Thread by @IAmSophiaNelson

My thoughts on the new #UniversityofAustin
1.) I get why people are concerned about what's happening in academia. I am too.
2.) I am not sure starting a new school is the answer
3.) the answer is for good people to come together and TALK about #DEI. #cancelculture #University 1/

The reason there is such a backlash is because people do not know how to talk about race, racism, and the intersections with gender and sexuality in America. So, instead they go on the attack. They demean. They harass. They marginalize. They deny reality. #CancelCulture 2/

American universities cannot become a place where the "diversity statement" runs the community. It has to be one of the spokes in the wheel that makes a university an open, free, welcoming, healthy space for academic freedom and discourse for ALL. 3/

The word #woke has come under fire a lot lately because one group seems to have all the power in our corporations, colleges, industries, even our churches--the so-called "marginalized groups" who rightly want access and acceptance, do NOT always practice what they preach. 4/

I am in shock over what I have been subject to at Christopher Newport University here in Virginia. I asked a question on twitter. About a comic book character. I got destroyed for it. There was no dialogue. No grace. Nothing but rage, anger, accusations & threats. 5/

This is why the "right" is pushing back. If we do not find balance, we are headed or many more #January6th style events in our public spaces. It's not just angry white people, or white supremacy at work here folks. It is not. It is people like me, black & female who are tired. 6/

We need for leaders to lead. Stop kowtowing to groups and their bully pulpits. Start judging people for who they are and what they offer. If a professor of Physics cannot lecture about physics because he had an unpopular opinion on #DEI, that is silencing his voice. It is wrong.

Worse, when did we start giving groups the right to decide who gets #cancelled? And who can work. And who can speak. And who can think? Just because that person does not embrace what they embrace, think or believe in? That is wrong. Not America. It must stop. Or we are doomed!