Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp can teach Jason Aldean a thing or two about small towns

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Haven’t been following the Aldean controversy (never listened to him) but found this contrast of interest:

One of the many absurdities of present political discourse is that the people who most obnoxiously declare their love for America hate most of its institutions, people and traditions. The latest example of the right-wing contradiction between sentimentality and substance is country singer Jason Aldean‘s statement that he is a “proud American.” “I love our country,” he said, before eloquently adding, “I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls**t started happening to us.”

It is not only easy to find better politics in small towns, but also better music.

Aldean was defending and explaining his new hit single, “Try That in a Small Town.” Written by Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy and Kurt Allison, “Try That in a Small Town” has Aldean adopting a vaguely threatening posture, telling listeners that if they “cuss out a cop” or “stomp on the flag,” they are likely to suffer the penalty of vigilante violence. “You cross that line,” Aldean snarls in an unconvincing and boring attempt at bravado, “It won’t take long for you to find out . . .”

Aldean is fond of wearing muscle shirts even though his arms have no size or definition. His wardrobe is emblematic of his music and politics – a costume suggesting strength, but exposing that there’s nothing really there. It is tempting to leave it at that, but Aldean has millions of fans who have shot the song up to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, all while he whines about “cancel culture.” The song provides an insight into the paranoia, hostility and estrangement that define contemporary Republican politics.

To what exactly is Aldean referring when he decries “bulls**t”? He mentions flag burning – something that may or may not offend people – but, like cussing at a cop, is protected by the First Amendment of the United Constitution. Evidently, the “bulls**t” goes back to the founding of the country when the constitutional framers wrote down the words of the Bill of Rights. In the second verse, he sings not about gun control, but a favorite and asinine conspiracy theory of the paranoid right: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s**t might fly in the city, good luck.”

There is no “they” planning a gun confiscation program. Gun control is another matter. Perhaps, Aldean has forgotten that the March for Our Lives mass demonstration that took place in 880 cities, many of them small towns, across the United States on March 24, 2018 was organized by survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Parkland has a population of 35,000 people. There are many people in small towns who don’t like the idea of risking violent death every time they attend class, shop in a grocery store or attend a county music concert in Las Vegas (where Aldean was a performer).

The video for “Try That in a Small Town” signifies the less obvious, but more insidious message of the song. It originally included footage from Black Lives Matter protests – now edited out – and shows Aldean and his band performing at the steps of the courthouse of Columbia, Tennessee – the site where a racist mob of terrorists lynched Henry Choate, a Black teenager, in 1927. It is plausible that Aldean and his brain trust did not know of the lynching when they selected the location, but the ugly coincidence demonstrates the danger of what Sheryll Cashin, professor at Georgetown Law School, calls, “boundary maintenance” – that is the “intentional state action to create and maintain a racialized physical order.” The state action, as Cashin explains, produces attendant social and cultural effects.

“Try That in a Small Town” amplifies the “Real Americans” cliché that Sarah Palin used to animate the Republican electorate in 2008, and now functions as right-wing dogma. One lyric brags that the town is full of “good ol’ boys raised up right.” This nonsense implies that American authenticity exists only in a small exurb somewhere far from “the city” where white people dutifully file into the megachurch every Sunday morning. A Puerto Rican lesbian who works as a nurse at New York hospital is, somehow, less of an American than the white guy fondling his “granddad’s gun.” CMT has refused to play the “Try That in a Small Town” video, and in response, South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, and governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis – two proud America-haters – have come to his defense.

It is not only easy to find better politics in small towns, but also better music. One of the most influential songs to depict small town life is John Mellencamp‘s 1985 hit, “Small Town.” Taking inspiration from his hometown of Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp sings about a beautiful and hospitable community. Over a sparse, roots rock arrangement that bounces along with an infectious melody, Mellencamp boasts that in the “small town” of his youth, “People let me be just what I want to be.”

The song is one of the most dramatic moments on his record, “Scarecrow” – a collection of songs that protest big agriculture’s destruction of the family farmer, racism and American indifference to poverty. The record juxtaposes protest with celebration of individual courage and compassion. In “Small Town,” the singer announces an undying love and loyalty for those whose kindness and support helped shape him. A tribute to his grandfather, “Minutes to Memories,” makes use of a rock-meets-twang guitar riff and big Motown drum beat, to praise the integrity of those who believe “an honest man’s pillow is his peace of mind.”

Mellencamp’s thoughtful love for his “small town” . . . provides an artistic model for how to balance patriotism and protest.

In the same year that Mellencamp released “Small Town,” he collaborated with Willie Nelson and Neil Young to found Farm Aid – an annual benefit concert and organization committed to assisting family farmers. Unlike Aldean’s posturing, Mellencamp’s activism has directly benefitted those struggling with hardship and deprivation in states like Indiana, and Aldean’s native Georgia.

Mellencamp also showcases the maturity necessary to wrestle with the sublime and hideous in his beloved small town America. While songs like “Small Town,” “Cherry Bomb” and “Thundering Hearts” give a romantic view of provincial villages, he also writes and performs music that condemns and mourns the bigotry and narrow-mindedness so often prevalent in those same places. “Jackie Brown” is one of the most moving lamentations of poverty put to record, “Jena,” gives fiery denunciation of a history of hate crimes in Jena, Louisiana and “Melting Pot,” over Dave Grissom’s blistering lead guitar, explores American hypocrisy in public policy and race relations. “Pink Houses,” Mellencamp most famous slice of Americana, balances patriotic celebration with rage against continual exploitation of the poor.

The left too often dismisses patriotism as naïve or central to destructive right-wing politics of hatred and exclusion. But people have a healthy desire to feel proud of their homes and heritage. Mellencamp’s thoughtful love for his “small town,” as opposed to Aldean’s reactionary tantrum, provides an artistic model for how to balance patriotism and protest.

Bruce Springsteen gave equal weight to both impulses in his 2007 song, “Long Walk Home.” Set in a small town with familiar locales – a barbershop, mom and pop grocery store, VFW – Springsteen’s character navigates the American landscape after the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq and violation of civil liberties. As the song swells to a triumphant conclusion, featuring a characteristically powerful Clarence Clemons saxophone solo, Springsteen sings,

My father said “Son, we’re lucky in this town,
It’s a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you,
Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone.
That flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.”
It’s gonna be a long walk home . . .

 Mellencamp is proud of a small town where he can be just what he wants to be, and Springsteen imagines an idyllic setting of communal solidarity and individual freedom. Their small town vision welcomes the Black Lives Matter protester, the trans teenager and the elderly, white Christian. All have a home. The flag, rather than menacing those who oppose official policy, provides security and assurance – representing the Bill of Rights, democratic safeguards, the rule of law and a culture of personal choice.

The unfortunate popularity of Jason Aldean should not deceive the causal observer. As the CMT video ban would suggest, his brand of parochial prejudice is losing in music and politics. Tyler Childers, an neotraditional country and Americana singer/songwriter from Kentucky writes country songs telling the stories of progressive politics and largehearted humanity in rural America. His newest song and video, co-written with Kentucky poet laureate, Silas House, “In Your Love,” beautifully depicts a gay romance. He has previously written rallying cries for racial justice, and protest songs against religious bigotry – all from a small town perspective.

