Vox: All Posts by Fabiola Cineashttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2024-03-16T07:00:00-04:00https://www.vox.com/authors/fabiola-cineas/rss2024-03-16T07:00:00-04:002024-03-16T07:00:00-04:00Should Black women stop going on Love Is Blind?
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<figcaption>Amber Desiree (AD) Smith, right, and Clay Gravesande, left, at the season six <em>Love Is Blind</em> reunion. | Netflix</figcaption>
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<p>AD’s journey underscores the Netflix hit’s misogynoir problem.</p> <p id="rDrJty"><a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix" data-source="encore">Netflix</a>’s <em>Love Is Blind</em> is reigniting conversations about whether the show’s unique dating experiment — courting sight unseen — benefits Black women. </p>
<p id="9Ritms">Since season six of the hit show began airing on Valentine’s Day this year, all eyes have been on Amber Desiree (AD) Smith and her bumbling journey through the pods. AD quickly became a fan favorite because she was candid about her destructive choices when it comes to love. “If I see a red flag, I’m like, ‘Oh, well, I’ll just paint my nails red to match,’” AD confessed to the camera early in the season. This tragic admission informed her decision to pair up with Clay, a man who reminded her of her exes and revealed that he selected women solely based on physical appearance. The internet placed Clay in the show’s villain category once he probed AD about her looks, a major faux pas for a show titled “Love Is Blind.” </p>
<p id="pAudKg">Throughout the course of their engagement, Clay earned that villain title. Commentators <a href="https://andscape.com/features/clay-ad-love-is-blind-season-6-finale/">noted</a> how he treated AD like a receptacle for his trauma, even going as far as laying his head on AD’s chest to be coddled like a newborn minutes into their reveal. “I’m a baby,” he told AD, as they took stock of their physical characteristics, noting that both of them were dark-skinned. Clay talked about his father’s infidelity like it was the third partner in their relationship and focused on how AD could build him up. He repeatedly expressed fear about commitment, but AD held his hand through the process. He ultimately managed to shock AD, in front of their parents and other family members and friends, when he said no to marrying her at the altar. </p>
<p id="GT1vVA">Outside of her relationship with Clay, AD faced additional hurdles during filming. Her castmates drew attention to her body, pointing out how “stacked” she is, and made an inside joke (“bean dip”) about non-consensually smacking her breasts, which, no need to look it up, is in fact sexual assault. Now, a year after filming, AD <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZdoAbiqFgs&t=5439s">says</a> that she “had such an amazing experience” on <em>Love Is Blind</em>. But her storyline highlights some of the sinister aspects of dating as a Black woman, and because it’s airing on Netflix, the reality is being splashed across one of the world’s biggest platforms. AD’s experience is connected to that of Lauren, Diamond, Iyanna, Raven, Tiffany, and Aaliyah — Black women whose stories came before hers on <em>Love Is Blind</em> — as well as to the Black women whose journeys were never shown, and even those well beyond the show’s pods. </p>
<p id="b8CoiB">To talk about how this show positions Black women, I reached out to “meeting and mating” sociologist <a href="https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/faculty/?expert=sarah.adeyinkaskold">Sarah Adeyinka-Skold</a>, an assistant professor at Loyola Marymount University. Adeyinka-Skold studies how “inequalities are produced and reproduced” in romantic relationships, and says that <em>Love Is Blind</em> viewers are naive to have ever thought that this experiment, sometimes billed as an equalizer, would help Black women have an easier time finding love. We talk about the unique challenges Black women face, their limited portrayals on the show, the issues with casting, and why Black women’s pain seems to be profitable for both Netflix and the show’s producers. </p>
<p id="AKfmcQ"><strong>We are now six seasons in on </strong><em><strong>Love Is Blind</strong></em><strong> and I find myself questioning whether Black women should continue to go on this show. Have you been wondering the same thing?</strong></p>
<p id="uyVMRL">I can honestly see an argument for Black women to not go on the show. What we’re seeing is that external constraints like racism and sexism are always in the pods even though the show has tried to create this other reality. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="ibjKHH"><q>Why are we treating the representation of Black women so basic? </q></aside></div>
<p id="60BgNP"><strong>What kinds of portrayals of Black women are allowed on </strong><em><strong>Love Is Blind</strong></em><strong>?</strong></p>
<p id="xEgvFz">I’ve been thinking a lot about the reality they choose to show and how they choose to edit. They’re choosing to give us some things and not give us others. They’re creating a reality that reinforces these gendered racial stereotypes of Black women as these Jezebels — hypersexual and promiscuous. And as these mammies who are caring. </p>
<p id="GcRbRO">In season four, they had these two white nasty women <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/3/24/23652326/netflix-love-is-blind-season-four-review-villain-irina">[Irina and Micah</a>] on the show. That’s not behavior we could <em>ever</em> see from Black women on that show! The kind of backlash they would get. And I wouldn’t want them to depict Black women that way. But again, there’s this humanity and fullness of person, or a spectrum of white womanhood that we get to see, that we don’t get to see with Black women. </p>
<p id="TJ9pDI">All of the Black women on the show are professionals. They’re extremely kind. They’re extremely smart. But we don’t get to see that. We see the producers and editors focus on the problems these women have. Why are we treating the representation of Black women so basic? </p>
<p id="yKB0Dh"><strong>Black women being ignored, disrespected, or rejected on dating shows isn’t new. We have so many examples from the </strong><a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/rachel-lindsay-the-bachelor-franchise.html"><em><strong>Bachelor</strong></em></a><strong> and </strong><a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/strong-black-women-perfect-match/"><em><strong>Perfect Match</strong></em></a><strong> to </strong><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzbe3/the-bachelor-married-at-first-sight-portrayal-of-black-women-on-dating-shows"><em><strong>Married at First Sight</strong></em></a><strong> and </strong><a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/love-island-justine-black-women-on-tv-reality-dating-shows-47737087"><em><strong>Love Island</strong></em></a><strong>. Black women are either treated as side characters or just not given a chance to shine at all. But it felt like </strong><em><strong>Love Is Blind </strong></em><strong>could somehow equalize dating and create a space for Black women to be seen and celebrated. Do you think this has happened?</strong></p>
<p id="qqaUJx">I think when people say that, they’re being naive about how our social structure is shaped and formed. Anytime anyone says that something is supposed to be the great equalizer, we should side-eye them and ask, “What does that actually mean?”</p>
<p id="2mE6DC">In this context, that idea shows a lack of understanding of how our society is set up on purpose to put Black women at the bottom of the gender and racial hierarchy. To think that any dating show could be an equalizer for Black women is pretending that that hierarchy doesn’t matter.</p>
<p id="7JS47L"><strong>Let’s talk about casting. People have criticized the show for not casting men who are interested in dating Black women. </strong></p>
<p id="YZuEDx">We think about romance and love as these agentic, individual things that we do in silos. We’re constantly acting as though we are choosing or making decisions outside of our social structure. But the fact of the matter is, this country was built on the rape, pillaging, and conquest of Black women’s bodies. It’s also built on explicit laws that said you should not be marrying Black people, laws that were on the books until 1967 with the <em>Loving v. Virginia</em> case. So how do we think that that’s all just going to disappear? My question is, what do people mean when they say we need to get men that are interested in Black women, and dark-skinned Black women, in particular? Isn’t that the antithesis of the show? </p>
<p id="JEiFzk">If the whole premise of the show is emotional connection, maybe what they’re trying to say is you need to bring people on the show that are really tuned into and attracted to the experiences that Black women have, [who] know for themselves that Black women’s stories and the experiences make them great partners. So maybe what we mean is we need to cast men who are intimately familiar with the Black woman experience, and it’s part of their attraction to these women.</p>
<p id="G7ZEoe"><strong>Yes, that is the subtext. Most of the people I’ve seen making this suggestion are Black women. AD herself is advocating for a better vetting process, and a few seasons ago, former contestant </strong><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/love-is-blind-raven-sk-lauren"><strong>Raven Ross said</strong></a><strong> men in the pods “weren’t looking” for Black women. So it seems like Black women in the pods have had to do this kind of initial vetting themselves. </strong></p>
<p id="tg1vUo">That’s why AD asked Matt, “Do race and ethnicity matter to you?” She was correctly attuned to the fact that he is white. And when she asked, she was talking about skin color, but the subtext was also, “I’m coming in with a particular kind of experience that you’re not going to get with any other woman precisely because of the way our social structure is set up.”</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="XoNJlN"><q>When you’re a shitty man in Black skin, society looks at it differently</q></aside></div>
<p id="4Yzcba"><strong>Let’s break down some of the issues in AD’s relationship with Clay and try to make sense of what it all means for Black women who go on this show and for Black women who date on any </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/reality-tv" data-source="encore"><strong>reality TV</strong></a><strong> show, online, or in real life. </strong></p>
<p id="4JfbSX">Let me first say that any man of any race can say all of the things that Clay said. But when we think about the cultural imagination about Black men, unfortunately, Clay checks off all of the boxes of what we think about Black men who are good-looking and as egotistical as Clay. </p>
<p id="iHvmQq">We can think of it like a Venn diagram. There’s the circle of shitty men characteristics, and then another circle for Black men characteristics, and then in the middle you have Clay. So together, Clay is a shitty man who also happens to be Black. </p>
<p id="cYEyxp">And when we think about what a shitty Black man is, he’s a guy who cheats. He’s a guy who’s not ready for commitment. He’s a guy who is stuck on the physical. He’s a guy who’s maybe fine dating non-Black women but doesn’t think that Black women should be interested in non-Black men. Like, he’s so much cooler. He’s a cool Black guy, so how could AD possibly be interested in a guy like Matt? </p>
<p id="fNmceV">In the United States, there are these characteristics that we associate with shitty men, but when you’re a shitty man in Black skin, society looks at it differently. Society says, oh my goodness, they are going to ruin your family. They are going to be violent. They are going to be cheaters. It doesn’t carry the same type of weight as a shitty man in a different skin tone. </p>
<p id="GETtT7">So unfortunately for Clay because he happens to be a shitty man who’s also Black, he’s just playing into that cultural imagination, those stereotypes, that we already have of Black men and which we think is the source of Black women and Black families’ problems. When you have a society where Black people are at the bottom of the racial hierarchy and Black men are demonized, Clay is seen as particularly bad. Again, I don’t think that Clay is doing anything original.</p>
<p id="N6zplA"><strong>It feels like Black women are having this conversation among themselves. I don’t know that I’ve seen many men outraged, apart from </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/Wale/status/1765714762715836457?lang=en"><strong>Wale</strong></a><strong> who’s been keeping his foot on Clay’s neck on X all season. </strong></p>
<p id="2iMXms">That points back to our racialized and gendered society. Black women are often the ones that have to bear the burden of choosing Black men, of being committed to the racial uplift of Black people, of choosing Black community over themselves. </p>
<p id="CC2Dgq">People are always holding Black women to the highest standard. Black women understand that it’s on them to keep Blackness afloat. It’s on them to breathe the respectability of Blackness. It’s on them to show other people we can have Black love and Black families. Black men don’t care about this because first of all, they’re men. They are rewarded regardless. They don’t have to care because the pressure is not on them to keep the race going. The pressure is not on them to choose the community every time. And if they do that, people are like, “Oh, that’s fantastic.” You get extra points for choosing the community and choosing Black women. </p>
<p id="meb6NU">But Black women don’t get extra points. And in fact, they get deducted points, if they do something like date a white guy, which goes outside of the norms. And I think that AD probably didn’t even understand how much the experience within a culture that says, “This is what good Black women do” also impacts the decisions that she’s making. That’s why Black women are having this conversation. They recognize that these two things constrain the ways in which they’re allowed to be fully human. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="4lDbfy"><q>When there are Black healthy relationships, they’re calling it boring</q></aside></div>
<p id="cNxGQI"><strong>Some would argue that Black women have had some successful relationships on </strong><em><strong>LIB</strong></em><strong>. For example, fans view season one’s Lauren and Cameron as the show’s golden couple. And then we have Tiffany and Brett, who are celebrated for being the show’s first Black couple that has remained together. </strong></p>
<p id="8dCPwP">I like the contrast with Tiffany and Brett. They did a good job in season four of giving us a successful story. It was just really beautiful and I’m glad that they did that. But I also think it shouldn’t be an anomaly. It shouldn’t be that in these other seasons we’re kind of treating Black women like trash. We need to see the full experience of Black women just like we see the full experience of white women on the show.</p>
<p id="264849"><strong>I’ve seen white commentators call Tiffany and Brett boring, while others have complained that they don’t get enough attention from the franchise. </strong></p>
<p id="8jasna">When you say it’s boring, what are you looking for? Are you looking for that drama that you guys focused on in season five? Is that the only thing we’re capable of watching? These are the same groups of people who will tell us that the Black family is in shambles because all the men are like Clay. But y’all want to watch that shit on <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv" data-source="encore">television</a>. You guys will tell us Black families are poor because the women are too much in charge. But y’all want to watch that shit on television. So when there are Black healthy relationships, they’re calling it boring. That should make you question what it is you want to watch and why. Why do you want to see Black people as stereotypically dysfunctional? So Black people can’t win. </p>
<p id="MUvtON"><strong>Though AD and Clay say they’re not dating, viewers are speculating that they are still together based on their body language during certain moments of the reunion. But if some months from now they do announce that they are giving it another go, how should we interpret their decision?</strong></p>
<p id="4I0ZH4">I think we need to understand that AD and Clay are navigating some pretty complicated structural and agentic constraints as they are trying to find love. As we have discussed, no white woman on the show was like, “What do you think about race?” They have never asked that question. I will die on that hill. </p>
<p id="AqaJIf">AD and Clay are still navigating gender and race in a way that white people simply will never have to. And so we need to extend to them the full grace that we give to humans because they are humans. </p>
https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/3/16/24102420/love-is-blind-netflix-black-womenFabiola Cineas2024-03-05T06:30:00-05:002024-03-05T06:30:00-05:00How the federal government bungled student aid this year
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<figcaption>Ashton Spatz, center, a financial aid adviser with the University of Illinois at Chicago, assists Jessena Sanchez, left, and her daughter, Leslie Delve, a sophomore at UIC, during a FAFSA workshop on Feb. 23, 2024, at the Student Financial Aid Office. | Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Why so many college applicants are worried about being able to afford school. </p> <p id="12Xdpq">The federal form used to apply for financial aid, the FAFSA, got an update this year — and so far, it’s been a mess. Many students who need money for college the most have been affected.</p>
<p id="WzjnlN">Now the US Department of Education is scrambling to smooth out the kinks in its rollout and send out college financial aid information this month for the upcoming school year.</p>
<p id="4hQt7n">Millions of college applicants who need grants, loans, or work-study funds complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, each year, and states and colleges use the form to determine which students are eligible to get them. </p>
<p id="lYVSVL">The updated form will eventually make it easier for students to get financial aid, the department said. An additional 610,000 students from low-income backgrounds will receive need-based Pell Grants due to the new configuration — making more than 5.2 million eligible for the maximum Pell Grant award of $7,395 per year. </p>
<p id="vs2lCT">“The delays are challenging, but colleges will be much better off, too,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters at a roundtable in February. “If you’re a school that has a higher percentage of students with Pell grants, you’re going to get more than you would have ever gotten.”</p>
<p id="wr5E5r">However, students are experiencing major setbacks in completing the form, with technical roadblocks and application delays since the form was soft-launched in late December. The situation has gotten so challenging that groups who work with students particularly in need of aid say some are rethinking attending college altogether. </p>
<p id="SajVLJ">“We tell our students that college is possible, regardless of their financial situation. But many of them, and their families, have this notion that there’s no way they can pay tuition. So it is the financial aid that makes it possible for them,” said Heather Wathington, the CEO of iMentor, an organization that helps first-generation students from marginalized communities get into college. </p>
<p id="NTyK86">“Not having this process roll out [smoothly] really undermines all the kids that are on the fence or unsure about whether they can go to college,” Wathington said. “This is sending them a message to say ‘you can’t go’ and that’s paralyzing.” </p>
<h3 id="uonEO6">Why was the FAFSA redesigned?</h3>
<p id="itFIx7">The federal government developed and released a new FAFSA form because the former version, to put it plainly, was a major headache for students and families. </p>
