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›- Cloaking Inequity By Julian Vasquez Heilig
›- Education & Personal Development
Cloaking Inequity By Julian Vasquez Heilig - Education & Personal Development
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Hey Students! Step Up: Learn to Lead with Purpose and Confidence – Cloaking Inequity
As we look ahead to the start of the Fall 2025 semester, I am excited to get back in the classroom and want to extend a personal invitation to all Western Michigan University (WMU) undergraduates: join me this semester for two courses that will change the way you think about leadership—and yourself. Whether you’re a…
The Uppity Minority: The Politics of Hiring and the Price of Courage – Cloaking Inequity
There’s a familiar and unsettling pattern that Uppity Minorities and equity-driven leaders know all too well. When you take a courageous stand for justice—when you lead with clarity, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to equity—they come for you. Even if you followed the very same processes your predecessors used without scrutiny. But what we don’t…
Judas in a Suit: How to Detect Betrayal Before the Kiss Lands – Cloaking Inequity
Leadership is never just about vision, strategy, or metrics. It is about navigating people, personalities, and politics. Some of the people around you will be loyal, thoughtful, and courageous. But others? They will smile in your face while sharpening their knives behind your back. Every leader eventually encounters a Benedict Arnold. Their Judas. The person…
Harvard Censorship Is a Dangerous Precedent – Cloaking Inequity
The Harvard Educational Review’s decision to cancel its special issue on education and Palestine is not just an internal editorial dispute or a routine publication delay. It is a stark example of institutional censorship and a direct attack on academic freedom at one of the most respected education journals in the country. The issue had…
Using the First Amendment to Abolish the First Amendment – Cloaking Inequity
The First Amendment is under siege, by those claiming to defend it. In one of the strangest political inversions of our time, the far right is now using the First Amendment to destroy the First Amendment. They claim to be defenders of liberty, free speech, and academic freedom. But their actions speak otherwise. What they…
When Saying Yes Was a Mistake: Finding Your Way Back – Cloaking Inequity
Football season is approaching fast. Fall camps are about to kick off, and interviews with players and coaches are starting to roll in. What if the most dangerous play this fall isn’t on the field, but on your résumé? Not a missed tackle. Not a blown call. But accepting the wrong job. The one that…
Tyrant Playbook: Why the US Department of Education is Closing – Cloaking Inequity
Tyranny doesn't happen by accident. What is the method—tested, shared, copied, and repeated? Netflix’s series How to Become a Tyrant makes a bold and terrifying claim: authoritarians don’t just rise, they study. They follow a formula. And whether it’s Hitler in Germany, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or Kim Il Sung in North Korea, the steps…
No-Confidence Votes Signal Crisis in Education – Cloaking Inequity
In July 2025, the University of Virginia Faculty Senate took an extraordinary step that stunned even seasoned observers of higher education: they voted no confidence in the Board of Visitors—not over scandal or financial mismanagement, but because the board failed to defend the university’s president against political interference threatening academic freedom, free speech, and the…
“Dispensing Power “: What Happens When a President Claims the Right to Ignore Laws? – Cloaking Inequity
Just before the fireworks lit up the sky on July 4th, we learned something far more explosive than anything that could be launched from the National Mall. In a set of letters released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, President Donald Trump, through Attorney General Pam Bondi, quietly claimed a power that not…
Weaponized Incompetence: “I Didn’t Vote for This” Is Not an Excuse – Cloaking Inequity
Donald Trump is now openly threatening to strip U.S. citizenship from his critics, including public figures like Rosie O’Donnell. This is not a joke, a distraction, or an exaggeration. It is a direct challenge to the Constitution, and a test balloon for how far his administration can go. CNN reports that O’Donnell had responded and…
“We didn’t kill enough Indians”: Reckoning With Our National Sin – Cloaking Inequity
“We didn’t kill enough Indians.” That’s not a historical quote—it’s what far-right commentator Ann Coulter said on Twitter, now X. No apology. No context. Just the crude, genocidal sentiment that still echoes through American policy, culture, and politics. Native news outlets, tribal government leaders, community members and allies alike have condemned Coulter’s cruel statement withresounding clarity –…
AI Code Red: The Future Depends on What We Refuse to Forget – Cloaking Inequity
When I heard about the new National Academy for AI Instruction launched by the American Federation of Teachers, my first reaction was simple: finally. Finally, an effort that puts educators, not algorithms, at the center of how artificial intelligence enters our classrooms. For too long, education has been a testing ground for shiny new tools…
Courage Should Be in the Job Description – Cloaking Inequity
🚨 NEW in Diverse Issues in Higher Education 🚨 “Knowledge is on trial. Faculty are under attack. And too many leaders are playing it safe.” In my latest piece, I argue that it’s time to stop hiring caretakers and start demanding courage. Presidents and chancellors must be more than managers—they must be advocates. Fighters. Defenders of truth and…
