To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Observercast

Big Donors Trying To Squeeze ‘Woke’ OU

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Oh, boy. Tulsa oil man John Brock, Norman hamburger heiress Susan Bergen and neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Boxell have closed their billfolds and purses, shutting off their former generosity toward the University of Oklahoma over the following three words: Diversity, equity and inclusion. That’s shorthand for DEI which the wealthy threesome say is destroying everything Sooner Nation has stood for, lo, all these wonderful years.

Bergen especially is terrified as she knowingly declares that the College of Education is turning out teachers that are “woke people that believe somehow White people are bad or wrong.”

Funny about that. Almost all of the new educators are women, white and middle class who so far have not been inclined to cut off their noses to spite their faces. And Brock, who has given millions to his alma mater, has stopped doing so because Critical Race Theory is emphasized on the campus grounds in socialist Norman. Finally, brain surgeon Boxell bluntly opines that “equity” is destroying the university to which he has donated a quarter of a million dollars.

Besides wokie teachers, professors who plaster CRT propaganda all over their classroom walls and a recent drag queen performance on campus, Bergen, Boxell and Brock [sounds like a prominent law firm doesn’t it?] fretted on Fox Newsthat OU will DIE soon unless other well-situated donors do what they have done – turn off the cash flow to the communists running the place now.

 President Joe Harroz and some of his comrades situated just south of Campus Corner must go and go soon because Oklahoma can’t prosper until the departure of these DEI types.

From these three B’s plus an earlier big given named Mo Anderson has come at the point of the spear a heavy and frequent dose of criticism for Harroz and Company with good ol’ Mo throwing in the following: “OU has embedded a Marxist-derived worldview in its colleges via so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs that foster racial and social and social division … meaning OU is not a welcoming place for all students.”

Oh, tut, tut Mo, Mo. Oklahoma’s flagship university has attracted students and professors from around the world, including eager learners from 124 countries; is home this year to a record enrollment; is on track to once again transform the campus itself with new dorms, buildings, labs and research complexes soaring into the sky above both the main campus and the OU Health Center in Oklahoma City.

What these three alums are trying to do is take some of their wealth and use it to buy the results they want in a university setting where DEI is rewarded, encouraged and needed. If they really want to be taken seriously about the depths of destruction dooming the future of OU, they would not just shut off some of their mounds of moola they control, BBB would activate the ultimate dissing and dismissal of their long held linkages to Sooner Land.

And how would they do that, patient readers inquire?

They would cancel their football tickets. Only then will the rest of the Sooner Nation Millions believe their pain is real, irrevocable and irreparable.

So, while many of us – not so fortunate, lucky, rewarded or hardworking in life as millionaires Brock, Bergen and Boxell – await their ultimate sacrifice, we’re also moving on to more important matters such as: Will Gasso and her crew break the all-time win streak record in college softball with only five more victories needed to do so? Will OU succeed when faced annually with football powerhouses Georgia, Clemson, Alabama and others when joining the SEC in 2024? Will Moser’s new double dribblers bring back the crowds to undersized and unattractive Lloyd Noble Arena? And most worrisome, will the woke-fearing, CRT-obsessing nimrods in the Oklahoma Legislature believe any of the bullshit peddled by BBB on Fox and actually reduce again funding for higher education, which it has done in eight of the last 10 years.

Maybe so. We already know the boys and girls that hang out in The People’s Building on 23rd Street in OKC believe in Big Foot, probably UFOs and that underfunding education year after year will eventually get Oklahoma into the Top 10.

Talk about fairy tales.

1 COMMENT

Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson, a Lexington Democrat, served in the Oklahoma Legislature from 1978-2006, including one term as Senate President Pro Tempore.
Mark Krawczyk
Mark Krawczyk
March 9, 2023
Exceptional reporting about goings on in my home state as well as informative opinion pieces that makes people think about issues of the day...........get a SUBSCRIPTION FOLKS!!!!!!!
Brette Pruitt
Brette Pruitt
September 5, 2022
The Observer carries on the "give 'em hell" tradition of its founder, the late Frosty Troy. I read it from cover to cover. A progressive wouldn't be able to live in a red state without it.