DU Rejects Calls To Bring Back Boone The Pioneer, Calls Mascot "Divisive"

"Divisive . . . does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community"



The multicultural diversity thugs, having already given Boone the boot at DU back in 1999, rejected a call from alumni and students to bring back the mascot:

Boone the Pioneer, the longtime face of the University of Denver, will stay in retirement after the school's chancellor called the cartoon "divisive" and said it doesn't reflect diversity.

The cartoon image of a grinning pioneer with his gun and coonskin cap was the official mascot of the university from 1968 until 1998, when he was replaced by Ruckus, a red-tailed hawk.

Alumni and students urged Chancellor Robert Coombe to return the retired mascot to official or semi-official status.

Coombe sent an email to the university community on Monday rejecting that idea.

The e-mail read, in part, that DU "cannot adopt an official mascot that has a divisive rather than unifying influence on our community."

Coombe wrote that the cartoon pioneer "does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community and is not an image that many of today's women, persons of color, international students and faculty, and others can easily relate to as defining the pioneering spirit."

DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt said Boone "doesn't really represent the DU of today."

"We moved on 10 years ago and the decision was made not to bring back Boone in any capacity," Berscheidt explained.

The Walt Disney-drawn Boone doesn't offend current DU students, who seem puzzled by the bureaucratic diversity pandering of the DU administration:

"I don't see anything offensive about him. He's just a little cartoon character," said DU student Patrick Biggers. "He looks fun-loving."

"I don't find him offensive," said DU student Katie Bird.

"I personally like him," said DU student Kristin Elliot. "He's pretty cute."

Students approached on campus Tuesday afternoon had trouble pinpointing who would be offended by the smiling cartoon character.

"He's got a full beard," noted DU student Kirsten Cangilla. "Maybe people who are afraid of facial hair?"

Part of the affinity for Boone would appear to stem from ambivalence over his replacement, Ruckus, the red-tailed hawk.

Those students who could identify their new mascot referred to it as an eagle, hawk, falcon, "prairie bird," "bird-thing" and "the red creature."

"Everyone knows Boone," said Elliot. "No one knows the bird thing."

At least the DU administration isn't banning Boone from campus.

If the representation of a pioneer for the DU Pioneers is an issue, then perhaps the actual name should be changed, not simply the logo. It is clear that students and alumni appreciate the mascot, and have no affinity for the new logo, whose ambiguous status (what kind of bird?) illustrates just the type of mind-numbing mediocrity that stems from lame attempts to make a campus more "diverse" by going after cute logos instead of focusing on recruitment and retention.

Women, students of color, and international students can't relate to the "pioneering spirit" embodied by Boone? Maybe it is they who are in need of a little diversity education . . .

More "Diversity " Emptiness

This time at Overland High School in Aurora.

Yesterday--"Diversity Day" At Centaurus High School In Lafayette, CO An All-Day, No Discussion Event

CU Diversity Thugs Oppose Ex-Terrorist Speakers At "Why We Want To Kill You"

Last week we brought you news of an upcoming CU College Republicans event--"Why We Want To Kill You"--Ex-Terrorists Walid Shoebat And Kamel Saleem At CU-Boulder.

CU's resident "diversity groups" are now peddling the line that the speakers "will spread hateful, anti-Islamic messages":

Two self-labeled terrorists-turned-peace activists will speak next week on the University of Colorado campus -- and some students, in anticipation of the visit, say they fear the paid guests will spread hateful, anti-Islamic messages.

The Cultural Events Board, which doles out money to student groups to pay for speakers, granted the College Republicans' request to fund the controversial, $10,000 campus talk: "Why We Want to Kill You."

Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem — former Islamic terrorists who are popular guests in the college-speaking circuit and on conservative talk shows — will speak at 7 p.m. April 29 in the Glenn Miller Ballroom on CU’s campus.

The speakers say they will “share their personal experiences and stress the dangers that the Western world faces today, as Islamic Fundamentalism grows with fervor around the globe.”

Shoebat said college campuses are fertile recruiting grounds for the radical Islamic movement.

In advance of the meeting, an e-mail circulated Monday among CU student-diversity groups and the Muslim Student Association urging students to research the speakers and expose them, saying Shoebat is a “hateful liar” and classifying the event as “completely anti-Islam.”

