In an effort to further embed Critical Race Theory and controversial diversity, equity and inclusion policies throughout the University of Alaska’s Fairbanks campus, the school has appointed a radical, hard-left activist to serve as its new “Chief Diversity Faculty Fellow.”
On Jan. 10, UAF announced that Retchenda George Bettisworth had been tapped for the role with the specific duty “to advise Chancellor Daniel White on UAF’s strategic goal to promote a culture of diversity, inclusion, respect and caring,” while focusing “on collaboration, training, advocacy and policy development.”
The two-year appointment comes with the opportunity for UAF to extend the contract even further.
For more than 20 years, George Bettisworth has dedicated her professional career to pushing highly divisive notions surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion, along with relentlessly promoting critical race theory ideology in the academic setting.
“[C]hange comes from recognizing racism, power, and privilege within ourselves and our environment,” she argues. “This relationship between person and environment is one of the main reasons CRT is especially relevant to cultural competency practice in social work education.”
– From Retchenda George Bettisworth’s doctoral dissertation
Apart from working as a social worker for two decades, she has served on a long list of University of Alaska committees focused on DEI activism and “decolonizing” the university system.
These committees include the DEIA Climate Survey Planning Committee and Co-PI for DEIA Climate Survey; Decolonizing Pedagogy Steering Committee; SP-IE Curricular Responsiveness-DEI committee; and the UA Foundation Meaningful DEI Working Group. She has also served on national groups focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, to include Critical Race Scholars in Social Work; and as a member of the Council on Social Work Education’s Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity.
In working on her Doctorate in Social Work from St. Catherine University-University of St. Thomas, she wrote a 2017 dissertation which emphasized the need for universities to fully adopt and promote critical race theory in curriculum so as to enlist, inspire and empower graduates to be social activists who are willing and able to fight against so-called social ills such as subconscious racism, white privilege, colonialism and more.
George Bettisworth fully admits that her entire dissertation was founded on a full embrace of Critical Race Theory, and the belief that promotion of diversity in the academic setting includes actively affirming gender confusion, myriad sexual orientations and identities and the promotion of racial and class identities.
“Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the guiding framework for this banded dissertation,” George Bettisworth unapologetically acknowledges at the outset of her work. “Current social work literature has already identified Critical Race Theory as an appropriate framework for teaching cultural competence (Abrams & Moio, 2009), a multicultural approach (Constance-Huggins, 2012), and diversity (Ortiz & Jani, 2010). CRT is an appropriate framework for teaching about culture and diversity due to its major assumptions, key concepts, and propositions.”
She then goes on to explain that the three major assumptions of CRT are “(1) endemic racism, (2) race as a social construct, and (3) differential racialization.”
George Bettisworth’s dissertation uses a definition of “endemic racism” that describes the concept as “the idea that racism is normal and thus so deeply ingrained in our social systems and practices that we are unaware of how it impacts our way of thinking, often making it invisible.”
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She also quotes other writers who claim that race is nothing more than a “social construct … designed to categorize people by observable physical traits and has no genetic or biological basis.”
George Bettisworth goes on to promote CRT concepts such as “power, privilege, institutional racism, oppression, and racism,” claiming that these ideas are used by “the dominant group” to inflict institutional racism, racial oppression and engrained, inherently racist “macro level systems.”
“[C]hange comes from recognizing racism, power, and privilege within ourselves and our environment,” she argues. “This relationship between person and environment is one of the main reasons CRT is especially relevant to cultural competency practice in social work education.”
George Bettisworth’s dissertation claims it is critical for university social work programs to saturate the undergraduate curriculum with these notions in order to create graduates that can transform Alaska’s rural and remote communities, state agencies and child welfare systems. She describes such graduates as “the line-workers, the ones with the boots on the ground.”
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to contact the University of Alaska Board of Regents.
— To contact the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Chancellor Daniel White, email uaf.chancellor@alaska.edu or call (907) 474-7112.
39 Comments
“diversity, inclusion, respect and caring”. Sounds good to me.
Sounds good, but this the typical antithetical terminology of the left. By “diversity” they mean racism, by inclusion the mean exclusion, and by equity, they mean anti-equality. They only respect and care for their own non-diverse opinions.
This is cultural-Marxism on its face.
absolutely well said
then you are closed minded and ignorant as to those trying to control you. Your thinking is limited to a very few words rather than he entire idea with future consequences.
Clearly, Russia has spread Her errors throughout the world.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
‘De-colonizing” by colonizing. How does that work? Her ideas, via the cult “die” brainwashing, are divisive, tribal and evil. Huge step backward by UAF.
When did the University system make good choices of leadership? None! And, the University is still in trouble after the Johnson period which brought the system into a discredited position. These decisions of hiring will do the same. This office needs to go out the door and never return.
Hey dunleavy how much are you paying this idiot? The cost happening under this governor are not going to be recoverable! The irony that stupid self destruction is coming to you from your higher education institution, with the executive branches blessing! Cursed is your future!
The only zealot I can identify if Joel Davison.
Or to paraphrase Churchill, “A zealot is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” There’s a lot of that here on this website.
Then the two of you go elsewhere. You are not welcomed here.
> Retchenda George Bettisworth
Always the double last name with these people. It’s almost a tell.
then you better open your mind to the ideas of others or you will continue to be limited in your thinking and errant conclusions.
