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Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis Paperback – March 22, 2021

by Lindsay Shepherd (Author)

4.7 189 ratings

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In 2017, 22-year old graduate student and teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd was brought into a disciplinary meeting where two professors and a diversity office bureaucrat told her that “one or more people” had complained about the Communication Studies class she led. She was never told how many people complained, nor what the alleged complainant(s) ever said. Lindsay was accused of creating a “toxic climate,” “targeting trans folks,” “spreading transphobia,” and violating Wilfrid Laurier University’s sexual assault and gendered violence policy – all for playing a five-minute clip about pronouns in her classroom and leading a neutral, open conversation on the topic. The game changer? Lindsay secretly recorded the disciplinary meeting and released the audio to the media. In the ensuing year of graduate school, Lindsay staved off university censorship, clashed with the academic-activist cabal that was out to get her, and dealt with going from a nobody to going viral. This tell-all book reveals what it’s like to be the central figure of a national controversy.

Print length

253 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 22, 2021
Dimensions

6 x 0.64 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

099391957X
ISBN-13

978-0993919572
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Magna Carta (March 22, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 253 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 099391957X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0993919572
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.64 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,205 in Political Freedom (Books)
- #49,511 in Memoirs (Books)

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4.7 189 ratings

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homeinametronome

A brave hearted woman faces an army of zombies.

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2021

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I love the book! It had to be written. Although the situations Lindsay encounters throughout the book were so cringe and toxic, she remained strong, logical and calm. Seeing these values vigorously defended and rewarded made the book a satisfying read.

The book is as factual as it gets about a situation with a full transcript, a ton of emails and other types of documentation. It was painful to read the cult-like jargon of the radical left at times, I just had to put down the book and come back to it a day later. I can only imagine how difficult it was living day-to-day around these zombies.

I followed this story closely on the news, but in the book I get to learn new important underlying details such as Lindsay’s supportive parents and even grandparents who sympathized with her throughout the ordeal and also encouraged her to record that famous meeting. They were in the conversation with her about choosing a university and they knew the names and details of the ordeal. Not many parents could be that caring which made me think that maybe the root of all this might not even be the radical ideology but the parenting. I googled one of the main nemesis named in the book, Ethan, and in one of the few videos I found he revealed that he doesn’t talk to his parents and they had no idea of his gender identity or sexual orientation. This familial alienation could explain why he became “petty and pathetic”.

Even though Lindsay was wading into being a “conservative”, I would tell her not to abandon the left because there are extreme crazy people to be found on any end of the spectrum. Had she shown that clip as a TA in a university in the south or 80 years ago, she would be pulled into a meeting with two professors and a pastor (instead of that “manager of Gendered Violence Prevention and Support”). If I could talk to Lindsay, I would tell her you probably shouldn’t be “happy” either that Trump won because he is another breed of a dishonest person with the most lies on record, his toxic work setting had the highest turnover rate, everyone secretly recording conversations, and the most backstabbing tell-all books, not to mention he had no respect for scientific experts that were not aligned with his opinions. Sadly, there are no political parties for logical and authentic people.

I also want to tell Lindsay that I think the apology letter written by Nathan was partly genuine. Funny enough, he was actually my TA in Communication Studies (before he became a professor) and out of all TAs I had, I remember him being kind. I am actually sad that he joined the “cult”, but I would point out to Lindsay he still apologized and even pointed out the error in his ways. The other two people in the meeting did not apologize, nor did they have to to save their jobs, but Nathan did.

There needed to be a legitimate mediator in that meeting the book was centered on. As I was reading that transcript, I wanted to scream, it was as though no one actually watched the clip but had a lot of general opinions to share and just wanted to self-righteously bully (a weird oxymoron) and hear themselves talk. Someone had to first establish that Jordan Peterson never was against using different pronouns, he was only against it being forced with a law. These pronouns, like xey or whatever, are just a few years old and the government wants to make it into a law? No one ever mentioned that in the meeting! They just assumed he said he was against pronouns in general. That drove me nuts. I can’t believe these so-called academics could speak so much about something they couldn’t get the facts straight about. They had so much slanderous things to say about Jordan Peterson that were not remotely true at all. Is this lack of scrutiny how they conduct their classes?

