The Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium has done an absolutely stellar job of covering Yale Law School’s insane campaign insufficiently woke students like conservative part-Cherokee student Trent Colbert.
Well, according to the latest from Sibarium, the Yale Law School mess has only gotten messier.
More outstanding work from @aaronsibarium. https://t.co/G8ZwqvY4Ma
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) November 2, 2021
Strap in for this thread. It’s long, but definitely worth your time:
NEW: The YLS administrator at the center of Traphouse-gate pushed the Yale Law Journal to host a diversity trainer who said anti-Semitism is merely a form of anti-blackness and suggested the FBI artificially inflates the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes. https://t.co/uUQmR0j6sE
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The comments from diversity trainer Ericka Hart—a self-described "kinky" sex-ed teacher who works with children as young as nine—shocked members of the predominantly liberal law review, many of whom characterized the presentation as anti-Semitic.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
(It’s worth recalling that Ericka Hart‘s “kink” includes leaving menstrual blood on men’s bathroom floors.)
"I consider myself very liberal," a student said. But Hart's presentation, delivered Sept. 17 to members of the law review, was "almost like a conservative parody of what antiracism trainings are like." Hart had been recommended to the Journal by YLS DEI director Yaseen Eldik.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The controversy began when a law journal editor asked Hart why her presentation had addressed inequities like "pretty privilege" and "fatphobia" but not anti-Semitism, according to a memo that collected feedback on the training from 33 law journal editors. https://t.co/6qdBDVIsMN
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Hart responded that she'd already covered anti-Semitism by discussing anti-blackness, because some Jews are black. She also raised questions about FBI data showing that Jews are the most frequent targets of hate crimes.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The implication, in the words of one journal editor, was that the people compiling those statistics had an "agenda."
"She basically said anti-Semitism is a subset of anti-blackness," the editor said. "She didn't recognize there could be anti-Semitism against white people."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Reactions to the training were almost uniformly negative, with 82 percent of editors saying they would not invite Hart back even if she incorporated their feedback. pic.twitter.com/e62e6iUx9L
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Over a 3rd expressed distress at her treatment of anti-Semitism—"shocking," "offensive," and "upsetting" is how 3 separate editors described it—while several more mocked her account of "white supremacy culture," which one editor called "goalpost-moving, unfalsifiable nonsense."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
On a scale of 1-10, the most common score for the training was a "1." pic.twitter.com/OKD4xLSdF1
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The training was held the same day that Yaseen Eldik, the law school's diversity director, told second-year law student Trent Colbert that his refusal to apologize for a party invite could cause him trouble on the bar exam. https://t.co/iJigk63LFe
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The journal had solicited suggestions for a diversity trainer months earlier, according to the memo, and Eldik recommended Hart as an "impactful and informative" choice.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The memo noted that Hart had already "led workshops for YLS Class of 2024's 1L Orientation, the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, the Yale Good Life Center, and the Yale School of Nursing."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
When the Free Beacon asked Eldik for comment, Debra Kroszner, the law school's managing director of public affairs, replied instead, saying the law school hadn't "received any complaints about anti-Semitic comments, nor were these anonymous concerns shared with us."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Any complaints would have been lodged with Eldik, who serves as a "discrimination and harassment coordinator" for the law school.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
In an email disseminating the memo to all journal editors, the board of the law review said it "condemns anti-Semitism and all forms of implicit and explicit prejudice."
So to be clear, the Yale Law Journal condemned anti-Semitism, but Yale Law School itself did not.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Hart isn't the only DEI professional with a blind spot around anti-Semitism. In 2007, Google's head of diversity strategy said Jews have an "insatiable appetite for war" and an "insensitivity to the suffering of others," per my colleague @alanagoodman: https://t.co/ryDwHUO5J8
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
More recently, two mental health counselors at Stanford filed a civil rights complaint against their department's diversity committee, saying it had "endorsed the narrative that Jews are connected to white supremacy" and "advanc[ed] anti-Semitic tropes concerning Jewish power."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The memo—which was written by the journal's "Diversity & Membership Editor"—suggests that such tropes have made their way to the top law review in the country.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
So have many of the other tropes associated with pop "antiracism." In her September presentation, Hart listed "perfectionism," "objectivity," "a sense of urgency," and "the written word" as examples of "white supremacy culture."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Dismantling that culture, she said, required abolishing prisons, opposing capitalism, and imprisoning former president Donald Trump.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
At least five different editors slammed the suggestion that things like "punctuality" and "objectivity" constitute white supremacy, with one going so far as to accuse Hart of racism.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
"How is it not infantilizing for her to stand up there and say such traits are inherently white," the editor asked. "This sort of neoracism is not something we should be promulgating at the journal."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The reactions highlight the gap between student activism and student opinion at the Ivy League law school, which has seen several race-related controversies over the course of the year.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
In February, for example, a raft of racial affinity groups alleged the Yale Law Journal was systematically excluding minority students from its masthead, despite admissions data showing otherwise. https://t.co/HXTq0hUYFD
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Many of those same affinity groups subsequently denounced Colbert for his "racist" use of the term "trap house," which elicited nine "discrimination and harassment" complaints in 12 hours. https://t.co/iJigk63LFe
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
In his meeting with Colbert, Eldik uncritically parroted the activists' complaints, including one from the president of the Black Law Students Association Marina Edwards, who accused Colbert of planning a blackface party.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Edwards's group sponsored Hart's "Anti-Racism Education Workshop" for 1L students in August, the memo noted. Among the editors' many complaints about the journal training, one was that it was "literally the exact same training" Hart "gave last spring to the whole law school."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The survey results suggest that the vast majority of students oppose such sessions behind closed doors. What drives the programming is a small faction of activists and administrators who wield outsized power on campus, enforcing an ideology their peers privately regard as toxic.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
The Yale Law Journal should "not accept at face value the recommendations of YLS's fringe advocacy groups," one editor said. "A good rule of thumb for whether to invite a speak[er]: If that presentation were leaked, how would it reflect on the journal and its reputation?"
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Hart's training was adapted from a two-part "Racial and Social Justice" webinar priced at $72 per person and reviewed by the Free Beacon. Hart begins the webinar by stating that anyone who disagrees with her has likely "been conditioned" to "dismiss" black people.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
After listing her various privileges—including "cisgender passing," "pretty privilege," and "small fat privilege/thicc"—she declares that she is a "Poly adjacent" "survivor of white neighborhoods," and is "always aware of white supremacy" when she walks around New York City. pic.twitter.com/q7wVTOjXq3
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Hart and her partner, Ebony Donnley, go on to assert that slavery is intrinsic to capitalism; that there is a "genocide against black people"; that biology is a "racist pseudoscience created by white people to further their dominance"…
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
…that politeness and "perfectionism" are white supremacy; and that gender is a "tool of colonization" responsible for "multiple murders of black trans women." pic.twitter.com/gnL9sjIxkO
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Hart also criticizes Robin DiAngelo and other white DEI professionals for "monetizing" black oppression, attributing their success to the fact that "black people are seldom believed."
For some students, the most offensive thing about Hart's training was its anti-intellectualism.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
"We are supposed to be the smartest law students in the world," an editor wrote. "Yet for two hours, we were forced to sit quietly and unquestioningly take on faith asinine arguments devoid of any evidence."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Another student called Hart's conflation of objectivity with white supremacy "really stupid and unreconcilable with YLJ's mission," adding that her training "was a complete waste of time."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
Still, a few critics did find things to appreciate: Asked, "What did you enjoy about this training," four students pointed to the Grubhub voucher they'd received for attending.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) November 2, 2021
So at least there was that.
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