“…it is critical for university social work programs to saturate the undergraduate curriculum with these notions in order to create graduates that can transform Alaska’s rural and remote communities, state agencies and child welfare systems. She describes such graduates as “the line-workers, the ones with the boots on the ground.”” I was reminded yesterday of John D. Rockefellar’s goal for schools – it was to created workers. Just what the last quote of this article states. You are not going to learn to be an entrepreneur in this upside-down world; you are not going to make your millions. The globalists want workers – people who will slave for them. This sick advisor is going to make sure all of the students are brainwashed to be good little line-workers for the globalists.
You hit the nail on the head. The globalists/ elites want workers/slaves for themselves. My son just took a few classes at UAF and he said they are not educating him all around but just telling him what to do. He wants to know who, what, where, why and how and the “education” isn’t answering all those questions.
Janet and Lucinda stop pushing your woke agenda on others.
We’re all adults, we can make our own decisions.
PA. Now what the hell. I’m not pushing any agenda. The whole trans pronoun thing makes me uncomfortable. But
“diversity, inclusion, respect and caring”. Those are all good things. I’ll bet your church supports those ideals.
If your 501c3 does they are not a church of CHRIST.
LOOK BEYOND A FEW WORDS FOR THE WHOLE TRUTH
When these people write doctorate dissertations, are their only sources off CNN and MSNBC?
RETRIBUTION…
Otness. Explain further please.
Oh you know full well…
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t-s&ei=UTF-8&p=the+man+who+just+wanted+to+be+left+alone#id=1&vid=1a409e4363091cc39d936455a3c2eeca&action=click
Useless, useless, useless. Martin Luther King Jr. would not approve of this divisive movement.
Well. When the legislature doesn’t hold UA and Dept of Education accountable for money sent its way. It can make all the useless positions they want. Until the legislature closes the peoples wallet and hold education accountable.
Run her dissertation through plagiarism software.
Remember back in the 30’s Spanky and the Gang? Now there you had a diverse group of kids that needed no govmt program dictating to them what is right or wrong. Spanky and the Gang had it right. Educated elites–not so much.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, 1963
Some discerning governors are disallowing their states to teach CRT. Research of the source of CRT is from one person’s imaginings. There is no credibility to this teaching. This is meant to divide us and take us away from the idea of America as a “melting pot.” Our governor needs to outlaw this trash. He should promote the 1776 Commission like Governor Noem. The Commission is not confusing or divisive and furthermore it is the Truth. Unlike the brainwashing and indoctrination that has been happening for decades without our knowledge and awareness. Pray for revival and repentance in America.
Hey dunleavy can you hear common sense? Bend over tall boy and listen to Jon and Ruth’s comments! “ let him who has ears to hear , listen intently to these words of wisdom!
Thank you for the thoughtful statement.
This is nothing more than brainwashing of a generation that can’t seem to think for themselves. “Decolonizing the university system “….sounds rather like something Hitler might have said while he was “cleansing” his race of the Jewish people. I never thought I’d see this show up in Alaska.
Elizabeth do you believe me now when I declare dunleavy is in fact a communist sympathizer!?
The more we talk about racism, the more racism will be alive.
I thought about your statement as I read Brother Greg’s post on gab. The last two sentences reminded me.
“The way we see things is so important because it affects our response, and our response always determines our future. The devil does have a certain kind of power but it is not like the wicked witch of the west, or like an atomic bomb. We must not see him as some sort of equal opposite of God who has existed from time immemorial, no, that’s a belief system called dualism. God does not have an opposite or equal, and dualism is not Christianity.
Much of the religion from the East sets good and evil as equal opposite powers that need each other to exist, but it is a flat out lie. I said it’s a Lie. God does not need the devil at all, and if Lucifer had an opposite it would be another archangel like Michael, who kicked him out of Heaven at God’s command. In the sense of power and ability evil is not the opposite of good, evil is a parasite of good. Good does not need evil, but evil does need good.
In the spiritual realm light and dark are not equal opposites that need each other for some sort of cosmic balance, God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all. In the spiritual realm which defines all realms, darkness is simply the absence of Light. That was all said to help you more clearly see the power of the devil in our lives, which really manifest as two main influences. He uses Deception and the power of Suggestion.
If he can just get you to think about something, he already knows you’ll do it. Because every thought is a seed, every word is a seed, every action is a seed, in the spirit realm. Water the seed by considering it, feed the seed by thinking about it – and it will grow. It is a Spiritual Law and The Kingdom Principle known as seed-time-harvest also called the Law of Genesis, which is where it can be found in the Bible. The next time the devil tries to get you to think about something, don’t. Get rid of it while it’s still a seed.
Brother Greg”
Diversity means anti-white racism. Equity means communism. Inclusion means incompetence.
There is only one race- the human race.
Theories are just that, theory. Not fact, not law, but theory. It’s really dumb how all types of theories are pushed as facts on the minds of people and then categorized as truth.
Critical race theory is an oxymoron in its own title. I suppose biology is being discussed to be taken out of curriculum so that another stunted theory is pushed as fact can repelace it? Meanwhile, girls and boys who laugh at this stuff and perceive it as odd, ill minded, confusing and wrong (through intuition and instinct) will be just fine. From what I have seen , these children are asking what is wrong with the adults pushing this – people who clearly have self concept problems who refuse to identify in reality while digging a bigger and more ugly pit.
This is all a load of crap and needs to be extinguished right now and get rid of that demented woman.
Wow a brown skinned female