Rhiannon Giddens, one of America’s most exciting and brilliant songwriters, hails from Greensboro, North Carolina – not exactly a small town, but she makes use of pastoral settings to explore racial oppression and indigenous history. As one music critic wrote of her work, it “systematically dismantles the myth of a homogenous Appalachia.”

Childers and Giddens have not commented on “Try That in a Small Town,” but Jason Isbell, who has a storied history of progressive protest songs from a small town vantage point, first with the Drive-By Truckers and now as a solo artist, ridiculed Aldean for promoting violence, and challenged him to “write his own song.”

The hospitality of Mellencamp’s and Springsteen’s small towns are . . . conquering more electoral territory.

Miranda Lambert, one of the most popular mainstream country singer/songwriters, places at the center of her musical and political philosophy, “ya’ll do ya’ll,” expressing support for LGBTQ rights and acceptance, and lambasting laws in Tennessee and Texas that prohibit public drag shows.

The hospitality of Mellencamp’s and Springsteen’s small towns are not only influencing younger musicians, but conquering more electoral territory. Joe Biden became president partially because of strong support in the suburbs of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Congressional districts representing large metro suburbs continue to turn Democratic. Many of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 took place in small towns like Valparaiso, Indiana and Havre, Montana. I live in a small town of Indiana with a population of 24,000 people. It has its own Black Lives Matter chapter, and a local environmental group.

Aldean’s dark and restrictive small town mentality is moving out of the suburbs, especially as they become more liberal, and into exurbia. Further from an urban center and with fewer people and less diversity, exurbia is now the breeding and staging ground of right-wing extremism. The lyrics of “Try That in a Small Town” are shallow, but no more or less foolish and paranoid than the nightly ravings on Fox News or the lies of Donald Trump’s speeches. The reactionary, exurban mentality has turned against the American culture, visible in provincial and urban America alike, of Mellencamp, Springsteen, Giddens and Lambert. It lives in a world of conspiracy and fear, imagining that an America that never truly existed is under assault from a coordinated plot. Multiculturalism, secularism and sexual liberalism are not the hallmarks of genuine, grassroots progress, but evil schemes to undermine white, Christian society.

The reality is that the progressive small town is winning throughout much of America, and those who want to “make America great again” or “restore” the country to what it once was will find that a clock only ticks forward. Willie Nelson has probably forgotten more about small towns and American history than Aldean will ever learn. He might have put it best with a lyric that is both summational and aspirational: “The world’s getting smaller / And everyone in it belongs.”

Source: Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp can teach Jason Aldean a …

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Le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants au Québec s’effrite par rapport au Canada

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Not surprising given Loi 21 and other initiatives:

Les débats sur la laïcité ont permis au Canada de marquer des points dans la guerre d’usure avec le Québec pour la loyauté des immigrants racisés. Le sentiment d’appartenir à la communauté québécoise n’a pas décliné entre 2012 et 2019, mais cet « élan » s’est néanmoins affaibli par rapport à la volonté d’être canadien, indique une nouvelle étude.

Ce déficit d’appartenance à la province s’est aussi étendu aux minorités non religieuses et à celles qui sont francophones durant cette période. Elles étaient pourtant moins susceptibles d’être touchées par les deux « événements focalisateurs » sous la loupe de cet article publié récemment dans la Revue canadienne de science politique que sont le projet de charte des valeurs et le projet de loi 21 sur la laïcité de l’État.

Les chercheurs ont mesuré l’évolution de l’appartenance à travers trois enquêtes qui coïncident dans le temps avec ces grands débats de société, soit en 2012, 2014 et 2019. « Au début de la période étudiée, on voit que, chez les immigrants non religieux ou francophones, il n’y a pas de préférence marquée entre le Québec ou le Canada. L’appartenance à l’un ou l’autre est aussi forte », explique Antoine Bilodeau, professeur de science politique à l’Université Concordia et coauteur de l’étude avec Luc Turgeon.

Ces perceptions évoluent, avec un creux en 2014, pour ensuite stagner envers le Québec. Mais pendant ce temps, le sentiment d’appartenance envers le Canada grandit, et cet effet est généralisé à tous les immigrants racisés, pas seulement ceux qui sont religieux ou qui ne sont pas francophones.

« Cela indique que les groupes minoritaires ont perçu ces débats comme une remise en question plus large de la relation avec la majorité. Ce qui est en trame de fond de tout ça, chez certains partisans [de la laïcité], mais beaucoup chez ses détracteurs, c’est que ces politiques reflètent le malaise du Québec avec la diversité grandissante », détaille-t-il.

Mais ce lien n’est pas causal avec une certitude absolue. Les chercheurs constatent plutôt que l’aiguille a bougé en faveur du fédéral sur le cadran de l’appartenance et attribuent cette modification à des facteurs déjà bien démontrés. Même si la transformation n’est pas totale, elle correspond dans le temps avec ces moments clés et elle est cohérente avec la littérature scientifique.

Un certain nombre d’études au Québec laissaient déjà entendre que les débats sur les symboles religieux avaient nourri un sentiment d’exclusion, mais elles ne permettaient pas de faire cette comparaison avant et après les propositions législatives.

Les deux auteurs, cette fois, ne peuvent « que conclure que les débats sur l’interdiction des symboles religieux à travers les propositions législatives qui ont pris place en 2014 et en 2019 ont contribué à détériorer la relation des immigrants racisés avec la communauté politique québécoise ou, plus précisément, ont contribué à creuser l’écart dans le sentiment d’appartenance à l’avantage du Canada », écrivent-ils dans l’étude.

Deux modèles

« Au fond, la perception est que le modèle fédéral est plus flexible dans sa définition de qui il reconnaît comme citoyen à part entière », résume le professeur, qui étudie ces aspects depuis nombre d’années. Et les débats sur la laïcité sont « venus consolider ou accentuer cette perception ».

Les deux coauteurs citent d’ailleurs l’ancien premier ministre Jacques Parizeau, qui s’inquiétait en 2013 que le projet de charte des valeurs du Parti québécois fasse la part belle au fédéralisme, qui allait pouvoir ainsi se présenter comme le véritable défenseur des minorités.

« Il [Jacques Parizeau] disait “vous allez perdre de vue la dynamique de compétition”. L’étude lui donne raison », explique M. Bilodeau.

Encore plus frappant aux yeux du coauteur de l’étude, la perte du sentiment d’appartenance vis-à-vis du gouvernement québécois « est causée par ses propres actions », plutôt que, par exemple, la passivité ou l’incapacité à rattraper le fédéral.

Autre fait intéressant, le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants racisés a été mesuré par deux aspects : l’attachement et le sentiment d’être accepté. Le concept d’appartenance est ainsi mieux compris dans sa dimension relationnelle, une relation à deux sens.

« C’est un peu comme demander “est-ce que je veux faire partie du groupe ? [attachement] Puis, est-ce que j’ai la perception que le groupe veut que j’en fasse partie ? [sentiment d’acceptation]” », détaille M. Bilodeau.

