Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan raises eyebrows by taking on chancellor role for Corporation of Brown University
Brian Moynihan has his hands full running Bank of America, the nationās secondš¦© largest lender, which is why he raised some eyebrows in July when he took on the volunteer position as chancellor of the Corporation of Brown University, the governing body of his alma mater.
Those eyebrows got even widerš when Brown took idiotic wokeness to new levels.
šWe all know universities have become a hotbed of left-wing, Marxist activism, with a heavy dose of antisemitism as war rages in Gaza and Israel rightlyā± protects its citizens following the Oct. 7 massacre. Leaders at Penn and Harvard have lost their jobs for failing to crack down on Jew haters on campus, which makes whatās going down at Brown so odd.
The Brown Corporation will soon vote on whether Brownās $6 billion-plus endowment should divest from companies thatź¦« do business not wiź¦æth dictatorships like Iran or Venezuela, but the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel.
That the vote to economically harm an ally of this country and a multi-ethnic democracy isš taking place in mid-October, nearly a year to the day since the slaughter of innocent Israelis ā and Americans ā near Gaza only adds to the lackš of common sense and plain old decency of this spectacle. That a major bank CEO is part of a move to appease campus radicals who apparently believe the killing of innocents is justified makes it all the more bizarre.
Defenders of Moynihan say his involvement in the mess is more nuanced, which I will addressą± in a moment. That said, Iām not totally surprised that heās involved even tangentially in this travesty given his history of caving to woke forces.
As I point out in my book āGo Woke Go Broke; The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate Ameź¦rica,ā some of Moynihanās greatest woke hits as CEO include rationalizing the social-justice riots following the killing of George Floyd as a byproduct of a country that is systematically racist, or in his muddled verbiš¦age: āThe protests are about not having the equivalent opportunity, criminal justice treatment by authorities, and the serious [COVID] infections of communities of color,ā he said.
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BofAās Carolina roots
BofA is headquartered these days in New York but traces its roots to Charlotte, NC, and the stateās regional banking powerhouse, North Carolina National Bank. It remains a presence inš the city and the mostly conservative-leaning state.
Moynihan didnāt care when in 2016, he publicly opposed a state law that banned trans women from using the lš¦©adiesā room despite justified concerns that such accommodations lead to sexual assaults.
Also in 2021, BofA teamed up with the Charlotte United Way to encourage some employees to partake in āA Racial Equity 21-Day Challengeā ā so they can comāe to terms with what the event called their āwhite privilege, white fragility, and systemic racism.ā
Not sure how Moynihan fared during the challenge or whether he even took the test, but you can see why Iām hardly gobsmacked that heās part of an entity that made a deal with the devil, in tļ·½his case the campus leftą½§ist radicals.
The Brown Corporation will š¹vote on divestiture, scheduled for Oct. 17 and 18, after university President Christina Paxson caved to the demands of campus extremists.
The studš ents said they would stop their disruptive āencampmentsā and protesting with their decidedly antisemitic overtones in exchange for an Israel-divestiture vote.
Whatever happened to refusing to negotiatą¹e with terrorists? Yes, I know universities arenāt banks, where the CEO and board call all the shots. Left-wing faculties have significant input beyond indoctrinating their ideology on students.
The flack for the school told me as much iš¦n an email, stating the vote āis part of a long-established processā that āallows any University community member to submit a divestment propź¦ osal for examination.ā
Maybe, but the gentle souls who run Brown and caved to the radicals may have forgotten whoās paying most of the bills ā the vast majority of the student body and alumni who fund its endowment ā and they are sick of the protests and indoctź¦¦rination by faculty.
Just ask the ousted presidents of Harvard and Penšn.
Again, people who know Moynihan describe his role in the mess as something close to an innocent bystanderź¦. He took the job as chancellor as a volunteer.
The deal with the student radicals was largely cut by Paxson, who then foisted it upš¬on the corporation for an up-or-down vote.
But that doesnāt mean he has to play along with the idiocy. I asked a flack for BofA why Moynihan doesnāt just follow the lead of a man named Joseph Edelman, a hedgeš-funder who is also a Brown Corporation trustee but quit when the vote was allowed.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Edelman wrote: āI find it morally reprehensible that holding a divestment vote was even consą¹idered.ā
Moynihan could have done the same. It would have been a pretty strong statement that adults are either going to run š§the show or they wonāt play theź©µ role of useful idiots in a campus revolt.
It might have sparked a useful conversation that forces Brown to moš§øve away from a leftist orthodoxy that appeases those who celebrate murder.
The BofA flackās response: āSince universities were šÆfounded in the United States, corporate executives have served as volunteers on their boards to provide them guidance. šÆIt is a great tradition.ā
Yeah, really great.