<p id="ZJ4emu">The form hadn’t been updated since its predecessor, the Common Financial Aid Form, was introduced under President Ronald Reagan, according to the Department of Education. It had more than 100 questions and was notoriously complex. Then, in 2019, <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress" data-source="encore">Congress</a> passed the FUTURE Act, to give the IRS permission to share data with the Department of Education — meaning that students didn’t have to fill out information about family income that the government already had or go to the IRS’s website to transfer their data. The FAFSA Simplification Act, a federal student aid overhaul law passed in 2020, permitted major changes to various FAFSA policies and procedures. </p>
<p id="lrEYB8">For example, the department’s Federal Student Aid office introduced a new measure to determine a family’s ability to pay for college. Whereas the previous formula asked about the number of family members in college, the new methodology determines family size based on tax returns. Pell Grants will be expanded to more students and eligibility will be determined based on family size and the federal poverty level, according to the Federal Student Aid office.</p>
<p id="GYNpXO">The department has called the improvements to the application “unprecedented.” The new form is supposed to be simpler since it includes the direct income data exchange with the IRS. The form is also shorter since it tailors the application based on an applicant’s responses. In some cases, it can be as few as <a href="https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_gao_re_fafsa.pdf">18 questions</a>, according to lawmakers. </p>
<p id="PH4imk">But the launch of the form has been plagued with hiccups and inefficiencies, causing massive disruptions to the college application timeline and creating additional roadblocks for the most disadvantaged applicants. </p>
<p id="ngUt1t">Historically, the FAFSA application had opened on October 1, allowing students to apply for funds, weigh their options, and make their college decisions by May 1. But this time, the new form wasn’t available until December 30, and then only for brief periods — the site repeatedly locked students out due to technical glitches and for maintenance.</p>
<p id="nv9Z2i">The department resolved some of those issues in January, but decided to make a last-minute change to the financial aid calculation to account for inflation and said that it wouldn’t transfer students’ information to colleges until the first half of March, months behind the department’s initial January estimate. </p>
<h3 id="cwzI28">What has the FAFSA chaos meant for students and colleges?</h3>
<p id="AUSZ3b">The department’s decision to simplify the form was initially praised. But the delays have met with widespread criticism from lawmakers, students and families, colleges and universities, and others. </p>
<p id="W0mWGT">As of February 27, more than 3.1 million FAFSA forms have been submitted since late December, representing about 18 percent of the 17 million students who typically submit a FAFSA each year. </p>
<p id="EFcybi">Data from the National College Attainment Network’s <a href="https://www.ncan.org/page/fafsatracker">FAFSA tracker</a>, which collects FAFSA data at local and national levels, has found that through February 23, FAFSA submissions for the class of 2024 were down about 57 percent compared to last year’s graduating class. The tracker <a href="https://ncan.org/news/664213/New-FAFSA-Data-Detail-Slow-Start-Uphill-Climb-Ahead-for-Class-of-2024.htm?utm_source=open-campus-dispatch.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fafsa-turmoil-continues-across-the-country">also found</a> that the application period has been “disproportionately sluggish” for high schools primarily serving students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. </p>
<p id="CyciGl">The issues have been ongoing. The department has kept a long <a href="https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/fafsa-simplification-information/2024-25-fafsa-issue-alerts">public list of the issues</a> that families have faced amid the rollout, including students who have been unable to save or submit the form, parents who have been unable to access the FAFSA despite starting the application for their child, or parents or students without <a href="https://www.vox.com/social-programs" data-source="encore">social security</a> numbers unable to start or reenter forms. A number of the issues have affected parents who are not US citizens or permanent residents. Some of the issues have been resolved with workarounds, while others are still awaiting a fix. </p>
<p id="3FWfut">The traditional National College Decision Day for a majority of colleges is May 1, but many schools, including <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pennsylvania-state-schools-extend-student-commitment-deadline-fafsa/">Pennsylvania</a> and <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/feb/29/washington-universities-extend-decision-deadlines-/">Washington</a> state schools, have pushed the enrollment deadline to June 1 while others have suspended their admissions deadlines until they get more information from the Department of Education. Other schools have switched to rolling admissions. Education policy experts <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2024/02/05/how-fafsa-delay-throwing-admission-timelines">have noted</a> that the delays will mostly affect colleges that serve more low-income students and students of color. </p>
<p id="6vdnSF">Once colleges receive this information later this month, they’ll race to get financial aid packages to families. But since processes have been reworked, they’ll have to <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-deploys-federal-personnel-funding-and-resources-support-colleges-students-and-families-better-fafsa%C2%AE">run financial aid systems tests</a> and carry out new student aid compliance requirements before they can send awards to students, the department said. </p>
<p id="O8aKOM">These issues can set off a domino effect. The delayed transfer of FAFSA information to schools delays when colleges can start processing information and ultimately creates a stressful situation in which families must compare financial aid packages and make decisions quickly. Wait lists can be thrown off. Plus, some states and schools provide financial aid on a first-come, first-served basis, a reality that has worried families. The department has, however, assured families that everyone is in the same situation — though some students have been able to submit their applications while others have not. </p>
<p id="ID8crs">Others worry that students won’t be able to make decisions until the end of the school year in May and June. For marginalized students who need the support of nonprofit organizations and other assistance, new problems can arise during the summer. </p>
<p id="0G6uxg">“Our Chicago students are basically out of school by late May and our program ends in June. So if school’s out and kids get these letters, who’s going to help them navigate this process? Will they give up? Will they be so frustrated and not sure what to do and how to enroll in a school?” Wathington said. Each year, iMentor helps more than 1,000 students complete the FAFSA. </p>
<p id="9homD1">“The kids get discouraged, so we’re trying to keep their emotions high and the resilience up so they can get through the process of completing the form,” she said.<strong> </strong>“And keeping them hopeful.”</p>
<h3 id="AbNBje">What happens next? </h3>
<p id="5rG1ro">Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has acknowledged the missteps but says the changes are necessary. </p>
<p id="LBTgDF">“We’re working with different contractors on the backend and the processing to try to modernize everything. It’s become very frustrating,” Cardona told reporters. Part of the delay in getting the data out is in November his team learned that they had to make an adjustment for inflation. </p>
<p id="L9G2e1">“Our projections for what students could get became impacted by inflation,” Cardona said. “We learned that that would result in $1.8 billion in the pockets of students if we used the new numbers. The formula and back-end stuff was set up, so we had to make a decision: Do we go with the numbers and leave $1.8 billion on the table or do we redo all that work we did because we want to get the $1.8 billion out? That’s a no-brainer. It doesn’t make it any easier, but we made that decision consciously.”</p>
<p id="zvWy3A">Last month the department announced that it was launching a “College Support Strategy” to send teams of federal financial aid experts to “lower-resourced colleges” to provide consultations as the schools assembled aid packages. While many colleges have already pushed back their deadlines for students to accept or decline admissions offers, the department is urging more schools to give students more flexibility and time to make their enrollment decisions. </p>
<p id="7t6iZI">In the first half of this month, the department will begin sending batches of FAFSA information to colleges and state agencies. The department estimates that it will be able to transfer the majority of the information within weeks after that. </p>
<p id="ovuuFt">“The delays are challenging. We’re going to do everything we can to get through these next couple months with our colleges. We’re sending them staff. We’re going to get through it and these colleges will be much better off. That’s more dollars for schools. At the end of the day, this is opening the door so much to higher education leveling the playing field.”</p>
<p id="SBSDlA">Though practitioners believe there will be hope for future classes of students, there’s worry that the delays will cause big problems for certain institutions and the current class of students that can’t be overlooked. </p>
<p id="YeV8PI">“My guess is students will decide to go to the schools that they know are most affordable, said Wathington. “Here in New York, they’re likely to go to a SUNY but if they don’t hear from SUNY, and they’ve applied to CUNY and they know CUNY is much cheaper, they may just decide to go to CUNY school.” This is a problem for institutions concerned about their yield, she said. </p>
<p id="W0cXR2">For some students, access will continue to be a problem.</p>
<p id="s69xmo">“We don’t have the number of kids we want entering college and enrolling as it is,” Wathington said. “And with these rollbacks on race-conscious admissions, and now having the carpet swept out from under you in terms of aid and access, you’re just closing the door to kids who wouldn’t traditionally go into higher education.”</p>
<p id="aqrFLC">She added, “I want to be hopeful for next year, that it ends up being all the things that Secretary Cardona is expecting, but I think for this year, there will be a deep impact on access. There are kids who are going to be harmed by the fact that it didn’t happen for them. They’re caught in between a system that was and a system that’s changing.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy/24090669/fafsa-financial-aid-rollout-college-tuitionFabiola Cineas2024-02-27T07:15:00-05:002024-02-27T07:15:00-05:00Why elite colleges are bringing the SAT back
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<img alt="“Undergraduate admissions” signage outside of the Admissions Office at Dartmouth College on February 8, 2024, in Hanover, New Hampshire." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/INRt6ddOD93RU4A2J8XKBkn74ck=/724x0:8009x5464/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73167223/1988735666.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Scott Eisen/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Yale and Dartmouth are bringing testing back — but thousands of other schools aren’t.</p> <p id="MG4nA8">America’s colleges and universities are embroiled in yet another debate about admissions. </p>
<p id="7A47YJ">This time, they’re rethinking their positions on standardized testing. </p>
<p id="JrENEL">At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, several elite colleges made the submission of SAT and ACT scores optional for applicants. </p>
<p id="KO0b89">Testing had become a hassle, with limited testing locations and time for students to get prepared. The anti-testing movement had long contended that standardized tests reinforce racial and economic inequality and that reliance on them harms students from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the pandemic, those students faced additional roadblocks. Schools loosened restrictions to simplify the process for everyone. </p>
<p id="KJcx6P">But last week, Yale University <a href="https://admissions.yale.edu/test-flexible">announced</a> that it was reversing course. </p>
<p id="HudeZq">Going forward, students must include test scores with their applications, and for the first time, the school is allowing applicants to report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in place of SAT or ACT scores. </p>
<p id="G64KnZ">The move follows two others reinstating testing requirements of some kind: Dartmouth College earlier this month and MIT in 2022.</p>
<p id="sPQozG">So why are (a few elite) school leaders changing their minds? </p>
<p id="HbERur">They’re pointing to new research that says that test scores are actually helpful for admissions decisions — and beneficial for marginalized students.</p>
<h3 id="CEqikO">Do standardized tests make school admissions more or less fair?</h3>
<p id="JLrUzl">The anti-testing movement has long held that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjVVwMGJ9S8">tests maintain inequality</a> and are a <a href="https://www.vox.com/23700778/sat-act-standardized-tests-college-high-school">disservice to students</a> from disadvantaged backgrounds. </p>
<p id="LaiH8H">There are reasons for that: <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2021/9/28/is-income-implicit-in-measures-of-student-ability">Tests</a> can be <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/sat-math-scores-mirror-and-maintain-racial-inequity/">discriminatory</a>. </p>
<p id="nzCXSj">A <a href="https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SAT_ACT_on_Grades.pdf">study</a> from Opportunity Insights, a group of Harvard economists, found that “students from low-income families and other less advantaged backgrounds have lower standardized test scores and are less likely to take the test than students from higher income families” due to “differences in school quality, neighborhood exposure, and many other environmental conditions.” </p>
<p id="qVgk0B">But that wasn’t their central finding. They and the other researchers fueling the recent admissions reversals have found that test-optional practices <em>harm</em> students from low-income backgrounds. </p>
<aside id="QcTbSK"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"vox_sentences"}'></div></aside><p id="x2Gl1Q">That’s because when given the option to submit scores, these students decided not to submit them out of fear that their scores weren’t perfect. </p>
<p id="yLG3Kg">Instead, admissions counselors have found that strong scores from students of lower-income backgrounds are an indicator that they would excel academically in college.</p>
<h3 id="mujTqC">What does the research say about how universities use test scores?</h3>
<p id="8VrMi3">One thing college admissions officers consider when evaluating a potential student is: Will they succeed here? And researchers have tried to determine the connection between test scores and that college success. </p>
<p id="WJgnep">In one <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/sites/home/files/2024-02/sat-undergrad-admissions.pdf">study</a>, Dartmouth researchers found that test scores were a better indicator of college performance than grades, essays, or teacher recommendations. </p>
<p id="MdaPgZ">And importantly, researchers found that test scores help admissions officers better pick out high-achieving less-advantaged applicants. </p>
<p id="rSjFGv">Under the test-optional policy, “many high-achieving less-advantaged applicants choose not to submit scores even when doing so would allow Admissions to identify them as students likely to succeed at Dartmouth and in turn benefit their application,” the researchers wrote. </p>
<p id="6244bC">The Opportunity Insights researchers similarly examined the connection between test scores and student success at IvyPlus institutions (the eight Ivy League colleges plus Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the University of Chicago). </p>
<p id="t2HnVx">They found that “Even among otherwise similar students with the same high school grades, [...] SAT and ACT scores have substantial predictive power for academic success in college.” These researchers also found that higher high school GPAs are not associated with higher college GPAs. </p>
<p id="e9yJnf">Yale’s <a href="https://admissions.yale.edu/test-flexible">research</a> has identified the same thing. In its announcement, the school wrote, “test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s future Yale grades. This is true even after controlling for family income and other demographic variables, and it is true for subject-based exams such as AP and IB, in addition to the ACT and SAT.” </p>
<p id="g7x3Uk">In short, according to Opportunity Insights’ findings, it can be the case that tests reinforce inequality generally but also allow schools to identify individual kids who are academically prepared despite challenging circumstances.</p>
<h3 id="upfPD6">What happens next</h3>
<p id="hDZF7j">Yale and Dartmouth have emphasized that test scores are simply one part of their whole-person review processes. </p>
<p id="tiT37z">Using test scores in the years before the pandemic had not harmed Yale’s diversity efforts, the university said in its announcement, citing gains in the number of admitted first-generation college students and under-represented minority students. </p>
<p id="9Gm9T1">And it’s worth pointing out that some of the wealthiest applicants never stopped testing and submitting scores when possible. </p>
<p id="sPuqx0">Adam Nguyen, who founded Ivy Link, a firm that helps students gain admission to selective colleges, never changed the advice he gave to clients.</p>
<p id="6jn3AL">“I can tell you that a number of things on the application are ‘optional,’ but to get into the Ivy League and other elite colleges, an applicant has to go above and beyond the minimum requirements,” he said. </p>
<p id="49Vax5">And for wealthy students, that can mean paying firms like his tens of thousands of dollars to help curate outstanding extracurricular resumes, design showcase projects, and bolster their grades. Comparatively, he said, “standardized tests are probably the avenue where kids” can excel with fewer resources.</p>
<p id="5wPaos">Meanwhile, the anti-testing movement has said the attention to the test-optional reversals is excessive. An <a href="https://fairtest.org/overwhelming-majority-of-u-s-colleges-and-universities-remain-act-sat-optional-or-test-blind-score-free-for-fall-2025/">overwhelming majority</a> of US colleges and universities remain test-optional. </p>
<p id="wGvAh4">At least 1,825 four-year colleges in the US — or more than 80 percent of them — will not require SAT or ACT scores for fall 2025, according to FairTest, an organization that advocates against testing requirements.</p>
<p id="7aUYp7">“Despite a media frenzy around a single Ivy League school reinstating testing requirements, ACT/SAT-optional and test-blind/score-free policies remain the new normal in undergraduate admissions,” said FairTest executive director Harry Feder.</p>
<p id="QDYDzM"><em>This story appeared originally in </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast"><em><strong>Today, Explained</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s flagship daily newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/today-explained-newsletter-signup"><em><strong>Sign up here for future editions</strong></em></a><em>.</em></p>
https://www.vox.com/24083809/college-university-sat-testing-requirement-ivy-league-yaleFabiola Cineas2024-02-09T07:30:00-05:002024-02-09T07:30:00-05:00Usher has a Super Bowl-worthy legacy. Why don’t people act like it?
