The University of Rhode Island’s diversity week has a theme of “Youth Activism Across Identities, Issues, and Ideologies,” reported Campus Reform. AND ideologies. So, diversity of opinion. I mean, obviously the next step is X-ing out the “identities” part, but this is a start. The Monday workshop “feature[d] an analysis and explanation of the self-help book by Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life, as it pertains to the youth of today. Younger generations face challenges and difficulties that many of their parents never went through, and for which many feel unprepared. Living in a chaotic world is never easy, but with some basic tips it can become manageable and, just maybe, enjoyable.”
“When I first received the [event description]…I thought that any comments of my book in a diversity initiative would be thoroughly negative, but it doesn’t look like it,” Peterson told me. “I can’t help but see it as a positive thing. Hopefully, more of that sort of thing will happen because the book concentrates on the development of resilience.”
And if there’s one virtue perpetually aggrieved millennial students — I mean, Generation Z, this is no longer on me! — if there’s one thing THEY could stand to learn, it’s resilience. Now, of course, nothing gold can stay and if you scroll down the diversity week pamphlet, you’ll find an “identity crisis” workshop, which says “many of us are both concerned and renewed in our work towards true social justice,” followed up by “Cracking the Codes of Racial Inequity: What Activists Need to Know,Cracking the Codes of Racial Inequity: What Activists Need to Know,” which asserts the existence of “unacknowledged and self-perpetuating internal and external structures of constructed racism,” but then there seems to be this one that focuses on disabled student veterans.
Finally, an actual form of oppression. It’s illegal to discriminate based on race, sex, OR disability, but unlike the former two, the latter one does have observable, negative effects. As for the inclusion of Peterson in what looked like a positive light, props to the University of Rhode Island. Keep it up.