After reading the book and since I followed this story closely, I am left with questions such as, is she still suing? Why didn’t any superior in Wilfred Laurier take Lindsay aside to apologize for what had happened and offer support? Also, what does Lindsay think of the internet mob mentality? Sure the professors got raises, but I would have included details like Nathan having one star ratings on his book on Amazon. Even though what the professors did was wrong, was the viral story the solution for them to see that? I have a feeling they still don’t get it. Could they mentally recover from mob shaming and get clarity? Also, she could have mentioned that the person debating Jordan Peterson in the clip also got the brunt of the online mob and went dark. Overall, the hostility in our society could be toned down so we could all have a productive discussion on identity politics, but I don’t see that ever happening.

10 people found this helpful

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Nicholas Darby

An extraordinary book by and extraordinary young woman

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2021

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Lindsay Shepherd chronicles an eventful year as a graduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University, in the Department of Communication Studies. Her specific program was Cultural Analysis and Social Theory. Over that year, she matured into a self-aware, confident and thoughtful woman, while rattling academic bien-pensants in Canada and other countries.

Like most grad students, Shepherd was a Teaching Assistant. Her assignment was, evidently, to provide remedial lessons in basic English grammar...to students in Communication Studies. Reflect on that a moment, and on the quality of the broader institution.

One class changed her life. She was teaching pronouns, and showed a short clip from a public television program, which featured a prominent Pronoun Heretic. Soon after, Shepherd received an invitation to a meeting with her supervisor to discuss “concerns”, with little other explanation.

The meeting was a tribunal, comprising a Wannabe Prof (her supervisor); a Bigger Prof (whose involvement is never fully explained, but a priori intimidating); and a junior bureaucrat from the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) function (a sort of campus Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). Deeply alarmed by this crew, she recorded the meeting surreptitiously.

Shepherd’s transcript of the meeting is presented in the book. She was not told what complaints were made, or by whom. Within the academic bafflegab were apparent threats of punishment for unnamed transgressions. Shepherd’s frustration, anger and fear come through clearly. She is Kafka’s Josef K, and Orwell’s Winston Smith, within a Monty Python sketch: no one expects the Laurier Inquisition.

I draw two thoughts from the transcript: the nominal excuse for the tribunal was concern that the more fragile of Shepherd’s charges - likely adults all - might be harmed by a few words from the Pronoun Heretic. This is absurd. Secondly, the PH is an articulate, respected professor in his own field (Clinical Psychology) at an internationally significant nearby university; a best-selling author with a huge media presence; with demonstrated disinclination to back away from a public scrap; with serious respect for freedom of speech and the English language. I can understand the threat from such a man...but to the faculty, not the students, of Communication Studies.

I expect that Shepherd was teaching her students well. Throughout the book, the clarity of her prose, sparkling with wit and irony, shames the academics’ swamp of jargon and dissembling. She shows more grace than most others could summon in similar circumstances.

Post-tribunal, Shepherd decided (correctly) that her rights to free speech were in danger, and decided to confront the ideologues. The gauntlet she threw down was the meeting record, which she sent to a variety of potentially empathetic people in public media, (including the PH). Some responded with energetic support, and the story accelerates dramatically from there. Shepherd quickly found herself caught between the cabal of Communications Professors and actual Communications Professionals. She had few allies on campus, particularly among the faculty. (One or two, to their credit, stepped up in support). She was shunned by peers, anathematic to nominal superiors. In stark contrast, outside of the Laurier bubble, she was welcomed as a public icon for free speech, a champion for reason. It is a fascinating read.