Trash Talkin’: A Tigers Fan’s Rant on History, Redemption, and LA Ownership Rot – Cloaking Inequity
Baseball is a long season, full of drama, resilience, and receipts. And this year, the Detroit Tigers are keeping receipts. While we’re sitting comfortably with the best record in Major League Baseball—racking up wins with grit, fire, and depth—the Los Angeles Dodgers are unraveling. Not just in the standings, but in the press, in the…
The Uppity Minority: You Spoke Up—So They’ll Call a Lawyer – Cloaking Inequity
There is a well-worn tactic in the playbook of institutional fragility and power that I want you to recognize—both as a matter of academic freedom and as a contribution to the evolving scholarship in leadership studies. When someone from a historically marginalized community—or simply someone who dares to lead with clarity, courage, and a commitment…
Kerr County Flood: When Disaster Strikes, Who Will Save Us? – Cloaking Inequity
When the floodwaters surged through Kerr County, Texas, they didn’t just wash away homes, roads, and vehicles. They swept away years of warnings, missed opportunities, and the dangerous illusion that preparedness can wait. This wasn’t a surprise. It was a preventable tragedy. Officials in Kerr County had studied the need for a flood warning system—in…
Students Will Feel It. And Soon: The Specific Harms in One Big Beautiful Bill – Cloaking Inequity
On July 4th, beneath a flyover of B‑2 bombers and the thunderous applause of a partisan audience, President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law. In doing so, he delivered not just a pageantry-laden salute to right-wing governance, but also a decisive blow to America’s already fragile higher education ecosystem. Framed…
Trump, Flags, Fireworks, and Democracy: Reclaiming the Meaning of July 4th – Cloaking Inequity
On the Fourth of July, we wave flags, light fireworks, and celebrate a vision of freedom rooted in the idea of citizenship—of liberty and justice for all. But this year, I’m not just thinking about parades and cookouts. I’m thinking about the meaning of citizenship, the cost of silence, and what happens when a country…
The Duct Tape of Dysfunction: How NDAs Are Weaponized Against Truth – Cloaking Inequity
Let’s tell more truth today: NDAs are the duct tape of dysfunction. When a organization feels threatened by dissent, exposure, or accountability, the quickest fix isn’t change—it’s silence. Enter the Non-Disclosure Agreement. Once a tool for protecting intellectual property or trade secrets in the corporate world, NDAs have morphed into a powerful muzzle for equity advocates, whistleblowers, and…
Board Governance in Crisis: Inside the Hidden Collapse of Trust – Cloaking Inequity
Behind closed doors, I’ve heard presidents and vice presidents describe their boards in terms that are hard to forget: “Severely inexperienced.” “Unprepared for complexity.” “More dangerous than helpful.” Although the examples in this post are drawn from higher education, the underlying issues I highlight resonate far beyond universities. The concerns and insights apply just as…
The Uppity Minority: When the White Ally Isn’t – Cloaking Inequity
They laughed with you at the holiday party. You shared rides to meetings. You consumed copious donuts in the hallway, talked shop off the record, texted inside jokes. You were in the same foxhole, or so you thought. And then the attack came. From the usual suspects—those who bristled at your insistence on equity, who…
The Rich Get Lavish Weddings and Tax Breaks. We Lose Education, Healthcare, Food, and Freedom – Cloaking Inequity
Jeff Bezos got married on a yacht last week, and you probably saw it. The tabloids and timelines lit up like fireworks: photos of Lauren Sánchez in couture, champagne toasts aboard a $500 million superyacht, and a guest list of billionaires and influencers drifting off the Amalfi Coast. TikToks. Reels. Breathless coverage of every detail.…
The Silenced Warning: What Briseis Can Teach Us About Betrayal – Cloaking Inequity
In Homer’s Iliad, Briseis is a Trojan woman captured in war. She doesn’t command armies. She doesn’t give orders. And yet, in modern retellings—those that center her perspective—Briseis becomes something else entirely. She becomes a witness. Not to triumph, but to betrayal. She watches the people around her posture and scheme. She sees the shifting…
Is Resigning the Right Thing to Do? – Cloaking Inequity
Is resigning the right thing to do? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself—and not just in quiet moments of reflection. It’s a question that people ask me in inbox threads, text messages, and hushed conversations in conference hallways. It’s no longer theoretical. It’s personal. It’s political. And in 2025, it feels like it’s urgent.…
They Want to Trigger You. I Choose Action Instead. – Cloaking Inequity
I recently told a family member who has been reading my blog: I don’t hate Donald Trump. I don’t hate the Proud Boys. I don’t even hate the Christian nationalists who shout Bible verses while clenching AR-15s and making muscles. Hate is what they want. Hate and grievance is what they feed on. It’s the…
The Fog of Lies: How Instagram Reels Became the Gospel – Cloaking Inequity
How do you know what information to trust? It’s a deceptively simple question. And lately, it’s one I hear more and more—especially from Right Wing-leaning friends and family who claim that “you can’t trust any of it anymore.” They talk about fake news, media manipulation, and digital censorship. They doubt the Census, question school data,…
The Uppity Minority: Radioactive or Ready for this Moment? – Cloaking Inequity
They don’t always say it out loud. But if you’ve been a leader, you learn to read the signs. The soft smiles. The slow blinks. The way people praise your convictions in private—right before distancing themselves. It’s the same pattern that leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. faced: celebrated for their ideals, shunned for…