Is this just frustration at the lack of attention with other events at CU this week, as well as a desire to shut down down any speech that might offend or offer a critique of Islam?

The Muslim Student Association this week is hosting an Islamic Awareness Week, with student panels and other events.

Shoebat said his speaking engagements are often met with hecklers and demonstrators, but he said college students are getting a one-sided view on the war on terror and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Criticizing a religion is not racism,” he said in a telephone interview Monday. “Critiquing a religion is a form of speech. If people cannot critique religion in this country, then we are beginning to see a downfall.”

Will there be protests? Of course!

Kelly Brewer El-Yacoubi, a member of CU’s Muslim Student Association, said the group doesn’t have a planned protest but encourages students to research the speakers.

“MSA is not a political organization in nature, as compared to other student groups, and we believe in a message of peace,” she said. “We have positive events. We play offense rather than defense.”

She said she realizes that some campus events are meant to provoke students.

“We really value the equality of people, and if there’s a racist event, we would never support it,” she said.

Repeat after me, Islam is not a race.

Whenever moonbat speakers are invited to CU, it is praised as promoting "diversity" and bringing "alternative viewpoints" to the campus. If conservatives/Republicans bring out a speaker, then it is time to review the funding process!

CU students pay about $20 a year to two organizations — the Cultural Events Board and Distinguished Speakers Board — that bring in speakers. Together, that amounts to less than 3 percent of the annual, mandatory $670 student-activity fee package.

Bronson Hilliard, spokesman for CU, said the administration does not “micro-manage the speakers list that comes forward from our student groups.”

A review this school year, conducted by CU’s Internal Audit Office at the regents’ request and agreed upon by student leaders, found that the way the student union funds its guest speakers is in line with university rules, and the paid guests represent a diversity of viewpoints. But there were no records for unfunded events, and auditors recommended the student leaders strengthen their compliance by documenting denied proposals.

In the past ten years at CU, conservative groups including the CUGOP have brought out speakers like Charlton Heston and Ann Coulter. The innumerable moonbats, often flying below the radar of visibility (or credibility, for that matter) have included Howard Dean and Angela Davis.

But it is the speaker fees for conservative groups that not only call into question the speaker funding process, but also boldly proclaim the amount ($10,000) that the forced speaker tax has provided for this event alone. A quick scan of the remaining speakers invited by the intellectual whizzes at the Cultural Events Board will not only reveal an ideological imbalance of immense proportions, but also the lack of judgment on the part of the student legislators and the failure of CEB itself for not recruiting quality speakers to promote "alternative viewpoints" at CU.

"Diversity Day" At Centaurus High School In Lafayette, CO An All-Day, No Discussion Event

**Update--"Diversity Day" is compulsory, if there is no alternative to attendance apart from missing the day altogether.

Reader DK sent in this tip about Centaurus High School's upcoming "Diversity Day" and wrote--"Just read your post on "Tent City" and thought I would forward this to you. This is the 'agenda' for Diversity Day at Centaurus High School. Not just an assembly, but a whole day of 'respect and tolerance' that my 15 year old freshman son will have to sit through IF he isn't sick *cough, cough* that day. Would you care to bet if any of those student discussions will include 'respect and tolerance' of Christians, Conservatives or Patriotic Americans?"

Let's take a look at the propaganda, um, "agenda" (from an email):

Diversity Day on May 2

Theme: Respect and Tolerance

Each of performances this year will focus on the theme of respect and tolerance. As a school, we believe that the more we know about each other, the easier it is to understand and respect another person. Centurus is a diverse place which we are all proud to be a member of this community.

Period 1 Anyone and Everyone – A Movie

Connected by having a son or daughter who is gay, parents across the country discuss their experiences in a documentary. Filmmaker Susan polis Schutz depicts families from all walks of life. The parents talk about struggling with the pain their sons and daughters have dealt with throughout their lives.

Period 2 God Grew Tired of Us – A Movie

After raising themselves in the desert along with thousands of other parentless "lost boys," Sudanese refugees John, Daniel and Panther have found their way to America, where they experience electricity, running water and supermarkets for the first time.