On pourrait penser que c’est surtout le sentiment d’acceptation qui a été touché : « Intuitivement, on dirait, ce geste me montre qu’ils ne veulent pas de moi. » Mais il y a, selon le professeur, un effet boomerang sur le désir de faire partie de la communauté, sur le sentiment d’attachement. « Non seulement c’est que je sens, qu’ils ne veulent pas [que j’appartienne au groupe], mais ça me fait remettre en question ma propre volonté d’être Québécois par rapport à “je veux être Canadien”. »

Des expériences vécues

« J’aimerais beaucoup me tourner vers le sentiment d’appartenance envers le Québec, mais on nous fait sentir qu’on n’y appartient pas. Alors, il faut se tourner ailleurs », explique d’ailleurs en entrevue Jana, une jeune musulmane. Le Devoir a choisi de ne pas publier son nom de famille, car la Montréalaise est encore mineure.

Pour elle, ce sont assurément les débats sur la laïcité qui ont entamé son sentiment d’appartenance : « Avant, je m’identifiais comme Québécoise, mais, avec les nouvelles lois, j’ai senti que ça a créé deux classes différentes : ceux qui peuvent réaliser leurs rêves et les autres, qui ne le peuvent pas. »

« Moi, je voulais devenir avocate pour défendre l’équité sociale, mais j’ai l’impression que je ne peux pas choisir cette carrière sans sacrifier ma religion », dit la jeune femme, qui porte le hidjab.

La Loi sur la laïcité de l’État, connue d’abord comme projet de loi 21, interdit le port de signes religieux chez les agents qui incarnent l’autorité de l’État, y compris les juges et les procureurs de la Couronne.

Jana pourrait exercer à titre d’avocate en pratique privée, reconnaît-elle, mais elle a l’impression que certaines portes lui sont déjà fermées avant même qu’elle entame des études de droit.

Pour Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, professeure de psychopédagogie à l’Université de Montréal et psychologue clinicienne, cette étude va dans le même sens que ce que d’autres travaux ont démontré : « les approches coercitives freinent le sentiment d’appartenance », a-t-elle déjà écrit sur plusieurs tribunes.

« Je vois aujourd’hui les conséquences de la loi 21 [Loi sur la laïcité de l’État] dans le milieu enseignant », dit Mme Papazian-Zohrabian. Elle voit avec grande déception les embauches de personnel non légalement qualifié dans les écoles, « alors qu’on prive nos élèves de bonnes enseignantes » parce qu’elles portent le voile.

« On pousse les gens à se recroqueviller sur eux-mêmes et à trouver une place uniquement dans leur communauté. Symboliquement, on ne peut plus parler d’intégration », dit-elle.

Mme Papazian-Zohrabian a émigré du Liban et elle est d’origine arménienne, « petite-fille de rescapés d’un génocide », donc à même de comprendre l’importance de l’identité, remarque-t-elle.

Les politiques et le discours sur l’immigration ont créé « une dynamique de plus en plus polarisée », selon la spécialiste. Beaucoup d’immigrants ont pourtant « choisi le Québec ou le Canada parce que c’est une société progressiste et une société de droit. Quand ils se sentent attaqués ici, ça crée de la détresse chez eux ».

Source: Le sentiment d’appartenance des immigrants au Québec s’effrite par rapport au Canada

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Denmark considering banning protests burning Quran and other religious texts

2023/08/01 Leave a comment

Hard to argue that book burning is a freedom of speech issue as there are other ways to express views than unnecessarily inflaming tensions (although some tensions will always be inflamed or politicized as the Satanic Verses and the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons illustrate):

The Danish foreign ministry said whilst protecting freedom of expression is crucial, such protests benefit extremists and pose a security threat.

Copenhagen is looking at legal means to intervene in some circumstances, including protests outside embassies.

Sweden’s prime minister also said work on a similar process has begun there.

Both Scandinavian countries have come under pressure in recent weeks, after authorities gave permission for a series of controversial protests where Islam’s holy book was destroyed, stoking diplomatic tensions with several Muslim-majority nations.

In its statement, Denmark’s foreign ministry said it wants to explore intervening in some protests where “other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark” – including security concerns.

But the Danish government emphasised free speech was a fundamental value and any change must be done “within the framework of the constitutionally protected freedom of expression and in a manner that does not change the fact that freedom of expression in Denmark has very broad scope”.

The statement also specifically acknowledged the impact these controversial protests have had on Denmark’s international reputation, repeating the government’s earlier condemnation of burning religious texts.

These protests have reached a level where Denmark “is being viewed as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries” in many parts of the world, it added.

In a separate statement, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said a similar process was already underway and confirmed he had been in close contact with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen.

“We have also started to analyse the legal situation already… in order to consider measures to strengthen our national security and the security of Swedes in Sweden and around the world,” he wrote on Instagram.

Both statements followed several high-profile incidents where the Quran was burned or stamped on in recent weeks.

In June, an Iraqi Christian refugee living in Sweden, burned a copy of the religious text outside Stockholm’s central mosque.

The man was then given permission to destroy a Quran for a second time last week, which led to Sweden evacuating its embassy staff from Baghdad after the building was stormed and set fire to by protesters

Following this, last week two Danish far-right activists stamped on a Quran and set it alight in a tin foil tray next to an Iraqi flag on the ground outside Iraq’s embassy in Copenhagen.

Source: Denmark considering banning protests burning Quran and other religious texts

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Lederman: What a former principal’s suicide tells us about what our workplaces owe us

2023/07/31 Leave a comment

Good balanced take on the Bilkszto/TDSB/Kojo Institute case.

So many bad things can happen at work. Among the worst is being subjected to racist treatment. Harassment of any sort is up there too. The workplace should be a safe space. The lucky among us think of our jobs as a vocation, and our place of employment as a sort of second home.

Another one of the worst things that can happen at work is being wrongly accused of being a racist. Such an accusation – even if it is challenged, disproved, dismissed – is a scarlet R that can be career-ending. Perhaps even life-ending, as we have learned with the tragic case of former Toronto District School Board principal Richard Bilkszto.

Mr. Bilkszto, according to a statement released by his lawyer, died by suicide this month at the age of 60. Earlier this year, he had filed a lawsuit against the TDSB (which has not been tested in court) alleging he was bullied and harassed during anti-racism training sessions in the spring of 2021 conducted by an outside consultant, KOJO Institute founder Kike Ojo-Thompson. This happened after Mr. Bilkszto – who used to teach in Buffalo – challenged the workshop leader’s statement that Canada was more racist than the U.S., according to the statement of claim.

Mr. Bilkszto said it would have done “an incredible disservice to our learners” to return to the classroom the next day and teach that Canada “was just as bad as the United States.”

The Toronto Star reports that this comparison was not initiated by Ms. Ojo-Thompson, but by other participants. And that her comment was a personal one about the racism she had experienced in Canada versus her time in the U.S.

Mr. Bilkszto’s lawsuit alleges that he was implicitly referred to as a racist and white supremacist, and that senior TDSB staff did not stop the harassment.

The Minister of Education is now investigating. Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board previously found that the facilitator’s conduct was “abusive, egregious and vexatious, and rises to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.”

