The classical trivium based on the white pre-postmodern assumption that there is an objective truth included Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.

The new trivium, composed of  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is based on the postmodern philosophy that there is no objective truth. Moreover, the new trivium is no longer based on the racist Greek and Latin tradition.

By replacing Grammar with Diversity, the white manacles of language used to victimize the oppressed are gone.

By replacing Logic with Equity, reasoning, which is a sign of whiteness, is gone.

By replacing Rhetoric, the art of persuasion with Inclusion, the academy is cleansed of the failed and suicidal strategy of educational and moral suasion.

In the old trivium, Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; logic is the art of thinking; and rhetoric is the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.

In the new trivium, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are the arts of an activist who is interested in power and policy change. They provide the method to replace thinking with compliance.

We were reluctant to call this curriculum The New Trivium as the Latin word trivium means “the place where three roads meet”.  We were reluctant since the philosophical foundation of the new trivium is closer to “my way or the highway” than “the place where three roads meet”.

For advanced students in the illiberal arts, the new quadrivium will replace the classical quadrivium, which was composed of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The new quadrivium will be composed of Antiracism Studies, Queer Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Trans Studies.

In the new curriculum, the liberal arts are redefined as the illiberal arts.