Brian Cole, Jr. worked for a bail bonds company run by his father that worked to free illegal immigrants from ICE facilities and sued the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.
Weeks before 30-year-old Cole Jr. allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomber-charging-papers-unsealed-in-d-c-court">planted pipe bombs</a> at the headquarters of the Democrat and Republican parties on January 5, 2021, a court ruled against the company in its lawsuit attacking the Trump administration on immigration issues, The Daily Wire has learned. An FBI affidavit in the case notes that the suspect works for a bail bond company and lives with his mother.
Later in 2021, the company held a press conference bemoaning anti-black racism with a left-wing attorney. Cole Sr. and Benjamin Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, attempted to sic the Biden Department of Justice on a local Tennessee prosecutor who had raised questions about the bail bond company.
&#8220;A high-profile civil rights attorney is calling for a federal investigation into a Rutherford County prosecutor accused of discrimination,&#8221; Nashville news outlet <a href="https://wpln.org/post/a-high-profile-civil-rights-attorney-is-calling-for-a-federal-investigation-into-a-rutherford-county-prosecutor-accused-of-discrimination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPLN</a> reported on November 16, 2021.
Cole Sr., who is black, claimed racial persecution by Rutherford County Assistant District Attorney John Zimmerman, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/qRlCdl_h9Do?t=496s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video shows</a>. Zimmerman had raised concerns about the bail bond company’s ethics, noting that it had been suspended from operating in a nearby district.
Standing alongside Crump, he said to the media: &#8220;He&#8217;s defamed me, he&#8217;s called my insurance company. &#8230; We hope the Department of Justice can come in and do a brief investigation because we&#8217;ve seen a lot of questionable acts that Mr. Zimmerman has demonstrated towards minority-owned companies.”
Crump said, “It is appalling and we want these allegations to be investigated to the highest level of government … They called him a punk and a thug, and why? What is it about him? A lot of people believe they know the answer.”
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1010237" style="width: 392px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1010237" class=" wp-image-1010237" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="382" height="214" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-300x168.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-768x429.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" />Cole Sr. with Benjamin Crump / Youtube</div>
In April 2025, a Tennessee appeals court found that sanctions against the company were called for due to repeated misconduct. The elder Cole lied about having never filed for bankruptcy or having other financial problems, when he in fact had filed for bankruptcy twice and had tax liens against him, a <a href="https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/OpinionsPDFVersion/InReTennesseeBondingCompanyIncOPN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee court of appeals affirmed</a>.
Cole Jr. and his father worked as bail bondsmen under various company names, including Free U Bonds, initially in Fairfax County, Virginia. Public records suggest that the father moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, around 2017.
One of those corporate names was StateWide Bonding, Inc., an immigration-bond company that helps illegal immigrants avoid jail.
“An Immigration Bond will secure the release of an undocumented alien from an immigration facility with the guarantee the conditions of the Immigration Bond requirements are met,” its webpage says.
Brian Cole is listed as StateWide Bonding’s owner in a dispute over bonds for illegal immigrants in the state of <a href="https://biahelp.com/colorado-division-of-insurance-v-statewide-bonding-inc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado</a>.
StateWide sued the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security over its policies relating to illegal immigrants. Weeks before Cole allegedly planted the pipe bombs, on November 10, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. <a href="https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/19-5178/19-5178-2020-11-10.pdf?ts=1605022230" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sided with the administration on</a> the case, ruling that the lower court had properly thrown out all of StateWide’s claims.
One of several <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.200024/gov.uscourts.dcd.200024.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> complained that StateWide was being harmed unfairly when its illegal immigrant clients failed to appear at court dates. “Statewide have secured the bond for thousands of immigrants… If an immigrant does not appear, that failure to appear is considered a breach of bond&#8230; When a bond is breached, at that point, all Plaintiffs are subjected to a steep financial penalty,” it said.
“Hundreds of Plaintiffs’ clients fail to appear because Defendants fail to (1) provide said person with a specified date, time, and location to appear in court,” it continued. “Then, only after the subject immigrant fails to appear, these Defendants expect Plaintiffs to find the person in less than 10 days (many times less than 48 hours), or suffer the penalty of paying the sum total of millions of dollars.”
The January 6 pipe bombs were used by Democrats and the media to portray Trump supporters as violent, though during the Biden administration, the FBI claimed it was unable to locate a suspect, and Kamala Harris — who was 20 feet from the bomb at the DNC — never mentioned it.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomber-charging-papers-unsealed-in-d-c-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charging papers</a> say Cole Jr. began purchasing bomb-making parts by May 2019, during the Trump administration and long before any dispute about election results.
They say his cell phone signal showed that he was in the vicinity of the DNC and RNC when the bombs were placed. The Biden administration quickly used similar cell phone data to apprehend hundreds of Trump supporters for minor crimes.
Editor&#8217;s note: This story was updated shortly after publication to clarify that the company was owned by Cole Sr., while Cole Jr. worked for it.

Brian Cole Jr. / Instagram

Alleged Pipe Bomber’s Family Sued Trump DHS Over Illegal Immigration, Asked Biden DOJ To Address Racism