Period 3 Student Panel

A group of our students here at CHS will share a Personal Experience Panel. They will focus on their experiences here around Respect and Tolerance. There will be a variety of students sharing their personal experiences. This is not a question and answer time, but just a time for the students to tell their stories.

Period 4 Theo Wilson – Slam Poet

Lucifury, a.k.a. Theo Wilson, has been doing spoken word poetry for the past 4 years. He is an award winning slam poet, and a member of the 2007 Slam Nuba poetry team, ranked fourth in the world. He has been active in the community for over 10 years, and considers his poetry to be his way of public service

Period 5 Grupor Folclorico Nueva Alianza

This is a Mexican Folkloric dance group that reflects the joyful character of Mexican dance. The Mexican States represented are: Veracruz, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Nayarit and Jalisco.

Period 6 Student Panel

A second group of our students here at CHS will share a Personal Experience Panel. They will focus on their experiences here around Respect and Tolerance. There will be a variety of students sharing their personal experiences. This is not a question and answer time, but just a time for the students to tell their stories.

Period 7 What makes Centaurus Diverse?

We will share with the students the diverse programs that exist at CHS. This will be a time for the students to share what they have been doing. For example, Raise the Machine, Public Achievement, Peace Jam, Eco Warriors and Cultural Learning Day. This time will conclude with a power point made by the Diversity Club showing what makes our school unique through the lens of Respect and Tolerance.

Principal's Assistant
Centaurus High School

Yep, a lot of respectification and tolerance-izing, but strangely, not much diversity.

And notice how both "Personal Experience Panels" contain no Q&A or opportunity for discussion. More like a lecture than a panel.

What's left--a poetry slam and some Mexican dance. Ok, at least those might prove entertaining (unless the "slam" devolves into an anti-American diatribe).

What the heck is "Raise the Machine?" Peace Jam is sponsored by anti-American Nobel laureates, and we can probably be sure what the "Eco Warriors" are up to--as well as the "Diversity Club."

Diversity thugs in training.

So, as our reader asked, where are the Christians, Conservatives and Patriotic Americans? Seems that the range of acceptable "diversity" doesn't extend to them, and that, after all, is the intention.

Opponents Of Colorado Civil Rights Initiative Exposed

Face the State (via Ben DeGrow) exposes affirmative action proponents claiming that they were "tricked" into signing petitions for what is now Amendment 46--one is a diversity activist deeply committed to affirmative action and the other isn't even registered to vote.

Denver Diversity Training Video--"Hammer The White Guy"

**Update 2--The city pulls the offending video, CBS4 has the full 8 minute video; the city responds:

Denver has decided to shelve a diversity-training video that portrays a white man as the sole bigot among a cast of blacks, Hispanics and women.

The decision to pull the video, titled Laughing Matters — Think About It, comes after Dennis Supple, a white man who works for the city, complained that it was racist and violated his civil rights.

The video has generated intense media interest from local and national outlets, including CNN, The Washington Times and the Greg Knapp Experience, a nationally broadcast radio program.

"We have clearly struck a nerve," Kathy Maloney, spokeswoman for the Career Service Authority, said today in a news release.

"We want to use this revived attention and passion from our employees to open dialogue with the result being the best end product possible," she said. "We will suspend the use of the video until we can facilitate this collaboration at an upcoming summit."

**Update--Michelle Malkin links (thanks!) and has a snippet of the offending video

"Diversity, to me, doesn't mean hammer the white guy . . . Diversity means you have respect for everyone, regardless of their race, their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation"--Dennis Supple, city of Denver employee

Diversity training in the workplace requires the implementation of awkward, cheesy indoctrination materials, and a convenient bigoted bogeyman to demonstrate the inherent/institutional -isms that diversity/multiculturalism seeks to eliminate. Luckily for Denver and its training video, they have found the perfect bad guy--you guessed it, a white male:

The city of Denver is showing its employees a diversity training video that portrays a white man as a narrow-minded buffoon - triggering allegations of "institutional racism" against Anglos.

"Right now, their diversity program is racially motivated against white males," said Dennis Supple, a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning mechanic who has worked for the city 1 1/2 years.