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<img alt="Usher sings into a handheld mic while kneeling onstage, surrounded by smoke." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/O-k4VxyVCARqAwmfMfsNkcWMpdA=/0x0:4200x3150/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73125202/1409206387.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Usher performs at the grand opening of Usher: My Way—The Vegas Residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM on July 15, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Dolby Live at Park MGM</figcaption>
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<p>Put some respect on Usher’s name. </p> <p id="qwJDmN">Across his 30-year career, Usher has been deemed the “<a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/usher-king-of-r-and-b-title-1235130651/">King of R&B</a>” and a “<a href="https://www.bet.com/article/73ns2j/cardi-b-usher-flowers-my-way-anniversary">legend</a>” for his catalog of Top 10 hits, smooth dance breaks, life-changing serenades, and lighthearted, meme-worthy energy. And yet, fans and music experts still have to explain why the superstar is a big deal ahead of his career-defining <a href="https://www.vox.com/super-bowl" data-source="encore">Super Bowl</a> moment. </p>
<p id="P6nCaH">In September, Usher surprised his younger self with the news that he’d be performing during the major event. A promotional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-zT1Pjb2eQ">video</a> following the NFL’s announcement shows present-day Usher calling Usher from the 2004 “Confessions Pt. II” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sy19X0xxrM">music video</a> to deliver the big news. “Stop playin’ with me,” the younger Usher responds. Many saw the eight-time Grammy-winning singer as an obvious, even overdue, choice. Fans rejoiced, posting “Yeahhhh!” (a nod to Usher’s 2004 hit featuring rappers Lil Jon and Ludacris) and jokingly claiming to be <a href="https://twitter.com/iamtease_/status/1706034102967718318">prepping the Y2K</a> outfits they’ll wear to their living rooms to watch one of the country’s biggest stars hit the NFL stage. </p>
<p id="cmGBgb">But critics also spoke out. On a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/16qxxcj/usher_confirmed_as_super_bowl_2024_halftime/">Reddit post</a> about the announcement, a user commented, “Wow, this would have been really exciting news 20 years ago” and received nearly 4,000 upvotes. Another wrote, “Seriously the best they could do?” On X, one user <a href="https://twitter.com/asj519/status/1624965179548082176">wrote</a> ahead of the announcement, “I know y’all think Usher should perform the next SB but I don’t think he has enough pop/hip-hop hits.” </p>
<p id="8atvgb">More recently, as Taylor Swift’s romance with Travis Kelce — who will play in the big game — continues to dominate the news cycle, Swifties have <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/01/29/taylor-swift-will-not-perform-super-bowl-lviii-halftime-show-usher/?adid=social-tw">demanded</a> that Usher bring Swift onstage. Some have <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/taylor-swift-is-already-the-star-of-super-bowl-lviiisorry-usher?utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_campaign=owned_social&via=twitter_page">argued</a> the attention on the Eras star is already dimming Usher’s moment. </p>
<p id="Lc6lki">One could say that the mixed reactions ahead of Usher’s show are typical responses for any Super Bowl announcement: One artist, or genre, can’t please the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/09/25/rihannas-super-bowl-halftime-performance-was-the-most-watched-in-history-could-usher-top-that-in-2024/?sh=4d0ba1a267a0">more than 100 million viewers</a> who tune in. But experts told Vox that the critics questioning Usher’s impact and relevance are illustrating something much bigger: It’s a reaction that’s indicative of racial, generational, and cultural divides in America. </p>
<p id="h3AJHb">“The discourse is really showing how we live in two different Americas,” said Taylor Crumpton, a writer and culture critic who has written extensively about the return of R&B. “There’s a [contingent] of people who feel that Usher getting a Super Bowl is way overdue. It’s time to give him his flowers.”</p>
<h3 id="yW7M7b">What the perfect Super Bowl halftime star needs</h3>
<p id="N7q23S">An event as massive as the Super Bowl halftime show requires an artist with a deep catalog of well-known hits, dedicated fans, and widespread appeal. They must be able to speak to the NFL’s diverse and enormous audience. Some 118.7 million people tuned in to the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/09/25/rihannas-super-bowl-halftime-performance-was-the-most-watched-in-history-could-usher-top-that-in-2024/?sh=6630649b67a0">2023 halftime show</a>, the most viewers in the show’s history. </p>
<p id="9K7oxH">Usher has performed at the Super Bowl before — in 2011, alongside the headlining Black Eyed Peas, to sing “OMG,” his 2010 hit featuring will.i.am. In 2024, during Black History Month, he’ll perform a career retrospective and honor the Black artists who came before him. </p>
<p id="bwnimt">“It’s an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before,” the 45-year-old veteran entertainer <a href="https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/Generation-Defining-USHER-to-Perform-During-Apple-Music-Super-Bowl-LVIII-Halftime-Show-Sunday,-February-11,-2024,-on-CBS.aspx">said in a statement</a> at the time of the announcement. </p>
<p id="IHNkcM">Some are already saying that the halftime performance is a part of Usher’s renaissance, but others see the moment as confirmation of what the star has been giving fans all along. </p>
<p id="yaZ8Yw">“I don’t think it’s so much a renaissance moment as it is a validation moment,” said Naima Cochrane, culture journalist and professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. “Usher’s been Usher. He has a longevity and consistency of brand and presence that is unmatched in R&B.”</p>
<p id="3GiN0Y">Having the King of R&B headline football’s main event makes sense for the NFL in 2024. </p>
<p id="HINOHx">Back in the summer of 2019, Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment company, struck a deal with the league to produce the Super Bowl halftime show. When the deal went through, many <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/dont-be-fooled-by-jay-zs-star-studded-super-bowl-halftime-show">speculated</a> that the NFL signed it to distract from its <a href="https://www.vox.com/22528334/race-norming-medical-racism">racist history and present</a> and to quell uproar over its <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/25/17257978/kaepernick-nfl-nike-protest-race-football">treatment of Colin Kaepernick</a>. Critics see Usher’s performance as somewhat linked to this effort. </p>
<p id="qy8QsM">Since 2019, Roc Nation has selected a diverse slate of artists, a mix of icons and popular newcomers with current hits. There was Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in 2020; The Weeknd the following year; a hip-hop-themed showcase for the genre’s 50th anniversary featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar in 2022; and last year’s performance by Rihanna. It was a reset from over a decade of often lackluster shows.</p>
<p id="JC1jc6">Following 2004’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22739035/janet-jackson-wardrobe-malfunction-controversy-explainer-sexuality-damita-jo">wardrobe malfunction</a> with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson — which received more than <a href="https://people.com/music/janet-jackson-justin-timberlake-super-bowl-halftime-controversy-timeline/">half a million Federal Communications Commission complaints</a> — the NFL parted ways with producer MTV and brought on Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and The Who over the next six years, hoping to play it safe. The mostly white male “classic” artists were an attempt to appease viewers who complained that the show had gone astray, but the shows became something of a joke for featuring what the Washington Post called <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/sports/superbowl-halftime-show-history/#old-rockers">“over-the-hill rockers.” </a></p>
<p id="yPTk1p">“Since MTV stopped doing the halftime show, there’s never really been any consistency with who is selected for the act,” said Cochrane. “I think the Super Bowl just chooses to focus on different things at different times.”</p>
<p id="rd78ip">In 2024, the league and its affiliates have decided to focus on Usher. And it’s time to put some respect on his name. </p>
<h3 id="yX0ibG">People have tried to deny Usher’s legacy</h3>
<p id="BBcQfB">Usher has most recently been crowned the “<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/gq-hype-usher">New King of Vegas</a>,” the city where he’ll perform on the Super Bowl stage at Allegiant Stadium. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="QuYO1d"><q>Having the King of R&B headline football’s main event makes sense for the NFL in 2024</q></aside></div>
<p id="AU0U6k">He began a residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in 2021 and a year later moved to the Park MGM, where tickets <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/usher-closes-out-vegas-residency-tears-1234909146/">consistently sold out</a>. The show was extended multiple times until the end of 2023, when Usher wrapped it up after 100 performances. The residency stage was <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/gq-hype-usher">part strip club, part roller skating rink</a>, part <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/magazine/usher-rnb.html">parade</a>, and part jazz club, and his decades-spanning career prepared him well for it. </p>
<p id="3twDCy">Before arriving in Las Vegas, it had been six years since Usher was on tour. He told GQ, “I really wanted to give women something to look forward to, something to come here to Las Vegas with their friends for. They’ve been saving up all year and were able to manage to get away from their kids or get away from their problems.”</p>
<p id="WtenK1">The show grew popular as <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/usher-serenading-celebrities-las-vegas-residency-videos-49220260">countless</a> <a href="https://people.com/doja-cat-jessica-alba-attend-usher-my-way-las-vegas-residency-both-receive-serenade-8364997">celebrities</a> (Keke Palmer, various Kardashians, LeBron James, Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Zendaya and Tom Holland, Issa Rae, and more) stopped by and videos of the superstar serenading thirsty audience members went viral. In a number of videos, fans could be seen running up to touch Usher as he walked through the crowd singing “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).”</p>
<p id="CyHdEY">Usher’s popular songs carried the show. Out of his 18 Billboard Top 10 hits, a whopping nine of them (“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpQ4AZSAf8">Nice & Slow</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxau9B3jOHM">U Remind Me</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxBSyx85Kp8">Yeah!</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3IWTfcks4k">U Got It Bad</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sy19X0xxrM">Confessions Part II</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5XNWFw5HVw">Burn</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgf2meEX1w">My Boo</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB5e0zHRzHc%27">Love in This Club</a>,” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RnPB76mjxI">OMG”</a>) made it to No. 1. He has 53 songs that made it to the Billboard Hot 100, and by some estimates he has sold over <a href="https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.56436/title.usher-makes-cites-hip-hop-rbs-greatness-while-making-case-for-juneteeth-holiday">100 million records</a> in his career. His stage presence has earned dozens of awards, including Grammys, Critics Choice Awards, BET and MTV Music Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. </p>
<p id="qhKeuJ">Cochrane said that Usher’s traditional training is what makes him unmatched today.</p>
<p id="3HKNUE">“He has always been a consummate performer, one of the last of his school who really got to sit at the feet of the greats, directly learn from them, and apply it,” she said. The star names icons like Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Teddy Pendergrass, and more as his inspirations. “He’s in the last of the classes who were in vocal training, underwent artist development, or were in the studio learning their stage shows. He is an entertainer, and we don’t have a lot of those anymore.”</p>
<p id="tWsZO7">Usher’s roles and guest appearances on various <a href="https://www.vox.com/reality-tv" data-source="encore">reality TV</a> programs expanded his stardom. He joined fellow music icons Shakira, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton on season four of <em>The Voice</em> as a coach. He returned in season six, leading his team to victory, and appeared on later seasons as a leading coach and adviser. His “watch this” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up8ODGFWgFg">moment</a> during his NPR Tiny Desk concert in 2022, in which he placed his fingers across his face to the beat and became a viral meme, endeared him to viewers and reminded everyone of his charm. </p>
<p id="RQpWLw">While Usher’s career took a dip in the 2010s when changes at Billboard <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/magazine/usher-rnb.html">tested R&B’s popularity</a>, after dominating the 1990s and aughts, he remained relevant, critics say. “The album that people <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/usher-ranking-best-albums-hard-ii-love">point to as his flop</a>” — <em>Raymond v. Raymond</em> — “was still a platinum album. He has had moments where he’s less consistent, but he’s always been present and relevant,” Cochrane said. “We take him for granted. Usher is doing collaborations with these younger artists. He’s sampling his own work. How many people get to do that?”</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="lK6W7E"><q>Usher’s traditional training is what makes him unmatched today</q></aside></div>
<p id="gQqcjY">The Super Bowl announcement isn’t the first time Usher’s legacy has been questioned. During online debates about who would make a good matchup for the popular pandemic Verzuz battles, commentators cast doubt on Usher’s record, uncertain he’d be able to win over Chris Brown. And in the early 2000s, some people <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2016/9/19/16041980/who-wins-according-to-data-usher-or-justin-timberlake-3a1fdc36e2c4#:~:text=With%20eight%20solo%20LPs%20to,a%20mic%20stand%20into%20art.">pitted Usher against Justin Timberlake</a>, seeing them as <a href="https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/twitter-debates-about-usher-and-justin-timberlake-catalog/vzT1j4nUtqXvByxJZpLDwN/">rivals</a>. </p>
<p id="7oYPkh">With the halftime show, some people have questioned Usher’s crossover appeal — whether he can appeal to audiences who love pop and also hip-hop. But it is his crossover appeal that makes him the no-brainer choice for the Super Bowl, critics told Vox. </p>
<p id="4xyQ0U">“Gen Z may think of Usher as a person who signed Justin Bieber, whereas earlier generations see him as a king with crossover appeal — working not only in music but also in TV and film,” said Crumpton. “Every suburban soccer mom feels a type of way when ‘Yeah!’ comes on.”</p>
<p id="wfVhpf">Usher just released his ninth studio album, <em>Coming Home</em>, a few days after announcing a new <a href="https://www.usherworld.com/#tour">world tour</a> and a few days ahead of the big game. It’s a medley of Afrobeats hits featuring new artists, across 20 tracks.</p>
<p id="iYZuID">But the star made it clear that his performance at Super Bowl LVIII will focus on the impact of Black R&B artists of the past. </p>
<p id="0S0Dk8">“To have R&B have the main stage at the Super Bowl, it’s a major thing for me,” he said in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2oL32vwfEk">an interview</a> with <em>Good Morning America</em>. “I think about what our country has kind of represented for Black artists having to at some point go through kitchens to even be able to perform for an audience, but they had to leave back through that same door [and] fear for their lives as they went to the next state to do the same thing. So I’m coming through the front door with this one. I think about all of the R&B performers who I carry in this moment.”</p>
<p id="WCvpZq">In the short 13-minute show, critics expect Usher to bring the energy, be elaborate, but most of all represent where he’s from. </p>
<p id="m5K0T7">“He’s going to elevate Black people in Atlanta and Black people in the South,” said Crumpton. “That’s why it will be so monumental and invigorating to see.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/2/9/24066560/usher-super-bowl-lvii-2024-halftime-showFabiola Cineas2024-02-01T07:30:00-05:002024-02-01T07:30:00-05:00Conservatives have long been at war with colleges
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<img alt="DeSantis laughs and applauds as Rufo speaks at a lectern reading “Florida: The Education State.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3rYD5DTuMh2QmZghLO8ci7htEsc=/212x0:8660x6336/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73102959/1900670087.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Florida Governor Ron DeSantis listens to activist and New College of Florida trustee Christopher Rufo before signing three education bills on the school’s campus in Sarasota, Florida, on May 15, 2023. | Photo by Thomas Simonetti for the Washington Post via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>A brief history of the right’s long-running battle against higher education.</p> <p id="MIOWPH">In the wake of the resignations of two university presidents; campaigns against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus" data-source="encore">Supreme Court</a> ruling ending <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/14/23761092/supreme-court-affirmative-action-college-admissions-race" data-source="encore">affirmative action</a>, conservatives are vowing that their crusade against higher education is far from over. </p>
<p id="R0IUI5">Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who played a role in smearing <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">critical race theory</a> and in pushing out Harvard President <a href="https://www.vox.com/24025151/claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-conservative-culture-war">Claudine Gay</a> last month, told students at the University of Colorado Boulder recently that America must “lay siege to the institutions” to root out radical liberal <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy" data-source="encore">policies</a> that were established in the 1960s — an idea he’s been repeating for years. According to Rufo, those policies include diversity and inclusion initiatives that are bringing America down today. </p>
<p id="gsUecj">At a time when colleges and universities are facing criticism from all sides over rising tuition costs and resulting student debt, decreasing enrollment, and admissions challenges, conservatives want to spearhead the changes that lie ahead for the institutions. But the desire of Rufo and others to remake higher education in their conservative vision isn’t new. </p>
<p id="YZ9B2l">According to historian Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, who is the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Resistance-Right-Conservatives-America-Politics/dp/1469674491"><em>Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America</em></a> and casts a sometimes critical eye on the conservative assault on higher education, the playbook has existed for decades. </p>
<p id="aDqvsK">Lassabe Shepherd and I discussed the parallels between the current moment and the early 20th century, when conservatives first grew suspicious of colleges and universities. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. </p>
<h4 id="nkCLAV">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="PPA6Yo">What’s one word you would use to describe conservatives’ relationship with higher education today?</p>
<h4 id="4U7NAc">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="CQwDB1">Antagonistic. </p>
<p id="wLz2qW">There’s a culture war being fought right now by people like Chris Rufo and, in the K–12 sphere, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/us/politics/moms-for-liberty-sex-scandal.html">Moms for Liberty</a>. These people aren’t shy, and they’re not discreet. They’re writing op-eds and saying exactly what their plans are. </p>
<p id="5yl0Ze">But they’re not trying to dismantle public higher education brick by brick, as some commentators have suggested. They want to keep these institutions, but they want them to look like <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/10/the-christian-liberal-arts-school-at-the-heart-of-the-culture-wars">Hillsdale</a> [a small conservative Christian college in Michigan]. They want to do what they’re doing at the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23593369/ron-desantis-florida-schools-higher-education-woke">New College of Florida</a>. I think they do like these institutions — they just don’t like that they don’t control them.</p>
<h4 id="36NIdG">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="m2ok7j">What do you make of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/08/19/the-growing-partisan-divide-in-views-of-higher-education-2/">polling from Pew</a> that shows that Republicans have lost confidence in higher education in a matter of a few years? Why do you think the shift toward believing that colleges have a harmful effect on the nation has been that quick in recent times?</p>
<h4 id="soI2V1">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="J0PZzc">I think there was a big shift after 2016, when [political] strategists looked at election data and realized Trump didn’t do so well with college-educated people. So now strategists have framed this as “College-educated people are the problem.” They’re saying, “We need to make higher education a bogeyman, attack it and reform it into what we want it to look like.” </p>
<h4 id="Ylbzor">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="AaWm3L">Let’s take a step back and talk about how we got here. Historically, what’s been the function of colleges and universities? Was there a version of these elite institutions that conservatives aligned with?</p>
