NASA goes woke!
NASA yesterday announced that it has named two individuals, based on their race and gender, to lead the agency’s effort to promote the Marxist and racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) movement.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday he is taking additional steps forward to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at the agency. Nelson named Steve Shih to serve in a new position as the agency’s first Diversity Ambassador and selected Elaine Ho as the next associate administrator for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at NASA Headquarters in Washington, effective immediately.
…As diversity ambassador, Shih will further NASA’s DEIA initiatives by building key strategic alliances with external partners, enabling NASA to continue being a model agency and leader for DEIA. In this role, Shih will engage NASA’s partners – including across the government, private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations – to learn and promote best practices for NASA to recruit, hire, engage, and retain the most talented individuals from all backgrounds and life experiences. With his experience leading the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity since 2017, Shih will build on his three decades of federal expertise and help NASA continue to enable everyone to contribute inclusively to NASA and to the United States.
As Shih transitions to the role of diversity ambassador, Ho will bring extensive DEIA expertise to the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. She most recently has served as the deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, leading a wide-ranging portfolio of projects benefiting students, universities, and educational institutions across the country to inspire, engage, and educate the Artemis Generation.
To further prove NASA’s commitment to favor some races over others, the agency also announced yesterday that it is committing $3 million to support “seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and one Predominantly Black Institution (PBI).”
Note the focus on race, not achievement. While it is nice to help the disadvantaged, these programs are not really aimed at that goal. Instead, this entire DEI movement is designed to give power to specific races, to the detriment of others. Or to put it more bluntly, it is a race-based apartheid system that encourages race hatred and resentment.
It is also probably illegal, based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Of course, the law is now irrelevant when it comes to the new racism. Supporters of DEI are allowed to break it whenever they want, because clearly they are superior to all others and have that right.
Finally, this stuff has absolutely nothing to do with NASA’s fundamental purpose, which is to help American industry more successfully explore space. It is instead a return to the Obama administration’s policy of making NASA’s most important priority that of helping minorities. Then it was Muslims, now it is the alphabet soup of LBGQTBIPOCZXYZ (and so on).
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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:
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NASA yesterday announced that it has named two individuals, based on their race and gender, to lead the agency’s effort to promote the Marxist and racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) movement.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday he is taking additional steps forward to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at the agency. Nelson named Steve Shih to serve in a new position as the agency’s first Diversity Ambassador and selected Elaine Ho as the next associate administrator for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at NASA Headquarters in Washington, effective immediately.
…As diversity ambassador, Shih will further NASA’s DEIA initiatives by building key strategic alliances with external partners, enabling NASA to continue being a model agency and leader for DEIA. In this role, Shih will engage NASA’s partners – including across the government, private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations – to learn and promote best practices for NASA to recruit, hire, engage, and retain the most talented individuals from all backgrounds and life experiences. With his experience leading the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity since 2017, Shih will build on his three decades of federal expertise and help NASA continue to enable everyone to contribute inclusively to NASA and to the United States.
As Shih transitions to the role of diversity ambassador, Ho will bring extensive DEIA expertise to the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. She most recently has served as the deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, leading a wide-ranging portfolio of projects benefiting students, universities, and educational institutions across the country to inspire, engage, and educate the Artemis Generation.
To further prove NASA’s commitment to favor some races over others, the agency also announced yesterday that it is committing $3 million to support “seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and one Predominantly Black Institution (PBI).”
Note the focus on race, not achievement. While it is nice to help the disadvantaged, these programs are not really aimed at that goal. Instead, this entire DEI movement is designed to give power to specific races, to the detriment of others. Or to put it more bluntly, it is a race-based apartheid system that encourages race hatred and resentment.
It is also probably illegal, based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Of course, the law is now irrelevant when it comes to the new racism. Supporters of DEI are allowed to break it whenever they want, because clearly they are superior to all others and have that right.
Finally, this stuff has absolutely nothing to do with NASA’s fundamental purpose, which is to help American industry more successfully explore space. It is instead a return to the Obama administration’s policy of making NASA’s most important priority that of helping minorities. Then it was Muslims, now it is the alphabet soup of LBGQTBIPOCZXYZ (and so on).
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
We are living in an era of the fashionably credentialed, where merit plays no role. The outcome of this is predictable and bad.