Shepherd throughout presents her saga as an issue of free speech, but there is a broader danger. Late in the book she hints at this, recounting incidents in government, in the courts, of the ideology of identity beginning to trump reason, and do real harm. I see similar, insidious developments, even in my own fields in the Physical Sciences. They must be resisted. Ideology brings only destruction. [See for instance, The Peril of Politicizing Science, J. Phys. Chem. Lett 2021, 12, 5371-5376: “As a community, we face an important choice. We can succumb to extreme left ideology and spend the rest of our lives ghost-chasing and witch-hunting, rewriting history, politicizing science, redefining elements of language, and turning STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education into a farce. Or we can uphold a key principle of democratic society the free and uncensored exchange of ideas and continue our core mission, the pursuit of truth, focusing attention on solving real, important problems of humankind.”]

There is a final irony. Wilfrid Laurier University started life as Waterloo Lutheran University. Luther would not be anyone’s contemporary ideal of an enlightened liberal, but he knew how to communicate, and to confront the abiding dogma. WLU, inadvertently, has created a kindred Luther in Lindsay Shepherd.

2 people found this helpful

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Shining Through

Standing Up to Woke Bullies

Reviewed in Canada on April 1, 2022

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Lindsay Shepherd’s book, Diversity & Exclusion, is an engaging, sometimes funny, and often disturbing exposé of the state of university education and free expression in Canada.

The book is well written. Ms. Shepherd is a talented and compelling storyteller. Even though we already know the basic story, she is able to tell it in a way that is both suspenseful and exciting. Her prose is crisp and honest, which she skillfully contrasts with the gobbledygook spewed at her by corrupt faculty and administrators.

For an entire year, Ms. Shepherd was bullied, intimidated and ostracized at Wilfrid Laurier University by unscrupulous faculty - masquerading as champions of diversity and inclusion - and opportunistic fellow students - masquerading as helpless victims of oppression. (These kids are crafty; they know exactly how to manipulate the system to get what they want. And, the corrupt faculty encourage and empower them.) The insincerity of both groups is depressingly Orwellian. But, at least we can expect some of the kids to grow up eventually.

The mistreatment Ms. Shepherd endured from faculty, at all levels in the university, is astonishing. With rare exception, Ms. Shepherd’s professors (aka well-paid grown-ups entrusted with the shaping of young minds in the pursuit of knowledge) reveal themselves - in their own words, no less - to be petty activists who have abandoned rationality, responsibility, and common decency in the service of a deeply cynical and illiberal ideology (i.e., woke-ism) that is robbing young people of an education. The saddest part is that many of the kids have become so intoxicated by this ideology that they literally demand not to be educated. We should all be deeply concerned.

It is telling that, at 22, Ms. Shepherd had a better understanding of the function of a university than her inquisitors (two professors and a diversity cop). While the three of them carry on incoherently about providing safe spaces and recognizing positionality and unpacking problematic discourse, Ms. Shepherd simply and astutely explains to them that “university is about exposing people to ideas”. Brilliant. Perfect. True.

Bravo, Ms. Shepherd! I thoroughly enjoyed your book and I admire your courage. Keep writing and keep fighting. The truth is out there - but, apparently, not on the campus of WLU.

6 people found this helpful

Marco

Excellent book. Inspiring courageous behaviours.

Reviewed in Italy on April 17, 2021

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Excellent book. Inspiring courageous behaviours.
I strongly recommend to read it and also to make a gift to your friends.
Based on her controversy at WLU (or better inquisition?) she describes what is happing in campus and research centre under the often fake label of inclusion, equity and diversity.
She was able to unveil intimidation trying to transmit ideology and reverse reality but Lindsay won against “Goliath”.
In the afterword some similar cases happening in different countries, list still in progress for example with Maya Forstater.

Jordan Rose

Account of Immense Bravery in the Face of Staggering Persecution By Faculty and Students

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2021

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In some ways this is the most compelling and potentially important book I have read pertaining to the broad subject of the culture wars as it exposes the diseased heart of the Cultural Marxist operation that is galvanizing the radical leftists who will soon be running the world.