Anti-Racism

Biden Administration

Bombings

Department of Justice

January 6

Trayvon Martin

During the summer months, educators across the country flock to professional development conferences, often on the taxpayers’ dime. These events are supposed to sharpen the instructional skills of teachers and equip them with new methods for helping students succeed, addressing real challenges of education, such as declining test scores, reading comprehension, and math proficiency.
But as Defending Education’s analysis of the programming shows, what actually dominates these conferences is not literacy strategies or math interventions.
Instead, the recurring themes are race, social justice, gender, activism, and equity. From English to math, and from history to science, the same ideological buzzwords surface again and again. It’s little wonder parents are concerned, or that the nation has grown more politically divided.
Take the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers union. At its <a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/555fe259-c382-4f14-87b0-319c288f9e68/websitePage:83a0a9c7-c495-4fe0-ad95-5eb99de3dbc2">Conference on Racial and Social Justice</a> in Portland this summer, activism, not academics, took center stage.
Unions like the NEA make no effort to hide their contempt for Donald Trump and the values of his supporters. At its annual Representative Assembly, the union <a href="https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/20250706-ratoday-issue-5.pdf">approved business items</a> labeling Trump’s agenda as “fascist” and opposing efforts to eliminate the Department of Education, which it called racist and anti-democratic. In direct response to a Supreme Court decision (Mahmoud v. Taylor) affirming religious parents’ rights to opt their children out of LGBTQ curricula, the NEA allocated $209,000 to push back and expand LGBTQ advocacy in schools. In total, the NEA committed more than $340,000 <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/national-education-association-approves-business-items-accusing-president-trump-of-fascism-and-authoritarianism-opposing-supreme-court-ruling-and-not-using-adl-materials/">toward initiatives</a> designed to counter conservative policies.
This union-driven activism is not confined to Portland. Across the country, teachers are being coached to use classrooms as platforms for reshaping opinions on society’s most sensitive issues. Students are not simply taught about history or literature; they are encouraged to become activists themselves. The worldview behind this approach borrows heavily from Marxist theory, framing society as an endless struggle between oppressors and the oppressed. That lens is being embedded into lesson plans, teacher training, and classroom culture, gradually shifting education away from its original purpose — academic instruction — toward political reeducation.
The sessions at NEA’s conference illustrate this shift. One workshop, “Building Narrative Power for Education Justice,” trained teachers to use storytelling to fight “anti-truth” and anti-LGBTQ legislation. Another warned about “White Christian nationalist forces” allegedly exploiting pan-Asian communities. Additional sessions covered “racial battle fatigue,” blurred lines between racism and ableism, and framed climate change as disproportionately harming communities of color, women, and students with disabilities. One even linked the MAGA movement to Jim Crow and Native land theft. Teachers were urged to affirm transgender student identities, disrupt curriculum challenges, and fight political opponents under the banner of education justice.
The conference also promoted the <a href="https://custom.cvent.com/820B5689CD804AEAA83FC39F9FBC8CD3/files/0a702792cebf4a3ea1c9b294c6c985b5.pdf">NEA’s pronoun guide</a>, which encourages teachers to adopt nontraditional pronouns such as ze, zir, zirs, and zirself, and to display their own pronouns as a sign of being a “safe person.” Misgendering, teachers were told, is itself a form of marginalization.
While parents worry about declining math and reading scores, union-sponsored trainings are focused on dismantling ableism, confronting White Christian nationalism, and embedding queer theory into K–12 classrooms. These are not the priorities of most American families, but within the union bubble, they are treated as urgent and non-negotiable. 
And it’s not just the NEA. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) filled its 2024 <a href="https://s1.goeshow.com/ncte/annual/2024/conference_program_sessions.cfm">conference with sessions</a> such as “Disrupting the Canon with LGBTQIA+ Themes,” “Queer and Trans-Affirming Education,” and “Antiracist Pedagogy Workshop.”
In a perfect example encapsulating how this ideology makes its way into the classroom, one teacher at a school district in New York <a href="https://www.jecsd.org/districtpage.cfm?pageid=3211">reframed Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”</a> as a “cli-fi,” or climate fiction text, using the play as a vehicle to teach climate change.
Math education has not been spared either. <a href="https://www.nctm.org/atlanta2025/">The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’</a> (NCTM) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/the-national-council-of-teachers-of-mathematics-2025-annual-meeting-features-sessions-on-black-feminist-mathematics-pedagogy-antiracist-math-equitable-grading-social-justice-and-whiteness/">2024 conference</a> features sessions on antiracist math, whiteness, and social justice.
One session, <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=1951">Reflecting on My Whiteness</a>, describes math itself as a “white, patriarchal space” and offers strategies to “confront the oppressive forces of whiteness” and “dismantle inequitable practices” in the classroom. <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=2046">Another highlights</a> how black women in math education “disrupt systems of oppression” and center “Black Girl Joy.” A third, <a href="https://www.aievolution.com/ntm2501/index.cfm?do=ev.viewEv&amp;ev=1930">Democracy and Data</a>, claims math should be used to advance democratic participation through a social justice lens.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) follows the same script. At its <a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/b256b940-7874-4081-a4af-34edc50fd735/summary">July conference</a>, sessions focused on “racial harm,” “LGBTQIA+ allyship,” climate activism, and “mass mobilization training.” Teachers were also told to resist curriculum oversight as a political attack. In one session, the AFT admitted the obvious: the pandemic had a “devastating effect” on student literacy.
Yet, the same union that now bemoans literacy loss was a key player in lobbying to keep schools closed during COVID, a decision that fueled the very learning setbacks reflected in the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. Despite <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Elementary_and_Secondary_School_Emergency_Relief_%28ESSER%29_funding_by_state?utm_">$190 billion</a> in federal COVID-19 relief funds, the data indicate a failing K–12 education system.
Meanwhile, many educators are turning to <a href="https://defendinged.org/ethnicstudies/">ethnic studies</a>, often presented through a victim–oppressor lens. The radical ethnic studies group, Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO), held a <a href="https://www.xicanxinstitute.org/summer-2025">2024 Summer Institute</a> that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/xitotucson/p/DKk82TWSPMe/">promoted</a> “decolonial popular education” and urged educators to view teaching as a political weapon. Its sessions featured activists tied to <a href="https://www.ethnicstudiespedagogies.org/gallery/07%20-%20TIAHUI%20-%20A%20Decolonial%20Framework.pdf">anti-Western and antisemitic rhetoric</a>, with the explicit goal of uniting street activism and classroom instruction. And yes, school districts are footing the bill with taxpayer dollars for teachers to attend.
The common thread across these trainings is the glorification of victimhood and activism, with teachers encouraged to turn students into activists for leftist causes. Rather than instilling confidence and agency, this mindset risks fostering learned helplessness, where students believe success is unattainable without intervention.
Summer training conferences are less about improving learning outcomes and more about transforming classrooms into engines of political activism — serving unions and activist groups, but leaving behind the very students schools are meant to serve.
* * *
Kendall Tietz is an investigative reporter for Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The Public School Activist Pipeline: ‘A Joyous Rebellion’

Education

Equity

Leftists

LGBTQ

National Education Association

Public Schools

Students

Teachers

Teachers Unions

People are lying about Charlie Kirk — and it may be they are trying to justify the violence against him. 
If your response to someone getting killed in the political realm is, “Man, too bad they were killed, but …” — if your response to that is to slander him by attributing to him beliefs he did not have, then you are part of the problem and fomenting the permission structure for violence. Charlie was as normie as they come. 
Jemele Hill, who has just made a joke of herself — it is shocking to me that at any point she was taken seriously — said Charlie believed in the <a href="https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1966930974228328880">innate superiority</a> of white people. 
She is a liar. A liar. Anybody who knew Charlie, who consumed Charlie&#8217;s content, knows this isn’t true. It is an overt, complete lie, soup to nuts. Charlie literally fought a rhetorical war, a flame war with the Groypers, who do believe in white superiority. He fought to keep them out of his movement. It was called the Groyper Wars in 2019. I remember it because I was there.
“The reason he was labeled a white supremacist is because he believed in the superiority of white people, which is why he said that he would be concerned if he saw a black pilot, which is why he said that he questioned the brain processing of brilliant minds such as Joy-Ann Reid and Ketanji Brown Jackson, because he ultimately believed in the superiority of white people,” Hill stated.
She is such a liar. What he said about the black pilots was — in what is a commonly-made argument — that affirmative action assumes that black people need extra points in order to achieve the same result as a person who is not black. And what that does is seed doubt in the minds of people, who then see black people in particular slots, and that&#8217;s unfair to black people.
That was the argument that Charlie was making, that black people aren&#8217;t inferior and therefore don&#8217;t need extra points to become pilots, for example. They don’t need DEI to become good pilots. And when you stack DEI on top of the meritocracy, what you end up with is a false perception of the inferiority of particular peoples.
What Charlie said was &#8220;anti-racist.&#8221;
As far as his point about Ketanji Brown Jackson or Joy Reid not being particularly bright, he was correct, because they are not. It turns out they&#8217;re a bunch of white people who are also dumb. These happen to be black people who are dumb. Who cares?
Charlie didn&#8217;t do that because of their race; he said it because they are truly dumb.
Don Lemon — who couldn&#8217;t hold down that job over at CNN and who now has a viewership of only my viewers  — because his only viewership is when we play his clips on my show — was very upset with all the tributes being paid to Charlie. He tore into Charlie, saying, “The things that came out of Charlie Kirk&#8217;s mouth were many. Much of it was hurtful, discriminatory, ignorant. And I&#8217;ll stop there, to say the least.”
If Don Lemon says so, it must be false.
A pastor named Howard-John Wesley at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., <a href="https://x.com/etanthomas36/status/1967311612559413483">went viral</a> over the course of the last 48 hours for issuing a massive rebuke of Charlie, yelling: 
<blockquote>But I’m overwhelmed, seeing the flags of the United States of America at half-staff, calling this nation to honor and venerate a man who was an unapologetic racist and spent all of his life sowing seeds of division and hate into this land. And hearing people with selective rage, who are mad about Charlie Kirk but didn’t give a damn about Melissa Hortman and her husband when they were shot down in their home, tell me I ought to have compassion for the death of a man who had no respect for my own life. I am sorry, but there is nowhere in Bible where we are taught to honor evil. And how you die does not redeem how you lived.</blockquote>
How disgusting. Truly disgusting. Nothing he said is true. It’s this kind of rhetoric, calling Charlie “evil,” — not ISIS, not Hamas — that is all part and parcel of the far-Left attempt to paint everyone on the Right as the worst version of evil.
Longtime Washington Post writer Karen Attia was fired after falsely quoting Charlie. She accused Charlie of <a href="https://karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washington-post-fired-me-but">saying</a>, “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
There should be consequences for saying vile things in the real world. We have to be pretty careful about where we apply those consequences — but we shouldn&#8217;t pretend that there should be no consequences in the real world.
And lying about Charlie in the wake of his death is truly despicable.