Of course, suicide is a complex matter. It is impossible for an observer to know exactly why Mr. Bilkszto ended his life. We don’t know about other possible factors, or whether this incident was directly responsible.

His lawyer, Lisa Bildy, says it was. “Unfortunately, the stress and effects of these incidents continued to plague Richard,” her July 20 statement read. “Last week he succumbed to this distress.”

The Ontario Principals’ Council said it was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by Mr. Bilkszto’s death: “Employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment and to protect their staff from bullying and harassment.” That did not appear to happen for Mr. Bilkszto. And you can bet that it’s not happening for other people wrongly accused in other workplaces, in organizations that are themselves terrified to be labelled as racist.

Employers have an obligation to fairly investigate, to not make an example of someone without evidence, and to offer support for people who have suffered as victims of discrimination or harassment, as well as those accused. Rather than being automatically shunned by their peers and bosses, the accused should also be considered during this difficult process; they may require mental health support. Charged with being racist bullies, they themselves might be victims of bullying.

Mr. Bilkszto appears to have done the right thing: he spoke up, informed by his many years as an educator and what he had seen with his own eyes. I believe he had an obligation to express this view, for the learners, as he put it.

His experience is not encouraging for others with something to contribute in a workshop, particularly on the understandably sensitive issue of race.

Beyond the absolute tragedy of Richard Bilkszto, there is another potential victim here: diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training. You can already see the outrage brewing: not only are these sessions not worthwhile, they could be dangerous, detractors are saying, using this heartbreaking story as evidence.

This week, Ms. Bildy tweeted: “Many people have silently endured woke struggle sessions in the workplace, and it has felt like an assault on their conscience and humanity. It’s certainly not helping race relations in this country. Time to stop walking on eggshells and find a more unifying approach.”

I sat in briefly on a DEI workshop this week, one focused on Indigenous issues. It was run by a facilitator who was smart, sensitive and serious. The information was hard to take at times, as it should be. And it was eye-opening, as it should be.

DEI training, when done right, is essential. As for Ms. Bildy’s “woke struggle sessions” charge: We need to be awake to the struggles that Black, Indigenous and people of colour people face – experiences that some of us white people have the privilege of not having personally endured.

What’s not okay is if participants are shamed, especially well-meaning people who are doing their best. And trying to make a sincere point – a valid one, according to the lawsuit.

Richard Bilkszto deserved better. We all do.

Source: What a former principal’s suicide tells us about what our workplaces owe us

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A Toronto principal’s suicide was wrongly linked to anti-racism training. Here’s what was really said

2023/07/29 Leave a comment

The alternative reflexive perspective but one that discounts the assessment by the WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board). And just as Paradkar can state “government organizations are often given credulity even when not merited,” the same can often be said for DEI consultants and activists:

One man’s fatal mental health crisis has been co-opted by political opportunists and turned into an attack on anti-racism training while also, chillingly, targeting one Black woman.

Former Toronto school principal Richard Bilkszto, 60, ended his life July 13. Suicide is a horrendous loss, no ifs, no buts. It’s terrible to contemplate the mental torture that leads to that decision and terrible to experience its crushing aftermath.

While experts say suicides are rarely caused by single factors, the man’s lawyer linked his death to a 10-minute interaction two years ago at a mandatory Toronto school board training run by the highly respected Kike Ojo-Thompson of the KOJO Institute, and her subsequent reference to that interaction.

His lawyer, Lisa Bildy, said in a tweet, “He experienced an affront to that stellar reputation” at that workshop and “succumbed to his distress.”

The predictable backlash from the right rested its moral might on two claims:

  • a statement of claim after Bilkszto filed a civil lawsuit against the TDSB in April for not defending him in that workshop; and
  • the opinion of an insurance case manager at the WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) that allowed Bilkszto to file a claim for mental stress injury in August 2021. The case manager wrote that Ojo-Thompson’s conduct “was abusive, egregious and vexatious, and rises to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.”

This was not a finding based on a credible investigation, but government organizations are often given credulity even when not merited. In a statement on the KOJO website Thursday evening, Ojo-Thompson, who has done training at the Star previously, said she only heard about the lawsuit through media enquiries. “Additionally, KOJO was not part of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) insurance claim adjudication.”

At issue, based on news reports, were two statements. One, Ojo-Thompson challenging a beloved Canadian myth by stating “Canada is more racist than the United States” and, two, “reacting with vitriol” when the former principal objected as well as “humiliating” him by calling him a “white supremacist” and a “resistor.”

The Star obtained a copy of the recording of the two sessions in question from a source who was present at the meetings. Based on it:

Ojo-Thompson never said: “Canada is more racist than the United States.”

She never called Bilkszto a “white supremacist and resistor.”

The recordings reveal for the first time a fuller picture of the conversation and disagreement that has been cherry-picked, shorn off context and nuance, and presented by those with an agenda to villainize diversity initiatives.

They show that the Canada-U.S. comparisons — although perfectly legitimate — were not initiated by Ojo-Thompson but were repeatedly brought up by participants in the “questions, comments, aha-s” that she invites.

For instance, one white TDSB leader says reflectively: “We as Canadians like to say we’re not as bad as our neighbours to the south and we need to stop.” Another leader brings up an example of a Black person from the U.S. moving to Canada “in hopes of a better future for her two sons,” and says “she was furious with me. She said, ‘I thought it was better up here. … I cannot believe it’s worse.’”

In response, Ojo-Thompson leans on her personal experience as a Black woman to say: “I felt more normalized as a Black woman there than I do here. We’re invisibilized from the cultural fabric of this nation. Canada has never reckoned with its anti-Black history,” and, “I lived in the South. And I’m saying this factually without any hiccup. The racism we experience is far worse here than there.”

There is a vast difference between a Black woman comparing her personal experiences of racism in two countries and a blanket statement that one is worse than the other.

About 10 minutes before the session ends, Bilkszto speaks for the first time. He says he spent a lot of time in the U.S. and, “I invite everyone here to do some research and look at things like education and look how you think about a system we have in Ontario where every student is funded equally. But go to United States, they’re funded based on their tax base.”

Ojo-Thompson replies: “What you’re saying is not untrue, but … all I’m saying is that the Jane and Finch kids are not having the same experience as the Forest Hill kids. They’re just not. And that’s despite our equal laws.”

Bilkszto responds by adding: “We have a health-care system here where everyone has access to health care. It is not the same way in the United States. So to sit here and say, in all honesty, we’re talking about facts and figures and to walk into the classroom tomorrow and say Canada is just as bad as the United States, I think we’re doing an incredible disservice to our learners.”

That’s not a help-me-understand question typically posed by workshop participants to trainers. That’s a man saying to a woman, an expert on anti-racism, at the end of a session that is replete with history, data, experience and nuance, that she’s flat-out wrong.

Ojo-Thompson points out a fallacy in his argument. “What I’m finding interesting is that this is in the middle of this COVID disaster, where the inequities in this fair and equal health care system have been properly shown to all of us.”

She then pivots to the principle of the point behind his original challenge of her experience of racism as a Black woman in Canada versus the U.S.

