Diversity Thursday

This is a rather depressing DivThu, so gird your loins, take a deep breath, and say a prayer for the Naval War College - as it is being subjected to the cancer of the worst Cultural Marxist diversity babble I have seen in a few years coming from a Flag Officer in such an influential position.

The identity politics of Mizzou & Evergreen State have made their way to Newport.

Quotas are out in the open.

The incoming SECNAV needs to look in detail at the email I quote below and what it means. The CNO and VCNO need to consider if this is really the intellectual environment they want our leaders soaked in.

This doesn't just represent active discrimination against people based on race, creed, color, and sex - by giving preferential treatment to some over others simply based on same - it is an insult to all female professionals who have earned their positions through hard work and merit. It is patronizing to those it pretends to want to help - and is discriminatory against everyone else.

This has no place in a modern institution that should be focused on nothing but excellence.

This is a blight on our Navy.

So, I guess I'll have to Fisk the entire email paragraph by paragraph in an Old School DivThu way.

Team,

We are continuing to make great strides in hiring and advancing a more diverse and robust work-force across the Naval War College. Over the last 5 years, 20% of our faculty hires have come from traditionally underrepresented communities, and their academic rigor, intellectual capacity, and broad experience base have challenged our students to push their own intellectual boundaries, enhanced their critical thinking skills and expanded their perspectives. Although I am proud of the progress we’ve made in diversifying our College, this is an area that requires our continued and direct focus…we are not there yet. We must proactively recruit, develop, and retain the absolute BEST talent that our Nation (and partner nations) have to offer and we need to broaden the aperture by which we, as an institution of higher learning, examine and affect our dynamic and uncertain world. To that end, we will execute the following:

Classic DivSpeak internal contradiction. Once you get through the usual word salad from the Diversity Advisor Random Squid Ink Generator, you get to the core. He wants everyone to start being selective on who they recruit based on racial and sexual groupings. That is active discrimination taking priory over merit. When merit takes a back seat, average quality suffers - and it becomes apparent very quickly. You cannot say you are going to get the best talent by intentionally refusing to accept the best just because one or another group may already be overrepresented. It doesn't work for the NBA or for spelling bees - and it never works in war.

-- We will establish the following funded Chairs: Admiral Grace Hopper Chair of Cyber Security, Madeleine K. Albright Chair of Women, Peace, and Security Studies, and the Charles F. Bolden Jr. Chair of Science, Space, and Technology. A decision panel for these first Chairs will include PNWC, VPNWC, and Provost but the obvious goal is to appoint the corresponding named Professorships. Announcements will be made before Cloister. Our ultimate goal will be to have the respective Chairs financially endowed but until then we will fund each at 30k for faculty development/conference support/travel.

These are professionals with substantial accomplishment on their own, but by grouping this way and this manner, you instantly make them tokens. Insulting, patronizing, and transparently ham-fisted. On top of that - they are going to take away substantial amounts of money for the professional development and conference attending by existing faculty. That is essential for them to remain current, proficient, and to hone their areas of scholarship. It is like selling your work tools to buy a pet pony while your family starves.

-- We will also conduct a national level search for a future Condoleezza Rice Chair of Women in National Security and Diplomatic Studies.

Condoleezza Rice succeeded because she was good. To simply stamp "Woman" on her head is, again, an insult to the service she did to her nation. The fact she is a woman is tertiary to her service. To reduce her to just her sex is, well, sexist.

-- We will take advantage of our nascent post-doctorate hiring program so we might quickly assimilate the best and brightest of these young professionals into our AD ranks.

"These?" Oh, you mean "them?" As in "Us vs. them?" Clumping people together as "the other?" Really? We're back to that? I've called those drunk on Diversity Industry swill as being "retrograde" - but I don't think retrograde is a sufficient word to use to describe this ongoing divisive email.

-- As we finalize our new hiring instruction, all hiring committees within the College will have a 25% composition of women/diverse faculty representation will a goal of getting to 50%. Additionally, each hiring recommendation will include a review and certification by the committee members that ALL candidates were considered on a fair and equitable basis. These opinions will be reviewed by Provost, VPNWC, and PNWC before any offers of hire are made.

"...will..." That is a requirement, an order. The only way you can get a hard number like that is if you actively discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin - and actively remove opportunities from others based on same. This is not poor and clunking wording - which it is too - but an active call to perform recruiting in a discriminatory manner. Hey, credit for being out in the open about it, I guess.

-- We have undertaken an extensive compensation review that I anticipate coming to completion shortly. Additionally, we will establish an annual compensation review to ensure we are institutionalizing equal pay for equal work.

So, whose getting paid less? What is going to be the factor to determine who is paid what? Is race, sex, and ethnicity going to determine how much you are going to get paid?

-- As you know, we’ve established some faculty advisory committees to review various issues and the contours of the college. One of these areas of interest is diversity. I will receive a detailed brief by the end of July on this critical subject and look forward to their recommendations. A quarterly update meeting will be scheduled to review status and progress.

Metrics & incentives. I've been in those meetings. They have a certain pedigree.

--In early August, we will also conduct an all hands call for our female faculty. Please be on the lookout for this opportunity to engage.

"Please look out for this opportunity to be segregated and given a safe space!" My mother would have refused to go to such a patronizing, self-preening and ultimately degrading show.

Our diversity as an organization - in thought, perspective and experience - helps challenge us to see problems in news ways and find broader solutions. It is key to innovation. These are critical capabilities in our complex and dynamic world of Nation Security. I am open to other recommendations as we move out more smartly in this
area.

Sincerely
jeff "one team, one fight" harley


Jeffrey Harley
Rear Admiral, USN
President, U.S. Naval War College
[redacted]@usnwc.edu
sipr: [redacted]@nwc.navy.smil.mil
(401)-841-[redacted]

Ah ... the smoke screen. Until that last paragraph, did you see any call for diverse "thought, perspective and experience?" No you didn't ... unless you think that your DNA determines your thoughts, your perspective, and your experiences. The eugenics movements peaked about 80 years ago - are we going to retrograde that far?

I'll be kind; he doesn't actually mean that - it is just the standard smoke screen we have seen here on DivThu for the decade we've been doing this.

It would be nice to not make this personal, but the man signed his name to this call to actively discriminate against present and future employees of his command based on race, creed, color, national origin or sex.

That has no place in a merit based organization based on equality and fairness.

I would also offer that you cannot have "one team, one fight" if you insist on breaking your team up by race, creed, ethnicity, national origin, and sex. That is sectarian and divisive - the exact opposite.

Let me put my economist hat on for a moment before I go. What happens in such situations is that the most qualified people in the groups you actively discriminate against will not want to go to your institution. They will get hired elsewhere and will take their expertise there. As such, the most important thing at an institution of higher learning - the cumulative quality of its scholarship - will shift left on the quality curve.

Nice legacy.

Oh, and if define your legacy on showing preference for one racial or ethnic group over another, or another sex over another - you know what they call those kind of people, right?

Hat tip Salamander Underground.