From Moscow to Tallahassee: The Global Authoritarian Playbook is Being Executed – Cloaking Inequity
Turkey, Hungary, China, Russia, Egypt—and Florida. The names of these places might evoke different geographies, languages, and histories, but in one crucial area they increasingly speak the same language: authoritarian control over universities. In each, political power has been used to reshape higher education into a compliant tool of state ideology. Once autonomous institutions—grounded in…
Free Speech for Right Wing, Punishment for Protesters: A Two-Step of Hypocrisy – Cloaking Inequity
According to media reports and other sources circulating widely on the internet, a disturbing and deeply revealing incident has taken place at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. A student has allegedly submitted a final paper in a constitutional law class arguing that the U.S. Constitution applies only to white people and Jews—and…
Code Red: How AI Is Set to Supercharge Racism, Rewrite History, and Hijack Learning – Cloaking Inequity
Artificial Intelligence didn’t fall from the sky. It wasn’t born in a vacuum or descended from some neutral cloud of innovation. It didn’t arrive pure and untainted, ready to solve all of humanity’s problems. No—AI was trained on us. On our failures. On our history. On our data. On our bias. On the systems we…
Silencing Your Liberty: The De-Civil Rights Movement – Cloaking Inequity
Happy Juneteenth! In the 1960s, brave Americans—many young, many Black, many poor—put their bodies on the line to claim a seat at the table of democracy. They fought for rights long denied: the right to vote without barriers, to protest without fear, to attend school without segregation, to worship without restriction, and to speak truth…
The Blame Game: How Trump, University Leaders, et al. Dodge Accountability – Cloaking Inequity
There is perhaps no figure more adept at the art of deflection than Donald J. Trump. He has turned scapegoating into a political art form, lobbing blame like confetti at rallies, press conferences, and now on his social media platform. Economic woes? Blame immigrants. Public health failures? Blame governors. Electoral losses? Blame rigged machines. Legal…
Recycling Bad Ideas: Right Wing War on Public Education (Again) – Cloaking Inequity
The Republican Party used to tout itself as the party of ideas. But in Michigan—and across the country—it has devolved into the party of recycled failures. This week, Michigan Senate Republicans introduced a package of education bills so stale, so regressive, and so wildly out of step with research and reality that you could be…
Liberty Requires Patriots: Why I Support the NAACP’s Decision Not to Invite Trump – Cloaking Inequity
Let me begin with a clear disclaimer: I do not speak for the NAACP. I speak only for myself—as a scholar, citizen, and patriot committed to constitutional democracy and civil rights. But I unequivocally support the NAACP’s decision not to invite Donald Trump to its 116th National Convention. The organization’s stance is not partisan. It…
The Uppity Minority: When the Betrayal Comes From Inside the House – Cloaking Inequity
In every movement, there are enemies outside the gate—and then there’s Stephen. You may remember him. Samuel L. Jackson’s unforgettable character in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained—not just the most dangerous villain in the film, but perhaps the most haunting. Because Stephen wasn’t the slave master. He wasn’t the bounty hunter. He wasn’t the man with the whip.…
The Big Lie: What They Say in Public vs. What Happens Behind Closed Doors – Cloaking Inequity
We’ve come to recognize gaslighting in politics with unsettling clarity. It’s the classic authoritarian sleight of hand: say one thing while doing another, accuse your critics of the very abuses you commit, and weaponize language to invert reality itself. Donald Trump has elevated this to a political doctrine—claiming to be the champion of free speech…
“Day One” Was a Lie: The Goal of Conflict, Abroad and at Home – Cloaking Inequity
Donald Trump said there would be peace on Day One. That’s what he promised: an end to war in Ukraine. A ceasefire in Gaza. Diplomacy with Iran. Calm in American cities. Trump declared he’d bring strength and unity back to the nation and the world. But now that he’s been reelected and is firmly back…
They’re Coming for the Colleges: IRS Issues More Threats – Cloaking Inequity
What if I told you that the next front in America’s war on student success isn’t a classroom—but a tax form? This week, Bloomberg broke the story: the U.S. Treasury Department is weighing a proposal to strip tax-exempt status from colleges and universities that “favor any racial group” in admissions, scholarships, student services, or even the use…
The Drip of Authoritarianism Becomes a Flood: Democracy at a Crossroads – Cloaking Inequity
If you’ve ever wondered how authoritarianism creeps in—how democracy dies not with a bang, but a series of rationalizations and repressive policies—then stop wondering. Watch this or Read this. And understand: it’s happening here. This is why I’ve been writing furiously. This is why I cannot stay silent. Because we’re in the middle of the slow,…
They Want to Use My Ex-Girlfriend’s Awful Cookie Recipe—And Call It Equity – Cloaking Inequity
This title will make sense by the end of the article. I promise. I recently faced an ideological struggle—not the kind that makes headlines, but the quiet, deeply personal kind on Zoom that unsettles your spirit. It wasn’t marked by shouting matches or viral soundbites—just the slow, sobering realization that people who meant good were…