<h4 id="e9gqzG">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="vZ3dnN">The Ivies, our very first institutions, like Harvard — which is 150 years older than we are as a nation — were set up privately with charters. The idea was to train white men, usually second, third, fourth sons, and sometimes first sons, for the ministry, sometimes for medicine, sometimes for law, and also for public service. </p>
<p id="ihedA7">In addition to educating them, there was also a social component. It was about getting elite young men together through social clubs, like supper clubs, dining clubs, and secret societies, many of which are still around today. </p>
<p id="lNsMXi">Getting a degree wasn’t always the outcome. This was mostly for men from wealthy upper-class families, but you would occasionally have someone who came from a farming family. Christianity was also a really strong component. What we think of as the modern model of colleges didn’t emerge until after the Civil War. Before then, college was really like private high school. </p>
<h4 id="oPmY5Y">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="4wqrdr">So what would you say is the first major moment when conservatives begin to question the aims of colleges and universities?</p>
<h4 id="49eBfa">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="Vh1y4g">In the 1950s, William F. Buckley Jr., who is widely regarded as the father of the modern conservative movement, pens his first book, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/God-and-Man-at-Yale/William-F-Buckley/9781596988033"><em>God and Man at Yale</em></a>. The whole premise of the book is that America’s elite institutions have lost their way, deviated from Christianity, and are teaching young men to be more liberal, open-minded, worldly, and more socialist. This is where we see the beginning of a concerted movement of the right being a little bit suspicious about the curriculum in higher ed. They began wondering, “What are they teaching these kids?” </p>
<p id="e8nteG">What happened in the decades before built up to this. During the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/3/7/14841292/liberal-universities-conservative-faculty-sizzler-pc">Red Scare</a>, there were suspicions about Jewish professors being communist or anti-American. There was also the effort to create Bob Jones College, a college for Christian men where the Bible is the curriculum. This was similar to today’s plan to make colleges look like Hillsdale. That means a biblical curriculum, but what they also want is “Western tradition.” They want students studying old classics written by and for white men. </p>
<h4 id="9nmbGK">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="gfNRkD">What role did outside organizations play in fighting to uphold conservative ideals in higher education?</p>
<h4 id="A1HesB">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="msvQZe">Around the time of the Great Depression, they created parallel academic programs to promote conservative ideas. Those institutions still exist now. The big one today is ISI, the <a href="https://isi.org/">Intercollegiate Studies Institute</a>. Its whole purpose as a nonprofit is to identify conservative students and provide stipends or fellowships for their credentials so that they can become faculty themselves.</p>
<h4 id="aYqMtc">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="gpBWY7">You’ve also talked about the late 1960s as being a time when conservatives organized for their causes. When I think about that time, I think about liberal student movements that protested the Vietnam War or advocated for ethnic studies. So what were conservative students doing, and how does it inform what conservatives want to do with higher education today?</p>
<h4 id="gbIS3t">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="Vt6945">Conservative students were part of groups like the Young Republican National Federation and the College Republicans National Committee. They were the pro-war voice on campus, and they framed themselves as being anti-communist. There was also Young Americans for Freedom, still around today as <a href="https://yaf.org/">Young America’s Foundation</a>. </p>
<p id="MwoYKP">Those students in the ’60s, like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142599781/in-gingrichs-past-a-lesson-on-ambition">Newt Gingrich</a> and <a href="https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2019/12/the-education-of-billy-barr">Bill Barr</a>, that was their entry into politics. That’s where they cut their political teeth and learned how to organize and fundraise and set up counterdemonstrations. They had a hand up in the sense that there was lots of mentorship — a very welcoming and deep-pocketed set of advisers who helped them on their political journey.</p>
<p id="3gkxb6">Karl Rove is a really good example because he didn’t finish his degree at the University of Utah. He dropped out in that period and moved to Washington, DC, and immediately became a lobbyist working for the national College Republicans. That kind of activism and membership were career funnels. What the uniting factor is between them is they all don’t like the left. And when they say they don’t like the left, they’re actually just talking about liberals.</p>
<h4 id="L4Cv8H">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="2XPadX">So did conservatives basically build on this activism inside and outside of higher ed institutions? I’m specifically thinking about the rise of affirmative action, too. </p>
<h4 id="EYAbZr">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="ZmsYWG">So, in that sense, the right’s worst fears came true. The campuses did diversify — very, very slowly, but they did. </p>
<p id="6CK6eG">And even still, campuses broadly — when we’re talking about the sum total of American higher education, the average college student goes to a large state public or community college. And they’re probably not even a traditional 18- to 21-year-old student, either. Harvard, MIT, Penn, and others have consumed the news. But those institutions are absolutely not representative of what the landscape of colleges and universities is in the country. </p>
<p id="FsWzpj">Going forward, the conversation about conservatives and higher education has always been there, though it didn’t always make headlines. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, in his 1971 <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/05/09/launch-long-game">Powell Memorandum</a>, laid out this plan for fixing America’s institutions. He basically said, “We need to tear them apart brick by brick, and we do that through defunding and then placing our people in positions of power.” The Powell Memo is a document that definitely lays this plan all out, but the sentiment was certainly there before. </p>
<h4 id="j6qNmm">Fabiola Cineas</h4>
<p id="RNSNlx">Coming back to today, is the conservative fight to claim colleges and universities mostly happening at Harvard and Penn, as so much of the mainstream media would have us believe?</p>
<h4 id="MXJz3h">Lauren Lassabe Shepherd</h4>
<p id="3h71nh">Harvard is an easy target for headlines, but when it comes to practical application, like where the right can really have impact, it’s the large state public universities that are most at risk. Those institutions that don’t make headlines and can slowly be changed behind the scenes, and it’s almost like no one notices. In red states, legislators have direct control over public education budgets. This is why New College in Florida was so easy to tear apart. </p>
<p id="shYIAn"></p>
https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/2/1/24056238/conservatives-culture-war-colleges-universitiesFabiola Cineas2024-01-25T06:00:00-05:002024-01-25T06:00:00-05:00No, DEI isn’t making airplanes fall apart
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0YJrVmj5q0pxe2-kr8Dlbq8U4Lk=/243x0:5758x4136/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73083501/1948398071.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>The missing emergency door of Alaska Airlines N704AL, a 737 Max 9, which made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport on January 5 is covered and taped in Portland, | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Republicans have launched an ill-informed campaign to blame diversity policies for aircraft safety issues.</p> <p id="8DvHsP">The news cycle is awash with terrifying stories about <a href="https://www.vox.com/travel" data-source="encore">air travel</a> safety. At the start of the month, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2024/1/8/24030677/boeing-alaska-airlines-plane-737-max-door-plug">door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9</a> blew off mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole on the side of the Alaska Airlines plane. Over the weekend, another Boeing passenger jet’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2024/01/24/boeing-575-wheel-delta-atlanta-alska-airline-ceo-door-vpx.cnn">nose wheel fell off</a> just before the Delta flight took off. </p>
<p id="4n62At">While these incidents have reopened important conversations about outdated technology, workforce shortages, and the financial tradeoffs that airlines have made, right-wing pundits are claiming to have found the real source of the aviation industry’s troubles: DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. </p>
<p id="vd2CWF">According to these commentators, airlines hired certain workers solely to meet diversity goals and sacrificed their commitments to safety and quality in the process, despite the global conversation about airline safety that’s been underway for years following <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeings-worst-crashes-over-last-decade-2022-03-21/">high-profile accidents</a>. </p>
<p id="qvNoSg">Among them was <a href="https://www.vox.com/elon-musk" data-source="encore">Elon Musk</a>, who took to his platform X after the Alaska Airlines incident <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1745158868676546609?lang=en">to ask</a>, “Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening.”</p>
<p id="B0ReZ0">He added, “People will die due to DEI.”</p>
<p id="DPMgrX">After news of the wheel flying off of the plane, the term “DEI” began to trend Tuesday. <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump" data-source="encore">Donald Trump</a> Jr. <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1749845385370017829">posted</a>, “I’m sure this has nothing to do with mandated Diversity Equity and Inclusion practices in the airline industry!!!” Other users <a href="https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1749917338382524467">questioned</a> whether Delta has “DEI quotas for their mechanics” and <a href="https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1749848280933007767">stated</a> that “DEI practices are going to cause disasters” and that “<a href="https://twitter.com/GrrrGraphics/status/1748028833352290552">DEI actually means DIE</a>.”</p>
<p id="TA2cYW">Aviation experts have never cited DEI — programs that organizations have widely adopted to increase representation among underrepresented groups — as a cause of air safety problems. Various <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/us/politics/air-traffic-safety-faa.html#:~:text=The%20Times%20found%20that%20close,has%20been%20one%20major%20factor.">investigations</a> point to a variety of other factors. One New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/sunday-review/boeing-737-max.html">analysis</a> stated that aircraft manufacturer Boeing, for example, “opted against adopting additional precautions and made decisions for the sake of saving money or raising profits.” After these latest incidents, airline executives are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/business/dealbook/boeing-max-9-airlines.html">pressuring Boeing’s leadership</a> to improve quality control and engineering. </p>
<p id="6obhCO">Conservatives’ growing critiques of diversity efforts illustrate how they have turned DEI into their culture war’s newest bogeyman ahead of the 2024 general election. In the way that critical race theory became a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">catch-all target</a> in 2021, DEI is the right’s new punching bag. In the last year alone, Republicans have blamed DEI for everything from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/23638473/silicon-valley-bank-failure-fdic-republicans">Silicon Valley Bank collapse</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/6/2/23742508/ron-desantis-florida-higher-education-ideological-war">“failing” higher education institutions</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/24010858/republicans-antisemitism-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-jewish-students">antisemitism</a>. Underneath the attack on DEI are racist, sexist, and anti-gay ideas that women, people of color, and those in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq" data-source="encore">LGBTQ</a>+ community do not have the qualifications, skills, or intelligence to participate in society through jobs, education, leadership, and more.</p>
<p id="uX18MV">Now, these beliefs are being enshrined into laws that bar <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/18/florida-bans-public-funding-dei">diversity</a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/14/oklahoma-ban-diversity-dei-program-colleges"> programming</a> and are motivating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/09/conservatives-sue-law-firms-dei/">lawsuits that seek to punish organizations</a> for diversifying their workforce. </p>
<h3 id="xsbVbL">Where did the link between DEI and airplanes come from?</h3>
<p id="RKEHna">Aviation has long been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/business/pilots-diversity.html">dominated by white men</a>. United Airlines, for example, didn’t hire its first Black pilot until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2016, 18 Black pilots <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-pilots-allege-racial-discrimination-at-united-airlines/">sued the airline</a> over widespread racial discrimination at the company. Around that time, about 97 percent of pilots were white and only about 5 percent of commercial airline pilots were women, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-pilots-allege-racial-discrimination-at-united-airlines/">CBS News</a>. </p>
<p id="CEv2nt">After the racial reckoning of 2020, airlines and aircraft manufacturers pledged to change their hiring practices to create more opportunities for qualified women and people of color. Boeing’s <a href="https://www.boeing.com/sustainability/diversity-and-inclusion/annual-report#our-aspirations">latest diversity data</a> for 2020–2022 shows that the company is still short of its goals to hire more women and people of color. Racial and ethnic minorities make up 35 percent of engineers for commercial airlines, up from 32 percent in 2020. Women make up 17 percent of engineers at the company, up from 16.5 percent in 2020. </p>
<p id="ojYN9i">That these diversity efforts haven’t led to a notable shift in the company’s demographics casts doubt on the right-wing ideas that DEI is causing safety issues. </p>
<p id="u3Rkhu">The connection being drawn between aviation troubles and DEI isn’t new. Former <a href="https://www.vox.com/media" data-source="encore">Fox News</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/24/23696053/tucker-carlson-exit-fox-news-populism">anchor Tucker Carlson</a> shared this line of thinking a year ago. </p>
<p id="aBLo6L">In a news <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6321010694112">segment</a> from February 2023, Carlson focused on the 2019 crash of a jet that carried <a href="https://www.vox.com/amazon" data-source="encore">Amazon</a> packages. Following the crash, it was revealed that the pilot, a Black man, had failed several training sessions but managed to withhold this information from his employer, Atlas Air. A National Transportation Safety Board <a href="https://time.com/5753435/amazon-atlas-air-cargo-crash/">investigation</a> determined that the Federal Aviation Administration must devise a better system of logging airline pilot records. </p>
<p id="fYRDvo">Carlson seized on the incident in the segment, arguing that the pilot received the job despite “his obvious inability to fly an airplane,” ignoring the fact that the pilot intentionally lied about his credentials. </p>
<p id="Z52d9c">“Why was he flying an airplane?” Carlson asked. “All of the airlines are doing their best to hire and train pilots on the basis of irrelevant criteria like their appearance. And your appearance ... has nothing to do with your ability to fly an airplane, or perform heart surgery or do anything. It’s immaterial. But on their websites, both Amazon and Atlas Air explain that diversity is paramount in everything they do.”</p>
<p id="i9xfOG">According to Carlson, “This is not an outlier ... This is happening at every major carrier in the United States. Safety concerns ignored in favor of something called equity. Hiring by appearance, not by ability. This is insane. And in this case, it killed three people.”</p>
<p id="RgsvET">Carlson blamed other accidents on what he called “diversity hires.” </p>
<p id="4wgm3t">“The airlines are in a mad scramble to meet equity targets, meaning they are pushing safety aside in favor of ideology. People will die. People have died.” His right-wing followers are now spreading this anti-DEI message far and wide. </p>
<h3 id="oM7HYi">The anti-DEI movement plays into tropes about the inferiority of marginalized groups</h3>
<p id="QGgINF">The moral panic surrounding DEI is the latest way that Republicans are undermining social justice progress. Criticism of DEI has emerged from all corners of the political spectrum, but instead of trying to unpack the ways that DEI has gone astray and remains underfunded, Republicans want to tear it down and suggest that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23403021/supreme-court-affirmative-action-race-ketanji-brown-jackson-colorblind-originalism">policies that ignore race</a> are the ideal.</p>
<p id="7kqrWb">The attack on DEI suggests that the marginalized groups these programs are supposed to help are undeserving of opportunities. It also suggests that people from marginalized groups lack merit and that hiring or admitting them into certain spaces will worsen outcomes for society. </p>
<p id="OHQRGE">During his X rant against DEI, Musk <a href="https://hbcuconnect.com/content/392658/elon-musk-cosigns-racist-claim-that-hbcu-students-have-low-iqs-and-should-not-be-pipelined-into-diversity-pilot-program">also replied</a> to a post that suggested that students at historically Black colleges and universities have lower IQs and therefore shouldn’t become pilots. “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” he replied. Similarly, conservatives went after the hiring of gay applicants. Chaya Raichik, behind the X account “Libs of <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok" data-source="encore">TikTok</a>,” complained that Alaska Airlines was jeopardizing passenger safety by setting diversity and inclusion goals and “<a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1745508261996945746?s=46&t=87GIrTM1fEe9TnVvAVzrGA">making their planes gay</a>.”</p>
<p id="Zrdsh8">Conservatives have complained that higher education institutions also spend too much money on DEI, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/01/11/opinion/dei-boondoggle-costs-us-millions-and-harms-students-it-claims-to-help/">at risk to students</a>. And they’ve turned their attention to the medical profession, too, claiming that medical schools are <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/16/med-schools-are-even-more-woke-than-you-think-and-your-care-is-at-risk/">lowering their standards</a> to let anyone be a physician. Critics made the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Affirmative-Action-Stephen-Carter/dp/0465068693">same arguments against affirmative action</a>, claiming that those hired or admitted through the initiative were unqualified. </p>
<p id="fRM0Wb">“The newer attacks on DEI seem, to me, to be more in line with attacks on diversity in general, from the attacks on diversity in college admissions to the attacks on university presidents to the general whining about white men, in particular, not being hired, to the attacks around immigration,” Matthew Florence, a DEI consultant, told <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/dei-diversity-experts-elon-musk-right-wing-opponents-1234944885/">Rolling Stone</a>. “It feels like an overall last-ditch effort to preserve a more white-centered United States culture.”</p>
<p id="PWoSE2">Republicans have made it clear that they are only just getting started in their campaign to roll back the very slow progress the country has made in confronting systemic injustice. States including Florida and Oklahoma are preventing some higher education institutions from using state funding to support DEI programs. Corporations are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/27/dei-affirmative-action-legal-challenges-corporate-america/">pulling back</a> on their commitments to diverse workforces. The aviation industry is just the latest target in conservatives’ high-pressure effort to undermine multiracial democracy.</p>
https://www.vox.com/politics/24049675/dei-boeing-airline-accidents-republicans-blame-diversityFabiola Cineas2024-01-11T16:00:00-05:002024-01-11T16:00:00-05:00Taraji P. Henson’s salary issues point to a larger problem in Hollywood
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<img alt="A photo of actress Taraji P. Henson sitting in front of a microphone being interviewed on Sirius XM Radio" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/v-ds0AjD55McLgDVibAkcM5qQVU=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73046586/GettyImages_1848360981.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>How did a conversation about pay disparities in Hollywood turn into a story about two Black women fighting? | Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM</figcaption>
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<p>The pay gap for Black women continues to persist.</p> <p id="CsQo4o">Amid the press tour for the musical film adaptation of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/24011148/the-color-purple-musical"><em>The Color Purple</em></a>, actress Taraji P. Henson has sparked new conversations in the fight against pay inequality for Black women in Hollywood.</p>
<p id="VV6q5s">Henson has set the internet ablaze, getting candid about the dispiriting work conditions on the movie set and the problem of industry pay disparities that she says exemplifies the unfair treatment that Black women entertainers routinely deal with in the industry. Now, Henson is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/movies/taraji-p-henson-the-color-purple.html">opening up</a> about the toll working in the industry has taken on her <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health" data-source="encore">mental health</a>, and fellow actors are chiming in to validate her experiences. </p>
