Category: Wisdom

  • The University of Texas tried to intimidate me as an untenured professor because my research challenged one of Texas’s most politically protected education policies. That is not an exaggeration. It is what happened. Long before today’s escalating political fights over DEI, curriculum bans, and ideological loyalty in higher education, I experienced firsthand how political pressure…

    The University of Texas at Austin Tried to Intimidate Me
  • Learn how to watch who is being punished, who is being protected, and what financial interests are quietly moving underneath a controversy, and the real story usually starts revealing itself. One of the hardest lessons people learn inside powerful institutions is that truth and loyalty are often treated very differently. Most organizations publicly celebrate honesty,…

    Will You Be Punished at Work for Telling the Truth?
  • Maybe you are not crazy. Maybe you are not “difficult.” Maybe you are not “too intense,” “too ambitious,” “too direct,” or “not a team player.” Maybe it’s something else entirely. Luis Velasquez’s recent Harvard Business Review article, “Why Effective Leaders Get Branded as Problems,” inspired me to blog about this dynamic because his thesis captures…

    Are You a Threat Because You’re Good at Your Job?
  • Gillian Hayes recently wrote an essay titled “On Leading People Who Don’t Want to Be Led,” for Inside Higher Ed and much of it resonated deeply with my own experiences in leadership over the past 20 years. But I also think the issue she describes extends far beyond educational institutions. In many ways, higher education…

    People Want Leadership. They Don’t Want Kings
  • Mother’s Day was yesterday, and I had some time to reflect. I found myself thinking first about appreciation. Big thanks to all mothers and mother figures who spend years giving love, protection, encouragement, patience, sacrifice, and emotional support in ways that often go unseen while they are happening. So much of what holds families together…

    Why Some People Celebrate Mother’s Day and Others Survive It

Cloaking Inequity is an online platform for justice and liberty-minded readers. I publish reflections, analysis, and commentary on education, democracy, culture, and politics.

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Email me at jvh@alumni.stanford.edu