On April 19, 2016, at 1:40 p.m., hundreds of students walked out of class at the University of Tennessee Knoxville to protest the lack of diversity, as reported by Local 8 Now. The passage by the Senate of House Bill 2248 which prohibits the use of state funds for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was the final nail in the coffin (Oops! I think I just committed a microaggression.).

The kerfuffle began in August, 2015 when the Office of Diversity and Inclusion issued guidelines (not mandates) for the use of new gender neutral pronouns. Gender binary terms are exclusionary to those who do not identify as male or female, you see.

Then,in December, 2015, the Special Snowflakes at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion issued guidelines (not mandates) for celebrations over Christmas,Hanakkah, Festivus, Holiday, Winter Solstice, End of Term festivities lest any of the student snowflakes be offended. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the original guidelines:

The UT post includes “best practices for inclusive holiday celebration” such as holiday parties should have “no emphasis on religion or culture,” and games “with religious or cultural themes” — such as Secret Santa and Dreidel — should be avoided.

“Holiday parties and celebrations should celebrate and build upon workplace relationships and team morale with no emphasis on religion or culture,” one of the 10 recommendations reads. “If you want to exchange gifts, then refer to it in a general way, such as a practical joke gift exchange or secret gift exchange.”

Individuals who choose not to participate in a holiday party or celebration should not be pressured to do so, the advisory says. And holiday cards sent to campus and community partners should be “a nondenominational card or token of your gratitude.”

Now, I realize that the rest of the United States of America sees Tennessee, and particularly East Tennessee, as a bunch of backwards, uneducated, racist, bigoted, redneck hicks. Actually, we would prefer that you do see us that way. We get enough tourists as it is (Smoky Mountains). However, the fissile material for Fat Man and Little boy, the bombs that effectively ended World War II was developed in East Tennessee. Today, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Spallation Neutron Source are at the forefront of nuclear research. The University of Tennessee was once a fine university that turned out many of these scientists.

Le sigh!

Now, these children are offended by EVERYTHING. These children cannot spell Fissile Material, let alone create a sustainable chain reaction. They can’t find the appropriate bathroom in which to urinate, identify with a gender, or understand that they are the top of the food chain.

Here is the statement from their Mass Class Exit Facebook page:

On Tuesday, April 19th students and faculty will leave class en masse to send a message: no more business as usual. For months our campus community has been rallying together day in and day out. It’s time for the legislature to stop interfering at UT, and it’s time for our administration to commit to real progress for diversity on our campus.

Since December 2015, the UT Diversity Matters coalition has been battling the violent bills coming out of Nashville. On campus and in Nashville, we have made ourselves vulnerable and made our struggles known. We have phonebanked, written letters, traveled to Nashville to talk with legislators, and rallied. Our legislators know what the campus community wants, but they have failed to listen. They continue to ignore what students, faculty and workers at UT have repeatedly told them we need, more funding, and are instead stripping away people’s rights and privacy all over the state.

On campus, we have given our intersectional demands to administration and have continued to meet with them throughout the semester to push for progress on those demands, which are linked below. For months students within and outside the coalition have approached the administration to recount personal experiences of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexual assault. Students of color, LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, and many others have spent long hours explaining to the administration the need to make changes so that our community can begin to be welcoming to all and hostile to none. We have repeatedly asked Chancellor Cheek and his Vice Chancellors to actively show support for marginalized students by making real, meaningful policy changes, but they have failed to do so, instead stalling for months.

Because of these failures by our elected officials and our administration, Tuesday we exit class. We will not be silenced, defunded, or ignored at a school we pay tens of thousands of dollars in tuition to each year. Tuesday leave class and rally in the HSS amphitheater and let’s make sure they get the message!

Yup, these little snowflakes are the best and the brightest. They are university students. They aren’t carrying buckets of water back to the cabin to bath in. They aren’t plowing a field with a mule. If they have a physical, mental or emotional disability, they have access to medical care. They have special wheelchairs and trained companion animals, if necessary. They have access to the greatest thinkers in history from every time and place. But, they are aggrieved.

Watch the video:

She said: Marginalized groups, working class groups, mentally ill, siblings in struggle. I think she committed a bunch of microaggressions there. She grouped those people by labels. Shame on her. I joke.

If they University administration had anyone with anything resembling a spine, they would tell the snowflakes to get back to class. They would threaten to arrest anyone blocking access to the pedestrian bridge. But no. The administration is full of sniveling mouth breathers who actually encourage this nonsense.

And, finally, how does one define diversity? Is it bean counting? One straight, one gay, one black, one Asian, one wheelchair bound, one hearing differently abled, one visually differently abled. What about diversity of thought? I would bet you cash money that these snowflakes get their knickers in a twist whenever they run into someone with a different ideology.

Get back to class and learn something.