Linda McMahon’s “National Call to Action” to Universities Is Federal Overreach, Again

When the Trump administration issued its February 2025 Dear Colleague letter attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, I responded nationally on Democracy Now! I warned that higher education had not faced political interference this serious since McCarthyism and asked whether universities would “surrender or resist.” That Dear Colleague letter went down in flames. Federal courts blocked the directive, finding serious constitutional and procedural problems.

cloakinginequity.com

Look, It’s Fauci! How They Jingle the Keys to Keep You from the Truth

Jingle the keys. Make them bright. Make them loud. Keep the public staring at them while documents disappear from view, casualty numbers climb, missiles fly, and powerful people avoid difficult questions. That is increasingly how America works. When accountability becomes uncomfortable, change the subject. Recent jangling keys include pink “Latina Power” clothing, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decisions during the 2020 pandemic.

cloakinginequity.com

Should This Even Have to Be Said? A Sex-Doll Company’s AI Robot Has No Business Teaching Our Children

Should teens be taught by AI sex robots? This may seem like a ludicrous question for an article, but if you have been watching the news, it's a real thing this week. After public outcry, a New York school district just paused plans to introduce a life-like humanoid robot named Sally as an AI teaching assistant after widespread criticism from educators, parents, community members, and New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa.

cloakinginequity.com

The Education Hunger Games: Who Survives?

The warning signs are no longer theoretical. Schools are closing. Colleges are preparing layoffs. Faculty buyouts are spreading. Academic programs are disappearing. Dorm beds are sitting empty. Cla…

cloakinginequity.com

8 Strategies for Navigating Work in a Politically Charged Nation

We are living through a period when work can quickly become politicized. The pressure is especially visible in K–12 schools and higher education, but it is not confined to campuses or classrooms. Professionals in government, healthcare, law, business, philanthropy, technology, journalism, and the nonprofit sector are navigating many of the same tensions. People may find their work judged not only by its quality, accuracy, or effectiveness, but also by how it fits a political narrative.

cloakinginequity.com

Political Violence We Must Decry: Trump, Power, and Democracy

History tells us that some of the most dangerous political violence is carried out not by individuals against one another, but by the government itself. Before I go on, I'd like to invite you to my online lecture tonight at 7 – 8:30pm EST entitled Sankofa, Shattered Trust, and the Price of Corruption in Politics and Policy. You can register…

cloakinginequity.com

When a President Attacks the Vote, John Lewis Calls Us to Good Trouble

President Donald Trump delivered an incredibly disorganized prime-time speech intended to persuade Americans that the nation’s elections are fundamentally corrupt. He invoked China, voting machines, mail ballots, noncitizens, intelligence officials, and alleged fraud in Michigan, yet the evidence he presented did not establish that votes were altered or that an election was stolen. CNN’s annotated review repeatedly separated possible cybersecurity vulnerabilities from actual proof of fraudulent ballots or manipulated election results.

cloakinginequity.com

Update on Man Attacked by ICE in Las Vegas Airport: Sometimes the Hardest Thing We Inhale Is Grief

I just spoke with CNN about what I witnessed at the Las Vegas airport. Yet speaking the words aloud has not made the experience easier to carry. I am still dealing with the trauma and grief of watching an older Asian man being violently attacked by ICE agents for, in their words, “overstaying his visa.” I watched two federal agents tackle him as he cried out in pain.

cloakinginequity.com

Black Women Just Stood Between ICE and an Old Man at the Las Vegas Airport

I just had a traumatic experience. But I also witnessed courage. At the Las Vegas airport, I watched federal immigration officers attempt to take an older Asian man into custody. I do not know everything that happened before the commotion. I did not see a warrant. I cannot claim to know every legal detail. I can tell you what I saw.

cloakinginequity.com

Florida Tried to Stop Woke. The First Amendment Stopped Florida.

A public university classroom is not a political campaign podium. A federal appeals court has just reminded Florida of that, and in doing so, reminded the country of something we should never have forgotten. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down the higher education provisions of Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act. Diane Ravitch rightly called it a "stunning victory" for the Constitution and First Amendment.

cloakinginequity.com

Project Hail Mary: What If Your Hero Moment Has to Drag You First?

What does courage mean in your own life if heroism does not arrive as a choice but as a crisis that drags you forward before you feel ready? That is the question that stayed with me after Project Hail Mary. Okay, okay. I am know I am late to the review, but they just released the film on streaming last week.

cloakinginequity.com

The Education Hunger Games: Who Survives?

The warning signs are no longer theoretical. Schools are closing. Colleges are preparing layoffs. Faculty buyouts are spreading. Academic programs are disappearing. Dorm beds are sitting empty. Classrooms are thinning out. Tax revenue is weakening. State appropriations are uncertain. Consultants are being hired and paid millions to identify “efficiencies.” Boards are quietly discussing mergers and closures. American education is entering a period of deep instability.

cloakinginequity.com

America at 250: Is the Left Having Its Tea Party Moment?

In American history, ‘socialism’ has been one of the most politically radioactive words in the nation’s vocabulary. Yet today, democratic socialists have become one of the most influential factions within the Democratic Party. American politics has a long history of insurgent movements that challenge the leadership of their own political parties before reshaping national debates. The comparison between the Tea Party and today’s democratic socialist movement is not one of ideology.

cloakinginequity.com

When the Wagons Circle

Have you ever trusted someone to do what they said they would... only to discover that, when it mattered most, they didn't? Now ask yourself the same question about an organization. When I was in elementary school, one of my teachers insisted on reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books to our class every afternoon during lunch. Even then, I never particularly enjoyed them.

cloakinginequity.com

Toy Story 5 Review: I Didn’t Realize It Might Be the Last Time

Some films entertain us for two hours. Others quietly measure the passage of our lives. There are very few film franchises that can honestly claim they have accompanied an entire generation from childhood into parenthood, but Toy Story is one of them. I still remember watching the original Toy Story in the 1990s, and I probably watched that VHS tape on my square Sony Trinitron tube tv more times than I could ever count.

cloakinginequity.com

Time Travel Is Real. We Just Call It a Statement.

