. At all.

                Once upon a time I misgendered a non-binary speaker when announcing their talk. I just corrected myself with “sorry, them” and moved on. Later I was told that this was exactly what the speaker preferred – for their preference to be acknowledged, but nobody going into panic, or shame, or guilt mode.

                I assume it may be worse in some humanities departments. But we are talking about engineering and natural sciences here. And about university-level policies.

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              6. You didn’t misgender. You stated a scientific fact. I understand that you don’t perceive this situation as I do. Those of us who perceive the very concept of misgendering as insane are the overwhelming majority of the population.

                I have to say, though, that I’m eager to hear anybody ask me about pronouns. Nobody found the energy so far but I’m still hopeful.

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              7. —You didn’t misgender. You stated a scientific fact.

                To me this issue is very similar to the issue of religious beliefs. I have no problems with people’s religious beliefs as long as they do not harm anybody. I do not feel compelled to argue with religious people every time they say something that contradicts scientific facts.

                Returning to harm – I do have problem with males identifying as females in prisons or in female sports (because since when interests or safety of 1% became more important than interests or safety of 50%) but if someone wants to be called “them” in the field where the results cannot possibly depend on this kind of identification – I put being polite above taking some “principled stance”… which I am not taking in case of religious people anyway. So it wouldn’t even be a “principled stance”.

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              8. If a religious person states at a scientific conference or in a course on biology that the planet was created 5,000 years ago, I can’t imagine anybody tolerating that as an acceptable difference of opinion.

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            3. merthylethyl

              LOL. judging by the downvotes you forgot to also note the required butt kissing by those busily being “strong and independent except when they are oppressed, depending upon convenience”…but relax, as the local token curmudgeon, I assure you that there is little more frightening than a whie mother bear protecting one of her cubs ;-D

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            4. v07

              Do you not grasp that some being “acknowledged” might actually foolishly lead some to imagine that they somehow deserve to be considered some form of landed aristocracy? Hey, I understand that Canadian history is very poorly taught and even less understood. But surely you have heard of the of Micmac’s robbery of the lobster fishery, or of Mohawks repeatedly employing violence to attempts to take back land long sold by their ancestors. Ever heard of Gustafen Lake?

              Words matter, grow up, the institute where you supposedly learn, were imagined, funded, and built by white males, Although then and now, any whose ancestors had been here long will often have some aboriginal parenthood. Grasp that, and moreover understand that this land like all others that have ever existed, were taken by humans using war and/or the threat of war.

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              1. —this land like all others that have ever existed, were taken by humans using war and/or the threat of war.

                Well, I do appreciate that your position is less hypocritical than territorial acknowledgments… I’d be mighty pissed by these acknowledgments, if I were aboriginal… However, if we take this position and run with it, we should also conclude that it is perfectly fine for Russia, for example, to occupy any part of Ukraine or all of it. Because any land can be taken by war or the threat of war. And then god forbid some Ukrainians would rob some Russian fishery on the Black sea coast, or try taking back some of their land by violence… What do these Ukrainians think of themselves – that they are some kind of landed aristocracy?

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              3. v07

                No, I do argue feminism with our host, but respect her feelings too much to say much about Ukraine, I know some history, but only enough to believe there appears no easy resolution, epecially because any solid UN peacekeeping unit are now NATO members.

                And no, having too many friends and relatives among them, I don’t worry about Indians getting pissed off. And yes, Indian is the term most natives use. “First Nations” is just more feel-good horseshit like “acknowledgement”, equally potentially dangerous, and only used by corrupt overpaid native politicians and their lackeys.

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              4. There was an easy solution in 1991 but it was not chosen out of ridiculous hubris. Now that the cancer has been allowed to get terminal, there definitely is no easy solution. Let’s recognize that but also remember that we are in a situation caused by 30 years of endless “Russia resets” that always end exactly the same. Somebody has got to learn something from this mess.

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              5. Clarissa

                LOL, actually some might have considered Ukraine keeping ~quarter of the USSR nuclear ballistic missiles to be sort of a threat of war, defensive true, but… ;-D

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              6. Russia kept all of the USSR nuclear missiles. Why is that not considered a threat of war? Especially given how often the desire to destroy Europe and the US with nuclear weapons is expressed from every news outlet?

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              7. All nuclear weapons are clearly a threat of war, why else would anyone create one? I was informed that Ukraine had the capability of using the weapons previously emplaced by the USSR, but voluntarily gave them up in exchange for security promised by the USA and Britain in 1994. Was I misinformed?

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        2. A fifth of engineering and computer science undergrad degrees go to women. Whatever you are imagining the climate of universities to be like, at worst, would be for a handful of liberal arts classes before getting into engineering classes.

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    2. As someone who has spent the vast majority of my adult life in academic science, the answer to your question is: not many. I was surrounded by qualified, intelligent, conscientious and promising young men, most of them white.

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  2. \ Since engineering may or may not be within reach when we get to that juncture

    I understand your position, if you’re worrying about financial availability of this degree.