The video, titled Laughing Matters - Think About It, is meant to show employees how humor at the expense of others diminishes respect in the workplace. The character who breaks all the rules is Billy, a white, blue-collar worker who's a racist, sexist goofball.

In one scene, Billy is told that another employee named Carlos can't do anything because he's waiting for supplies.

"What's his problem?" Billy says. "He can't sell breakfast burritos without the supplies or he takes a siesta?"

Supple said the video violates his civil rights and that he's considering taking the equity in his house to file a lawsuit to stop the city from showing it.

"Diversity, to me, doesn't mean hammer the white guy," Supple said. "Diversity means you have respect for everyone, regardless of their race, their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation."

The educatee has become the educator in this case, reminding the bureaucratic diversity-mongers that at best, having respect is the basis for a stable, non-discriminatory work environment. Sometimes, however, the diversity-trainers get carried away and have to fall back on excuses:

Kathy Maloney, spokeswoman for the Career Service Authority, said the video is part of a one- to three-hour facilitated discussion.

"The video itself is scheduled for updating in either 2008 or 2009, so (Supple's) input would certainly be taken into consideration for the next video," she said.

Maloney noted the last thing to appear on the 8-minute video is this phrase: "Remember, Billy could be anyone."

She also said the teaching guide tells facilitators to "ensure participants recognize this video does not highlight or target any particular individual or group."

"It's meant to represent anyone who could (use) inappropriate humor in the workplace," she said.

This would be true except that in most cases, only the majority's jokes are abolished or cause for concern. Jokes or educational points, made at the expense of the white male in the room, are acceptable or even encouraged, as a way for trainers to indoctrinate facilitate discussion:

"If you portrayed a black woman (or a Hispanic or a homosexual) in that manner, there'd be hell to pay," Supple said. "But it's OK for them to portray a white man in this manner because you put down one little (disclaimer) at the end of the (video) that says, 'Remember, anybody could be Billy.' That's a bunch of bull."

The video, developed by the city's Diversity Advisory Committee in collaboration with Channel 8, the city's television channel, won second place in 2005 for Instruction/Training from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

Don't even want to know what the winning video looked like . . .

**Update--Drunkablog was, of course, on top of this story last week linking to an earlier version of the same story

Fort Collins' "Holiday Display Task Force" Deemphasizes Christmas, Favoring "Winter Symbols" And Diversity

This display is too "Christmas-y" and therefore offensive to Fort Collins' "holiday display task force"

Beginning with last year's controversy over a Menorah display, Fort Collins' holiday displays will be "festive" but decidedly less "Christmas-y" this year--a "secular winter celebration incorporating cultural and religious differences" (video). In order to avoid controversy and not offend anyone, Christmas elements will be deemphasized in favor of celebrating Fort Collins' "diversity"--blue and white lights instead of red and green.

Who is responsible for the recommendations? Why Fort Collins' own "holiday display task force"--17 "religious, cultural, and legal experts". Holiday-by-committee will render the already watered-down displays into meaningless "winter symbols" when they issue their recommendation to the city council in the coming weeks.

Stop The ACLU--Friday Free For All

Broomfield School Bans Halloween Costumes, Will Hold "Fall Party"

Naturally, so no child feels left out:

There won’t be little ghosts and goblins at Kohl Elementary School this Halloween.

In a newsletter sent home to parents last week, principal Cindy Kaier wrote that the traditional Halloween party celebrated in classrooms each year will be replaced by a fall party. The party is Friday, and since it is focused on fall, not Halloween, kids can’t wear costumes.
. . .
The decision came after an ongoing discussion culminated two weeks ago in an “emotional” meeting with teachers, during which the discussion focused on school holiday parties and how Kohl could continue to celebrate without leaving out anyone.

That's the standard PC boilerplate: better for the majority to do without rather than have someone feel left out. Just like real life.

Voting on whether to have costumes had been left up to students in recent years--a good experiment in democracy. But now, citing time and financial issues, all the fun must cease:

The Halloween party, which is organized by classroom parents, has morphed into a fall party over the past three years with an emphasis on fall, with leaves and pumpkins and less blood and guts, she said. Last year, kids in grades three through five voted on whether to wear costumes. Some classrooms chose to wear them, some did not.