Given enough time something will eventually go wrong. For years I have been fascinated by science fiction stories in which someone discovers a way to send a message into the future.Those stories usually ask the same question. If you could messages to people who have not yet been born what would you say? I want to return to that idea at the end because I have come to believe that we are already doing exactly that.

cloakinginequity.com

When an Employer Disappears You

Have you ever had someone suddenly disappear from an organization? I first saw this happen in the 1990s when I began working in the Research and Accountability Department of the Houston Independent School District after graduate school. It happened more than once. Each time it was a shock. One day someone was there. The next day they were gone. No explanation seemed to match what many of us had observed.

cloakinginequity.com

What Can Pastor Joe Ottinger Learn on Fathers Day?

I received a shocking Father’s Day present today. And it is a lesson for everyone about authority. A phone call telling me that my 18-year-old daughter had been abandoned at the Toledo train station after midnight by her boss Pastor Joe Ottinger, Camp Mojaven Director and leader in the Ohio Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist. Before, I get into the post. Let me say this first.

cloakinginequity.com

What Does It Mean To Be “The First”?

Juneteenth is often described as a celebration of freedom. It is. But it is also a reminder that freedom, opportunity, and recognition arrive later than they should. When enslaved people in Texas learned of their freedom on June 19, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation had already been signed more than two years earlier. Freedom had been declared and the law had changed, yet the reality had not.

cloakinginequity.com

The Obamas, Trump, and the Double Standard We Keep Avoiding

A news story stopped me in my tracks this week. Following a UFC event held on White House grounds, fighter Josh Hokit used his post-fight remarks to repeat a false and offensive claim about former First Lady Michelle Obama. He stated, “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?" The comment generated immediate controversy. UFC President Dana White weakly condemned the statement, describing it as "nonsense" while the White House declined to condemn the comment.

cloakinginequity.com

America Has Forgotten What Winning Means

When the FIFA World Cup ends, everyone knows who won. In American life, everyone claims they are winning. Politicians are winning. Companies are winning. Universities are winning. Social media influencers are winning. The question is whether we still agree on what winning actually means. More importantly, who gets to decide? For most of human history, winning implied some relationship between effort and outcome.

cloakinginequity.com

What If Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump Have All Pointed to the Same Mystery?

For thousands of years, humanity has stared into the night sky searching for answers. Ancient civilizations believed knowledge descended from the heavens. Prophets warned that signs in the sky could deceive entire nations. Presidents promised disclosure and then fell silent. Military pilots reported encounters they could not explain. Congress opened hearings. Religious leaders offered interpretations. Scientists demanded evidence. Everyone seems to agree on one thing: Something is happening.

cloakinginequity.com

What Birthdays Can Teach Us

Have you ever started imagining a future that didn't exist yet? I was looking at houses in Honolulu, a city where I did not live. I had not been offered a job there. I was not even sure I would become a finalist for President of the University of Hawaii. Yet somewhere along the way I had allowed myself to imagine the possibility.

cloakinginequity.com

Can You Set Fire to Your Tears?

The tears kept coming and they wouldn't stop. Ten years ago, I stood inside the National Center for Civil and Human Rights holding the hand of my eight-year-old daughter. We had spent the morning moving through exhibits about slavery, segregation, lynching, and the long struggle for civil rights. Then we reached a section of the museum that neither of us was prepared for.

cloakinginequity.com

Is it Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday?

Have you ever spent months looking forward to something? A vacation. A long-awaited trip. A graduation. A championship game. A reunion with people you love. You think about it constantly. You imagine how it will feel. You count down the days on the calendar. Then suddenly it arrives. Before you know it, the moment has passed and you are driving home, unpacking your suitcase, scrolling through photos, uploading to social media, and wondering where the time went.

cloakinginequity.com

Have You Peaked, or Was It Just a Peek?

There is an uncomfortable question that creeps into the mind at certain points in a career: Have I already peaked? The internal debate can arrive after a major award. It can arrive after a title change. It can arrive after leaving a high-profile role. Maybe you won a championship. It can arrive at a certain age. It can arrive when the applause gets quieter and the calendar no longer feels as full. 

cloakinginequity.com

The University of Texas at Austin Tried to Intimidate Me

The University of Texas tried to intimidate me as an untenured professor because my research challenged one of Texas’s most politically protected education policies. That is not an exaggeration. It is what happened. Long before today’s escalating political fights over DEI, curriculum bans, and ideological loyalty in higher education, I experienced firsthand how political pressure quietly enters universities when scholarship threatens powerful interests.

cloakinginequity.com

Will You Be Punished at Work for Telling the Truth?

Learn how to watch who is being punished, who is being protected, and what financial interests are quietly moving underneath a controversy, and the real story usually starts revealing itself. One of the hardest lessons people learn inside powerful institutions is that truth and loyalty are often treated very differently. Most organizations publicly celebrate honesty, transparency, courage, and accountability. They put those words in mission statements, speeches, websites, and leadership retreats.

cloakinginequity.com

Are You a Threat Because You’re Good at Your Job?

Maybe you are not crazy. Maybe you are not “difficult.” Maybe you are not “too intense,” “too ambitious,” “too direct,” or “not a team player.” Maybe it's something else entirely. Luis Velasquez’s recent Harvard Business Review article, “Why Effective Leaders Get Branded as Problems,” inspired me to blog about this dynamic because his thesis captures something many people experience but struggle to name.

cloakinginequity.com