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Comment by ffggvv | Hacker News Reader

yeah the guy who made them a big deal "ira glasser" basically chose some guy he had known for not that long as his successor. mostly because he was gay and latino. and that guy ended up not believing anything that the ACLU stood for and taking it to just be an arm of the democratic party. (Anthony d romero)

https://nypost.com/2022/01/31/ex-aclu-head-ira-glasser-slams...

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Not sure if directly relevant but they are focusing on DEI so this is across staff. That has led to some tension between the old guard (white supremacist / civil rights supporters depending on view) and new guard (equality / human rights focus).

They had bylaws historically which emphasized "wholly without political partisanship" as well, though I think that's probably long gone by now.

I don't think there were ever white supremacists at the ACLU. Who would that have been? I think DEI is a heavy mistake to pursue. I get the incentive but the method is lacking and everyone will lose.

Sorry, the view is more that traditional civil liberties reinforces white supremacist power structures (I think the ACLU actually has a page on this?). So that those in the ACLU perusing what were some of those "traditional" civil liberties things (free speech etc) were supporting white supremacy. The ACLU has moved away from that towards some of the speech = violence approach which then basically allows a violent response.

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