<p id="a1Fghu">The firestorm started with an emotional SiriusXM radio panel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUzqD5UcLwo">interview</a> with Gayle King on December 19, 2023. Sitting next to the film’s director and leading stars, Henson said she’s “tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost.” </p>
<p id="U8kUps">Henson, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2009 for her supporting role in <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em> and won a Golden Globe in 2016 for her portrayal of Cookie Lyon on the Fox <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv" data-source="encore">television</a> drama <em>Empire</em>, among other accolades, said she had to start from the bottom in contract negotiations for <em>The Color Purple</em>, despite her past achievements. </p>
<p id="Vcl8dG">Holding back tears in the interview, she said: “It seems every time I do something, and I break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again, like I never did what I just did, and I’m just tired. It wears on you.”</p>
<p id="iJiENy">Henson has been vocal about this longtime Hollywood issue — but she ended up having to shut down internet sleuths who blamed the failures of <em>The Color Purple </em>on the film’s only Black female producer, Oprah Winfrey. So how did this conversation about standards for women of color in the industry get spun into a story about two Black women having beef?</p>
<h3 id="2QnWud"><strong>Are Oprah and Taraji feuding?</strong></h3>
<p id="HjpuL3">In late December, once <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok" data-source="encore">TikTok</a> and X users learned of Henson’s issues on the film set, they started searching for someone to blame. They <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leylamohammed/taraji-p-henson-oprah-winfrey-feud-rumors-awkward-video">analyzed press tour images and videos and concluded</a> that Oprah Winfrey, who is a producer for the film and starred in the 1985 version of it, was at fault. Users <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@openmichero/video/7315080753941908778">focused on video</a> from a December 12 promotional appearance where the cast members and Winfrey gathered atop the Empire State Building. In the video, Winfrey and Henson <a href="https://twitter.com/atme_at/status/1737820828970975555">appear to have an awkward exchange</a>, which led social media users to believe that Oprah was the source of Henson’s troubles on set. </p>
<p id="7Yxl8s">But Henson pushed back against almost immediately. She took to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C1H-nbQvaMc/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=fec71e55-660a-460e-8e1a-d16ee5f498c1">Instagram</a> to explain that, as she put it, “Ms. OPRAH has been nothing less than a steady and solid beacon of light to ALL OF THE CAST of The Color Purple!!! She has provided ENCOURAGEMENT, GUIDANCE and UNWAVERING SUPPORT to us all. She told me personally to reach out to her for ANYTHING I needed, and I did!”</p>
<p id="zn1362">Conditions on set only changed once Henson called Winfrey to voice her concerns, a revelation that squashed <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/find/oprah-and-taraji-beef">TikTok conspiracy theories</a> that Oprah was responsible for the unfair conditions. </p>
<p id="1MHgVQ">When Gayle King asked her famous best friend about the “feud” in an <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/oprah-winfrey-addresses-taraji-p-henson-feud-rumors/">interview</a> on the <a href="https://www.vox.com/golden-globes" data-source="encore">Golden Globes</a> red carpet, Oprah explained that the internet has it wrong. “It’s so disturbing to me. Why is my name even in this conversation? [...] ’Cause I have just been the champion for everybody,” she said. “The thing that is so upsetting to me is that … something went viral where they’re analyzing us on top of the Empire State Building. We were cold! It was cold.” </p>
<p id="1iFMKX">Oprah explained that once she learned of the challenges on set, changes were made. She personally made a call to Toby Emmerich, who was at the time the head of Warner Bros. Other X users pointed out how critics were quick to blame Oprah, the only Black woman producer on the film, while Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones were also producers. </p>
<h3 id="9wj6aJ">
<strong>What happened on the set of </strong><em><strong>The Color Purple</strong></em><strong>?</strong>
</h3>
<p id="TwCLEA">In the past few weeks, Henson has drawn attention to the poor conditions surrounding the filming of <em>The Color Purple</em>, which cost about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/business/media/color-purple-box-office.html">$90 million to make and $40 million</a> to market.</p>
<p id="ErobeL">Henson took issue with having to audition for the role of Shug Avery, despite <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2024/01/taraji-p-henson-disrespect-color-purple.html">being director Blitz Bazawule’s first choice</a> for the part. “Oftentimes in the industry, you can be the director’s choice but not the studio’s, so I had to audition,” she told the New York Times. “I had to sing, dance, and they read me. I was like, ‘Ouch.’”</p>
<p id="SdmyyM">In the SiriusXM interview, Bazawule expressed similar outrage over the casting process for all of the actresses, including Fantasia Barrino Taylor, who plays Celie, and Danielle Brooks, who plays Sofia. </p>
<p id="bCmw6A">The director addressed his actors directly, incredulously, about the “ fact that each one of you, every single one of you had to audition for this role, roles that were second nature to you.”</p>
<p id="Z4LYHB">According to Bazawule, the team would have benefited from having the studio allow him to choose the actors, in the same way that director Ryan Coogler was able to choose people whom he “loved and trusted” during the making of <em>Black Panther</em>. </p>
<p id="n46A8u">“No one should tell you who to pick for this work. It is sacred work,” Bazawule said. “I hope the work we did breaks those terrible and discriminatory ways. They get to see that we did it our way and we won.”</p>
<p id="1R50UW">During additional interviews and appearances with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP8rQHl94MU">SAG-AFTRA Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/the-color-purple-thr-presents-oprah-winfrey-taraji-p-henson-danielle-brooks-fantasia-barrino/">Hollywood Reporter</a>, Henson expressed other grievances. In an interview with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/movies/taraji-p-henson-the-color-purple.html">New York Times</a>, she explained how the cast of the Warner Bros. film were made to drive themselves to work in rental cars, and weren’t initially given food or their own dressing rooms or trailers. </p>
<p id="Sv6wiO">According to Henson, the production also lacked basic amenities, such as car or van services to transport them to set each day, a common industry practice. “I can’t drive myself to set in Atlanta. This is insurance liability, it’s dangerous.” she told the Times. “So I was like, ‘Can I get a driver or security to take me?’ I’m not asking for the moon. They’re like, ‘Well, if we do it for you, we got to do it for everybody.’ Well, do it for everybody! It’s stuff like that, stuff I shouldn’t have to fight for.’”</p>
<p id="yZPDbf">Henson’s decision to speak out and its ripple effects so far — countless observers <a href="https://people.com/keke-palmer-gabrielle-union-support-taraji-p-henson-pay-inequality-comments-8418956">in</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/29/opinions/taraji-henson-hollywood-pay-black-women-color-purple-nelson/index.html">outside of the entertainment industry</a> have said they identify with her struggle — shows that pay parity is still <a href="https://hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/why-hollywoods-pay-gap-women-color-is-wider-infrequent-golden-opportunities-1075057/">out of reach for Black women and other women of color</a>. And the struggle for pay equity is multigenerational. Taraji noted that this fight is much bigger than her. It’s also about the actresses in line behind her and how industry leaders perceive the value of Black women more broadly. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.” she said in the SiriusXM interview. “If I can’t fight for them coming up behind me, then what the fuck am I doing?”</p>
<p id="LI4qng">The complaint echoes concerns that Brooks raised <a href="https://twitter.com/PoeticJusticeK/status/1743718403708272707">at a Hollywood Reporter event</a> alongside cast members and Winfrey about not initially having individual dressing rooms or trailers during filming. </p>
<p id="FxAPx0">“I remember when we first came in and we were doing rehearsal and they put us all in the same space and we didn’t have our own dressing rooms at the time,” she said, adding how they also weren’t given food.</p>
<p id="n7i6zx">Henson has repeatedly said that she almost walked away from the role during contract negotiations. “I haven’t had a raise since [the 2018 film] ‘Proud Mary,’ and I still didn’t get a raise. They don’t care, they’re always looking for a deal and trying to pay you the least amount,” she told the New York Times.</p>
<p id="F7xehF">“I see what you do for another production, and when it’s time for us to go to bat, you don’t have any money,” she said in the SiriusXM interview. “They play in your face. And I’m just supposed to smile and grin and bear it. Enough is enough.”</p>
<p id="lqS1zT">As Henson explains, this goes far beyond the <em>Color Purple</em> set. She describes fighting for trailers that weren’t “infested with bugs” on the set of <em>Empire</em>, and marketing teams telling Black actresses that they don’t “translate overseas.”</p>
<p id="SO2Lpa">“I’m not the person that pulls the race card every time, but what else is it, then? Tell me,” she told the New York Times. “I’d rather it not be race, please give me something else.”</p>
<h3 id="JYMJ0j"><strong>This isn’t the first time Black actresses have sounded alarms about disparities in the industry</strong></h3>
<p id="FpQeWU">This wasn’t the first time Henson raised the issue of pay equity. On a 2021 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtI5szxG-rw">appearance</a> on <em>The Real </em>talk show, she explained that less than $75,000 made it into her pocket for <em>Benjamin Button</em>, while her co-stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett made millions. </p>
<p id="TDV3cE">Actress Gabrielle Union, who has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/gabrielle-union-calls-hollywoods-pay-inequity-actors-color/story?id=80165622">previously spoken out about pay disparities for actors of color</a>, wrote on X in late December of Henson’s remarks, “Not a damn lie told. Not. A. Damn. Lie. We go TO BAT for the next generation and hell even our own generation and above.”</p>
<p id="LkJQum">Actress Viola Davis shared a video clip of Henson’s SiriusXM interview in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Faq_wxOjf/">post</a> on her <a href="https://www.vox.com/instagram-news" data-source="encore">Instagram</a> feed with the caption “This!!!! THIS!!!” Henson’s activism mirrors Davis’s. The rare EGOT winner said in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/entertainment/viola-davis-pay-hollywood/index.html">2018</a> that “I have a career that’s probably comparable to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver. … They had the same path as me, and yet, I am nowhere near them — not as far as money, not as far as job opportunities, nowhere close to it.”</p>
<p id="SMQ3yu">She added, “I have to constantly get on that phone” to “hustle for my worth.” Davis estimated that actresses of color get paid “probably a tenth of what a Caucasian woman gets,” which, she noted, “is half of what a man is getting paid.”</p>
<p id="rTZfe9">X users also pointed out parallels to comedian and actress Mo’Nique, who has been ostracized for <a href="https://variety.com/2016/film/news/monique-pay-gap-black-women-oscars-diversity-1201712344/">highlighting pay disparities</a> for Black women in contract negotiations since her Oscar win in 2010. In 2019, she filed a pay discrimination lawsuit against <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix" data-source="encore">Netflix</a> over what she said was a $500,000 lowball offer for a comedy special, in which she claimed that she faced racial and sex discrimination at the hands of the streaming giant. Netflix filed several unsuccessful motions to get the lawsuit dismissed and <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/06/netflix-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-monique-comedy-special-pay-1202786367/">settled in 2022</a>. </p>
<p id="QuYdsg">Henson said her refuge has been to diversify where she puts her energy, including her hair care line and other side projects. “This industry, if you let it, it will steal your soul. But I refuse to let that happen,” she told King. </p>
https://www.vox.com/culture/24034757/color-purple-set-issues-taraji-oprah-pay-gap-black-womenFabiola Cineas2024-01-09T06:30:00-05:002024-01-09T06:30:00-05:00Why so many kids are still missing school
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<img alt="An illustration shows several children writing and reading at school desks. Some children are negative-space silhouettes, showing that they are missing from class." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_tnqTgzFUfgb4ZA48Bs8Knko5JA=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73037512/ChronicAbsenteeism_Vox_MartaMonteiro.0.png" />
<figcaption>Marta Monteiro for Vox</figcaption>
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<p>What it means to be “chronically absent” — and why it matters. </p> <p id="MNEFQr">When schools reopened their doors after the peak of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19 pandemic</a>, eager to “return to normal,” millions of students didn’t show up. Teachers prepared their classrooms to welcome children back to in-person learning, but millions of desks were unfilled. With an eye toward pandemic recovery, the government <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-highlights-efforts-support-k-12-education-students-go-back-school">allocated billions of dollars</a> to help students regain what they lost at the height of the pandemic, but many of them weren’t there to receive the aid.</p>
<p id="t4DKEE">Many of them were absent — and still are. </p>
<p id="QGJzLl">Some of the latest absenteeism data reveals the staggering impact the pandemic has had on student attendance.</p>
<p id="x1R7pG">Before the pandemic, during the 2015–16 school year, an estimated<a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Hamilton_project_-reducing_chronic_absenteeism_under_the_every_student_succeeds_act.pdf"> 7.3 million students were</a> deemed “chronically absent,” meaning they had missed at least three weeks of school in an academic year. (According to the US Department of Education, there were <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018052/findings.asp#:~:text=In%20SY%202015%E2%80%9316%2C%20there,%E2%80%9315%20(Glander%202016).">50.33 million</a> K-12 students that year.) After the pandemic, the number of absent students has <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/the-problem/">almost doubled</a>. </p>
<p id="SKab00">Chronic absenteeism increased in every state where data was made public, and in Washington, DC, between the last pre-pandemic school year, 2018–19, and the 2021–22 school year, according to <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">data</a> from Future Ed, an education think tank. Locations with the highest increases saw their rates more than double. In California, for example, the pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rate stood at 12.1 percent in 2018–19 and jumped to 30 percent in the 2021–22 school year. New Mexico experienced one of the largest increases, with the rate jumping from 18 percent before the pandemic to 40 percent after the pandemic.</p>
<p id="BPhHdq">There is so far some evidence, based on new state data from the 2022–23 school year, that attendance rates are rebounding, albeit slightly. Though chronic absenteeism rates remain notably higher than pre-pandemic levels, nearly two dozen states have reported decreases. Of the 31 states and Washington, DC, that have made <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">data</a> public, 21 reported moderate decreases of 5 percentage points or fewer. Michigan saw the greatest drop in chronic absenteeism, with a nearly 8 percentage-point decrease. But its 2022–23 rate, 30.8 percent, remains far above its pre-pandemic rate of 20 percent. </p>
<p id="QboKZh">Experts point to deeper issues, some that have long troubled students and schools and others that are only now apparent in the aftermath of school shutdowns.</p>
<p id="TEYuGb">“When you see these high levels of chronic absence, it’s a reflection that the positive conditions of learning that are essential for motivating kids to show up to school have been eroded,” said Hedy Chang, the founder and executive director of Attendance Works, an organization that tracks attendance data and helps states address chronic absenteeism. “It’s a sign that kids aren’t feeling physically and emotionally healthy and safe. Belonging, connection, and support — in addition to the academic challenge and engagement and investments in student and adult well-being — are all so crucial to positive conditions for learning.” </p>
<p id="c9LEcy">Despite increased attention to the topic, chronic absenteeism is not exactly new — until recently, it was considered a “<a href="https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html">hidden educational crisis</a>.”</p>
<p id="RCtzt1">“This has been an ongoing issue and it didn’t just all of a sudden appear because the pandemic arose. Folks have been trying to address this issue for years,” said Joshua Childs, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies absenteeism interventions in communities and states. “It’s historically mainly impacted students from disadvantaged communities and underserved populations.”</p>
<p id="B5Xpk7">What’s new about chronic absenteeism is that it now affects students from a variety of demographic backgrounds, from those in the suburbs and rural areas to those in cities.</p>
<p id="H6roE0">“Before the pandemic [there were] high levels of chronic absence for students with high needs: special education, who have [individual education plans], English learners, or free and reduced lunch students,” said Kari Sullivan Custer, an education consultant for attendance and engagement at the Connecticut State Department of Education. Though Connecticut has been lauded for its initiatives to track and address chronic absences, the pandemic still presented a significant roadblock. “The [state’s] opportunity districts had higher chronic absence rates prior to the pandemic, but once the pandemic hit, we started to see chronic absence rates escalate everywhere.”</p>
<p id="6CJ3eB">The root causes of chronic absenteeism are vast. Poverty, illness, and a lack of <a href="https://www.vox.com/child-care" data-source="encore">child care</a> and social services remain contributors to poor attendance, and some communities continue to struggle with <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation" data-source="encore">transportation</a> challenges; the pandemic has brought on a youth <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health" data-source="encore">mental health</a> crisis that has caused students to miss school; parents have reframed how they think about illness, ready to keep their children home at the slightest signs of sickness.</p>
<p id="87FPND">The evidence has long been clear that absences contribute to lower achievement and worsen long-term economic outcomes for individual students and the country. Poor attendance influences whether a child can <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Attendance-in-the-Early-Grades.pdf">read proficiently</a> by the end of third grade. By sixth grade, <a href="http://www.baltimore-berc.org/pdfs/SixthGradeEWIFullReport.pdf">chronic absenteeism signals</a> that a student might drop out of high school. </p>
<p id="8yHI5g">“What we’re seeing is a large-scale failure for a substantial number of our students to reengage,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist and the Barnett Family Professor of Education. “And it’s a very serious problem because we’re in the middle of a very important effort to try to address the educational harm that has unfairly fallen on this generation of students.”</p>
<p id="vOCQ2c">There is hope. Chronic absenteeism can be addressed with preventative measures at the school level and with targeted approaches that meet students and families where they are. The pandemic has laid bare the reality that schools need to engage students and families with lessons and facilities that make children want to be there. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="9culso"><q>“What we’re seeing is a large-scale failure for a substantial number of our students to reengage”</q></aside></div>
<p id="UL4x0Z">“When we looked at the fall [2020] data and we realized that kids were not coming back to school and that they were falling behind in their learning, we knew we had to do something,” said Sullivan Custer. “Families were isolated. Families in our urban areas and other places were doubled up and there were a lot of people in a house, getting sick or, unfortunately, passing away from Covid. People were scared. And we wanted to reengage families with the school and to find out what’s happening with them. … [So we] put boots on the ground to go out and reach out to these families to say, ‘Hey, how are you? How can we help?’”</p>
<h3 id="Jou2w1">What exactly is chronic absenteeism, and why does it matter?</h3>
<p id="xeiSps">A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason. The average school year for most schools across the country is 180 days long, which means that a chronically absent student typically misses at least 18 days of school or at least two days per month. Those absences can be for any reason.</p>
<p id="R1C3AB">Policymakers and researchers began using chronic absenteeism — rather than truancy, or unexcused absences — as a measure about 15 years ago. In a 2008 <a href="http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_837.pdf">report</a>, researchers found that students who miss nearly a month of school, or 10 percent of school days, are worse off academically. They also learned that absences in the early grades add up and have a negative effect on learning later on. Students who are chronically absent in kindergarten showed “lower achievement” in math, reading, and general knowledge in first grade, the researchers found.</p>