She pointed out the small percentage of kids who are left out because their parents can’t afford costumes or because their families don’t celebrate Halloween.

Kaier and her staff also cited safety concerns when kids bring fake knives or blood to school as costume accessories. The party is only an hour and the more time it takes them to transform into Dracula, the less time they have to actually party, she said.

The PC and feelings-friendly adults argue that there will be a Halloween alternative, but it falls on a weekend. But some parents weren't buying the decision:

Halloween isn’t completely vanishing at Kohl. Kids can wear costumes at Kohl’s annual carnival on Oct. 27. The carnival will include a costume contest, haunted house and other Halloween-type activities, but it’s on the weekend, which makes it easier for parents and kids to opt out, Kaier said.

Some parents who attended the meeting weren’t satisfied.

They voiced a broader concern that it was political correctness gone too far considering Halloween isn’t a religious holiday in the United States and kids only know it as a fun time to dress up, trick-or-treat and eat lots of sugar.

“Why not get rid of Valentine’s Day too? It’s the same thing,” said Lori Dilillo, a frustrated parent who has enjoyed the long-standing tradition of Halloween parties at Kohl.

And what about those other holidays?

Kaier dispelled rumors circulating that this was just the beginning and that all celebrations would be canceled or changed. A winter party, parties on birthdays and pizza parties will continue. Valentine’s Day will still be celebrated with a Valentine’s Day party, not a spring party, she said.

What about Christmas? Won't someone feel left out?

Seems they've already taken care of that--Christmas parties have been replaced by sterile, PC-friendly "winter parties".

One teacher apparently misses the true obligation of school:

“In my class of 26, if I’ve got one kid in the room that doesn’t celebrate Halloween ... if I have to send one kid home because they feel weird or they feel ostracized, I have failed at my job,” said fourth-grade teacher Jim Tingley.

No Mr. Tingley. The point of school is to educate, not to make students not "feel weird". Feeling weird is part of growing up. And if they never feel insecure in the phony safety net you are attempting to construct, wait until they hit the real world.

The reasons for dropping the Halloween costumes--time devoted to parties, costume concerns, and general desire to shield a child's feelings--raise more questions than give answers. Whether initiated by PC police from the left who stress inclusiveness and abhor fun, or the right who fear the holiday itself, it is the kids who lose out in the end. It seems like childhood now represents a time to manufacture robotic replicas adhering to standards, devoid of creativity, and unexposed to the realities of real life and not, you know, actually educating the children.

Seems like the students aren't the only ones in Broomfield who need to grow up.

Trackbacks:
Stop The ACLU--Wednesday Morning Links

Diversity Not Panacea, Leads To Lower Social Capital

So says the sure-to-be controversial findings of a Harvard professor:

IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.

But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.

Whoops! And CU just hired a new diversity czar:

The University of Colorado announced Friday that Sallye McKee will become the first vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement.
. . .
"I want students to say, 'Because I was at CU-Boulder, I'm able to live and work better as a leader in a global society,'" McKee said. "We want to work on building a campus climate that is safe and respectful."

The new position elevates the dialogue about diversity to the chancellor's cabinet.

"This is a very important step as a university," said Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson. "When the senior leadership team meets to talk about issues of all sorts, the diversity perspective will be present at the table and have input. That hasn't always been the case."

Not sure what the "diversity perspective" is, other than what it has traditionally been--a token minority. Too bad CU doesn't mean diversity of ideas, of thoughts. The pop multiculturalism on college campuses these days tends toward stressing the inherent differences of cultures, the superiority of those "outside the norm" (non-white, non-Christian), and the inevitable Balkanization of campus social groups. While an undergraduate, I was encouraged to spend more time with "my people" by joining UMAS y MeChA. Needless to say, identity politics was not what I had in mind when I considered expanding my thought horizon in college. Judgement by character and not skin color was what I had been relentlessly reminded of since elementary school--now skin color, ethnicity, etc. was the most important factor and indeed determinant of social position within the university.

Assuming that any group shares more than a superficial similarity in upbringing, socialization, etc. is nothing short of stereotyping. Assigning worth based on such assumptions--brown, LGBT, progressive = good; white, straight, conservative/Christian = bad--has been the polarizing mode of conduct for the past three decades. This avenue of "diversity" has produced the negative results, the loss in social capital that Putnam observes:

"People living in ethnically diverse settings appear to 'hunker down' -- that is, to pull in like a turtle," Putnam writes.