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Smearing The Dead: The Left Lies About Charlie Kirk

assassination

Ben Shapiro

Charlie Kirk

Conservatives

Jemele Hill

Opinion

Social Media

White Supremacy

Controversy has reared its head again in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) in California. The district recently convened a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPu4CQ_rZk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">special board meeting</a> to deliberate on its Ethnic Studies curriculum and the potential renewal of a contract with Community Responsive Education (CRE). <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-a-new-ethnic-studies-curriculum-promotes-anti-semitism-in-california">As I reported last month,</a> the State of California previously rejected the draft Ethnic Studies curriculum co-authored by CRE founder and director Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, which was deemed to promote antisemitism and neo-Marxist ideology.
Though the district’s multi-stage contract with CRE was canceled in 2023 amidst the controversy, Tintiangco-Cubales’s ideas live on. No wonder many are concerned that PVUSD is considering a renewed contract with CRE.
The meeting made it clear that PVUSD was fully aware of the nature of CRE’s philosophy when it was previously considered for the Ethnic Studies curriculum. Assistant Superintendent Claudia Monjaras argued in her presentation to the board that CRE did not develop the curriculum — that the district’s staff developed the curriculum with only support from CRE. Yet the reality is that the core ideas and philosophy of CRE remain central to the curriculum. 
Ms. Monjaras’s characterization of the curriculum as being primarily a product of her team is akin to an individual arguing in traffic court that an external influence, namely alcohol, had little bearing on their reckless driving. Similarly, the philosophical underpinnings of CRE are deeply interwoven into the curriculum and cannot be dismissed as incidental or superficial contributions.
The special <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/pvusd/Board.nsf/files/DEXVZ7831F15/$file/Special%20Board%20Mtg%20Packet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">board meeting packet</a> and <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/pvusd/Board.nsf/files/DEXW2N835755/$file/3.28%20ES%20Special%20Study%20Session%20(1).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PowerPoint presentation</a> referenced at the meeting makes the goal of Ethnic Studies clear: “The vision of Ethnic Studies in Pajaro Valley Unified School District is to provide rich learning that centers experiences, stories, and knowledge of Ethnic Studies groups while also shaping a lens to understand and critique dominant power structures, ultimately to eliminate racism and intersectional forms of oppression. Ethnic Studies will provide a culturally and community-responsive education values the F.I.E.L.D.S in and of Pajaro Valley.” This may be laudable in certain contexts, but I fail to see how these lofty aims relate to the mission of any school district.
Throughout the meeting, CRE supporters among both staff and public commenters repeatedly used terms such as “solidarity,” “oppression,” “systems of power,” “dominant narratives,” “intersectionality,” “lived experience,” “white supremacy,” and “critical consciousness” — all of which are hallmark concepts of neo-Marxist Critical Race Theory (CRT). It is concerning that these loaded ideological terms are being introduced surreptitiously without clear acknowledgment of the underlying philosophy and its appropriateness for K-12 education.
The adoption of such ideology promotes a backward-looking worldview, which both lacks a constructive vision of the future and fails to recognize that significant social progress has been made over the past several decades. Instead of fostering hope and optimism, this framework is mired in grievances that suggest a cultural regression of a century ago.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-907565 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pajaro-Valley-II.png" alt="" width="258" height="287" /></div>
In its “Ethnic Studies Framework &amp; Guiding” document (board meeting packet), PVUSD borrows the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clenched black power fist</a> rising out of a book with a pencil in hand as its logo. This clenched fist has most recently been associated with the <a href="https://www.capitalfm.com/news/black-lives-matter/blm-black-power-fist-symbol-meaning-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Lives Matter (BLM)</a> movement in 2020 and also closely associated with the struggle for Black civil rights. However, the <a href="https://www.rd.com/article/history-behind-the-clenched-first-and-the-symbol-for-black-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clenched symbol</a> also has historical significance in 19th century Europe, where it represented revolutionary courage against European monarchies. The symbol ties in perfectly with neo-Marxist thought of revolution to overthrow what are perceived to be dominant power structures of oppression in current day America.
The state of California <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandates</a> only a single semester-long course of Ethnic Studies for students to earn a high school diploma, whose current model curriculum could have adequately served as the foundation for PVUSD’s ethnic studies efforts. While the mandate is reasonable, PVUSD’s approach of embedding Ethnic Studies seen through a CRT lens into a multi-year endeavor in English courses crosses into the territory of indoctrination rather than education. Investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a curriculum tied to CRE and neo-Marxist ideology, which had been rejected by the state because of its controversial nature, represents both a financial and educational misstep.
Given PVUSD’s current English and math achievement challenges, prioritizing Ethnic Studies to this degree is misaligned with the district’s most pressing needs. During the 2023-2024 school year, only <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/pvusd/Board.nsf/files/DDK29600FC8D/$file/2024_SARC%20Pajaro_Valley_High_School_20250123.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">25%</a> of students met or exceeded state standards in English, while only 18% achieved the same in mathematics. The funds already spent — and those proposed on Ethnic Studies — would have been better utilized to enhance student academic performance. The purpose of K-12 education is to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive as contributing members of society, not to cultivate the next generation of social activists. Teaching social activism should never take precedence over academic achievement.
California school districts must learn from PVUSD’s missteps and focus on their fundamental mission: educating students. The integration of divisive ideologies into the curriculum undermines this mission, shifting the focus away from preparing students for productive futures. The PVUSD board should reject controversial influences and return to the state-provided model as a guide that emphasizes balanced, inclusive education.
Ethnic Studies should aim to educate students about diverse histories and cultures in a way that fosters unity and forward-looking ideals, rather than perpetuating divisive rhetoric and outdated grievances. The focus must remain on education, not indoctrination, ensuring that students gain both historical awareness and the tools to envision a brighter, more connected future.
* * *
Walter Myers III is a Senior Fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and an adjunct faculty member at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Graduation day