“So we’re here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for Black people? Like, is that what you’re doing? Because I think that’s what you’re doing, but I’m not sure. So I’m going to leave you space to tell me what you’re doing right now.”

Anti-racism training sessions are by definition challenging discussions. In every session, Ojo-Thompson references the normalcy of emotions coming up and the importance of accepting them rather than going into flight or freeze defensive postures.

At in-person sessions, defensiveness comes across in the body language, in whether an attendee is participating or avoiding engaging, in whether they choose to cry (you’ll be surprised). You can also tell by the tone of the questions.

Since this was a Zoom session, Ojo-Thompson made a note about that last point. She noted that there were people in the session who were Black, well-informed, well-educated. “Part of this work is listening to Black people,” she says. “Remember, as white people. There’s a whole bunch going on that isn’t your personal experience. … You will never know it to be so. So your job in this work as white people is to believe. And if what you want is clarification, ask for that. Truly. Not with a foot in the: ‘Yeah, but I’m going to tell you how you’re wrong.’ It’s the: ‘Help me understand further, please, because I actually don’t know.’”

She concludes by calling it “a profound and an appropriate teachable moment.”

That was 10 minutes done. Disagreement? Yes. Bullying and harassment? Not seeing it.

At a subsequent meeting the next week, Ojo-Thompson began by revisiting the concept of resistance that she mentioned even before the interaction with Bilkszto and how resistance upholds white supremacy. “I want to open by going back to the concept of resistance,” which “is going to be the most transformational, because we don’t talk enough about the many, many responses to the work, what they look like.”

Soon after she says, “One of the ways that white supremacy is upheld, protected, reproduced, upkept, defended is through resistance.”

Then she references the interaction with Bilkszto from the previous week, saying, “who would have thought my luck would show up so well last week that we got perfect evidence of a wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to. So we’re going to talk about it, because it doesn’t get better than this.”

This is Ojo-Thompson, doing the hard job of managing a zoom session with 199 people, training leaders on not just the presumptions that lead to discriminations but also how to recognize the resistance to it. This cannot be considered shaming Bilkszto by calling him “a resistor.” Nor is suggesting upholding white supremacy the same as calling someone a white supremacist.

In the previous session, before Bilkszto spoke, Ojo-Thompson had pointed out how one doesn’t even having to be white to uphold white supremacy, that there are “all kinds of kickbacks and rewards” for upholding white supremacy and “you see all kinds of non-white people, for example, attempting to uphold the values of white supremacy, even among Indigenous people, Black people.”

The far-right media ecosystem — organizations and commentators — quickly plumbed the depths of opportunism after Bilkszto ended his life and turned it into an international firestorm.

They martyred Bilkszto to their cause of villainizing diversity, equity and inclusion work and made a target of Ojo-Thompson not just by framing her as a bully but by suggesting her words drove him to suicide. They splashed her face across stories, sometimes multiple times in one story.

The malice spread, and in short order Ontario announced a review of these allegations with a view to “reform professional training.”

On Thursday, the TDSB said it launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bilksztoszto’s death.

Consider this: On the one hand, reams of data that show racism maims and kills. That the system of white supremacy has caused an epidemic of suicides among Indigenous peoples. That the risk of suicide among LGBTQ2+ people is rising.

On the other hand, an isolated tragedy, contentiously linked to a conversation the anti-anti-racists don’t want to have.

Guess which of the two the system comes down on.

If Canadians want to do nothing about our racism, then let’s be open about it. Otherwise, we better believe Black women. Protect Black women.

Source: A Toronto principal’s suicide was wrongly linked to anti-racism training. Here’s what was really said

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Cohen: American Jews are loudly protesting Israel’s anti-judiciary law. In Canada — not so much, Juneau: Canada must rethink its friendship with Israel

2023/07/29 Leave a comment

Significant contrast:

On the day Israel’s Knesset passed the Reasonableness Standard Law — a frontal assault on the independence of its judiciary — something strange and wondrous happened among America’s fractious Jews: they agreed, broadly speaking, that the law is a mistake and said so.

The chorus of disapproval came not just from progressive Jews but organizations representing mainstream Jews, and some conservative ones, too. The American Jewish Committee issued a statement expressing “profound disappointment” and lamenting that the new law was “pushed through unilaterally by the governing coalition,” causing “discord” in Israel and “straining the vital relationship” with the diaspora.

The committee argued that “dramatic changes” to the judicial system should come from “a deliberative and inclusive process” respecting checks and balances, minority rights and judicial independence. Other mainstream U.S. organizations echoed the criticism. The Anti–Defamation League said the law “could weaken Israeli democracy and harm Israel’s founding principles.” The Jewish Federations of North America was “extremely disappointed” the law had been passed “without a process of consensus,” despite “serious disagreement across Israeli society” amid strenuous efforts to forge “a compromise.”

Pointedly, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, among the most stalwart pro-Israeli organizations, did not comment. But Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel committee within the Democratic Party, said it was “a serious mistake” for Israel to ignore the protests of “the majority of its citizens …”

This displeasure of the Jewish establishment, though not as strong as in other quarters, shows an evolution among American Jews. Criticizing Israel was once heretical among these groups. No longer.

None of these organizations is as angry as many among this country’s 5.8 million Jews, who are increasingly skeptical of Israel. A growing number think it’s time that President Joe Biden lean heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his old, unreconstructed adversary. “Bibi” has fallen in with the hard right on judicial reform, from settlers who want to annex the West Bank to orthodox Jews who want to enshrine exemption from military service.

Biden has issued appeals but no threats. He never raises, for example, the $3.8 billion U.S. in assistance Israel receives annually from the United States. Interestingly, Israel, a wealthy country more secure than ever, no longer needs the money. Still, it is seen as untouchable.

While Jews in Britain, Australia and other countries have joined those here in opposition, it’s entirely different in Canada, an unserious country, where only progressives see the danger.

“This is a dark day,” declared Joe Roberts, chair of JSpaceCanada. “I cannot begin to explain how gutted I am.” He and others worry about an emasculated court that can no longer protect the rights of Palestinians, migrant workers, women and the LGBTQ+ community in Israel against an oppressive government.

The New Israel Fund of Canada has issued an urgent appeal. “Today we need you more than ever,” said executive director Ben Murane. “We will never back down.”

Astoundingly, though, from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the “advocacy agent” that “represents the diverse perspectives and concerns of more than 150,000 Jewish Canadians,” there was not a peep of protest. Maybe it missed the news.

Then again, the director of CIJA’s office in Jerusalem is David Weinberg, who supported the judicial reforms in a published commentary. These are his personal views, CIJA insists. But it’s likely they are equally those of CIJA’s unelected and unaccountable executive, especially CEO Shimon Fogel. He knows that these are not those of Canadian Jews but hasn’t the courage to say so.

It raises the question: Why doesn’t CIJA stop hiding and come out and support the reforms? At least that would be honourable. For its part, the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto issued yet another purée of platitudes. It is concerned that Israelis are divided and hopes for “compromise.” What we need is more dialogue, it urges, finding solace in earnestness and ambiguity.

Oh. Lord. As Israel’s Supreme Court prepares to hear petitions on the new law — which may well spark an unprecedented constitutional crisis there this autumn — behold, once again, the sad silence of Canada’s Jewish establishment.

