Email sent to diversity-allies, 5/28/2019

I sent the following email to the diversity-allies mailing list in CSE:

  From reges@cs.washington.edu Tue May 28 10:47:45 2019
  Date: Tue, 28 May 2019 10:47:45 -0700 (PDT)
  From: Stuart Reges <reges@cs.washington.edu>
  To: diversity-allies <diversity-allies@cs.washington.edu>
  Subject: book/podcast recommendation

  I just finished reading a disturbing book entitled "Hate Crime Hoax: How 
  the Left is Selling a Fake Race War" by Kentucky State University 
  political science professor Wilfred Reilly.  I recommend the book highly:

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1621577783
  
  I also recommend listening to Glenn Loury's interview of Reilly on a 
  recent episode of The Glenn Show:

  https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/56414

  --Stuart

My message was ignored. When I asked about it a week later, I was contacted by the director of the Allen School who gave the following explanation.

The general feeling among those moderating the list was that this doesn't match the goals of the list, which are described on the web page as: "Posts to the diversity-allies list should meet one of the following criteria: So the list's focus is diversity related to the Allen School and STEM, and this topic was felt to be outside of that focus. You are of course free to start another mailing list on this or hold an in-person discussion of the book, etc."

I said that hate crimes are certainly an issue of interest to those who care about diversity and that staff tasked with responding to an alleged hate crime would most likely come from the diversity allies community. The director was unconvinced and reiterated that this did not belong on the diversity-allies list. Many books and articles and videos are recommended on the list, but apparently you aren't allowed to recommend one that tells a story that runs counter to the standard equity narrative.

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