Shepherd's account is simply yet beautifully framed by her simple routines and quiet moments which punctuate a lifestyle otherwise entirely consumed by study and the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual betterment. This juxtaposes with the behavior of her faculty "superiors" and colleagues who literally conspire and lie at every level in order to attempt to punish, frame, shame and, seemingly, have her expelled.

I already knew the details as well as were publicly known yet was absolutely shocked by Shepherd's strength and resolve not only during her unethical interrogation but in the fact that immediately afterwards she had the will to walk straight into a class led by the ringleader of the aforementioned inquisitors.

The various statements, emails and complaints written by various students and faculty members including Deans are often revealing in their appalling spelling and grammar (particularly ironic given the subject of Shepherd's class which began the manufactured controversy). The lengthy word-salads of contorted non-apologies featuring nonsensical words and phrases have the very intended effect of wearing one down with their hollow, repetitive, meandering platitudes. The Dean herself calls for endless initiatives, committees, inquiries and task-forces set up to do nothing but produce more mindless drivel.

I can't actually believe the depths of simpering patheticness the various student groups and "professors" stoop to. Supposed academics require "panic buttons" in their shared offices. A "safe Space" is set up on a campus Shepherd visits to host a talk. Jordan Peterson is "hateful, spiteful, and violent and exudes a gendered white supremacist ideology.” The only explanation for such preposterous nonsense is that, as Gad Saad argues, these childish people are possessed by mental parasites.

Shepherd was the right person in the right place at the right time, historically speaking. The way she dealt so calmly with everything for months and months on campus is incredible. No allies around her, no 'buddy' system. Completely bullied and shunned by the majority of the students, graduates and faculty. Yet the verbally abusive mob claimed victimhood. The irony is staggering. They accuse you of that which they are guilty and this seemingly applies to everything, including being fascists.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough and would encourage anyone to give a copy to as many people as possible, ESPECIALLY anyone who is unconvinced that we have any great problem in the West regarding issues of free speech, cancel culture and the general attempted extermination of non-PC views by the increasingly insane, radical and even moderate left. I shall be doing so across the pond in the UK where we're also dealing with the sickening legacy of Foucault at al. (Edit: Interesting that Foucault has been recently outed as a rampant pedophile!)

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

The awful reality of what's happening our places of Higher learning

Reviewed in Australia on April 28, 2021

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Very well researched.
Very well written.
Very informative.
Truly worrying.

Mike M

A revealing and surprising look at university. Suggested reading for students on their way.

Reviewed in Canada on May 2, 2021

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If you're reading this, you almost certainly know the media version of Lindsay's story, and you've almost certainly made up your mind about it.

The writing is lucid, to-the point, and considerately, doesn't waste the reader's time.

The revealing and surprising part for me wasn't Lindsay's story - though it was interesting and added a lot of outrageous, first-person detail. I had, like everyone else, already made up my mind.

What was revealing was the extent to which Canadian university life has ceased to be a battleground in the culture wars: it has long since been won or lost, now either home ground or enemy territory, depending on your perspective.

Surprising, was Lindsay's treatment on social media, having been catapulted from normal grad student to national controversy. Not surprising that such treatment was good or bad - it was both - but surprising in what we expect from public figures, even those who find themselves rapidly, unexpectedly, bewilderingly public, not yet having come to terms with it themselves.

I did not think I would find the characters compelling, all of them just "...trying to survive, like the rest of us." But real people in times of high stress are compelling. Each is portrayed as sympathetically as can be expected, with more detachment and less rancour than many a memoir has managed.

I found it quite a feat of writing how easily the reader can put his/her/their/other self easily in the place of not only the author, but of her antagonists, and wonder how we might handle the many startling and unlikely situations.

I'd recommend this book especially for students heading to university, and perhaps their parents. It is at once a warning, a disabusement of fond memories or fanciful notions, and a survival guide.

It is, above all, honest.

7 people found this helpful

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