A House of Race Cards

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has had the scales drop from his eyes. His epilogue to Claudine Gay's Harvard presidency posted on X looks squarely at the problem that Diversity Equity and Inclusion ideology represents to our society:

I came to learn that the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard was an ideology that had been promulgated on campus, an oppressor/oppressed framework, that provided the intellectual bulwark behind the protests, helping to generate anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech and harassment. Then I did more research. The more I learned, the more concerned I became, and the more ignorant I realized I had been about DEI, a powerful movement that has not only pervaded Harvard, but the educational system at large. I came to understand that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was not what I had naively thought these words meant. I have always believed that diversity is an important feature of a successful organization, but by diversity I mean diversity in its broadest form: diversity of viewpoints, politics, ethnicity, race, age, religion, experience, socioeconomic background, sexual identity, gender, one’s upbringing, and more. What I learned, however, was that DEI was not about diversity in its purest form, but rather DEI was a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology. *** An ideology that portrays a bicameral world of oppressors and the oppressed based principally on race or sexual identity is a fundamentally racist ideology that will likely lead to more racism rather than less. A system where one obtains advantages by virtue of one’s skin color is a racist system, and one that will generate resentment and anger among the un-advantaged who will direct their anger at the favored groups. The country has seen burgeoning resentment and anger grow materially over the last few years, and the DEI movement is an important contributor to our growing divisiveness. Resentment is one of the most important drivers of racism. And it is the lack of equity, i.e, fairness, in how DEI operates, that contributes to this resentment.

Ackman is taking a path that many earlier left-of-center thinkers have taken. Ackman, a Harvard alum and financial supporter of Harvard, was active in the wake of October 7 examining antisemitism at Harvard and other universities. His epilogue recounts his journey. He is not a conservative and no doubt will be looking for any excuse to continue to support Progressive politicians. But he has taken a major step in re-evaluating how his internal moral compass aligns (or not) with current Progressive thought.

This is the time to ally, the time to prioritize our issues and make common cause against the most problematic challenges to our Republic. Freedom of thought and expression, and the fact that those freedoms are fundamental and not a result of license by the State or any entity are at the pinnacle. Personal autonomy in our person and our property are just below the pinnacle and not licensed by the State. Limits on State action are critical to prevent violations and we must return to a point where the concept of "public good" does not violate personal autonomy, and police action for conflicts between persons are routinely dispassionate and operating within our constitutional restrictions on the State.

Bill Ackman isn't there yet, but let's take the "W" and build on it.