‘Systems Of Power’: CA Ethnic Studies Program Continues To Radicalize Students

'Systems Of Power': CA Ethnic Studies Program Continues To Radicalize Students

California

Ethnic Studies

Intersectionality

Marxism

Oppression

School Boards

Woke Culture

Professional race grifter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ibram-x-kendi">Ibram X. Kendi</a> is seeing his Boston University &#8220;Center for Antiracist Research&#8221; (CAR) close when its charter with the college expires on June 30, per the university’s <a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2025/ibram-x-kendi-departing-boston-university/">website</a>.
The center currently has 12 staff members who will remain employed until the June closure. CAR was founded in 2020 following the massive public outcry stemming from the death of George Floyd. The center faced declining contributions and support beginning in 2023, when donors began to question what, if anything, the center was producing. 
The announcement comes after Kendi said he was leaving Boston University to become the director of the newly created Howard University Institute for Advanced Study in Washington, D.C.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ibram X. Kendi, Ph.D., as the director of the newly established Howard University Institute for Advanced Study.
The institute will be dedicated to interdisciplinary study advancing research of importance to the global African… <a href="https://t.co/BlJIJ1j6Vj">pic.twitter.com/BlJIJ1j6Vj</a>
&mdash; Howard University (@HowardU) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardU/status/1885085663457878439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Boston University noted that in September 2023, &#8220;with public support having shifted and contributions waning,&#8221; the center &#8220;pursued a new strategy under Kendi,&#8221; which &#8220;included eliminating 19 staff positions.&#8221; Kendi was accused of financial mismanagement, but an audit done by BU found no evidence of wrongdoing, per <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/center-anti-racist-research-close-down-2024015">Newsweek</a>.
In the past, the center has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ibram-x-kendis-academic-center-focusing-on-antiracism-to-fire-staffers">sponsored projects</a> like creating an “antiracism curriculum,” an “antiracist book festival,” and “antiracism training for the workforce.”
The center described itself as &#8220;a full-service organization that translates antiracist ideas into action by unifying research, policy, narrative, and advocacy efforts. We take a rigorous, research-based, and integrative approach to transforming a racist society to an antiracist one.” 
It faced criticism for not producing any tangible research or assets during its existence despite being receiving millions of dollars in grant money and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/01/30/ibram-kendi-howard-university-bu/?isMobile=1">more than $50 million</a> in donations.
Kendi, whose real name is Ibram Henry Rogers, is the author of books like “Antiracist Baby” and “How to Be an Antiracist.” 
He said in a statement: “Despite all the headwinds we faced as a new organization founded during the pandemic and the intense backlash over critical race theory, I am very proud of all we envisioned, all we created, all we learned, all we achieved—the community we built, the people we helped and inspired.” 
Kendi concluded, “To all the faculty, staff, administrators, students, supporters, and Boston community members, I feel honored to have been able to do this work with you over the last five years. I am departing for an opportunity I could not pass up, but what connected us at CAR remains, especially during this precarious time. Our commitment to building an equitable and just society.”
&nbsp;

Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi’s ‘Antiracism’ Center Shutting Down

Ibram X. Kendi's 'Antiracist' Center At Boston University Closing Down For Good

Boston

Critical Race Theory

Race

U.S.

You’ve probably heard of the classic rhetorical question known as the paradox of tolerance: should we tolerate the intolerant? Equally as important as that question, however, are the presuppositions embedded in it: who decides who the intolerant actually are, and what exactly does it mean to not tolerate them in civil society? Rest easy, a corporate activist group called the Human Rights Campaign has graciously <a href="https://x.com/IsaacWillour/status/1876656703996829703" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shouldered the burden</a> of deciding who America’s biggest businesses should and shouldn’t tolerate. And if you’re reading this, you’re probably on the blacklist.
What is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)? Formed in 1980, the group is currently the most dominant force pushing progressivism and non-fiduciary activism through the boardrooms of corporate America. Much of this is done through a ranking system known as the Corporate Equality Index, which grades how ‘inclusive’ companies are on a scale of 1–100. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the conditions for a perfect score aren’t merely tied to nondiscrimination (because that would be too easy), but conveniently have to do with how far a company is willing to go to validate Left-wing cultural talking points.
Recently, the HRC released its <a href="https://reports.hrc.org/corporate-equality-index-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2025 edition</a> of the Index. Allow me to walk you through a few of the “tolerant” and “inclusive” talking points contained within. The HRC will drop a company’s score (in other words, brand a company less tolerant) for:
<ul>
<li>“undue influence by a significant shareholder calculated to undermine a business’ practices related to its LGBTQ+ employees.” In other words, listening to shareholders concerned about the impact of woke policies. </li>
<li>“advocating for public policies or regulations related to LGBT+ equality that would be detrimental to employees and their families.” This could mean anything, including policies aimed at protecting religious liberty and free expression.</li>
</ul>
And maybe most egregiously:
<ul>
<li>“directing corporate charitable contributions to organizations whose primary mission includes advocacy against LGBTQ+ equality.” Underneath all those nice-sounding words is a sinister reality: donating to organizations that push back on the extremes of gender ideology is now intolerant—and not to be tolerated.</li>
</ul>
Let’s not mince words about who that includes: That means countless religious nonprofits; countless educational institutions; countless ministry and humanitarian organizations that do incredible good for humanity are all considered intolerant. Chances are, that also means your personal place of worship. Any business that dares to support these sorts of organizations, or the groups that support them, is intolerant under the dictates of the policing activists at HRC.
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And despite encouraging recent trends, corporate America is still listening to these activist sentiments. Take Meta. They recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/massive-maga-win-facebook-reverses-its-censorship?topStoryPosition=3">phased out fact-checking</a> in an apparent win for free speech and online expression. Yet, they currently have a perfect score on the HRC’s Index. Brands like Amazon, Target, Google, Chase, Microsoft, &amp; Disney? All top-tier <a href="https://www.hrc.org/about/corporate-partners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sponsors</a> of an organization that considers donating to a religious pregnancy center a mark of inexcusable bigotry.
The only real bigotry and radicalism here is their own. Activist groups like HRC, in claiming to fight for tolerance, embrace intolerance at the first sign of anything less than total fealty to their radical demands. They’re more than happy to (inaccurately) paint critics of DEI and ESG as “far-right” radicals, “aimed at rolling back progress for non-discrimination.” 2024 saw many businesses <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-left-wing-activists-are-trying-to-save-corporate-wokeness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut ties</a> with the HRC — and in response, the HRC <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/hrc-foundation-announces-record-participation-in-upcoming-2025-corporate-equality-index-docks-scores-of-seven-companies-in-current-ranking-following-their-pullback-from-workplace-inclusion#:~:text=The%2025%20point%20Responsible%20Citizenship,fall%20to%2070%20from%2095" target="_blank" rel="noopener">smeared</a> them as “retreating from inclusion,” because being pro-business, to corporate activists, apparently stops the minute you don’t get what you want.
2025 should be the year that the pendulum truly swings away from the HRC. It’s far past time to stop using corporate resources (read: shareholder money) to appease activists who believe that covering puberty blockers for children is an indispensable element of a company’s healthcare plan. The corporate engagement work that many in the DEI/ESG skeptic crowd, including myself, engage in every day, is not about pressuring companies into some “conservative” version of corporate activism. It’s about true political neutrality across the board — zero discrimination, zero partisan side-taking, and zero biased policies.
The HRC, and many of the other activist organizations we’re up against, apparently don’t want that. And that says far more about them than it does about anyone else.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Aerial view of New York City skyline at night

The Radical Intolerance Behind Woke Corporate Activism

Business

Corporations

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Human Rights Campaign

“DEI isn’t actually dead,” proclaimed a recent CNN headline, in a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/17/business/dei-isnt-actually-dead/index.html">piece</a> by consumer reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn that somehow managed to be both condescending and ignorant at the same time. CNN would like you to believe corporate diversity isn’t really going anywhere, just changing its external terminology from the oft-maligned term “DEI” to more nebulous terms like “belonging” and “inclusivity,” while maintaining all of its internal elements.
Personally, I both love and hate this piece and the viewpoint it belies. I love that CNN actually believes the DEI skeptic coalition — made up of many serious investors, dedicated state fiduciaries, and corporate engagement professionals — is naive enough to just go away because companies changed the names of their diversity departments. But I also hate that CNN’s dream scenario might actually happen. Let me explain.
The ball’s rolling. This year was a major step towards undoing the damage done by discriminatory diversity initiatives and rejecting the radicalism of much of modern &#8220;anti-racism.&#8221; And it&#8217;s not even just Trump’s victory (although America’s rejection of Kamala Harris is a lesson DEI advocates seem unwilling to learn). Thanks to the efforts of conservative activists like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walmart-caves-massive-retailer-the-next-woke-domino-to-fall-under-pressure-from-robby-starbuck" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robby Starbuck</a>, there is a growing list of companies walking back, slashing, or in some cases altogether removing their DEI initiatives.
There&#8217;s also the ever-growing wave of scrutiny on the discriminatory elements of DEI coming from <a href="https://adflegal.org/press-release/adf-calls-corporations-ditch-dei-policies-light-2024-election/">legal groups</a> like Alliance Defending Freedom, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-treasurers-investors-urge-major-companies-to-drop-discriminatory-dei-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">financial officers</a> in red states, and of course the shareholders we represent every day in the corporate engagement world.
The halls of American academia are following suit, with campuses like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/05/university-of-michigan-dei-cut" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Michigan</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/diversity/race-ethnicity/2024/07/31/u-missouri-axes-dei-office-pre-empt-state-mandate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mizzou</a> overhauling their DEI initiatives. Even whole states like Idaho are <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/idaho-board-education-bans-dei-offices-initiatives-all-public-universities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taking steps</a> to stamp DEI out of publicly-funded institutions. And that’s not even considering the broader social pushback against the racialism that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fate-of-the-racially-furious" target="_blank" rel="noopener">infected</a> American society post-George Floyd, from the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3148007/am-i-racist-fighting-the-culture-war-with-a-smile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">success</a> of documentaries like Matt Walsh&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist?</a>&#8220; to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/opinion/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-subway-killing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejection</a> of the race narratives surrounding high-visibility court cases like Daniel Penny.
That’s the roadmap. And it’s easy to think the momentum of the battle against DEI’s problematic elements is all downhill from here. In reality, these are just the first steps, albeit crucial ones. The next steps? Keep walking the road. This is a labor that will take years — and losing momentum is the one thing we cannot afford. In fact, losing momentum is what the Left and the advocates of DEI’s most pernicious elements are counting on us to do. Seems unimaginable given the groundswell of anti-DEI, anti-ESG, and generally anti-woke sentiment that’s sprung up post-November. Give it time.
Post-inauguration, when life returns to normal, we have to keep at the task of rooting out the discriminatory and divisive ideology that so often permeates DEI programs. The staying force of the Left is tremendous. But we’re not just in a battle against the forces of the Left. We’re in a battle against the force of institutional inertia. If we stop, we lose. We must keep pushing. If you work for or own shares in a company with DEI programs, keep pushing for answers. If you’re at a college with a DEI program, keep pushing for answers. If we do these things, and don’t give up, 2025 can be America’s best year yet on rejecting the discrimination and divisiveness so many DEI programs promulgate.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN and the Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

A Walmart Store Ahead Of Earnings Figures

The Year The DEI Tide Turned

Am I Racist

Matt Walsh

Racism

Robby Starbuck

Walmart

Daniel Penny Acquitted In Trial Over Death Of Jordan Neely On NYC Subway

Is This The End Of The BLM Era?

Court

Daniel Penny

Health Care

Jordan Neely

Murder

New York City

Social Justice

Subway

A Biden State Department official tasked with combatting “systemic racism” displayed her far-left bonafides in a series of since-deleted social media posts, unearthed by The Daily Wire, in which she blasted Trump supporters as racist and praised a vitriolic anti-police rant from a left-wing activist.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-state-department-official-bringing-dei-to-foreign-policy">Desiree Cormier Smith</a> is the State Department’s first ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice. Smith, a former employee of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, is also a far-left radical, as evidenced by a trove of posts on her <a href="https://x.com/DesireeMCormier">now-deleted</a> X profile between October 2020 and January 2021, before she was <a href="https://www.state.gov/biographies/desiree-cormier-smith/">appointed</a> to her post in 2022.
Smith, who is tasked with building “global partnerships to combat systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia,” was named to her position as the Democratic administration pursued a broad diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda. Now, she could be relieved of her position as the incoming Trump administration pledges to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-the-trump-admin-can-purge-dei-from-americas-military-and-foreign-policy?topStoryPosition=1">purge DEI</a> from the federal government.
“We need this kind of honesty and accountability across all our government institutions!!” Smith said in response to a <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/kansas-city-police-board-viral-speech">vitriolic rant</a> in 2020 where a left-wing activist named Keiajah Brooks called cops “soulless white people” at a Kansas City Police Commission meeting. “I stan,” she said in another post in response to the video of the diatribe, also requesting someone to put music in the background of the clip.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835561 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.03-PM-300x256.png" alt="" width="540" height="461" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.03-PM-300x256.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.03-PM-676x576.png 676w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.03-PM-768x654.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.03-PM.png 946w" sizes=" (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /></div>
“I&#8217;m not nice and I don&#8217;t seek to be respectable. I&#8217;m not asking you all for anything because y&#8217;all can&#8217;t and won&#8217;t be both my savior and my oppressor,” the leftist says in the video while speaking at the meeting. “So I&#8217;m not here begging anything of soulless white folks.”
Brooks went on to launch personal attacks against the members of the commission, telling one that he was an &#8220;out-of-touch and disconnected old white person with nothing but pure apathy seeping through the bulging veins of his paper-colored skin.&#8221;
Smith was so enamored with the clip that she asked someone to add backing music to the video, with one user fulfilling her request.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
&#8220;i&#8217;m not asking yall for anything bc yall can&#8217;t and won&#8217;t be both my savior and my opporessor&#8230;&#8221; &#8211; KJ Brooks 👏👏👏
here you go <a href="https://twitter.com/DesireeMCormier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DesireeMCormier</a>&#8230; Kansas City Police Commission Board Meeting being ETHERED by Ms. Brooks 
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 <a href="https://t.co/HZ7Yv1qZ0C">pic.twitter.com/HZ7Yv1qZ0C</a>
— ™️i&amp;i (@RasTefferi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RasTefferi/status/1321537131844521985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
Smith was happy with the product, calling the activist in the video, Keiajah Brooks, “Queen Brooks.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835563 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.54-PM-300x125.png" alt="" width="598" height="249" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.54-PM-300x125.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.54-PM-768x319.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.41.54-PM.png 972w" sizes=" (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px" /></div>
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who serves as the Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told The Daily Wire that Smith&#8217;s comments were divisive and harmful.
“The State Department exists to protect and advance the interests of the American people at home and abroad. However, many of Ms. Smith’s comments only serve to divide Americans and damage our cause and credibility on the world stage,” McCaul charged before reaffirming his support for Trump’s goal of purging the woke agenda from the federal government.
“I’m certain President-elect Trump will dismantle President Biden’s woke agenda at State and restore the department to its original mission of creating a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world benefiting Americans and the international community.”
The State Department did not return a request for comment.
The remarks from Smith, who makes <a href="https://govsalaries.com/cormier-smith-desiree-m-176287791">over $180,000 a year</a> in her State Department role, were just a sample of the many posts she made pushing far-left views and denigrating white people and Trump.
“Black Voters Saved White America Again and You’re Very Welcome,” she said in one post after the 2020 presidential election. “Interesting how non-Americans are able to see and name this much more clearly than many (white) Americans,” she wrote in a quote tweet to a post arguing that Trump’s 2020 candidacy was evidence that “the US is a deeply broken society.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835565 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.42.40-PM-300x214.png" alt="" width="520" height="371" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.42.40-PM-300x214.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.42.40-PM-806x576.png 806w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.42.40-PM-768x549.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.42.40-PM.png 1402w" sizes=" (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px" /></div>
“Very very real,” Smith said in response to a tweet that read, “The fact that this presidential race is even this close proves that white supremacy is very real in America.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835567 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.43.25-PM-300x97.png" alt="" width="563" height="182" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.43.25-PM-300x97.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.43.25-PM-1024x331.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.43.25-PM-768x249.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.43.25-PM.png 1038w" sizes=" (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px" /></div>
She also signaled her agreement that racial minorities are locked in “an abusive dynamic” in which they are “blamed for not overcoming the concerted racism of white ppl.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835575 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.16-PM-300x112.png" alt="" width="630" height="235" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.16-PM-300x112.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.16-PM-1024x381.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.16-PM-768x286.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.16-PM.png 1042w" sizes=" (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></div>
In yet another tweet condemning white Trump supporters as racist, Smith urged her white friends to “miss me with the ‘I can’t believe it was so close’ texts and go talk to your racist families and high school friends. We did the work. Now it’s your turn.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835579 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.59-PM-300x113.png" alt="" width="730" height="275" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.59-PM-300x113.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.59-PM-1024x385.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.59-PM-768x289.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.45.59-PM.png 1408w" sizes=" (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px" /></div>
The Open Society Foundations alum directed her ire at Trump in some tweets, including one in which she signaled her belief that Trump was a “textbook” example of a fascist. She quoted a left-wing organization in another post, appearing to affirm the belief that “Donald Trump is a blessing to dictators around the world” and is “creating a global network of gangsters.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835583 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.46.58-PM-300x224.png" alt="" width="474" height="354" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.46.58-PM-300x224.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.46.58-PM-770x576.png 770w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.46.58-PM-768x575.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.46.58-PM.png 1374w" sizes=" (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" /></div>
Smith advocated for radical policies as well, calling for reparations and an end to the electoral college system, which she alleged was based on racism.
“We begin to repair our nations through reparations and healing,” one post read, with another saying, “Racism and slavery are at the root of this peculiar way to elect a president. In the 21st Century, it still submerges the Black vote. It’s past time to get rid of the Electoral College.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835587 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.47.47-PM-300x151.png" alt="" width="566" height="285" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.47.47-PM-300x151.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.47.47-PM-1024x515.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.47.47-PM-768x386.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.47.47-PM.png 1416w" sizes=" (max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px" /></div>
In one post, Smith claimed that she was the victim of the type of “subtle racism” that “kills Black women” after a nurse didn’t escort her to the restroom when she had been sedated for a minor surgery.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-835589 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.48.37-PM-300x73.png" alt="" width="687" height="167" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.48.37-PM-300x73.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.48.37-PM-1024x249.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.48.37-PM-768x187.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Screen-Shot-2024-11-27-at-12.48.37-PM.png 1388w" sizes=" (max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px" /></div>
Smith <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-state-department-racial-equity-rep-says-white-diplomats-like-america-too-much/">garnered headlines</a> following her appointment when it was revealed that she had accused white diplomats of being too “protective” of the United States in a podcast interview. Non-white diplomats, according to Smith, &#8220;come with a certain humility that I would say that a lot of white foreign service officers lack.&#8221;
The far-left official could now be one of the bureaucrats who is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-the-trump-admin-can-purge-dei-from-americas-military-and-foreign-policy">fired</a> upon President Trump’s return to the White House.

Desiree Cormier Smith

State Department DEI Head Called Trump Supporters Racist, Praised Anti-Cop Rants In Deleted Posts

State Department

Wokeness

One of the most profound and honest <a href="https://rlo.acton.org/archives/124960-the-strange-death-of-dei.html">conversations</a> I’ve ever had on the subject of DEI came courtesy of a DEI advocate I spoke with last year. I asked her a simple question: if she believed in DEI as a useful element of corporate policy in theory, why is it that so many DEI programs fail in practice? Her honest answer: “We have to be very robust in our methodology, and we haven’t been. Being able to articulate the meaning of the D, E, and I is critical. If you can’t present it to highlight the fundamental good in the training, it doesn’t work.” An obvious answer, perhaps — but a telling one. The reason for the diversity downshift in American culture, in many cases, is a practitioner issue: DEI proponents have, in many instances, failed to make the argument of why such training is a fundamental good. To the contrary, we’re seeing a growing body of evidence that DEI’s fundamental good, just maybe, was profoundly oversold.
On Monday, we got our first look at a critical scientific finding that’s lending new support to the arguments of DEI’s strongest critics — and taking flack from progressive media outlets set on not giving it the coverage it clearly deserves. A <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/Instructing-Animosity_11.13.24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Network Contagion Research Institute, released in collaboration with the Rutgers University Social Perception Lab, examined the effects of exposure to training that emphasizes awareness of/opposition to “systemic oppression.” Its goal was answering the question at the core of the DEI debate: do diversity programs that highlight systemic oppression actually reduce bias and improve group dynamics by “increas[ing] empathy,” or do they “increase hostility” towards those that antiracist philosophy paints as oppressive?
The study had subjects read either (1) an essay containing typical antiracist arguments about white supremacy and race discrimination, or (2) a control essay about corn production. After reading, subjects analyzed a race-neutral hypothetical interaction: a student applying to an elite university and having their application rejected by an admissions officer. Subjects who read the antiracist essay, which contained excerpts from antiracist figures such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, viewed the student’s rejection through what the study deemed hostile attribution bias, perceiving the admissions officer as discriminatory, unfair, and guilty of ‘microaggressions.’
The subjects who were primed with antiracist literature:
<ul>
<li>Demonstrated an increased willingness to punish the admissions officer in the hypothetical scenario, despite the scenario not mentioning the race of the student.</li>
<li>Viewed real-life court cases as discriminatory that the control subjects perceived as fair</li>
<li>Viewed entire people groups (Hindus) as more racially discriminatory after reading material on caste discrimination</li>
</ul>
The study explained the risk of DEI programs focused on oppressed/oppressor class groupings in the following way: “[DEI] interventions may foster authoritarian mindsets, particularly when anti-oppressive narratives exist within an ideological and vindictive monoculture.” In other words, the oppressor/oppressed distinctions reflected in many modern DEI narratives can actually increase bias, hostility, and attribution of discriminatory beliefs among groups, as opposed to decreasing them. This finding suggests that exposure to ‘antiracist’ narratives decreases people’s ability to view situations rationally; if biased by a preconceived narrative of discrimination, people are more inclined to see discrimination at play in interactions that an unbiased observer might perceive as perfectly fair and reasonable.
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Is this survey the nail in the coffin for dwindling DEI programs? Of course not — at the end of the day, it’s just one study within a larger body of literature. But the response of media outlets like the New York Times and Bloomberg, who <a href="https://www.nysun.com/article/press-times-suppress-findings-study-dei-training-amplifies-hostility-instead-reducing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suppressed</a> coverage of the study, should be an indicator to us as to just how important these findings are. This survey is not business as usual. On the contrary, its findings should be a wake-up call to those who still hold out optimism for DEI efforts as a whole. For years, DEI critics have argued that the narratives of modern ‘antiracism,’ which too often prioritizes identity politics and indefensibly broad generalizations over the necessary nuance of looking at the real world, are unfit for purpose. These findings are incredibly sharp arrows in our quiver.
It’s time for Americans at large, and the institutions and governments that serve them, to put DEI programs under the fine-toothed comb of scrutiny they have always deserved and examine if their fundamental good is really as good as it’s advertised to be. Programs that create and foster hostility on the basis of race fail basic function tests for building society, engendering trust in institutions, and making Americans less divided. And if DEI programs can’t do any of those three, whether in the boardroom, the classroom, or in the government briefing room, it’s time to ask why they exist at all.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN and the Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and Justin Folk, director of the hit comedic documentary &#8220;<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist?</a>&#8220;on a special <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/creating-documentaries-that-challenge-narratives-from-what-is-a-woman-to-am-i-racist-10-27-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday Extra edition of Morning Wire</a>.
The Daily Wire’s new Matt Walsh-starring comedy “<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/">Am I Racist?</a>” is now the most successful documentary to hit theaters in a decade — despite major headwinds from legacy media and a hostile Hollywood. We sat down with the director, Justin Folk, to discuss his film’s box office run, its launch on Daily Wire+, and why getting conservative content in theaters is now more crucial than ever.
* * *
JOHN: Joining us to discuss the box office run of the Matt Walsh comedy “<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/">Am I Racist?</a>” is its director Justin Folk. Justin, great to have you on the show.
JUSTIN: Yeah, thanks for having me. It&#8217;s good to be on with you guys. Listen to you guys a lot, actually.
JOHN: We love to hear that. Look, you directed the Daily Wire&#8217;s first big documentary hit, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman">What Is A Woman?</a>” This film is sort of a sequel in some ways, but it’s also very different on many levels – that includes this time you took your film to theaters. That&#8217;s a major risk, but it appears to have paid off here. First, how much has the film brought in from theaters at this point?
JUSTIN: Well, we&#8217;ve passed the $12 million mark at the box office, which is very, very exciting and actually quite historic for a documentary. I believe we&#8217;re the top documentary of the decade. And to achieve that sort of level of success in the theaters out of the gate for The Daily Wire, I think, was a big achievement and I&#8217;m really proud of it. I know the team is proud of it. Ultimately, there were a lot of people involved in that effort. But at the base of it all, we had to make a good film for that to happen. You mentioned that this film is different than “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman">What is a Woman?</a>,” and that&#8217;s by design. We didn&#8217;t want to come out with a half-hearted sophomore effort, and we knew we had to do something different. We knew we had to kind of go bigger. “What is a Woman?” is a little bit more of a straightforward documentary. This one is much more of a comedy and we felt like the issue of race demanded a different approach. With what we&#8217;re seeing with all the race hustlers and the people who are dividing us as a society, we just felt like ridicule would be one of the best tools we could use when making this film.
JOHN: Right. Speaking of ridicule, describing the film was actually a bit of a struggle sometimes for people. Some called it a “mockumentary,” which is not actually correct, but it did include a lot of mocking of things, as you said. If you could sum up the approach to this film, what were you trying to attain?
JUSTIN: Well, first of all, let&#8217;s start with the category. It would officially be categorized as a comedic documentary, which isn&#8217;t a very sexy term. I don&#8217;t think those two things usually go together. So I think it&#8217;s hard for people to kind of understand what this is. But it&#8217;s comedic and so there&#8217;s a lot of laughs, there&#8217;s a lot of jokes in there, but it&#8217;s a documentary, too, because these are very real situations that we put Matt Walsh in and we wanted things to play out with real people. So that approach was something we basically started with. We knew the success of “What Is Woman?” was achieved by allowing people to kind of talk, to say what they really feel about things, and that was very eye-opening for Americans. In terms of race, same thing here, we wanted these people pushing this race agenda to just say in their own words what they felt and what they wanted for the rest of us as Americans. We felt that would be powerful for Americans just to see and then to decide for themselves if this is the right path. The approach involved taking Matt, dropping him into the situation with these people, and essentially having Matt believe them, then chart the course based on all of their prescriptions. And that&#8217;s what Matt did. He basically became one of them, and in doing so, I think we revealed the ideology underneath and what&#8217;s behind it all. When Matt adopted this character as an anti-racist grifter himself, you got to see what&#8217;s behind it philosophically and what it all leads to. And that was our goal, to have Matt become one of them, essentially.
<div id="attachment_796413" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796413" class="size-large wp-image-796413" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-15-Sep-2024-07-18-AM-8749-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="Am I Racist? movie starring Matt Walsh. Screenshot courtesy: DailyWire." width="1024" height="576" />The Daily Wire</div>
JOHN: You know, it strikes me that this the “Yes, and&#8230;” approach that you learn in improv – the entire film is Matt performing a “Yes, and&#8230;” which really opens the door for letting some of these DEI “experts” go deeper into their ideology than they normally would if you started to question their approach. And it clearly worked here. Did you expect this kind of reception in theaters, this degree of success?
