American universities are producing graduates with no hope and no skills. Why not just skip college?

In this proud land, we grew up strong.
We were wanted all along.
I was taught to fight, taught to win.
I never thought I could fail.
No fight left, or so it seems.
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted.
I've changed my face, I've changed my name.
But no one wants you when you lose.

   Don't Give  Up

Sung by Willie Nelson and Sinead O'Connor

American universities went all in on affirmative action, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hiring committees seeking to be more "inclusive" often hired new faculty members based on race, ethnicity, and sexual identity—not merit. Colleges hired thousands of highly paid DEI officers—1,100 at the University of Michigan alone.

According to one report, “the current undergraduate population at public universities will spend at least 40 million hours” taking required classes focused on DEI. Colleges created academic programs in gender studies, ethnic studies, Queer Studies, LGBTQ+ studies, Marxist and Socialist Studies, Equity Studies, and Social Justice.

Professors in traditional academic disciplines got on the bandwagon and adopted the philosophy of critical race theory as the cutting-edge pedagogy in the humanities, social studies, and liberal arts. Students exposed to this drivel were actually being indoctrinated in victimology--the belief that all human endeavors are conflicts between oppressors and the oppressed.

At the same time higher education was wallowing in DEI, grade inflation seeped into the academic assessment. Professors became too lazy to grade students rigorously; even at Harvard, most undergraduates were honor students.

Higher education's obsession with race, sexual orientation, and victimhood contributed to the spiraling cost of going to college. Few students can afford tuition pegged at $60,000 a year, but the federal government cheerfully loaned them the money.

The result? Millions of young people hit the job market with no reasoning or problem-solving skills, an inability to express themselves verbally or in writing, and no training in a substantive field of work. And they were burdened with massive student debt.

What's worse is that many students exposed to the universities's radical curricula became openly racist. It became acceptable and even chic to be anti-Semitic and to call for the destruction of Israel.

Minorities identified a "whiteness problem," and whites harbored the unspoken suspicion that students of color were the unworthy beneficiaries of DEI.

So, what do these clueless college graduates do? Some go to graduate school and acquire more debt without improving their marketability. Others take do-nothing government jobs or work the DEI hustle.

No wonder the United States is full of seething and resentful college graduates who can't figure out what to do with their lives or how to become productive citizens.

What's the solution? I don't know, but I am confident that no one should take out student loans to major in liberal arts, the humanities, or social sciences. If that is all you can think of to study, skip college altogether, get some vocational training, and work in the trades.

You'll meet a better class of people if you enter the world of actual work, and you'll probably meet fewer racists.

Image credit: Reuters

Los Angeles Wild Fires: The Lord's Burning Rain

This old town is filled with sin

It'll swallow you in

If you've got some money to burn

Take it home right away

You've got three years to pay

But Satan is waiting his turn.

Gram Parsons, "Sin City"

I'm not blaming anybody for the Los Angeles wildfires. Yes, the water hydrants ran dry in some burning neighborhoods, but no one could possibly have envisioned a conflagration as massive and catastrophic as the inferno that overwhelmed the LA firefighting infrastructure.

And I'm not blaming Mayor Karen Bass for the fire disaster. She had no business traveling to West Africa on a political junket while a disaster was looming, but Bass didn't start the fires.

For me, the LA wildfire is nationally significant as a sign of the arrogance and cluelessness of America's political and media elites. The people in LA's elite neighborhoods sneered at the working folk in Flyover Country as they insulated themselves from the real world with chauffered limousines, gated communities, and private bodyguards. 

The glitterati labeled working-class patriots as "white Christian nationalists," despising them as racists because they worried about crime and our country's open southern border.

Hollywood moguls made boring, overlong films full of woke DEI drivel and then wondered why movie attendance was down.

Movie stars donated millions of campaign dollars to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris even though they knew both were idiots.

Now, the chickens have come home to roost, and the Tinseltown world of the West Coast elites is falling apart.

I feel sorry for the average Angelinos who lost their homes in the wildfires, but I have no sympathy for the wealthy assholes who got rich under Bidenomics and whose cosmos is going up in smoke.

Mayor Karen Bass and her DEI minions are done--exposed as incompetent dolts. Governor Newsom and Kamala Harris are done as important political figures, having shown no talent for leadership. George Clooney and Julia Roberts, sycophantic fundraisers for the Democratic Party, are done as respected movie stars.

Many West Coast elitists are still rich, but their wealth won't save them from irrelevance. As Gram Parsons put it, "On the thirty-first floor, a gold-plated door won't keep out the Lord's burning rain."

Bentley University launches a bachelor's degree in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Is this program for you?

 Bentley University, a private university in the Boston area, offers a new major this fall: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Gary David, a sociology professor, was part of the design team for the new program. 

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, David said that he:

wanted a major that moved DEI away from compliance--where institutions, companies, and nonprofits feel they need to or are required to meet certain diversity standards--and toward opportunity, with graduates working on ideas and programs to improve society with diversity, equity and inclusion at top of mind.

So--is Bentley's DEI program a good major for you? Before you decide, ask yourself these questions:

First, are there entry-level jobs for people who get a DEI degree from Bentley? 

The answer to that question is yes. Diversity is on the mind of every college president, whether that person leads an Ivy League institution or a small liberal arts school.  Nearly all major universities have a DEI officer at the senior executive level (vice president or associate provost). Schools are also hiring DEI-trained people to work in student services, student housing, and Title IX offices.  

UC Berkely, for example, spends $25 million a year on equity and inclusion and has 400 employees running programs to enhance diversity across the university.  

Second, how much will it cost to get a DUI degree from Bentley?  

Tuition, books, fees, room, and board at Bentley total approximately $76,000 per academic year--or about $300,000 for a four-year degree.  That's pretty damn expensive. Of course, you may qualify for a scholarship or tuition reduction of some sort, which will reduce your costs. 

Still, every student who does not come from a wealthy family will probably have to take out student loans to get a DUI degree from Bentley. That means Bentley graduates will enter the job market with a lot of debt.

Third, is DEI the career for you?

Finally, students should consider whether DEI is the right career choice. On the one hand, there are jobs in this field--from entry-level to executive positions.

On the other hand, once a person begins a career in DEI, it may be hard to switch to another field. Someone who wants to become a professor, for example, will need more than a DUI degree from Bentley to get a faculty job. 

Also, everyone surely understands that People of Color (POC) are more attractive candidates for DEI jobs than--for example--a white male who hails from rural West Texas.  I feel sure that a survey of the senior DEI executives at major U.S. universities will find many more POCs than non-POCs.

In my view, a person wishing to make a career in DEI would probably be better off skipping Bentley's DEI program (with its $300,000 price tag), getting an undergraduate degree in a mainstream major, and then going to law school.  

Christopher Manning, USC's first Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer