by James A. Bacon
As Woke-ism deniers ramp up their obfuscations of the implementation of Woke social-justice ideology in Virginia’s schools and colleges, the evidence keeps pouring in. Yesterday, a source forwarded to me the following communication by Elyse Girard (She/They) at the University of Virginia regarding the hiring of a new Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility at the University of library.
Let’s set aside the fact that the library has managed up to now to vigorously pursue its vision of diversity and equity without the necessity of adding an associate dean to its payroll. (See “How Not to Create a Diverse, Welcoming Workplace.) This job application openly advertises ideological criteria for the job. Applicants must have “a sophisticated understanding of anti-racism, intersectionality, and social justice.”
By “sophisticated understanding,” Girard is saying that the applicant must be well versed in the full range of leftist, social-justice thinking in which “anti-racism” means reverse racism, and “intersectionality” refers to an appreciation of the overlapping systems of oppression by race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
UVa Library wants to “shift culture” and “manage change.” What a frightening goal for the curators of the storehouse of knowledge contained in the university’s library! How long before these librarians are giving George Orwell lessons on how to manage the memory hole?
Are librarians at every higher-ed institution equally woke? Is this example an aberration, or is it typical of what’s happening in university libraries across Virginia? Citizens need to know.
Not only will they need an associate dean but the associate needs a secretary who needs and aide who needs a file clerk and so on ad nauseam. This is why it is so expensive to attend college. The administration is ludicrously top heavy. They need another dean like they need a hole in their empty heads.
John Unsworth, the dean of the library, is a well known Marxist. Would you expect anything less? Hard to fathom how this guy was chosen to head what Jefferson deemed the heart of our University. Disgraceful.
FYI, Unsworth was unfortunately brought in by Casteen.
The BOV should ask Elyse Girard precisely what exists at Alderman Library that promulgates racism and is antithetical to “Equity, Diversity, and Accessibility?” Is it the the books of Mark Twain with Huckleberry Finn’s 1800’s era language? Perhaps George Orwell’s novel 1984 with statist thought control and fictitious new language eerily reminiscent of exactly the type of wording in this absurd job posting?
Before we add to the already significant lard of the ever growing UVA DEI bureaucracy, Ms. Girard and all her fellow DEI administrators should be made to recite and prove the precise instances of overt racism they are hiring Deans and Associate Deans to correct.
I would bet my retirement IRA’s that absolutely none exist. This is not pre-Jim Crow Virginia. Systemic racism is a factual oxymoron. This is a Progressive Leftist solution in desperate search of a problem.