In documenting that hunkering down, Putnam challenged the two dominant schools of thought on ethnic and racial diversity, the "contact" theory and the "conflict" theory. Under the contact theory, more time spent with those of other backgrounds leads to greater understanding and harmony between groups. Under the conflict theory, that proximity produces tension and discord.

Putnam's findings reject both theories. In more diverse communities, he says, there were neither great bonds formed across group lines nor heightened ethnic tensions, but a general civic malaise. And in perhaps the most surprising result of all, levels of trust were not only lower between groups in more diverse settings, but even among members of the same group.

"Diversity, at least in the short run," he writes, "seems to bring out the turtle in all of us."

Within the context of the university, the tendency toward "hunkering down" overtakes all other dimensions, as students naturally flock to similarly-minded peers in social activities and clubs as they continue the process of "finding themselves". Even the most "open-minded" eventually find the group or social milieu that best expresses their sense of being or answers some of their questions. This is, in fact, encouraged.

The backlash to this study should be interesting to follow (unless, of course, they choose to suppress it). If this is what is meant by academic freedom--challenging the status quo with rigorous scholarship and meaningful study, then cheers to all. I'm sure the Ward Churchills of the academic world are none too pleased that one of their shibboleths has been challenged in the public's eye.

In The News--With Some Chinablogging

"I am both Muslim and Christian"--right, and I'm Santa Claus!

Separatist graduations proliferate at UCLA--disunity in diversity.

Chinese gold farmers--so that's why I couldn't get a seat in a Chinese internet café!

Hong Kong dissidents, autonomy, and China's mainland--murky ambiguity.

Quote Of The Day

"Diversity in theory is the enemy of diversity in practice."

On Diversity

In hiring new faculty:

Which is more important — that a department have all of its disciplinary subfields represented or that it diversify its faculty? That’s the question being posed at Colgate University in an attempt to change how hiring committees have considered questions of diversity — and posing the question may be having an impact.

Lyle Roelofs, dean of the faculty, has been asking the question. Roelofs said that individual departments make the hiring decisions — “departments know how to judge quality” — but that as part of broad discussions about diversity at the university, he has tried to suggest some new ideas. Traditionally, he said that there has been a broad consensus (even if no formal policy exists) that the top factor to consider in a faculty hire is excellence in teaching and research, followed by match of candidates with the subfield specialties needed, then followed by diversity concerns.

After a series of efforts, Colgate has seen the percentage of minority faculty members rise to about 20 percent, with the percentage of women topping 40 percent. But as a small liberal arts university in a rural setting, Colgate has a hard time holding on to minority professors — and so needs to keep hiring them as well as trying to encourage more of them to make their careers at the university. Roelofs has asked departments to flop the second and third criteria. Excellence will stay on top, but diversity would generally trump subfield choice.

“There are going to be appropriate gains for us if we can be more diverse,” Roelofs said. “When you have a more diverse faculty, there emerges a greater diversity in curriculum. Greater value is placed on difference. So why not think about each hire and say, ‘in this situation are we better off thinking about how we need someone on 18th century reflection of Shakespeare, or have a broad description to maximize our opportunities on diversity?’“

And in teaching:

The article is entitled “Dealing with Student Resistance: Sources and Strategies.” If the writer were intellectually honest enough to confront her own assumptions, it would be called “Diversity through Intellectual Conformity: If You Don’t Agree with Me, You Have Issues.”

Education about diversity and social justice is a deeply emotional and psychological process, not simply an intellectual one. Often when we ask people to engage with questions of social justice, we are asking them to question their fundamental belief systems—how they see themselves and make sense of the world. It is therefore not surprising that, even when armed with great information, stimulating activities, and compelling issues, we find ourselves asking why our students fail to engage with—or even actively resist—our course content. This tendency to resist is particularly common among people from privileged groups—those in the more powerful positions in a given form of oppression (sexism, racism, heterosexism, classism, etc.). Many educators find resistance from students from privileged groups to be one of the more challenging aspects of teaching diversity and social justice.