Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service (SFS) recently renewed its pledge to “embed” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology as a core principle of the school, according to an email sent to students on January 10.
Georgetown SFS communicated the effort through its DEI Office and promoted its Strategic Plan for “boosting” the ideology throughout the school.
While DEI advocates say the ideology is about promoting diversity in schools and workplaces, public figures across the political spectrum have criticized DEI for its ties to antisemitism on college campuses.
In the weeks following Hamas’ October 7 invasion of Israel, antisemitic incidents surged across the college campuses nationwide. Observers soon connected the incidents to DEI ideology on campuses.
Tabia Lee, a former DEI director for De Anza College, torched the ideology in a New York Post op-ed, stating “This outpouring of antisemitic hatred is the direct result of DEI’s insistence that Jews are oppressors.”
Lee, a senior fellow at Do No Harm, writes “At its worst, DEI is built on the unshakable belief that the world is divided into two groups of people: the oppressors and the oppressed. Jews are categorically placed in the oppressor category, while Israel is branded a “genocidal, settler, colonialist state.”
Bill Ackman, an American billionaire and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, offered similar criticism. Ackman slammed DEI as “the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard” and “a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology.”
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Despite the apparent connection between DEI and campus antisemitism, however, Georgetown doubled down on DEI.
The Strategic Plan, which Georgetown SFS began implementing last fall, features numerous objectives, including:
“Embed attention to DEI in hiring, promotion, and performance review efforts,” throughout the school.
“Cross-fertilize and connect DEI-related efforts across SFS programs.”
“Ensure anti-racism and DEI are regularly and consistently part of leaders’ messaging.”
“Affirm and reward attention to DEI and antiracism in course content and classroom operations.”
The school’s DEI office also highlighted multiple DEI classes for students to take in the spring, including a mandatory undergraduate course titled “Race, Power, and Justice.” The course focuses on Georgetown’s historical connections to slavery, and “how that history intersects with national and global experiences of slavery and emancipation, settler colonialism, imperialism, and contemporary struggles for justice.”
The course aims to “develop a common vocabulary for all Georgetown students to continue to engage in conversations about racial equity and justice,” according to the original course proposal. Georgetown has not published a syllabus for the class, but its DEI office promotes an “Antiracism Resources” page featuring Critical Race Theorists Ibram X. Kendi and Peggy McIntosh.
The school’s renewed commitment to DEI is particularly noteworthy given Georgetown’s own struggles with campus antisemitism.
One week after Hamas invaded Israel, raping and killing its citizens, Georgetown students held a pro-Hamas vigil, chanting “Glory to our Martyrs” and reading a list of dead Palestinians. Similarly, Georgetown Students for Justice in Palestine released a public statement declaring “We fight for a Palestine in which all people are free and have dignity, and the only way for that to happen is for the zionist occupation of Palestine to cease.”
Weeks later, Georgetown SFS placed Aneesa Johnson, its Assistant Director of Academic and Faculty Affairs, on leave after students highlighted her antisemitic behavior online.
Johnson, who was hired by Georgetown SFS to be the "primary point of contact" for master's students regarding "everything academic," referred to Jews as “dogs” and “thieves” in posts online.
Johnson’s current employment status is unclear.
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