Source: Cohen: American Jews are loudly protesting Israel’s anti-judiciary law. In Canada — not so much

Thomas Juneau asking a needed question:

This week, the Israeli parliament approved a controversial law that constrains the Supreme Court’s ability to provide judicial oversight of government actions. According to many critics, this is only the first step in a plan by the coalition government led by Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu to concentrate power in the executive branch. The Netanyahu government, which includes Jewish supremacists and is the most extreme in the country’s history, has also taken steps, and will likely take additional ones, toward Israel’s further annexation of the West Bank.

This raises difficult questions for Canada: should we stand by as the assault on democratic norms and Palestinian rights continues? The easy answer would be to muddle along, perhaps offering timid condemnation. The status quo, however, is increasingly unsustainable.

Like its allies, Canada’s position is to support the two-state solution, according to which Israel and an eventual Palestinian state would co-exist. Yet it is now difficult to see how this outcome can be achieved. On the Israeli side, intransigent governments have expanded settlements in the West Bank, largely closing the door on a viable Palestinian state. The road has been further blocked by the fragmentation of the Palestinian leadership, with the incompetent Palestinian Authority barely governing in the West Bank and the extremist Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip with an iron fist. In the meantime, the status quo is deeply unfair to Palestinians and destabilizing for the region.

The case can certainly be made that maintaining the fiction of the two-state solution is the least bad approach given the absence of viable alternatives. It is one thing to recognize that the two-state solution is dead; it is another to come up with a better, realistic alternative. Moreover, proponents of the status quo argue that Israel is and should remain a close friend. This is partly valid: There is no serious proposal to jettison the partnership, which indeed is beneficial for Canada. To their discredit, some supporters of the status quo far too easily launch accusations of antisemitism in response to criticism of Israeli policies. This is dishonest and stifles constructive and necessary debate. The question here is not to reject Israel’s right to exist, but to criticize some of its policies and ask whether Canada’s current approach is optimal.

The broader objectives of Canada’s foreign policy matter. It is inevitable that Canada’s focus on the Middle East will diminish. Ottawa simply has other priorities: The most important one, and one which could come under severe strain in the near future, remains the management of its relations with the United States. In addition, Canada needs to boost its presence in Asia, while the war in Ukraine shows the necessity of continuing its contributions to transatlantic security. The remaining bandwidth, for the Middle East and other areas, will shrink.

In this context, Canada should publicly state that it refuses to deal with the more extremist ministers in the Netanyahu government. It should vocally express its opposition to the proposed reforms and freeze or reduce co-operation with Israel on some issues. Ottawa should also boost its support for Palestinian civil society and increase pressure on the Palestinian Authority to reform itself and organize fresh elections. More concretely, Canada should evaluate whether its longstanding mission to train Palestinian security forces should continue since doing so entrenches the status quo by allowing Israel to delegate to the Palestinian Authority the day-to-day administration of the occupation in the West Bank. Ottawa should also suspend its policy of almost systematically voting with Israel at the United Nations General Assembly on resolutions dealing with the conflict.

Given its marginal influence when it acts alone, Canada should also engage in serious conversations with like-minded allies and partners, including through the Group of Seven, about options to change the status quo in relations with Israel and the Palestinians. Canada’s partnership with Israel has been premised on shared values, and with Israel’s government now dominated by extremist elements who are undermining the two-state solution, we can’t keep acting like it’s business as usual.

Source: Canada must rethink its friendship with Israel

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To blunt Poilievre’s outreach in cultural communities, Trudeau gives high-profile cabinet roles to MPs with diverse backgrounds, say some senior Liberals 

2023/07/28 Leave a comment

Of note. Of course, implementation and results count more than new faces around the table. But 29 percent of ministers are visible minority, a new high, and slightly higher than their share of the population:

In a major shuffle that is expected to set the stage as the prime minister’s election cabinet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promoted seven MPs to the front bench on Wednesday morning. He also shuffled some senior cabinet members with visible minority backgrounds, who were holding internationally focused portfolios to new portfolios with a domestic focus.

“This will help us re-solidify support within the visible minority communities,” said one Liberal MP who spoke with The Hill Times on a not-for-attribution basis to offer their candid views.

One of the biggest winners of the shuffle is three-term Liberal MP Arif Virani (Parkdale-High Park, Ont.) who joins the cabinet as the minister of justice and attorney general.

Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree (Scarborough-Rouge Park, Ont.) also received a big promotion, moving into cabinet as the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Rookie Liberal MP Rechie Valdez (Mississauga-Streetsville, Ont.) joins cabinet as minister of small business. Soraya Martinez Ferrada (Hochelaga, Que.) picks up the portfolios of tourism and the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the region of Quebec. Ya’ara Saks (York Centre, Ont.) is the new minister of mental health and addictions and associate minister of health.

Virani is an Ismaili Muslim Canadian, Anandasangaree is Tamil Canadian, Valdez is Filipino Canadian, Ferrada is Chilean-Canadian, and Saks is Jewish Canadian. 

As for senior ministers who have been shuffled within cabinet, Anita Anand (Oakville, Ont.) leaves defence to become the Treasury Board president. Former international trade minister Harjit Sajjan takes on emergency preparedness, as well as responsibilities for the King’s Privy Council for Canada and the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada. Kamal Khera, the former minister for seniors, is now minister of diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities.

Sajjan and Khera are Sikh-Canadians, and Anand is Hindu.  

Traditionally, visible minority Canadians have been a strong base of support for the Liberal Party.

When Pierre Poilievre became Conservative leader last year, he quickly appointed Tim Uppal (Edmonton Millwoods, Alta.), a Sikh-Canadian, and Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.), a Jewish Canadian, as his deputy leaders. He also appointed Jasraj Singh Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn, Altal), a Skih Canadian, as his finance critic. Recently, Arpan Khanna (Oxford, Ont.) and Shuvaloy Majumdar (Calgary Heritage, Alta,), both Hindu-Canadians, were elected as MPs in byelections. Khanna had previously served as the party’s outreach chair.

“That’s the main thing,” said the Liberal MP who spoke on a not-for-attribution basis. “To confront Poilievre and to break into new territory. Tamils are very enthusiastic about us, but Gary [Anandasangaree] will help us in maintaining that enthusiasm. Filipinos like us, but there’s no anchoring, and Veldez will do that.”

Visible minority communities play a key role in the outcome of swing ridings in major urban centres like the GTA, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal. Conservatives believe that the next election is theirs to lose and are going all-in to secure support from visible minorities—an important part of the Liberal voter coalition.

“We need to go back to domestic local messaging. Bringing Sajjan, Anand back [to portfolios with domestic focus] is a good step,” said a senior Liberal. “They can be assets in the South Asian community. Arif [Virani] will be very helpful in the Muslim community.” 

Source: To blunt Poilievre’s outreach in cultural communities, Trudeau gives high-profile cabinet roles to MPs with diverse backgrounds, say some senior Liberals 

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Education Dept. Opens Civil Rights Inquiry Into Harvard’s Legacy Admissions

2023/07/27 Leave a comment

Logical result of the affirmative action decision, applying it to class and privilege of legacy admissions:

The Education Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Harvard University’s legacy admissions policy, inserting the federal government directly into a fierce national debate about wealth, privilege and race after the Supreme Court gutted the use of affirmative action in higher education.

