Academics in space community scheme to continue their racist DEI policies
A letter sent out yesterday by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) clearly illustrated the bigoted desire of our modern Marxist academic community to continue its racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in hiring by hiding or renaming them so that the Trump administration might not notice.
USRA is one of several university consortiums that manage a variety of space, science, and astronomical operations for the government. In USRA’s case, it manages the Lunar Planetary Institute (LPI) for NASA.
The letter purported to announce how the organization was compiling with Trump’s executive orders banning such race-based programs, but instead revealed its desire to continue them, but to do so under the table where no one could monitor them.
After consulting with our counsel and in a good faith effort to comply with these Administration directives to the best of our understanding of their terms, USRA/LPI removed (not deleted) all DEI-related content from the public-facing websites, which are maintained under USRA’s cooperative agreement with and grant from NASA.
USRA has sought NASA’s approval to maintain the DEI content public-facing, with the addition of a disclaimer that the content “may not reflect current policy or programs.” Lacking that approval, USRA believes that compliance with Administration directives requires DEI content to remain out of public view. If and when USRA is advised by an authoritative federal body that we can restore that content, with or without a disclaimer, USRA will promptly do so.
USRA apparently wants to maintain its race-based hiring practices, but do so in a manner that will prevent the Trump administration from interfering. It also wants to be in a position to immediately restore its racist DEI propaganda to public view the moment a Democrat returns to power.
No matter that it uses taxpayer dollars to do this. No matter that Trump was elected by those taxpayers to expressly end these bigoted programs. And no matter that these policies violate numerous civil rights laws that specifically outlaw racial discrimination. As far as USRA and the academic scientists who run it are concerned, they are above the law, and the federal dollars they get are theirs forever to do with whatever they want, no matter what the taxpayers say.
Nor are my conclusions here unreasonable. In fact, the academics themselves have acted to strengthen my argument. An article today in the very leftist science journal Nature said this about the material that USRA has removed from public view:
The missing meeting abstracts include research on workforce issues, such as how to build the most effective team of scientists for a mission. One of Daubar’s deleted abstracts described a programme to involve early-career scientists in NASA’s InSight mission to Mars. David Trang, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute who is based in Honolulu, Hawaii, had his work on improving mental health among planetary scientists deleted. Removing these abstracts “takes away our culture”, he says. “That’s the saddest part.” [emphasis mine]
The Nature article claimed that USRA had over done it and deleted or removed material that was only slightly related to DEI policies.
All the highlighted phrases however suggest otherwise. They are the typical euphemisms used by academics and these publications when they wish to hide DEI-related research and programs. And even if USRA went over board with its action, this quote tells me it didn’t go over board by very much.
An example of NASA’s DEI policies, now supposedly banned by Trump
The bottom line is still the same: Our American academic community at all levels has been badly corrupted by this ugly race-based philosophy. Too many of them — especially those in charge — like the idea of discriminating in favor of minorities, no matter how illegal or immoral it is. Issuing a few executive orders and firing people, even a substantial number, will not fix the problem. It will take many years of concerted and unrelenting effort to change things, far more than a single four year Trump administration.
In fact, to do it we will need to re-educate a whole new generation. And that will involve a complete reshaping of much of the soft sciences in academia, a truly Herculean task.
Whether we as Americans have the will to do this long term still remains entirely unclear.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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A letter sent out yesterday by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) clearly illustrated the bigoted desire of our modern Marxist academic community to continue its racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in hiring by hiding or renaming them so that the Trump administration might not notice.
USRA is one of several university consortiums that manage a variety of space, science, and astronomical operations for the government. In USRA’s case, it manages the Lunar Planetary Institute (LPI) for NASA.
The letter purported to announce how the organization was compiling with Trump’s executive orders banning such race-based programs, but instead revealed its desire to continue them, but to do so under the table where no one could monitor them.
After consulting with our counsel and in a good faith effort to comply with these Administration directives to the best of our understanding of their terms, USRA/LPI removed (not deleted) all DEI-related content from the public-facing websites, which are maintained under USRA’s cooperative agreement with and grant from NASA.
USRA has sought NASA’s approval to maintain the DEI content public-facing, with the addition of a disclaimer that the content “may not reflect current policy or programs.” Lacking that approval, USRA believes that compliance with Administration directives requires DEI content to remain out of public view. If and when USRA is advised by an authoritative federal body that we can restore that content, with or without a disclaimer, USRA will promptly do so.
USRA apparently wants to maintain its race-based hiring practices, but do so in a manner that will prevent the Trump administration from interfering. It also wants to be in a position to immediately restore its racist DEI propaganda to public view the moment a Democrat returns to power.
No matter that it uses taxpayer dollars to do this. No matter that Trump was elected by those taxpayers to expressly end these bigoted programs. And no matter that these policies violate numerous civil rights laws that specifically outlaw racial discrimination. As far as USRA and the academic scientists who run it are concerned, they are above the law, and the federal dollars they get are theirs forever to do with whatever they want, no matter what the taxpayers say.
Nor are my conclusions here unreasonable. In fact, the academics themselves have acted to strengthen my argument. An article today in the very leftist science journal Nature said this about the material that USRA has removed from public view:
The missing meeting abstracts include research on workforce issues, such as how to build the most effective team of scientists for a mission. One of Daubar’s deleted abstracts described a programme to involve early-career scientists in NASA’s InSight mission to Mars. David Trang, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute who is based in Honolulu, Hawaii, had his work on improving mental health among planetary scientists deleted. Removing these abstracts “takes away our culture”, he says. “That’s the saddest part.” [emphasis mine]
The Nature article claimed that USRA had over done it and deleted or removed material that was only slightly related to DEI policies.
All the highlighted phrases however suggest otherwise. They are the typical euphemisms used by academics and these publications when they wish to hide DEI-related research and programs. And even if USRA went over board with its action, this quote tells me it didn’t go over board by very much.
An example of NASA’s DEI policies, now supposedly banned by Trump
The bottom line is still the same: Our American academic community at all levels has been badly corrupted by this ugly race-based philosophy. Too many of them — especially those in charge — like the idea of discriminating in favor of minorities, no matter how illegal or immoral it is. Issuing a few executive orders and firing people, even a substantial number, will not fix the problem. It will take many years of concerted and unrelenting effort to change things, far more than a single four year Trump administration.
In fact, to do it we will need to re-educate a whole new generation. And that will involve a complete reshaping of much of the soft sciences in academia, a truly Herculean task.
Whether we as Americans have the will to do this long term still remains entirely unclear.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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