4 ms·

Once again, FIRE doing great work in helping school administrators realize when they’ve crossed a line. I strongly urge everyone to support them.

bilbo0s 5y ago
Even better, support the ACLU. They will fight for people even if they are not privileged enough to be in higher education.
- javagram 5y ago
  The ACLU is more of a partisan organization aligned with the democrats nowadays. Good or bad, it has been great for their fundraising. (Of course the same has happened to many other groups which have switched to being partisan aligned on one side or another) EFF and FIRE seem more similar to the “old” ACLU although both have very limited missions.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > The ACLU is more of a partisan organization aligned with the democrats nowadays. In that as the set of political realignments that started with the New Deal, got new direction from the Civil Rights movement and the response to it, and completed around the mid-1990s wound up, the Republicans, who were not consistently so before the realignment, ended up firmly opposed to both core principles of the ACLU and, as a tribal identity marker, the ACLU itseld (heck, even in the 1980s, Republicans used a Democratic candidate being a “card carrying member of the ACLU” as an attack.) The ACLU didn't really go anywhere, the national partisan alignment shifted so that the positions it always held were partisan.
    - javagram 5y ago
      Disagree based on the reporting I’ve read. Actually just saw another reported piece from the NYT pop up on this, but I’ve seen others in the same vein previously which informed my comment. “Once a Bastion of Free Speech, the A.C.L.U. Faces an Identity Crisis: An organization that has defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan is split by an internal debate over whether supporting progressive causes is more important” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html
- HarryHirsch 5y ago
  That's what we all thought, until the case at Smith College came up, where a kid got a couple of cafeteria workers fired. Personally, I will never support the ACLU again. They utterly disqualified themselves over that, and since they didn't even issue a statement over their conduct they disqualified themselves even further,
  - jgwil2 5y ago
    For anyone wondering about the incident in question this is a good roundup: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.htm... According to the article neither employee was fired: one was placed on paid leave for three months, another was transferred to a different dorm.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - HarryHirsch 5y ago
      Neither employee is at Smith any longer, due to a stream of harassment that Smith did nothing to prevent. It's a typical HR tactic - instead of firing a troublesome employee you make life unbearable for them so they leave on their own accord.

bilbo0s 5y ago

Even better, support the ACLU. They will fight for people even if they are not privileged enough to be in higher education.

javagram 5y ago
The ACLU is more of a partisan organization aligned with the democrats nowadays. Good or bad, it has been great for their fundraising. (Of course the same has happened to many other groups which have switched to being partisan aligned on one side or another) EFF and FIRE seem more similar to the “old” ACLU although both have very limited missions.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > The ACLU is more of a partisan organization aligned with the democrats nowadays. In that as the set of political realignments that started with the New Deal, got new direction from the Civil Rights movement and the response to it, and completed around the mid-1990s wound up, the Republicans, who were not consistently so before the realignment, ended up firmly opposed to both core principles of the ACLU and, as a tribal identity marker, the ACLU itseld (heck, even in the 1980s, Republicans used a Democratic candidate being a “card carrying member of the ACLU” as an attack.) The ACLU didn't really go anywhere, the national partisan alignment shifted so that the positions it always held were partisan.
  - javagram 5y ago
    Disagree based on the reporting I’ve read. Actually just saw another reported piece from the NYT pop up on this, but I’ve seen others in the same vein previously which informed my comment. “Once a Bastion of Free Speech, the A.C.L.U. Faces an Identity Crisis: An organization that has defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan is split by an internal debate over whether supporting progressive causes is more important” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html
HarryHirsch 5y ago
That's what we all thought, until the case at Smith College came up, where a kid got a couple of cafeteria workers fired. Personally, I will never support the ACLU again. They utterly disqualified themselves over that, and since they didn't even issue a statement over their conduct they disqualified themselves even further,
- jgwil2 5y ago
  For anyone wondering about the incident in question this is a good roundup: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.htm... According to the article neither employee was fired: one was placed on paid leave for three months, another was transferred to a different dorm.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - HarryHirsch 5y ago
    Neither employee is at Smith any longer, due to a stream of harassment that Smith did nothing to prevent. It's a typical HR tactic - instead of firing a troublesome employee you make life unbearable for them so they leave on their own accord.