The inquiry into one of the nation’s richest and most prestigious universities will examine allegations by three liberal groups that Harvard’s practice of showing preference for the relatives of alumni and donors discriminates against Black, Hispanic and Asian applicants in favor of white and wealthy students who are less qualified.

The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights has powerful enforcement authority that could eventually lead to a settlement with Harvard or trigger a lengthy legal battle like the one that led to the Supreme Court’s decision to severely limit race-conscious admissions last month, reversing a decades-long approach that had increased chances for Black students and those from other minority groups.

The move by the Biden administration comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny of college admissions practices following the ruling, which has resurfaced long-simmering anger about the advantages that colleges often give to the wealthy and connected.

Harvard gives preference to applicants who are recruited athletes, legacies, relatives of donors and children of faculty and staff. As a group, they make up less than 5 percent of applicants, but around 30 percent of those admitted each year. About 67.8 percent of these applicants are white, according to court papers.

After the court’s decision, President Biden said legacy admission policies expand “privilege instead of opportunity.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, tweeted that the practice is “affirmative action for the privileged.” Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and a presidential candidate, called for Harvard to eliminate “preferential treatment for legacy kids.”

At Wesleyan University, a liberal arts college in Connecticut, President Michael S. Roth announced earlier this month the end of legacy admissions at his school, saying the practice was a distraction and “a sign of unfairness to the outside world.” The federal inquiry comes after a formal complaint filed by three groups earlier this month.

Lawyers for the groups — the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England, and the Greater Boston Latino Network — said Harvard’s practice gives an undeserved leg up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni.

“It is imperative that the federal government act now to eliminate this unfair barrier that systematically disadvantages students of color,” Michael Kippins, a litigation fellow at Lawyers for Civil Rights, said when the complaint was filed.

The Education Department said in a statement that “the Office for Civil Rights can confirm that there is an open investigation of Harvard University under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Title VI is a part of federal law that prohibits discrimination, exclusion from participation or denial of benefits “on the ground of race, color or national origin.”

Nicole Rura, a spokeswoman for Harvard, said in a statement that the university was already reviewing the way it admits students to ensure it is in compliance with the law after the court’s decision.

“Our review includes examination of a range of data and information,” she said, adding that the university will continue to “strengthen our ability to attract and support a diverse intellectual community.”

Ms. Rura added: “As this work continues, and moving forward, Harvard remains dedicated to opening doors to opportunity and to redoubling our efforts to encourage students from many different backgrounds to apply for admission.”

Harvard’s legacy preferences have been investigated before.

In the 1980s, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights investigated allegations that Asian American applicants were being discriminated against in favor of white students, according to court papers. The investigation blamed the difference in admission rates on legacy preferences, and found that the university had legitimate reasons for favoring legacies.

The Harvard trial that led to the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision revealed just how important legacy admissions are to Harvard. The plaintiffs described the final round of admissions, called the lop. Applicants on the cusp of admission or rejection were placed on a list that contained only four pieces of information: legacy status, recruited athlete status, financial aid eligibility and race. Based on this information, the admissions committee would decide which finalists to cut, or lop.

Harvard and other universities have defended legacy admissions.

They argue that giving preference to the children of alumni helps build a valuable sense of loyalty and belonging, and spurs alumni to volunteer their time and give money to the university, which can be used for scholarships. Harvard argued at trial that overall, legacy applicants were highly qualified.

But critics of legacy admissions said the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision underscores the need to end those preferences as well.

“Let’s be clear — legacy and donor admissions have long served to perpetuate an inherently racist college admissions process,” said Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P. “Every talented and qualified student deserves an opportunity to attend the college of their choice. Affirmative action existed to support that notion. Legacy admissions exist to undermine it.”

A newly released study by a group of economists based at Harvard found that legacies at elite colleges were more qualified overall than the average applicant. But even when comparing applicants who were similar in every other way, legacy applicants still had an advantage. The study, by Opportunity Insights, which studies inequality, also raised the question of whether, by scuttling practices like legacy admissions, colleges could potentially diversify the leadership ranks of American society.

On Wednesday, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and Representative Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, plan to reintroduce legislation that would bar universities from giving preferential treatment to the children of alumni and donors.

A poll released last year by the Pew Research Center found that 75 percent of the people surveyed believed that legacy preferences should not be a factor in college admissions.

In his concurring opinion in the Harvard case, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch took a swipe at Harvard for its legacy admissions.

“Its preferences for the children of donors, alumni, and faculty are no help to applicants who cannot boast of their parents’ good fortune or trips to the alumni tent all their lives,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “While race-neutral on their face, too, these preferences undoubtedly benefit white and wealthy applicants the most.”

Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff in the Harvard case, submitted a statistical analysis in court finding that Harvard could come close to achieving the racial diversity it wanted if it eliminated preferences for children of alumni, donors and faculty, and increased preferences for low-income applicants.

Harvard resisted, saying it would not get the academic caliber it wanted.

About 70 percent of legacy applicants admitted to Harvard are white, according to a 2019 study by Peter Arcidiacono, an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions.

Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, sounded a cautionary note on Tuesday. He suggested that however appealing, ending the tradition of legacy admissions might not be as simple as it seemed, given an absence over the years of related litigation brought by organizations representing minority groups.

“Like a significant majority of all Americans, S.F.F.A.’s members hope that colleges and universities end legacy preferences,” Mr. Blum said in a statement.

Officials at the Education Department declined to discuss the possible outcomes of the investigation, citing rules about not commenting on open investigations.

The vast majority of similar cases are resolved by reaching a resolution with the university to address the concerns of the department, according to Art Coleman, managing partner of EducationCounsel, which advises colleges and universities.

If a resolution cannot be reached, the matter can be referred to the Justice Department, which can initiate litigation and follow normal litigation rules. A case may also go to an administrative hearing, with the ultimate potential sanction being withholding all federal funds.

“That almost never happens,” Mr. Coleman said, because it would deprive tens of thousands of students of educational opportunities.

The Office of Civil Rights has an obligation to investigate plausible claims, Mr. Coleman said. “That’s not, as it might be couched, some judgment that’s being made for political reasons,” he said. “O.C.R.’s got an obligation under its regulations to investigate any complaint that states a viable legal claim with sufficient facts behind it.”

Source: Education Dept. Opens Civil Rights Inquiry Into Harvard’s Legacy Admissions

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Stephen Lecce reviewing TDSB anti-racism training in wake of former principal’s suicide

2023/07/27 Leave a comment

Of note:

Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce says he has asked his staff to review the circumstances surrounding a series of anti-racism training sessions held by the Toronto District School Board in the spring of 2021 following the recent suicide of a former principal who said he was bullied and harassed during the sessions.

“These are serious and disturbing allegations,” Lecce said in a written statement. “No staff member should ever be subject to harassment while in their place of work.”