<p id="37BXCw">“What we were trying to hit upon was a measure that predicted academic challenge,” said Chang, who helped research and popularize the concept. “But it’s also a common sense metric that people can use to notice early on when they can take action and prevent a child from becoming chronically absent for the entire school year.”</p>
<p id="3ckOa8">Chronic absenteeism and truancy are not interchangeable. Truancy only measures unexcused absences while chronic absenteeism measures unexcused and excused absences.</p>
<p id="8yXCI2">It may seem obvious that missing days of school might lead to worse academic outcomes for students, but schools didn’t draw causal conclusions about absenteeism until they were pushed to collect the data and analyze it. Under the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> (ESSA), which President Obama signed into law in 2015, states were required to publicly report on five measures of student success. By 2017, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/09/26/550686419/majority-of-states-plan-to-use-chronic-absence-to-measure-schools-success">almost all states decided</a> to collect and report on chronic absenteeism as a way to measure student success or school quality and continue to do so today.</p>
<p id="6kh1iL">According to Chang, used to collect attendance on paper and simply used the “average daily attendance” measure — how many students show up on a given day — or a tally of unexcused absences. These methods overlook chronic absences. With classes as large as 30 students, it might be easy for a teacher to miss attendance patterns earlier in the school year. </p>
<p id="nT4VLf">“People don’t realize how easily absences can add up. ... When we think about a kid who misses school often, we might think about the kid who missed a week or two,” said Chang. “What we’re not always thinking about is the kid [who misses] one day here and another day here. And by the end of the year, you’ve added up to so much time lost in the classroom that you’re actually academically at risk.”</p>
<p id="7aMprs">Paying closer attention to chronic absenteeism is not meant to be a scarlet letter for students but simply a way for educators to take note of the kind of outreach students and families might need. </p>
<p id="CIyf6E">Chronic absenteeism worsens existing problems and can lead to poor academic and long-term economic outcomes for students at all grade levels. Students who are chronically absent in early grades can set off a domino effect of negative consequences: Chronically absent<a href="https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/preschool-attendance-chicago-public-schools-relationships-learning-outcomes-and-reasons"> preschoolers</a> are more likely to have difficulty reading on grade level by the second grade.</p>
<p id="QhCIhK">And if they still <a href="https://www.aecf.org/blog/fourth-grade-reading-proficiency-2022">can’t read on grade level by fourth grade</a>, they are more likely to drop out of high school, which decreases their earning potential later on in life. For older students, each week of absences per semester in ninth grade is connected to a more than<a href="https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/UChiToThrough_Mythbusters_vWeb.pdf"> 20 percentage-point decline</a> in the probability of graduating from high school, University of Chicago researchers observed about Chicago students. By comparison, “college-ready students,” those who are likely to enroll and persist in college, have<a href="https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/UChiToThrough_Mythbusters_vWeb.pdf"> average attendance rates of 98 percent</a>, meaning they miss less than a week over the course of an entire school year. </p>
<p id="6293JH">Constant absences create chaotic classroom environments, with teachers needing to help students make up missed work or missing students disrupting the balance of classrooms that might be necessary for certain lessons. Chronic absenteeism increases educational inequality since it has risen more among disadvantaged students, particularly those with disabilities and those from lower-income households. </p>
<p id="oz7Ino">There are other less explored areas when it comes to the impact of absences. “We need to talk more about what this means for the trajectory of students beyond their time in K-12,” said Childs. “What might their post-secondary education look like or how will this affect their ability to get and keep a job?”</p>
<h3 id="Wkuqo8">What the latest chronic absenteeism numbers tell us about attendance</h3>
<p id="puUQ0i">The latest data point to a rise in chronic absenteeism that won’t rebound without concerted efforts to get students back into classrooms each day.</p>
<p id="aMUkdC">Dee collected data from 40 states and Washington, DC, which collectively serve more than 92 percent of all K-12 public school students in the country. He examined changes between the last school year before the start of the pandemic, 2018–19, and the last year for which comprehensive data is available, 2021–22, and found that chronic absenteeism increased in every state between 4 to 23 percentage points.</p>
<p id="enTOEc">The overall chronic absenteeism rate was 14.8 percent in 2018–19 and jumped to 28.3 percent in 2021–22, as students returned to in-person learning.</p>
<p id="J3t6Dr">Between those school years, the number of students who were chronically absent grew by 13.5 percentage points, with an additional 6.5 million students considered chronically absent, according to Dee’s research.</p>
<p id="vfrjOz">New Mexico experienced the highest increase, a 22.5 percentage-point jump, from about 18 percent to 40 percent between those two school years. Alaska, which had the highest chronic absenteeism rate at about 48.5 percent in 2021–22, experienced a similar rate of increase. Washington, DC, had the second highest rate of chronic absenteeism at 48 percent. </p>
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<p id="AQTDOZ">Dee also found that this increase in absenteeism occurred outside of enrollment loss, Covid-19 case rates, and school masking <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy" data-source="encore">policies</a>. According to Dee’s analysis, the growth in chronic absenteeism was on average similar across states with different masking rules and the spike in chronic absenteeism can’t all be explained by Covid-19 illness and a delay in students returning to in-person learning. </p>
<p id="ioJyX6">When Dee analyzed data at the district level, he determined that the increases in chronic absenteeism, though similar for male and female students, were larger for low-income students as well as Black and Hispanic students. </p>
<p id="Rh2dZO">“I looked across a number of states and chronic absenteeism was consistently larger among minoritized students, and also among economically disadvantaged students,” said Dee. “That being said, it was also quite broad, even among students who were not economically disadvantaged and among white students, where we saw substantial increases.”</p>
<p id="tn3e9i">Chang found similar patterns in the data.</p>
<p id="FFKqMH">“High levels of chronic absence are especially concentrated in places that are economically challenged,” she said. About 69 percent of schools in which 75 percent of their students take free and reduced price lunch now have extreme levels of chronic absence whereas only about a quarter did before the pandemic, according to Chang.</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="CYBhRw"><q>“chronic absenteeism was consistently larger among minoritized students, and also among economically disadvantaged students”</q></aside></div>
<p id="HBCqWI">When it comes to race and ethnicity, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latino, and African American kids are disproportionately affected by chronic absenteeism.</p>
<p id="tirdtE">There has also been a shift for English learners, 36 percent of whom are now chronically absent, Chang said.</p>
<p id="we2RYb">“In California, for example, it used to be that young English language learners, let’s say kindergarteners, were actually not really more likely than English-speaking peers to be chronically absent. And in some communities they actually showed up more often,” Chang said. “That is no longer the case. Something happened [in] the relationship between English learner families and schools. I think it is connected to who got heavily affected by the pandemic. They were essential workers.”</p>
<p id="l7PgxF">In addition, there were changes by grade level. There have typically been higher levels of absences in middle and high school, and they remain heavily impacted, but the largest increase in absences is happening in elementary schools. Before the pandemic, there were about 3,550 elementary schools with extreme levels of chronic absence, meaning 30 percent or more of their kids were chronically absent. Now, close to 20,000 elementary schools have 30 percent or more of their students deemed chronically absent.</p>
<p id="NBkazt">High levels of chronic absenteeism don’t just affect the children who are absent. “The churn is affecting the learning experience [and] the teaching experience of everyone in the school,” Chang said.</p>
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<h3 id="I7nLX4">What’s behind the chronic absenteeism surge</h3>
<p id="XSlDVu">By many measures, the pandemic has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23584869/covid-coronavirus-school-closures-remote-education-learning-loss-psychological-depression-teens">education’s most substantial disruption</a> for the way it i<a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/10/23162826/pandemic-learning-loss-remote-school-research">mpacted students of all backgrounds</a>. When it comes to attendance, the pandemic disrupted habits, exacerbating traditional causes of chronic absence and introducing new ones.</p>
<p id="mFW2vz">Reasons for missing school fall into <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/addressing-chronic-absence/3-tiers-of-intervention/root-causes/">four categories</a>, according to Attendance Works: “barriers,” “aversion to school,” “disengagement,” and “misconceptions about the purpose of attendance.”</p>
<p id="RBOuGf">Barriers include illness, poor transportation, neighborhood violence, housing and food insecurity, and responsibilities at home. Asthma, which is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19_0074.htm">more prevalent</a> among low-income and racial and ethnic minority students and students in urban areas, is the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914465/">leading chronic illness</a> that forces kids to miss school. Some studies have found that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/children-who-take-the-school-bus-have-fewer-absences/">students who take the school bus</a> have fewer absences while another <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/study-links-longer-school-bus-rides-to-chronic-absenteeism/2022/06">linked long bus rides</a> to chronic absenteeism.</p>
<p id="wWprUw">Low-income parents with young children lack access to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/17/23667770/child-care-crisis-prek-family-immigration">affordable child care</a> and sometimes resort to having older children look after younger siblings at home. These students deprioritize school to meet family responsibilities.</p>
<p id="BDCeMG">“Students missing in urban areas might be working jobs or having health care issues like asthma and obesity. Students in suburban areas may be considered chronically absent but they’re missing school for reasons like college visits and family vacations,” said Childs. “What it means to be chronically absent can be different based on where students live, the type of school they’re in, and the resources that they have access to.”</p>
<p id="qDsNQI">Students who are school averse struggle with academic or behavioral challenges; they might not feel like they fit in socially and face anxiety as a result. The<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2023/covid-19-pandemic-associated-with-worse-mental-health-and-accelerated-brain-development-in-adolescents#:~:text=Compared%20to%20the%20pre%2Dpandemic,depression%20and%20greater%20internalizing%20problems."> NIH</a> found that young people reported greater anxiety and depression after the pandemic. An EdWeek Research Center <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/students-are-missing-school-because-theyre-too-anxious-to-show-up/2023/10">survey</a> conducted between August and September 2023 of more than 1,000 high schoolers found that anxiety, aside from bad weather, was a top reason they missed school. Bullying may create an unwelcoming school environment and force kids to stay home. Students with undiagnosed disabilities and unmet disability needs are also likelier to stay home. </p>
<p id="VE3QpP">Studies have found that when students find classroom lessons to be boring, unchallenging, or <a href="https://www.apertureed.com/resources/reduce-chronic-absenteeism-social-emotional-learning">culturally unresponsive</a>, they might stay away from school.</p>
<p id="fEX9BT">Ultimately, if families don’t understand the impact of even a few absences, the importance of school attendance won’t be prioritized at home. Some parents might think that missing two days of school each month is no big deal or that attendance only matters at higher grade levels. Others might believe that excused absences don’t matter, unaware of how broader absence patterns form.</p>
<p id="uFSHLC">Some education leaders warn that the pandemic changed the way parents and students think about school. Attendance is now viewed as optional for some parents, while others have grown more sensitive to the slightest signs of illness in their children.</p>
<p id="7nM82e">In August, the chief medical director for the Los Angeles Unified School District posted an online <a href="https://www.lausd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=4466&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=135622&PageID=1">notice</a> to parents stating that it is “not practical for working parents to keep children home from school for every runny nose” and that it is not “in the best interest of children to continue to miss school after pandemic school closures.” The district, which has seen a large spike in absenteeism related to student medical issues, instructed parents to send kids to school if they test negative for Covid-19, where they can wear a mask if they have mild symptoms.</p>
<p id="km2wWh">District leaders have recognized that because there are so many different reasons why students miss school, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to solving chronic absenteeism. When the Connecticut State Department of Education conducted a summer 2023 survey of families and received 5,400 responses in English and Spanish, they realized the full extent of the challenges families faced, from RSV and the flu to allergies and mental health roadblocks. “Kids had kind of gotten used to not having to go to school every day for all of these reasons,” said Sullivan Custer. “And a lot of parents stay home for work now, too. We fell out of that habit and practice of get up, get ready, and go. Getting everybody to come back has been part of the challenge.”</p>
<h3 id="AZKsk7">States are already putting new initiatives to the test</h3>
<p id="6R3bKO">Experts fear that federal, state, and local investments in academic recovery won’t work if students aren’t there to benefit from them. Through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22310269/third-stimulus-update-2021-package" data-source="encore">American Rescue Plan</a>, the federal government has invested nearly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/18/schools-covid-relief-spending-aftermath/">$190 billion</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/magazine/covid-aid-schools.html">support academic recovery efforts</a> across all states. The education relief package is intended to help bolster pandemic response efforts, provide fiscal relief to state and school budgets, and support student academic and mental health recovery efforts, according to the <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/how-schools-are-spending-unprecedented-education-relief-funding#:~:text=Districts%20spent%20the%20largest%20share,increase%20educator%20and%20staff%20compensation.">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>. States reported that they planned to use most of the money on academic interventions such as tutoring and hiring more educators and other staff.</p>
<p id="vBbhTJ">“Educators are facing these challenges at a time when the resources available then for them to do this may be vanishing due to the so-called fiscal cliff,” said Dee. “This is a critique of states and districts that have had these resources for years and have been slow to spend them or to spend them with transparency. But we’re now in a position where these very serious educational challenges remain, but the resources available to meet those challenges are going to disappear.”</p>
<p id="Oywd4z">Some states and localities are already responding to the rise in chronic absenteeism. Connecticut <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/how-home-visits-helped-connecticut-cut-student-absenteeism/">used $10.7 million</a> in Covid-19 relief money to develop a home visit program that addressed more than 8,600 students in 15 opportunity zones. An <a href="https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CCERC/Reports/CCERC-Exec-Summary-LEAP_FINAL.pdf">analysis</a> found that the home visits increased individual students’ attendance rate by about 4 percentage points in the month right after the visit and continued to increase in the months after. Connecticut’s <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">chronic absenteeism rate</a> shot up from 10 percent in 2018–19 to 24 percent during the 2021–22 school year. It slightly decreased to 20 percent in 2022–23.</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="osEDcC"><q>“we’re now in a position where these very serious educational challenges remain, but the resources available to meet those challenges are going to disappear”</q></aside></div>
<p id="ka1JLF">A core purpose of the home visits was to build relationships with students and their families to understand their barriers, find solutions, and not place blame. Leaders expect the absenteeism rate to continue to decrease in the coming years. </p>
<p id="03wWxq">Other states, including <a href="https://www.mainepublic.org/education-news/2023-11-24/student-absenteeism-fell-slightly-in-maine-during-the-last-school-year">Maine</a> and <a href="https://www.nj.gov/education/safety/sandp/attendance/docs/ImprovingAttendance.pdf">New Jersey</a>, are launching similar efforts and setting up attendance teams in schools to analyze attendance data and develop solutions to meet student needs.</p>
<p id="EgWByN">New Mexico <a href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/ALESC%20111523%20Item%208%20.1%20School%20Attendance%20and%20Chronic%20Absence-Final%20Attendance%20Report%20-%20All%20Files.pdf">state guidance</a> requires school districts to create an attendance plan that includes tiered interventions, starting with prevention efforts for all students and shifting to intensive ones that target students facing severe challenges. One <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2023/8/31/23853030/chronic-absenteeism-detroit-school-attendance-dpscd-brightmoor">Detroit school</a> paired chronically absent students with adult mentors in the school building, developed a home visitation system, tracked attendance patterns, and provided incentives such as trips to the movies for students and food shopping gift cards for parents. Previous <a href="https://education.wayne.edu/detroit_ed_research/derp_why_do_detroit_students_miss_school_final.pdf">reports</a> identified <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/why-detroit-students-miss-school/">transportation challenges</a> as a leading cause of chronic absenteeism in Detroit. </p>
<p id="LGrE8a">Experts agree that <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/the-urgent-need-to-avoid-punitive-responses-to-poor-attendance/">punitive responses</a> to chronic absenteeism only damage school relationships with students and families. Fines alienate families and suspensions only cause students to miss more days.</p>
<p id="MgU2kW">It’s also about meeting families where they are. “As researchers we can point to the high numbers and shout about all the kids who are missing and how this is bad and problematic,” said Childs. “But to a family that’s got to make a decision about whether you can put food on the table or attend school, there are some clear choices around that.”</p>
<p id="E8SiHh">Despite these efforts, chronic absenteeism still plagues school districts — a sign that battling it will take time and consistent effort. Leaders in Santa Fe hired new attendance coaches and offered students incentives, such as a pop-up science exhibit, to improve their attendance in response to their 2021–22 rate, yet just over half of students remained chronically absent in the 2022–23 year, according to<a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/9/28/23893221/chronic-absenteeism-attendance-santa-fe-orlando-schools"> Chalkbeat</a>. After the start of the pandemic, New Mexico’s absenteeism rate rose to 40 percent and remained at 39 percent the following school year. Before the pandemic, it was at 18 percent. The results prove that there is no immediate fix to chronic absenteeism. “We know we still have work to do,” Crystal Ybarra, the Santa Fe school district’s chief equity, diversity, and engagement officer, told Chalkbeat. “We’re still trying to figure out the steps post-pandemic. Everybody wants to see a quick fix, and that’s just not how initiatives work.” </p>
<p id="N7GM8B">Schools have also tried a number of other creative ideas, from increasing teacher pay to upgrading facilities. Others have increased correspondence with families by sending postcards and text messages, which has proven effective.</p>
<p id="21DI21">To address transportation issues, some schools are adding bus stops for various neighborhoods or arranging chaperoned walking groups. Other schools have recognized how food insecurity affects their students and that free breakfast is necessary. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/us/schools-laundry-rooms.html">Laundry rooms at schools</a> is a novel strategy that has helped some chronically absent students who don’t have access to washing machines at home. Some community schools have beaten chronic absenteeism by giving families access to the resources they need, all on one campus. </p>
