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A Brave Man Stands Up
Jeff Poelvoorde, whom I met through mutual friends, is a smart, charming, lively, funny guy, a professor of history and politics at Converse College in South Carolina, and an orthodox rabbi. He is also courageous, and when I read his open letter to colleagues and friends, published by the National Association of Scholars, I was sad but not surprised.
The powers that be at Converse had set out “a series of measures to demonstrate the College’s seriousness in addressing the existence of racism and racial bigotry… [including] the mandatory viewing of several videos that purport to address the issues of sensitivity, bias, prejudice, diversity and inclusion.” In his response, Jeff lays out the reasons for his refusal to comply, and it is a refreshing change from the long, abject line of apologizers. The letter is also a model of understanding and manly restraint, and I believe that it is unanswerable, at least from a civilized point of view.
Published in Education
That was a truly inspiring response to the coercion now running rampant in many of our institutions.
It was just a few short years ago that we had a national campaign against Bullying. Let’s do away with BLM to save the children from bullies.
Is Converse still a women’s school? It was in the early 70’s when I was at Davidson. Several guys I knew had girlfriends there.
Bullied Lives Matter?
Don’t be mislead into thinking that the woke academic crowd are civilized or have a civilized point of view.
That truly takes guts right now. People are losing their jobs over this.
Yes, but I believe they intend to admit male undergraduates.
At this point I would be in favor of a heavy defunding of universities.
I’m not a fan of Converse. They hurt my feet. New Balance are much more comfortable.
Just sayin’.
Having had my bit of fun, I went and read the open letter from Professor Poelvoorde. Bravo! Well said! Our country is immensely improved to have men of his caliber.
Converse still hurt my feet, and the statist authoritarians running the college also so-named can kiss them.
Indeed it was. Thank you for sharing this, Sandy.
Beautiful letter. Universities everywhere need more teachers like him.
The current situation show that bullying is not just for school children. It is for teachers against teacher and school administrators against teacher. It is for the left wing mobs against everything else. It is about converting a supposedly white dominated society to a black dominated society. Black supremacists who demand that all others take a knee.
Equality is no longer the goal.
It’s following the same path that feminism followed. Equality is no longer the goal.
The whole taking a knee thing is especially annoying. One does not kneel to an equal In the history of this country since slavery abolishment, blacks were never obliged to kneel before whites. Equals do not do that.
I would forward a copy of the letter to my poor benighted mother, but the sad reality is that I doubt she would comprehend much past the opening.