JUSTIN: You know, I was hoping for this level of success, this reception. The thing that surprised me was how consistent the response was in terms of being positive and in terms of people understanding the humor. If I had a fear, it was that we were making a film that only the demographic males 25 to 55 would really enjoy, but the rest — women and older people — it would maybe just kind of go over their head. But that hasn&#8217;t been the case. I had the fortunate ability to go to some of these pre-screenings before the film came out, and I got to watch the audience react to a lot of the jokes and a lot of the things that were in the film. And it was universal. It was across the board, the reaction that we got from people in the audience – whether they were young or old or male or female. And that just gave me a big sense of pride that we made something that everybody can enjoy. Now some people think some jokes are funnier than others, and some people really love some moments in the film compared to others. But really it was, as a filmmaker, you try to make something that would be universally accepted and liked, and that was just great confirmation for what we did.
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/creating-documentaries-that-challenge-narratives-from/id1576594336?i=1000674596692" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
JOHN: Now one of the controversies for the film early on involved critic reviews. This film has gotten outstanding audience reviews from the start, but was shunned by major media critics. Where did the critic reviews stand at this point? Did you get some of the legacy critics to actually weigh in?
JUSTIN: We had a couple mainstream critics eventually limp in with a review. And I think they did that because they were sort of called out for, for ignoring this film. Initially they were staying away from it. We have our theory why they were staying away from it, and that involves the fact that it was a good film – and I don&#8217;t think they wanted to give Matt Walsh that platform. We did have a lot of, I guess, mid-tier critics review the film, and it was very, very well-accepted by them. And these are people with no ax to grind. These are people who don&#8217;t work for a major media entity, and they were just quite honest with their review and they just were like, “Wow, this is a very, very powerful and very funny film.” Some of them even got backlash for doing so. We can kind of understand why some of these mainstream critics ignored it because we knew they would actually face a lot of backlash.
<div id="attachment_796125" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796125" class="size-large wp-image-796125" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-1024x576.jpg" alt="Am I Racist? movie starring Matt Walsh. Screenshot courtesy: DailyWire." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot courtesy: DailyWire.</div>
JOHN: Yeah. At what stage did you begin to plan for a theater launch? Was this the plan all along or did this sort of become more concrete later on?
JUSTIN: Listen, there&#8217;s a lot of risk involved in going to the theater, and there are a lot of things that need to fall into place. And I&#8217;ve got to give credit to The Daily Wire team. I&#8217;ve got to give credit to Jeremy Boreing for navigating all that – Jon Lewis, Dave Coleman and the whole team. First of all, we had to convince theaters to take us. We had to convince the exhibitors themselves that this is something that they would want to have in their theaters and would actually do good business. And so there was a lot of hurdles along the way, and, meticulously, Daily Wire got over all those hurdles, and positioned this film in such a way that the exhibitors would take it. Also all the marketing that took place, there&#8217;s just so much involved in going to the theater. There&#8217;s a ton of risk, and that risk is something you definitely have to consider when launching into this. But I&#8217;m glad we did. I think we proved what we set out to do. And I just feel very fortunate that we were able to have people see this in theaters, where they could sit together in a group and laugh.
JOHN: About that, how significant is it for conservatives in particular to get content into theaters like this?
JUSTIN: As conservatives, we have to play on the battlefield that the rest of society plays on. We have a tendency to kind of shrink back into our silos and speak to only our people. And, listen, as conservatives, we have the best ideas, we have the winning ideas, and those ideas need to be played out on the main stage. And in the case of theaters, theaters are a main stage. Theaters are a place where a lot of people go for their entertainment. These are people, some of them, that aren&#8217;t really engaged in politics. These are people that have busy lives and don&#8217;t pay attention too much to a lot of the issues. And so we need to reach those people. And so, we need to perform the way the Left does when it comes to getting our ideas out there to the mainstream, and theaters is one way we can do that. And so, listen, not every conservative film is meant for the theaters. Different films have different purposes. In our case, we really went hard. We kind of went hard to the paint with the fact that we wanted to make this an entertaining movie first, and then have our ideas tucked in alongside. And, you know, that makes our film very palatable for a movie theater environment. But, listen, I think it&#8217;s very important that conservatives take some of that ground back from the Left and have our ideas play out on the main stage.
JOHN: Yeah, and seeing this reach over 1,600 theaters was a massive deal, just almost symbolically. The film is now going to be available on demand exclusively on the Daily Wire+ platform. In general, do theater runs help or hurt streaming performance in the industry?
JUSTIN: Theater runs. are extremely helpful. In fact, a lot of distributors refer to theatrical releases as a big marketing campaign. And I think that&#8217;s the truth here because it allows you to get your film out there in the public in a way that you wouldn&#8217;t normally have it out there. And so the theatrical release of “Am I Racist?” I think is only going to help really raise awareness with the general public, and then point those people back to Daily Wire+ to go watch it, if they didn&#8217;t get a chance to see it in theaters. And so, yeah, I think the theatrical release is really going to help this film. I think it&#8217;s going to really drive a lot of attention to it for the home entertainment platform and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist-official-trailer">Daily Wire+</a> platform. I&#8217;m excited about that because a lot of people didn&#8217;t get a chance to see it. People have busy lives, but at least they heard about it. And now they can go watch it on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist-official-trailer">Daily Wire+</a>. the good news there is they can watch as many times as they want, it&#8217;s not a one time viewing. And I do recommend that with this particular film. This is the type of film that you&#8217;re going to want to watch a couple of times just to catch all the great performances that Matt has throughout.
<div id="attachment_812569" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-812569" class="size-large wp-image-812569" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/10/00_AIR_16x9_OCT28_V05-1024x576.jpg" alt="Am I Racist" width="1024" height="576" />DailyWire+</div>
JOHN: Yeah, I found that myself, there&#8217;s so many little details that you miss the first time around. For you personally, this is a unique film. It&#8217;s unorthodox in many ways. As a filmmaker, what did you learn in the making of this particular film?
JUSTIN: There&#8217;s a lot I learned in making any film, and it seems like every time we go out and do something we&#8217;re endeavoring to do something very difficult, and we&#8217;re diving into a topic. And when you dive into a topic, you have to sort of live it while you&#8217;re making it – and in this case, it was even more so, because Matt had to live this character, and so we had to essentially think like the other side. Matt had to adopt their beliefs and let them play out. So I learned a lot about the topic itself. I also learned a lot about America and how we view the issue of race, and how there are actually way more people who think rationally about this issue than I think we realize. It&#8217;s just that they&#8217;ve been taken advantage of. They&#8217;ve been polite. I think these people who are pushing this DEI agenda have taken advantage of so many people in this country who don&#8217;t want to be mean, who don&#8217;t want to be called a bigot. And so one of the things I learned was actually a hopeful thing, which was most people don&#8217;t go along with this stuff. They don&#8217;t go along with this racial division. That was sort of a hopeful thing I learned along the way. We found that common, everyday people don&#8217;t really buy what&#8217;s being sold by these so-called “race experts.” And so that was a very uplifting realization for me.
JOHN: Some of the more powerful moments in the film came from just regular folks dismissing the racially divisive talking points. Final question, what&#8217;s next for you? Any plans to work further with Walsh or any other Daily Wire talent? Can you answer this question?
JUSTIN: Absolutely. I mean, I can say that we are working on stuff and it&#8217;s been a pleasure to work with Matt on these last two films. We have such a great team. It&#8217;s a small, tight knit team of just great professionals who are just the best at what they do. And I&#8217;ll be honest with you, it&#8217;s a lot of fun making these movies with Matt. It&#8217;s not always easy, it&#8217;s a challenging thing to do what we&#8217;ve been doing, but it has been a ton of fun and we would love to keep that going.
JOHN: Well, we hope you do. Justin, thank you so much for talking with us. It&#8217;s been a pleasure.
JUSTIN: Thanks, John. Great to be on.
JOHN: That was Justin Folk, director of “Am I Racist?” available starting this week exclusively on Daily Wire+ – and this has been a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/creating-documentaries-that-challenge-narratives-from-what-is-a-woman-to-am-i-racist-10-27-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday Extra edition of Morning Wire</a>.

Am I Racist? Movie Premiere

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Am I Racist?’ Director Talks Race Hustlers, Ridicule, And Conservatives In Media

EXCLUSIVE: 'Am I Racist?' Director Talks Race Hustlers, Ridicule, And Conservatives In Media

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