A grant to study Hebrew is 'woke DEI,' Ted Cruz says

[question everything]

A grant to study linguistic differences between Hebrew and English was flagged as an example of “woke DEI grants” in a new database released by Sen. Ted Cruz. The database is part of ongoing Republican efforts to justify significant cuts to federal research funding and diversity programs under President Donald Trump.

The $226,000 grant, given by the National Science Foundation to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022, was flagged by the Texas Republican senator’s team as having an inappropriate focus on “gender.”

But according to the description of the research in Cruz’s own database, the sole mention of gender in the grant’s description is in reference to the fact that the Hebrew language (like many) assigns gender to nouns.

(snip)

The public database of grants compiled by Cruz provides a window into how Trump and his allies are thinking about cuts to research funding. The flagged grants mentioning Israel were made to six universities including Brown, the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. They cover a range of scientific topics, from studying cognition to magnetic technologies to energy storage.

What they have in common is a stated intent to collaborate with an Israeli university. .. The second common thread among the Israel-related grant descriptions is the use of keywords flagged by the database as related to gender or DEI. Cruz’s team sorted the grants based on the presence of keywords related to the categories of “gender,” “status,” “social justice,” “race” and “environmental justice.”

More..

https://www.jta.org/2025/02/12/politics/a-grant-to-study-hebrew-is-woke-dei-ted-cruz-says

[jls4561]

1. Has anyone told him that when he flees to Cancun the language there uses gender specific language?

I am not good with language, perhaps some kind person could tell me if the Spanish word for ignorant asshole is prefaced by el or la? I’m guessing el as in el Cruz.

[Ocelot II]

3. I believe it's masculine: el pendejo.

[jls4561]

4. Si. El Cruz es Pendejo. Gracias.

[Mosby]

8. Cruz es un pendejo.

Or "Cruz esta un pendejo".

Esta indicates less permanence.

Estar is an irregular verb, changes a lot like "Ir", which is m I least favorite verb in Español.

Better one: Crus es un cabron.

Or even better Cruz es un pinche cabron.
Cruz is a fucking bastard, lol.

[jls4561]

9. Always grateful to have more insults to lob at these idiots.

[Ocelot II]

2. A lot of languages have gendered nouns - all the European languages, AFAIK.

So we won't be allowed to study French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, any of the Scandinavian languages, Polish, etc.? Or are they OK because they are spoken mostly by white Christians? (And of course the Spanish would have to be Castilian Spanish anyhow, because the other kind is spoken by Mexicans and Venezuelans and they're too "brown." )

[Deuxcents]

5. He crawled out of the rocks to complain about this? 😠

[JoseBalow]

6. What a buffoon

[Ray Bruns]

7. I never realized that the movie "Idiocracy" was a documentary.