The fundamental mistake is to believe that NASA is still an organization whose primary mission is to help this country explore, open up, and utilize the space frontier. Indeed, aside from “combating racism and promoting equity,” there isn’t even a coherent “national interest” that NASA recognizes, and it certainly has no commitment to contributing to such a outdated (and oppressive) notion as that. Rather, as Administrator Bill Nelson makes clear, its mission is *political*, and don’t let all of its expensive hardware — or its past history — fool you. It isn’t really “about” that.
More and more, it seems to me that the contrast between what SpaceX and other private sector players are trying to accomplish and what NASA now seems to be concerned with cannot be overlooked. One set of payers really want to put as many human beings and as much entrepreneurial activity into space as possible. The other side does not, and it actually seems to fear and disdain such activity. At best, NASA may become something akin to the FAA, exercising some limited regulatory oversight of how the private sector goes about the business of opening up and utilizing the space frontier, but it cannot, at this point, be allowed to go on defining what the “purpose” of space exploration is to be and limiting who may participate in it.
As usual, we are seeing two radically different philosophical perspectives about the ends and means of human activity, and this will be just as true in space — should we be allowed by the bureaucrats to go there — as here on earth.
My mother got a BA and MA from the local HBCU at the same time I was going to MIT. Back then I would say that Bowie State had a rigor and attitude for hard work and high standards that was above the Ivies and comparable to The Institute. This was when they didn’t call them HBCU, they just were BCU and they were catering to the children of families who owned small businesses, not unlike the pre-war MIT. … long time ago …
NASAs remaining function is distributing taxpayer’s money to whoever it deems necessary to support it’s goals.
Those goals are dictated by Congress.
Blaming NASA for anything is like blaming guns for crime.
Honestly surprised it took the administration this long.
The fundamental mistake is to believe that NASA is still an organization whose primary mission is to help this country explore, open up, and utilize the space frontier.
I think there are some people and parts of NASA that still function, more or less, as if *exploration* is a primary mission (no one cares about opening up or utilizing anything). Otherwise, I am afraid, Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy applies, and has done so since the 1970’s. Identitarian ideology serves the Iron Law, of course, because it makes the agency more acceptable to stakeholders.
And thus that would be the beginning of the end for NASA as a viable and safe organization. You see, IMHO, every organization who embraces woke principles becomes degraded and thus would not be able to embrace new principles, especially if those principles diverge on their narrative and also resistant to changes due to the fact that they will lump those who are advocating these changes as racists or bigots.
Lemuel Vargas “And thus that would be the beginning of the end for NASA as a viable and safe organization.” Hmm, somewhere around 350 NASA astronauts have flown in space, with 14 of them dying during a mission. A quibble, and an oversimplification: I get your point, but a per capita 4% fatality rate in a non-military endeavor is not “safe.”
Which only makes more obvious the folly of government-imposed bigotry (let’s use real terms here) trumping meritocracy. It’s already dangerous—let’s make it even more so by prioritizing something other than competence!
Pawn is correct. To the extent that our government still functions as it was designed to, Congress has an important funding and oversight role to play in terms of how NASA is or is not fulfilling its mandate. And, yes, we ought to be hearing some very penetrating questions (per Senator Cruz’s recent grilling of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas ) directed at NASA Administrator Nelson along these lines.
“Please tell us *exactly* and in detail, Administrator Nelson, how pursuing such a radical woke agenda helps the United States to maintain its scientific and technological leadership in the exploration and utilization of the space frontier? Moreover, how, *exactly*, was it determined that correcting a “lack” of diversity and inclusion should become your agency’s primary goal?” And who, please tell us, redefined NASA’s mission in this way — Did you think up this all by yourself? — and how is it in this country’s national interest to do so?”
The problem, of course, is that Congress — at least so far — has allowed the Biden Administration to more or less completely redefine NASA’s core mission, and, as in the case of almost every other politicized government agency, bend its operation toward the creation of a Marxist-inspired ideological utopia. The problem lurking behind this problem — not quite turtles on down, but pretty close — it that Congress itself probably doesn’t have much of a concept of what NASA’s primary mission *ought* to be or whether it is close to fulfilling it. Nor is there a clear consensus about what may or not constitute our national interest and what NASA might be doing to contribute to it.
And, worse, even many self proclaimed conservative members of Congress — at least as evidenced by their actions — don’t appear to have a very good grasp of what their “mission” as elected representatives ought to be, let alone a clear vision of what kind of a country / culture / society we should want to be living in. Unhappily, a lot of representatives from blue states / cities *do* have a very clear idea about where they want to take us, and they are doing their damnedest to get us there. Just look at NASA.