<p id="AnAXn1">There are so many crises in education, researchers told Vox, and it’s key to not lose sight of progress.</p>
<p id="3HLRYX">“[We need] celebrations, [for] who’s doing well, those students who have improved attendance ... those schools that are seeing a difference,” Sullivan Custer said. “Just seeing that it can be done, it’s not hopeless ... We definitely have the ability to turn this around. It might take a little while, but we’re just going to keep right at it, being positive and focusing on the successes.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/2024/1/9/23904542/chronic-absenteeism-school-attendanceFabiola Cineas2024-01-05T12:15:00-05:002024-01-05T12:15:00-05:00The culture war came for Claudine Gay — and isn’t done yet
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<img alt="Claudine Gay speaks into a microphone." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9gTsSjaSko8SUWqqmshSZfiwRd8=/289x0:4917x3471/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73026532/1833215353.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard University, testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on December 5, 2023, in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Harvard’s former president is just one target in the conservative uproar over higher education.</p> <p id="2faZLD">Days after the resignation of Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, students, faculty, alumni, observers, and Gay herself are sounding alarms that her resignation was the outcome of mounting political pressure from conservatives on colleges and universities.</p>
<p id="3bcEvz">Now, her rocky tenure and stunning downfall have emboldened conservative activists to keep up their fight.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="2TaO72">Gay stepped down as president on January 2 amid numerous accusations that she had plagiarized some of her academic writings and that she’d failed to address antisemitism on campus in the wake of <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer" data-source="encore">Hamas</a>’s October attack on <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel" data-source="encore">Israel</a>; Gay and Harvard have since acknowledged that Gay made “<a href="https://www.harvard.edu/blog/2024/01/02/statement-from-the-harvard-corporation-president-gay/">missteps</a>” and “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/opinion/claudine-gay-harvard-president.html">mistakes</a>” both in a failure to initially cite materials from other authors and <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/8/gay-apology-congressional-remarks/">better communicate</a> Harvard’s commitment to confronting antisemitism. </p>
<p id="e2q1jq">Meanwhile, conservatives and billionaire donors are <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christopher-rufo-claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-00133618">jostling for credit</a> for a departure that they say was warranted and overdue, arguing that Gay lacked the merit to lead Harvard through campus unrest or exemplify academic integrity. </p>
<p id="pNnUI8">But the fallout at one of the nation’s elite universities is also illuminating the ways in which the political right is increasingly targeting education, with deliberate efforts to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/18/ivy-league-crackdown-house-republicans-plan-to-defund-top-universities.html">“take on” elite schools</a> by stripping them of federal <a href="https://www.vox.com/student-loan-debt" data-source="encore">student loan</a> money and undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and a parallel movement to undo K–12 education with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22644220/critical-race-theory-bans-antiracism-curriculum-in-schools">laws that limit the teaching of history</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23776025/book-bans-defund-public-libraries">ban books and classroom libraries</a>. </p>
<p id="DBmXk0">People on both sides of the controversy have portrayed the resignation as something much bigger than just Gay or plagiarism or antisemitism. </p>
<p id="oOJMLv">“This is the beginning of the end for DEI in America’s institutions,” conservative activist Christopher Rufo, one of Gay’s most vocal detractors on the right, <a href="https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1742253604222960000">posted</a> on X after Gay’s resignation. “We will expose you. We will outmaneuver you. And we will not stop fighting until we have restored colorblind equality in our great nation.”</p>
<p id="sUetHC">In an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/opinion/claudine-gay-harvard-president.html">op-ed</a> published in the New York Times on January 3, Gay, highlighting the racist and violent rhetoric that accompanied calls for her ouster, wrote, “The campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns don’t end there.”</p>
<p id="LE6dOd">Gay’s undoing shows how conservatives are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/08/19/the-growing-partisan-divide-in-views-of-higher-education-2/">increasingly at odds</a> with elite institutions and higher education more broadly, and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christopher-rufo-claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-00133618">growing coordinated</a> — and more persistent — in their attempts to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/american-universities-republicans-christopher-rufo/675849/">undo the academic systems and progress</a> that they say are <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmvz4x/most-republicans-think-college-is-ruining-america-vgtrn">destroying</a> the United States. </p>
<h3 id="f0opn3">How Claudine Gay’s presidency was undone </h3>
<p id="Nsf6Df">Claudine Gay became the 30th president of Harvard on July 1, a move that made her the first Black person and person of color, and second woman, to lead one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. </p>
<p id="at97wI">Her appointment was widely hailed by <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/12/16/students-react-to-new-harvard-president/">students</a> and <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/12/harvard-names-claudine-gay-30th-president/">administrators</a>. But quickly, after the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023" data-source="encore">October 7 attack</a> by Hamas on Israel, her presidency sank into turmoil. It began when more than 30 Harvard student groups published an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CyIBFcnMUNy/?hl=en">open letter</a> stating that they held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” in the attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis. Initially, Gay neither publicly condemned Hamas nor denounced the student letter, though she eventually issued <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2023/war-in-the-middle-east/">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2023/combating-antisemitism/">statements</a> in the following weeks that vigorously condemned Hamas’s “terrorist atrocities” and denounced the use of the term “<a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23972967/river-to-sea-palestine-israel-hamas">from the river to the sea</a>.” </p>
<p id="xeEsmy">But her response led to weeks of controversy, in part led by billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard alum Bill Ackman. It came to a head at a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?532147-101/university-presidents-testify-college-campus-antisemitism-part-2">House committee hearing</a> on campus antisemitism where Gay, alongside the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testified before House committee members about anti-Jewish prejudice on their campuses. </p>
<p id="kCQkwZ">When Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York asked, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?” Gay responded, “It can be, depending on the context.” She added, “Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action.” </p>
<p id="9LqHgi">Gay was widely criticized for failing to unequivocally say that calling for the genocide of Jews is a violation of school policy. Gay later <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/8/gay-apology-congressional-remarks/">apologized in a Harvard Crimson interview</a>, stating, “What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.” But donors and conservative pundits had already begun calling for the university to remove Gay from the presidency. </p>
<p id="Mxe5Jt">Meanwhile, another avenue for criticism of Gay opened up. Conservative activists began bandying about an explosive charge: that Gay had plagiarized in her academic work. </p>
<p id="hVctfv">Rufo, who has <a href="https://www.vox.com/23811277/christopher-rufo-culture-wars-ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-anti-wokeness">orchestrated a number of right-wing attacks</a> on so-called wokeism, published a newsletter accusing Gay of plagiarism in her 1997 dissertation, noting on X that he and another journalist had “sat on the Claudine Gay plagiarism materials for the past week, waiting for the precise moment of maximum impact.” Rufo’s accusation singled out sentences and paragraphs in her academic work that were identical to those in other sources. </p>
<p id="bUHPs8">The conservative online publication the Washington Free Beacon released its own <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/this-is-definitely-plagiarism-harvard-university-president-claudine-gay-copied-entire-paragraphs-from-others-academic-work-and-claimed-them-as-her-own/">investigation</a> into alleged plagiarism in four of Gay’s works published between 1993 and 2017, including in her dissertation, arguing there were “clear-cut cases” of plagiarism because two paragraphs were copied almost verbatim from a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268341180_Racial_Polarization_and_Turnout_in_Louisiana_New_Insights_from_Aggregate_Data_Analysis">paper</a> by political scientists Bradley Palmquist and Stephen Voss. </p>
<p id="AeHsr1">The New York Times also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/us/claudine-gay-harvard-president-excerpts.html">identified phrases, sentences, and sections</a> that critics have singled out for plagiarism. </p>
<p id="IBKkhr">For example, Gay has been accused of copying two sentences in the acknowledgments of her dissertation from the acknowledgments of political scientist Jennifer L. Hochschild’s 1996 book, <em>Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. </em>In that example, Hochschild thanked her adviser who “showed me the importance of getting the data right and of following where they lead without fear or favor,” and “drove me much harder than I sometimes wanted to be driven.” </p>
<p id="73T3Gq">In Gay’s acknowledgment, she thanked her dissertation adviser who “reminded me of the importance of getting the data right and following where they lead without fear or favor” and her family who “drove me harder than I sometimes wanted to be driven.”</p>
<p id="3gSamp">In the other instances, Gay replicated entire phrases and sentences, sometimes altering a few words. Harvard’s plagiarism policy, which students and faculty must adhere to, states that when writers are using information from another source they “must give credit to the author of the source material, either by placing the source material in quotation marks and providing a clear citation, or by paraphrasing the source material and providing a clear citation,” according to the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/12/allegations-plagiarism-gay-dissertation/">Crimson</a>.</p>
<p id="Vs1Yw1">While conservative activists had dubious motives, their accusations launched a fraught conversation about academic standards — whether Gay’s conduct was the result of sloppiness or misattribution or whether she intended to represent the work of other scholars as her own. Since there was a pattern of misattribution throughout several papers over several years, and since the Harvard governing board initially <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/25/harvard-threaten-sue-post/">tried to dismiss the allegations</a> without conducting its own investigation, Gay has been unable to dodge the “plagiarist” label. Some scholars have come to Gay’s defense, including <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/harvard-president-claudine-gays-thesis-adviser-gary-king-shoots-down-plagiarism-accusation">her thesis adviser</a>, whom she was accused of plagiarizing. </p>
<p id="mzHZUU">Gay has <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/12/allegations-plagiarism-gay-dissertation/">said</a> she stands by the integrity of her scholarship. “Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards,” she said. After the independent board of judges investigated her work, it found two areas where she needed to add citations, but said that the violations didn’t constitute “research misconduct.” </p>
<p id="lyg67W">On December 20, the school said it found two more instances of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution” in her work, this time in the dissertation. <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress" data-source="encore">Congress</a> then <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-led-house-panel-now-probing-alleged-plagiarism-by-harvard-prez">requested</a> that Harvard share all documents related to the plagiarism investigation. On January 1, Gay was hit with a new set of anonymous plagiarism accusations <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/harvard-president-claudine-gay-hit-with-six-new-charges-of-plagiarism/">published</a> in the Washington Free Beacon, prompting her resignation. Gay will resume her faculty position in the political science department as the university searches for a long-term president. </p>
<h3 id="f6id1H">The broader right-wing culture war against higher education</h3>
<p id="C633w9">Gay’s resignation cannot be separated from the broader culture war that conservatives have waged on K–12 and higher education — sites where “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/10/trump-accuses-colleges-radical-left-indoctrination-threatens-tax-exemption/5415908002/">radical left indoctrination</a>” has thrived, according to conservatives. </p>
<p id="pKdCaU">This culture war has seen several stages: laws to limit the teaching of history; attacks on concepts such as <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">critical race theory</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination">intersectionality</a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22914767/book-banning-crt-school-boards-republicans">banning of books</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/5/23711417/republicans-want-to-defund-public-libraries-book-bans">classroom libraries</a>; the rejection of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23583240/ap-african-american-studies-college-board-florida-ron-desantis">African American Studies</a>; a denunciation of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23584837/social-emotional-learning-conservative-culture-war-in-schools">social-emotional learning</a>; the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/07/desantis-debuts-new-conservative-playbook-ending-dei">defunding of diversity, equity, and inclusion</a> programs; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/24010858/republicans-antisemitism-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-jewish-students">weaponization of anti-semitism</a> to curtail DEI; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/23742240/affirmative-action-supreme-court-college-admissions-unc-harvard-education-culture-wars">battle against affirmative action</a>; the reworking of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/3/24/23649277/dont-say-period-florida-republicans-restricting-sex-education">sex education</a>; and the overhaul of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/6/2/23742508/ron-desantis-florida-higher-education-ideological-war">entire education systems</a>, from tenure to <a href="https://www.vox.com/23835634/florida-ap-psychology-education-dont-say-gay">course offerings</a>, in various states, including Florida. </p>
<p id="762VAA">“TWO DOWN,” Stefanik wrote on X following the resignation, with three red siren emojis, referring to Gay’s resignation and <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/12/15/24001823/antisemitism-college-harvard-penn-mit-free-speech">that of former Penn president Liz Magill</a> last month. “I will always deliver results,” she said in another <a href="https://stefanik.house.gov/2024/1/statement-on-long-overdue-resignation-of-harvard-president">statement</a>. “The resignation of Harvard’s antisemitic plagiarist president is long overdue. [...] Our robust Congressional investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in our most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions.”</p>
<p id="HMq2m2">After Gay’s resignation, the term “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/14/23761092/supreme-court-affirmative-action-college-admissions-race" data-source="encore">affirmative action</a>” began trending on X, as users echoed the arguments of Rufo and other conservatives that Gay was simply a DEI or “affirmative action hire” not qualified for the role. Though many conservative commentators never explicitly mentioned her race, Gay and Harvard’s governing board say it was one motivating factor all along. </p>
<p id="XSo8O6">As conservatives <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-ackman-turns-focus-mit-president-sally-kornbluth-harvard-2024-1">turn their attention</a> to other university leaders to take down, including MIT President Sally Kornbluth, some are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/03/universities-harvard-resignation/">raising</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/02/harvard-presidents-resignation-fuels-accusations-of-racism-from-black-leaders-00133543">concerns</a> about the clashes to come. Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad told <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/3/harvard_president_claudine_gay_resigns">Democracy Now!</a>, “This is the next step in now a three-year-long campaign to destroy this country’s capacity to address its past and its present, to deal with the structural racism, the systemic inequalities that cause premature death amongst millions of Americans every year. And right now the Republicans and their allies are winning.”</p>
<p id="nLQISW">In its <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/blog/2024/01/02/statement-from-the-harvard-corporation-president-gay/">letter</a> acknowledging Gay’s resignation and announcing the interim president, Harvard’s governing board acknowledged this seemingly perfect storm. </p>
<p id="hbe3MV">“While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks,” they wrote. “While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.”</p>
<p id="sRAHem">When Gay assumed the role, she hoped that her presence would help open doors. “As a woman of color, as a daughter of immigrants, if my presence in this role affirms someone’s sense of belonging at Harvard, that is a great honor,” Gay said in a video announcing her appointment. “And for those who are beyond our gates, if this prompts them to look anew at Harvard, to consider new possibilities for themselves and their futures, then my appointment will have meaning for me that goes beyond words.”</p>
<p id="CmEYjb">Just months later, her tone was different. “College campuses in our country must remain places where students can learn, share and grow together,” she wrote in the Times, “not spaces where proxy battles and political grandstanding take root.” </p>
https://www.vox.com/24025151/claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-conservative-culture-warFabiola Cineas2023-12-21T15:05:00-05:002023-12-21T15:05:00-05:00How Republicans are weaponizing antisemitism to take down DEI
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<figcaption>Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on December 5. Lawmakers on the education committee grilled the leaders of Harvard, UPenn, MIT, and American University about their responses to protests that erupted after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. | Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Congressional Republicans say that college diversity, equity, and inclusion programs exacerbate anti-Jewish prejudice. </p> <p id="S9Wk8C">The discourse about antisemitism on US college campuses has arrived at an unlikely place. As Jewish students speak out about a rise in antisemitic sentiment amid <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel" data-source="encore">Israel</a>’s bombardment of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel" data-source="encore">Gaza</a>, Republicans have placed the blame on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs. </p>
<p id="L2od4t">According to conservative lawmakers, who have now held <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/free-speech-college-campuses-1">several</a> <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=409777">hearings</a> on antisemitism, these initiatives — meant to create welcoming learning environments for students from marginalized communities — are one reason some Jewish students feel fearful and unprotected on campus. </p>
<p id="AIUjSI">“I think DEI is a fraud and what we’re seeing now on campuses is proof of that,” said Burgess Owens, the Utah Republican chair of the House higher education subcommittee, at a hearing in November.</p>
<p id="8ZrCS0">Since Hamas’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023" data-source="encore">October 7 attack on Israel</a>, critics have lambasted university administrators for doing too little to shield students from antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab racism. Jewish students have said that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2023-11-20/ty-article/.premium/more-than-half-of-jewish-students-feel-scared-on-u-s-college-campuses-survey-shows/0000018b-ede0-d4f0-affb-efe341bb0000">rallies for Palestine have left them in shock</a>, as some have seen or heard <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/university-of-maryland-investigate-antisemitic-language-at-rally/65-3ab29e3d-9dec-4999-9e0b-7ecd6b9c4f94">antisemitic language</a> and watched peers brush off Hamas’s atrocities against Israelis. Muslim and Arab students told Vox about slurs being hurled at them, hijabs being snatched off, and unwelcoming institutional messages and policies that ostracize them as pro-Israel campaigns intimidate and dox them. They’ve lamented <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-an-urgent-message-to-school-leaders-your-arab-and-muslim-students-need-you/2023/10#:~:text=Islamophobic%20incidents%20across%20America%20have,Muslim%20communities%20of%20targeted%20attacks.">campus environments</a> that seem silent on <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/13/23954731/genocide-israel-gaza-palestine#:~:text=In%20the%20legal%20arena%2C%20a,prohibited%20under%20the%20Geneva%20Conventions.">Israel’s war crimes</a> against Palestinians. </p>