Richard Bilkszto, a 60-year-old retired principal, sued the TDSB earlier this year, alleging that his reputation was “systemically demolished” during two anti-Black racism training sessions in the spring of 2021 when, after he had challenged some of the speaker’s comments, he was singled out and accused of supporting white supremacy.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board allowed Bilkszto’s claim for a “mental stress injury” in 2021 and awarded him compensation for two months of lost earnings. The adjudicator of his case found that the facilitator of the training sessions was “abusive, egregious and vexatious” in their conduct and that it rose “to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.”

Bilkszto, who alleged in his lawsuit that he suffered “severe emotional distress” as a result of what happened in the sessions, died by suicide earlier this month, according to a statement his lawyer posted to Twitter last week.

A member of Bilkszto’s family confirmed his death to the Star, but declined further comment.

In his statement, Lecce offered condolences to Bilkszto’s family and friends, adding that the tragedy “underscores the need for greater accountability of school boards and the necessity to ensure professional training is free from harassment and intimidation.”

He said he has asked his staff “to review what happened in this instance in the TDSB and bring me options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so this never happens again.”

The school board released its own statement, jointly signed by Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins and associate directors Audley Salmon and Louise Sirisko, saying they “share the Ministry of Education’s desire to learn what happened” and they will work with the ministry as part of any review.

“We recognize that many are grieving the loss of Richard, who was a colleague, mentor and friend,” the statement reads. “TDSB is in the process of gathering information to better understand the events that occurred.”

KOJO Institute, the company that facilitated the training sessions, said Tuesday that it also “welcomes” a ministry review into the matter and “will co-operate fully” with ministry officials.

The association representing TDSB principals and vice-principals is also calling for an independent review of the training sessions.

The Toronto School Administrators Association said Bilkszto had contacted the association in the aftermath of the sessions saying he had been “bullied, intimidated and harassed” by the facilitators. The association says it asked the school board at that point to investigate Bilkszto’s concerns. “To our knowledge, an investigation was never undertaken.”

According to Bilkszto’s lawsuit, the conflict arose when, during the second of four virtual training sessions, the facilitator, Kike Ojo-Thompson, suggested Canada was more racist than the U.S., in part because it had not reckoned with its racist history in the same way the U.S. had.

When Bilkszto disagreed it led to a brief, but tense exchange. Later in the session and in the following week’s session, Ojo-Thompson is alleged to have implicitly referred to the exchange as an example of “resistance” in support of white supremacy.

The allegations in Bilkszto’s lawsuit have not been proven. The TDSB has not filed a statement of defence.

In a statement provided to the Star prior to Bilkszto’s death, the KOJO institute said it disputes many of the allegations in Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the TDSB, “including the descriptions of interactions with KOJO Institute staff which paint an inaccurate and incomplete picture” of what happened in the sessions.

The company, which has provided anti-racism training to dozens of organizations in the public, private and charitable sectors (including the Toronto Star), is not a party to Bilkszto’s lawsuit. They said it would be “inappropriate” to comment further since the matter was before the courts.

Following Bilkszto’s death, the company provided an additional statement offering condolences to Bilkszto’s loved ones. They added that any interaction with individual TDSB employees during the sessions was “brief” and that they had “no involvement” in any investigation by the school board or the WSIB following the sessions.

In recent months, Bilkszto had become outspoken in his opposition to various school board initiatives aimed at reducing inequity in education. The statement announcing his death, released by his lawyer, says that after his “troubling experience with the (TDSB)’s equity agenda, Richard began advocating to bring people together through a more equality-focused, pro-human approach.”

In May, Bilkszto appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin and criticized the school board’s new lottery system for specialized schools, arguing that it was anti-meritocratic. He was also the Toronto chapter president for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, a U.S.-based, free-speech advocacy group.

Source: Stephen Lecce reviewing TDSB anti-racism training in wake of former principal’s suicide

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USA: A political gap in excess deaths widened after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, study says

2023/07/27 Leave a comment

Of note:

The pandemic inflicted higher rates of excess deaths on both Republicans and Democrats. But after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, Republican voters in Florida and Ohio died at a higher rate than their counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers from Yale University who studied the pandemic’s effects on those two states say that from the pandemic’s start in March 2020 through December 2021, “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before.”

More specifically, the researchers say, their adjusted analysis found that “the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters” after vaccine eligibility was opened.

The different rates “were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates, and primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio,” according to the study that was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday.

It’s the latest research to suggest the perils of mixing partisan politics with medical advice and health policy.

How was the study performed?

Researchers analyzed data related to 538,159 people who died between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2021, at ages 25 and over, compiling their political party affiliations based on records from 2017.

The study collected weekly death counts, breaking down the deceased’s party ties along with their county and age cohort. It used May 1, 2021, as a key dividing line because the date marks a month after all U.S. adults became eligible to receive shots of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The researchers estimated excess mortality based on how the overall rate of deaths during the pandemic compared to what would have been expected from historical, pre-pandemic trends.

Researchers saw a divide suddenly emerge

As they calculated excess death rate data for Florida and Ohio, the researchers found only small differences between Republican and Democratic voters in the first year of the pandemic, with both groups suffering similarly sharp rises in excess deaths that winter.

Things changed as the summer of 2021 approached. When coronavirus vaccine access widened, so did the excess death gap. In the researchers’ adjusted analysis of the period after April 1, 2021, they calculated Democratic voters’ excess death rate at 18.1, and Republicans’ at 25.8 — a 7.7 percentage-point difference equating to a 43% gap.

After the gap was established in the summer of 2021, it widened further in the fall, according to the study’s authors.

The study doesn’t provide all the answers

The researchers note that their study has several limitations, including the chance that political party affiliation “is a proxy for other risk factors,” such as income, health insurance status and chronic medical conditions, along with race and ethnicity.

The study focused only on registered Republicans and Democrats; independents were excluded. And because the researchers drilled into data in Florida and Ohio, they warn that their findings might not translate to other states.

The researchers’ data also did not specify a cause of death, and it accounts for some 83.5% of U.S. deaths, rather than the entire number. And because data about the vaccination status of each of the 538,159 people who died in the two states wasn’t available, researchers could only go as granular as the county level in assessing excess deaths and vaccination rates.

The study was funded by the Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University and the Yale School of Public Health COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Fund.

New findings join other reviews of politics and the pandemic

In late 2021, an NPR analysis found that after May of that year — a timeframe that overlaps the vaccine availability cited in the new study — people in counties that voted strongly for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election were “nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19” as people in pro-Biden counties.

“An unvaccinated person is three times as likely to lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat,” as Liz Hamel, vice president of public opinion and survey research at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, told NPR.

Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame

Even before vaccines were widely accessible, researchers were working to quantify the effects of vastly divergent COVID-19 policies across U.S. states.

A widely cited study from early 2021 found that in the early months of the pandemic’s official start date in March 2020, states with Republican governors saw lower COVID-19 case numbers and death rates than Democratic-led states. But the trend reversed around the middle of 2020, as Republican governors were less likely to institute controls such as stay-at-home orders and face mask requirements.

“Future policy decisions should be guided by public health considerations rather than by political ideology,” said the authors of that study, which was selected as the article of the year by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Source: A political gap in excess deaths widened after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, study says

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