As much as conservatives have tried to make the rest of America believe they’ve shed their white supremacist bigoted spectacles, a group of Young Republican national leaders hoodwinked us once again.

On a local level, will Ohio State’s new “intellectual diversity center” – the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society – make its students and devoted alumni also one day look like absolute fools for supporting Thee?

Not in leaked texts mind you, but through veiled far right and pro-white tendencies. No doubt –  and this is for all left and left-leaning OSU alumni – your beloved alma mater is making a hard pivot to the right. Trump investigations, Ohio Senate Bill 1, the closing of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices, and Anduril (killer robots) have laid the groundwork. But when it comes to actual boots-on-the-Oval, the Chase Center could become the command center as its first academic year began this semester.

The Chase Center staff and faculty would really, really like for you to believe its “an intellectual diversity center” even though its staff and faculty is anything but. It was created by state law, specifically the Ohio GOP, and wasn’t a mandate of OSU President Ted Carter. But let’s never forget how Carter banned sidewalk chalk and bragged repeatedly about how he removed peaceful protestors with armed state troopers.

The Chase Center’s mission, as stated on its web page, is to address “one of the nation’s most pressing challenges: the renewal of civic life.” The Free Press recently ran an op-ed from deeply concerned OSU professor John K. Herbert who wrote that the Chase Center wants to promote itself as a “centrist cure for fringy ideas and divisive racial and gender stereotypes.”

“The renewal of civic life – here’s where the interpretation depends strongly on one’s politics,” said Herbert recently to the Free Press. “If you asked Lee Strang, I’m sure he’d tell you that it means promoting pro-democracy, pro-America ideas. If you ask me, it’s means promoting a sort of rah-rah jingoistic version of American history where this is the greatest, most infallible country the world has ever seen, and where the playing field is equal for everyone.”

Lee Strang, a Christian Nationalist and anti-abortionist, is the Chase Center’s first executive director. That’s him above standing next to U.S. Department of Education Director Linda McMahon who was here in September to announce a $3 million grant to this “intellectual center.” McMahon, as we all know, is of fake wrestling WWE fame. Her desire to completely dismantle the Department of Education is real as real can be, and she recently referred to artificial intelligence as “A one” and not AI.

To be fair, former Green Party candidate Cornel West appeared at the Chase Center on October 23 for a debate on “higher education in cultivating civic virtue, intellectual humility, and a commitment to truth across ideological divides.” And in the spirit of free inquiry and civic debate, we sent Herbert’s op-ed to Chase Center faculty for a response. Only Professor Michael Clune responded. If that name rings a bell it should – he’s a New York Times bestselling author who has written extensively on his decade-long addiction to heroin. Clune was under the impression the Free Press wished to promote his work. The last thing we want to do is give attention to the worst addiction a college student could ever deal with.

Nevertheless, Clune emailed us back, “If Fredrick Douglass, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ralph Ellison, some of the Black authors I teach here, strike you as exemplars of ‘white supremacy’ I’m afraid further conversation wouldn’t be productive.”

Here’s a short list of more unease about the Chase Center:

• Lee Strange once wrote, “The people most directly harmed by homosexuality are homosexuals themselves.” He’s made claims that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to atheists and secular humanists. Strang’s wife, according to local journalist The Rooster, posted regularly on Twitter that January 6 rioters should be freed (and since deleted).
• The Chase Center hosted Dr. Lucas Morel who attacked the 1619 Project by writing that “America wasn’t founded on White supremacy.” He’s also a member of the National Association of Scholars which opposes diversity efforts in higher education.
• Another Chase Center professor is Vladimir Kogan. He loves to attack our Columbus City Schools and its teachers’ union on social media. And just like the Chase Center, tries to come across as “viewpoint neutral.” Don’t be played. He’s pro-charter and pro-private school voucher, and very weirdly has aversions to the hardworking and dedicated teachers at Columbus City Schools.
• OSU recently created policy which forbids using university funds to attend conferences hosted by organizations which promote underrepresented backgrounds to pursue doctorates. One of the orgs targeted is SACNAS (The Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science), which is having its national conference starting October 30 in Columbus(!). Several OSU sources told us they had heard that faculty could be banned from going to minority-sponsored conferences entirely. If true, where were these suggestions and ideas coming from?

In regard to this last bullet point, is OSU looking to whitewash its faculty? The university would never, ever do such a thing to its football team. But the university could be headed in a “white is right” direction when it comes to who’s teaching its students.

“Racial disparities are increasing amongst science and engineering faculty, eroding the minimal gains made by faculty of color over several decades,” wrote Herbert in his op-ed for the Free Press. “Given current trends, racial minorities are unlikely ever to achieve parity amongst collegiate faculty, despite a U.S. population that is headed for racial plurality by mid-century. Faculty gender diversification has also stalled, and an increasingly diverse undergraduate student body no longer looks like its teachers. This has consequences for mentoring underrepresented scholars, who continue to encounter racism and systemic barriers.”

The Chase Center states it seeks to “educate students by means of free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry to seek the truth.” Does this sound like today’s Christian Nationalists who are leading and whitewashing America? Certainly not.

“Please see through the façade and appreciate this for what it is: a broadside attack visited upon both higher education as well as the educators who strive to create inclusive learning environments,” wrote Herbert in his op-ed for the Free Press.