The Washington Free Beacon has a good story today about Penn State law school and the way in which DEI seems to have completely taken it over. The story is told from the perspective of David Blackman, a Texan who was accepted to the school but who quickly found out the entire experience was dominated by progressive sermonizing.
“I’ve been a fan of Penn State since I was a teenager,” Blackman told the Washington Free Beacon. He arrived on campus in August 2025, a 50 percent merit scholarship in hand, excited for game nights in Beaver Stadium and a three-year reprieve from the Texas heat.
Then he sat through his first anti-racism class.
On the first day of “Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws,” a required course for all first-year law students, Blackman listened as a transgender faculty member, Emily Spottswood, explained why the course was mandatory.
“It’s not optional,” Spottswood said, because “being a lawyer is about recognizing and combating injustice.”
The WFB has audio of those first anti-racism classes so you can share the experience. This clip also includes comments from Associate Dean Jeffrey Dodge:
And that was just the beginning.
Over the course of three 150-minute lectures, speakers described all white people as “privileged,” called to “eradicate patriarchy,” and asserted that the justice system is “about keeping black people in their place.” One assignment said students should “consider” framing their essays around “the reality of systemic racism,” implying that doing otherwise could affect a student’s grade.
If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can listen to all of anti-racism class #2 here. It’s nearly 2 1/2 hours long so consider your sanity.
For a time, Blackman tried to play along, writing an essay that he thought his instructors wanted to hear.
Asked to submit an essay on “systemic racism in the law,” he wrote about Texas’s strict drug laws—which he believed should be reformed—but framed the issue as a matter of racial justice rather than colorblind fairness.
But he’d had enough when the dean sent out a message to the entire school condemning ICE. Blackman drafted a response to that email but when he submitted it to the school listserv it was blocked.
“Your message was rejected by a moderator for these recipients,” read the note from Kalene Faircloth, the law school’s senior associate director of academic and student services, who did not provide a rationale for the decision.
There was apparently no room for dissent. Students were expected to agree and if they couldn’t agree they were not allowed to respond, at least not publicly. Blackman next filed a petition asking for the school to audit the class.
This petition demands an immediate University-level audit of the Race and the Equal Protection of the Law (REPL) course and the concurrent administrative suppression of student speech. Evidence demonstrates that Penn State Dickinson Law has established a “Closed Loop” of state-enforced orthodoxy: The Dean broadcasts the ideology (Exhibit D), the Curriculum compels students to advocate for it (Exhibit C), and Administrators censor legal dissent (Exhibit F). This system violates the First Amendment, contradicts the Student Handbook, and creates substantial liability for the University.
Blackman also announced his desire to withdraw from the class. Instead of launching an investigation, the school handed the complaint over to law school dean Danielle Conway, the main subject of the complaint. Conway had created the class and attended every session of it. Not surprisingly, the law school refused to let Blackman withdraw from the class. “To graduate from the law school, you will need to complete all required courses, including REPL,” they told him.
And that was it. Blackman decided to withdraw from the law school. He sent them an email which said in part, “I am ‘free to think, and speak as I wish, not as the government or law school demands.”
It’s a shame that this sort of thing continues to dominate at the college level. Hopefully, David Blackman doesn’t give up on is dream of becoming a lawyer and can find another law school that hasn’t been completely captured by woke nonsense.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy HotAir’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Read the full article here