<p id="DKMKyQ">For Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits, the pain of these communities, particularly Jewish communities, has brought fresh momentum for their growing campaign against DEI and their eternal crusade against higher education institutions, which they see as liberal bastions of progressive indoctrination.</p>
<p id="bUlu2S">They argue DEI is a bureaucratic industry that undermines merit in favor of giving special opportunities to select groups based on race, which they believe is unnecessary — and that the industry has ignored the needs of Jewish students, increasing the incidence of antisemitism. </p>
<p id="xTHjxJ">The peculiar connection being drawn between DEI and antisemitism is concerning, Jewish studies and DEI experts told Vox — although some agreed that DEI could do more to address the needs of Jewish students.</p>
<p id="aw0gB3">“There’s been a very strong simmering war of attrition against DEI for some time in universities. And somehow these two things started to merge together to the point where we got these congressional hearings,” said Rabbi Shaul Magid, who teaches Jewish studies at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. “It seemed to me that the issue [at the December 5 hearing] was antisemitism and also not antisemitism. It seemed like it was about DEI and [Rep.] Elise Stefanik’s interest in attacking it, rather than the rise of antisemitism on campus.” </p>
<p id="Qri1vi">DEI has received mounting pushback since June, when the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus" data-source="encore">Supreme Court</a> struck down decades of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/14/23761092/supreme-court-affirmative-action-college-admissions-race" data-source="encore">affirmative action</a> precedent allowing race to be considered in higher education admissions decisions. </p>
<p id="AMWK6Q">Many Republicans want every institution stripped of DEI, in a fashion that would risk squandering the opportunity to thoughtfully reexamine it. “DEI has its problems,” said Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. He cites the need for institutions to return to the value of diversity itself instead of focusing on checking off a diversity compliance list. “They’ve made a caricature of DEI in this context, and DEI is not the issue here.” </p>
<p id="XDYIFV">But addressing antisemitism should require more attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion — not less. “There’s no question that DEI programs have not included Jewish community concerns. It’s been evident for a long time and needs to be addressed,” said Stacy Burdett, an independent antisemitism expert who works with the Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service at the University of Maine and testified at a recent hearing on antisemitism. “But dismantling a system that protects marginalized minorities has nothing to do with the interest or fears of Jews who want to just live without harassment and antisemitism.”</p>
<h3 id="FJZTk7">What is DEI anyway?</h3>
<p id="Cjli57">Diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, is not specific to college campuses and has become shorthand for a variety of programs and initiatives. The term originated, in both major parties and also in the public at large, in the 1960s and ’70s following the civil rights movement when a number of groups invested in the project of desegregating public schools as well as public housing, workplaces, and hiring practices, according to Bradford Vivian, a professor of communication arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University and the author of the book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/campus-misinformation-9780197531273?cc=us&lang=en&"><em>Campus Misinformation: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education</em></a>. </p>
<p id="pX6U1T">A catchall term, DEI includes programs that embody the philosophy that hiring practices and corporate culture should be welcoming to diverse applicant pools and that, after being hired, workers from different backgrounds should be included and treated equitably. By the ’80s, according to Vivian, the ideas behind DEI became mainstays as corporate America “appropriated the ideas” and realized that there was a lot of revenue to be generated through messaging to a variety of communities. “They realized there was a lot to be gained by actively recruiting those populations, hiring them, and getting new ideas in,” he said.</p>
<p id="6hcfWz">DEI received a boost in 2020 after the massive protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Corporations rushed to double down on their DEI pledges and Americans donated to countless DEI initiatives, recognizing the existence of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/11/21286642/george-floyd-protests-white-people-police-racism">racial discrimination</a>. But much of the momentum fizzled out within two years, leading DEI proponents to criticize leaders as performative. Corporate layoffs in the past few years have <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/corporate-america-slashing-dei-workers-amid-backlash-diversity/story?id=100477952#:~:text=DEI%20begins%20to%20disappear,accelerated%20significantly%2C%20the%20study%20found.">disproportionately affected DEI positions</a>, and <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/corporate-diversity-pledges-fizzle-amid-layoffs-gop-backlash">DEI pledges</a> are no longer a priority. </p>
<p id="fsBYyh">Now DEI programs in higher education are facing so much conservative backlash that at least 22 state legislatures have introduced at least <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/here-are-the-states-where-lawmakers-are-seeking-to-ban-colleges-dei-efforts">40 bills</a> to ban the initiatives in state university systems and K–12 schools. Florida and North Dakota made the DEI bans state law this year, and many copycat bills are being considered. </p>
<p id="XBhGZ5">Last week, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/15/politics/oklahoma-dei-office-defund-reaj/index.html">signed an executive order</a> to defund all DEI training and programs in public colleges and all other state agencies. Meanwhile, after a six-month standoff, Wisconsin Republicans <a href="https://www.wpr.org/uw-regents-dei-programs-funding-robin-vos">approved $800 million in state funds</a> that it had been withholding from the Universities of Wisconsin over objections to campus DEI programs. To receive funding for cost-of-living raises and campus building projects, the UW regents had to agree to freeze DEI staffing for three years and eliminate or redefine about 40 DEI positions. </p>
<p id="GBdhb1">Much like the conservative arguments against <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/23742240/affirmative-action-supreme-court-college-admissions-unc-harvard-education-culture-wars">affirmative action</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">critical race theory</a>, Republicans have argued that DEI amounts to “reverse discrimination” against white people. Conservative think tanks such as the <a href="https://dc.claremont.org/florida-universities-from-woke-to-professionalism/">Claremont Institute</a> and the <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/higher-ed-must-choose-merit-over-identity">Manhattan Institute</a> and conservative culture warriors such as <a href="https://www.vox.com/23811277/christopher-rufo-culture-wars-ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-anti-wokeness">Chris Rufo</a> argue that DEI should be abolished because it is “radical” and only makes students “see racism where none exists.” As a result, these groups see aspirational “colorblind” policies, which have been proven to hurt diversity, and an imagined meritocracy, which has never existed in America, as the way forward. </p>
<p id="GEIB9p">After the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action, Republican Tom Cotton <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-warns-top-law-firms-about-race-based-hiring-practices#:~:text=The%20letter%20advises%20the%20law,differently%20because%20of%20their%20race.">sent letters to 51 law firms</a> claiming that the legality of corporate DEI practices was now in question, while 13 Republican attorneys general <a href="https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2023/pr23-27-letter.pdf">sent a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs</a> suggesting that they face legal consequences for promoting “racially discriminatory” DEI practices. Stephen Miller’s America First Legal <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-sends-letters-to-200-law-schools-demanding-the-end-of-all-racial-preferences-in-law-school-admissions-faculty-hiring-and-law-reviews/">threatened 200 law school deans</a> with legal action if they didn’t stop “illegal racial discrimination.”</p>
<p id="v0XtDZ">Now right-wing lawmakers and pundits say DEI should be abolished because it breeds antisemitism on campuses by refusing to see Jewish students as an “oppressed group.” The turn has brought new life to a movement that <a href="https://dc.claremont.org/florida-universities-from-woke-to-professionalism/">lumps together</a> “critical race theory, cultural Marxism, identity politics, and multiculturalism” as <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/higher-ed-must-choose-merit-over-identity">threats</a> to “the Enlightenment ideal of knowledge.”</p>
<p id="oOJZsl">The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reminded colleges and universities that receive federal funding that it is their responsibility under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide students a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. “It is your legal obligation under Title VI to address prohibited discrimination against students and others on your campus — including those who are or are perceived to be Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian — in the ways described in this letter,” the department wrote on <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-202311-discrimination-harassment-shared-ancestry.pdf">November 7</a>. </p>
<p id="VI5vJI">“DEI programs are designed to help universities comply with civil rights law since they are obligated to make sure students are treated fairly,” said Vivian. “We are still in a historical period of ongoing desegregation and are really only in the first generation where we are starting to see more students and faculty of color, in particular, at elite institutions.” </p>
<h3 id="hsLxcR">Jewish students and DEI on campuses</h3>
<p id="bJrrHK">The basic critique being made about DEI programs when it comes to Jewish students is that they divide students too neatly into oppressors and oppressed — and Jews now are considered white oppressors, critics say, which leaves little room to address any challenges they face as a religious minority. </p>
<p id="xC0XJG">These complaints come from Republicans in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress" data-source="encore">Congress</a>, but they have been echoed by other commentators who argue that DEI could be more inclusive. </p>
<p id="c4YbD0">Jewish advocacy organizations told Vox that there is some validity to the claim that DEI offices and programs on campuses could do more to support Jewish students. But they said DEI’s shortcomings related to antisemitism aren’t grounds to dismantle the offices altogether.</p>
<p id="1VANf1">In a college survey the Anti-Defamation League conducted before October 7, more than half of students said they had previously completed DEI training, but only about 18 percent of those students had encountered training modules specific to anti-Jewish prejudice. The organization said it’s been working with corporate institutions where Jewish employees have had similar experiences. </p>
<p id="1hrbfv">“I’ve appeared on many DEI panels where DEI officers have admitted that antisemitism hasn’t been part of the DEI context,” said Adam Neufeld, the senior vice president and chief impact officer at the ADL. “I think there’s a number of reasons for this, ranging from Jews being represented in certain sectors in a proportionate or even more than proportionate way. I also think that it is a blind spot more broadly. Many Jews are white or white-identifying, at least in America, and so as a result it doesn’t fit into some of the DEI frameworks.”</p>
<p id="NXRH53">But Neufeld has observed a “significant wake-up” around this issue, particularly since Kanye West’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23400851/kanye-west-antisemitism-hitler-praise">2022 antisemitic rant</a>. “People started asking more questions and realizing that this was a significant gap,” he said. </p>
<p id="Zh1wGJ">Others are less certain that DEI programs are the right way to address antisemitism. “It’s a very hard argument to make that Jews in America should be a part of an initiative that is supporting those who are in the underclass, because Jews are not the underclass,” said Magid. “Jews are considered to be white. … They’re not seen to be people who have, of late, been denied entry into universities. There were quotas against Jews back in the ’30s and ’40s, but [those] don’t really exist now.”</p>
<p id="Q5z4yp">Neufeld “can’t say” whether DEI programs contribute to antisemitism. “I have no reason to believe DEI programs contribute to the rise in antisemitism, but it is a secondary question that I think is worth exploring,” he said. If the programs do contribute to antisemitism, it’s because they are incidentally sending a signal that DEI does not include Jews, which is a signal that Jews are not a vulnerable population and have never experienced any form of persecution, he explained. </p>
<p id="npKID8">“While we may have lived through the last few decades, a relatively great period of Jewish experience in America, it was by no means perfect. You don’t need to look back many years before many of these same institutions were systematically discriminating against Jews, whether it’s in housing contracts, employment, or university admissions,” Neufeld said.</p>
<p id="9M40L6">The exclusion of antisemitism from DEI programming places groups in a zero-sum game, Burdett said. “Addressing antisemitism or Jewish concerns is seen as somehow diminishing the struggles of other people or taking away programs and support that should be reserved for other minorities,” said Burdett. “That kind of thinking about which kinds of minorities are worthy of support, it’s not how antidiscrimination work is most effective. Jewish students and Jewish employees and Jewish community members have every right to want inclusion programs to include them as well.”</p>
<p id="yzvcuO">Gaps existing in these programs does not make those programs antisemitic — nor does it mean they should be taken apart, Burdett said. </p>
<h3 id="uCkaPM">The antisemitic roots of the attack on DEI</h3>
<p id="ppDa2g">Republicans have often lumped DEI in with another term, “cultural Marxism” — a <a href="https://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/12/27/14038406/donald-trump-frankfurt-school-brexit-critical-theory">school of thought</a> from the 1920s led by secular Jewish intellectuals of the Frankfurt School. </p>
<p id="tSyfbS">Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s upcoming book, in which he speaks out against DEI, is titled <em>Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America</em>. Cruz <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/07/ted-cruz-president-2024-woke-book/">claims Democrats</a> are discriminating against Jewish people. </p>
<p id="limGCY">The term “cultural Marxism” was also used by the Nazis before the Holocaust. “The idea was that Jewish or liberal leftist thinkers were decadent, nontraditional thinkers who were coming to take over German society,” said Vivian. “They warned against Jewish Bolshevism and cultural Bolshevism, which they also referred to as cultural Marxism.”</p>
<p id="8FpqPM">As Vox’s Aja Romano <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/14/13576192/alt-right-sexism-recruitment">wrote</a>, “the academic term ‘cultural Marxism’ is a positive one that denotes the spread of Marxist values throughout culture, but its common use today is much more pejorative.” Historian Joseph W. Bendersky <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bsGhz4qfgKAC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=cultural+bolshevism&source=bl&ots=f7pB9aIYzW&sig=drXSQYo7IBx2hgVpLdqIuflCQKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj30arTsJzQAhVG4D4KHVCyB8oQ6AEIRjAI#v=onepage&q=cultural%20bolshevism&f=false">explains</a> that it was code for the cultural purging that preceded the Holocaust: “Hitler referred to ‘cultural Bolshevism’ as a disease that would weaken the Germans and leave them prey to the Jews.”</p>
<p id="6Jyx1s">The term was picked up in the United States in the 1990s when extremist groups, influenced by the fight against communism, mobilized to preserve what they saw as traditional American institutions, particularly universities, Vivian said. It gained attention during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/trump-administration" data-source="encore">Trump administration</a> when a member of the National Security Council <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/rich-higgins-memo-national-security-council.html">said it was a threat</a> and part of a conspiracy to get Trump removed from the White House. The term has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/cultural-marxism-anti-semitism.html">popular</a> on <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/29/18033006/gab-social-media-anti-semitism-neo-nazis-twitter-facebook">Gab</a>, a social media platform where users often share antisemitic views (including the man who fatally shot 11 Jewish people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018). </p>
<p id="IizkBM">It’s important to note that many people invoking “cultural Marxism” as a threat today likely<strong> </strong>don’t know its early history — although those who do are especially concerning.</p>
<p id="LpgQKO">“A lot of people who use this phrase don’t understand that history. Now it’s just a way to say that Western or American institutions are being overtaken by radical leftist thinkers. But historically it’s been a way of saying that Jewish figures, Black figures, and groups for social justice are decadent communists,” said Vivian.</p>
<p id="ewIe4i">After the hearing featuring four university presidents, Rep. Elise Stefanik was criticized for her ties to former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump" data-source="encore">President Donald Trump</a>, who associates with antisemites (including <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nick-fuentes-jews-executed-1234925748/">Nick Fuentes</a>), and for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/15/stefanik-buffalo-replacement/">echoing</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/23076952/replacement-theory-white-supremacist-violence">replacement theory</a>, the dangerous idea that Jews, immigrants, and other groups are <a href="https://www.vox.com/23076952/replacement-theory-white-supremacist-violence">threatening white dominance</a>. </p>
<h3 id="djbfRY">What comes next</h3>
<p id="pJ8MDV">Conservatives now seem to have turned against the presidents themselves.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="l9Wiho">After former Penn president Liz Magill resigned following the hearing, Stefanik posted on X, “One down. Two to go. This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America.” </p>
<p id="9Jab4t">Harvard president Claudine Gay, who kept her position, has been a special target of conservatives who argue that she only has her job because of her race. “Why is it the case that suddenly the first Black president of Harvard in its entire history now becomes an example of someone who’s unqualified to be there?” said Glaude Jr. </p>
<p id="0EhTMa">Stefanik said in an <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/08/stefanik-colleges-antisemitism-israel-hamas-00130890">interview</a> that university DEI offices needed to be investigated. “I fear that this investigation will uncover very, very damning evidence of this abused position of power in academia.”</p>
<p id="us2aSf">The irony behind the push against DEI is the reality that many programs are hindered by a <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/12/the-failure-of-the-dei-industrial-complex">lack of resources and a lack of binding university commitments</a>. </p>
<p id="XyAqze">“There’s been a lot of talk about how DEI is supposedly taking over universities, but it’s a relatively disempowered part of bureaucracy,” said Vivian. “They struggle for resources, and don’t have much power of enforcement at all. Nobody’s hired or fired in a university because of what a DEI office says. It doesn’t work that way. It’s mostly an advisory or aspirational office.”</p>
<p id="GiYgsg">Magid agrees. “DEI is a certain kind of taking account of who’s been hired and what these hiring processes are like. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “I’ve never been on a search committee where DEI has said to us, ‘You can’t hire a white man.’ Never.”</p>
<p id="Qvamxi">Scholars on the left aren’t opposed to making changes. “You want to look at these policies, to see if they’re too draconian, too extreme? That’s fine because policies need to be fixed and tweaked,” Magid said. “But the claim that we should do away with it — do [they] think that doing away with DEI will create equal opportunity in hiring? That’s not going to happen. That’s just not the way these universities are structured.”</p>
<p id="U9dL8e">Jewish studies scholars say the schools that have developed antisemitism task forces are on the right path. </p>
<p id="1c54Xy">“Antibigotry work and diversity work will be stronger when it includes an exploration of antisemitism and its effects. Antisemitic conspiracy theories have been at the center of neo-Nazi movements, the Klan, white supremacy, white nationalism in this country for a long time,” Burdett said. “And if we want to fight hate in this country, we need to understand it.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/24010858/republicans-antisemitism-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-jewish-studentsFabiola Cineas