    On the plus side, USA has 50 states and numerous universities. If one is open to studying far away from home, finding an acceptable uni program should be possible.

    In Israel, there is compulsory military service, then many young people travel abroad for a while, and only later go to universities. An article from 2017 claims that an average age of Israeli university student is 26.7, which is not too surprising considering waiting to be drafted for months after school, around 3 years in the army and then being released after opening of an academic year.

    Quite a few work for a while and then go to university. There even is a list of preferred jobs for discharged IDF soldiers, meaning if one works for full 6 months ‘in vital work’ , one’ll receive a grant of NIS 11,192 (or 3011 dollars) as of Jan 01, 2025.

    I’ve started talking about it since one can choose to work for 1-2 years after school, with a clear goal of saving every dollar, and then go to university as a 100% adult person, capable of making serious decisions.

    \ That a higher-paying profession is necessarily a better one.

    I do not think that. I’ve mentioned intellectual needs and desire to love one’s job.

    A little boy dreaming to be a superhero is different from f.e. my former classmate who dreamed of becoming a doctor and went to study medicine.

    I studied engineering despite not wanting to study it because of the army giving a grant for this degree (details are unimportant here). My relatives encouraged me to take this opportunity since they were worried re finances as new immigrants. I haven’t finished this degree and felt … bad (traumatized is too extreme word) for years after this experience.

    I reacted to your comments because of getting (wrong?) impression of you deciding to tell your son not to go to university, if the available uni seemed too Left wing.

    Btw, don’t think ‘shoving out white men’ happened in engineering or physics. I read that many students of exact sciences in USA are Asian, so may be some profs are too in those fields, but it’s a different issue.

    \ That it is a good or neutral thing, to have your identity tied up in your job (we beg to differ, and believe this is pathological: as children of God, our identities are internal).

    Lets leave the term ‘identity’ then. It’s not the most important term here for me.

    Imagine f.e. a lonely childless woman in her 40ies being told it’s wrong to feel deeply unhappy since her identity shouldn’t be tied to anything in this world.

    I had worked in unsuitable places for relatively a long time, and this left me stressed and depressed. Finding a correct profession is crucial for living a good life, whether one uses the term ‘identity’ or not.

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  3. \ If I, an adult person, self-mutilated to make myself bedridden for a month to avoid one of these struggle sessions, expecting a young person to go through it unscathed is unrealistic.

    For most people, if somebody has a job one feels stuck in, the amount of self-destruction is much more severe.

    As for young people being hurt, it also depends on a person. I wouldn’t care about several sessions as an university student, would’ve just kept my mouth shut (and it’s parents’ job to explain that), while being stuck in a bad job would absolutely destroy my life with permanent depression and etc, hurting not only professionally but also in a private life. Because a chronically depressed person cannot be too attractive romantic partner. I experienced something like that (thankfully, not fully), so know I’m speaking 100% truth.

    I believe you suffered a lot. It just … didn’t you have to go to komsomol meetings in your youth (if that’s the name)? I thought you knitted during them, or was it smb else who told this story?

    Besides, you have to go to those sessions because of very high position in the university system. It surely is different for an average student in engineering or computers. Again, we’re not talking re gender studies here.

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  4. Yoni Appelbaum, while very intelligent, like so many Ashkenazi Jews – and I am one myself – is one of the most intellectually dishonest people currently in circulation in the US media world.

    That’s all.

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    1. Exactly, it’s the dishonesty that I dislike. In August when we were told by the university’s legal team that we aren’t allowed to discriminate based on race and sex in awarding STEM scholarships, faculty in STEM angrily protested. They sincerely believed the discrimination was a good thing even when the government told them it’s unconstitutional and isn’t allowed. This was before Trump.

      They weren’t “just following orders.” In fact, they refused to follow the orders and the head of the legal team – incidentally, a black woman – had to shout them down aggressively.

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  5. “that anon wouldn’t want my kid in uni anyway, so I have no idea why it disapproves”

    In Poland, that attitude is called ‘pies ogrodnika’ (the gardener’s dog)* used of someone who doesn’t want something but tries to prevent others from having it.

    *theoretically the English equivalent is ‘the dog in the manger’ but I’ve hardly ever actually heard anyone use it.

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    1. This is the distinction between jealousy, covetousness, and envy: jealousy is when you have something and you don’t want to share; covetousness is when you want something that belongs to someone else, and envy is when someone else has something, you don’t want it, but you also can’t stand them having it and you want it taken from them.

      Everyone in my husband’s family uses “dog in the manger”.

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  6. “we should also conclude that it is perfectly fine for Russia, for example, to occupy any part of Ukraine or all of it”

    that (or something equally awful) is the end station of the train that starts with ‘respecting’ someone’s pronouns (that is accepting that they have the right to dictate your language and override your perceptions) or land acknowledgements (accepting that be being where you are you are actively participating in genocide).

    Where’s your line in the sand? What’s your perception that you won’t give up in the face of a yowling mob (or more likely, a sympathetic person who just wants you to go along with it… no big deal… just accept it).

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