A push for ‘diversity’ caused a Minnesota college to cancel a professional speaker event
St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, who is all-too proud of their women-only undergrad program, canceled an event for being ‘too white’. According to the Leadership Imperative, it is “the event of the year for professional women in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas.” Unless you schedule too many white people, that is.
Which is exactly what school officials say happened. When planning the event no one checked the ethnicity of each speaker, but then again, why would you? Who thinks of things like that? Turns out, after scheduling the event, all but one speaker who agreed to come were white.
Video of a previous lecture by Margaret Smith- One of the speakers who was scheduled to talk.
Per the Conference’s website:
“The Leadership Imperative: Rise to Your Purpose” was intended to “equip both emerging and seasoned female professionals with the tools they need to become impactful, respected leaders,”
According to Conservative Tribune, the workshop aimed to “equip both emerging and seasoned female professionals with the tools they need to become impactful, respected leaders,” reported The College Fix.
The school canceled the event, stating that the speaker lineup did “not reflect the diverse St. Kate’s community of today nor the world of tomorrow we are committed to creating.”
The event organizers expressed worry that the speaker selection process “led to a racial and ethnic blind outcome,” according to the Minnesota Republic.
Pictures next to 28 of the 29 speakers show they are white women. Speaker Margaret Smith does not have a photograph, but she is also white.
Smith told The Fix that she “was to be a speaker for this conference and received a very respectful note from the planners regarding the cancellation.” Respectful or not, it seemed ‘backwards’ to us that the college canceled the event based on speakers’ race. Then again this is the world we live in.