Attacks on diversity in higher education threaten democracy
The forced resignation of Harvard University's president offers a glimpse into the blueprint for the fight for justice in the United States, a longtime observer of attacks on academia has concluded.
If a time traveler left the United States in the summer of 2020 and returned today, there is a good chance they would conclude that they have accidentally traveled back in time, and the national conversation about racism today is significantly it's different. The killing of George Floyd and increased visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement have prompted companies and universities to commit to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” More white people suddenly became publicly aware of white privilege and structural racism. More demonstrations took to the streets than any previous civil rights demonstration. Read more and explore systemic racism and white privilege while learning from diverse writers and educators. More companies have issued statements against racism and pledged to make improvements.
This racism threatened billionaires, politicians, and activists seeking to protect extreme free-market capitalism and their own economic and political supremacy. We can go back to that moment three years ago, watching a December House Education Committee hearing attacking diversity on campuses across the country. Three university presidents, including Claudine Gay, a woman of color at Harvard University, have been slammed by Republican lawmakers for anti-Semitism on campus in response to the current war in Gaza. Christopher Rufo, widely known as one of the masterminds of these attacks and many others, proudly declares that his true purpose is to “remove the DEI bureaucracy from every American institution.” did. Could this explain why we haven't seen more Congressional outrage over hate crimes targeting African Americans, the most victimized group on college campuses, for years? )
These hearings, which led to Mr. Gay's resignation, were intended to have a chilling effect. Shortly thereafter, University of Colorado President L. Song Richardson, a woman of color and advocate for justice, also announced that as president she could no longer participate in these “very challenging conversations.” I felt it and resigned. Eliminating the “DEI bureaucracy” means silencing the voices of those who were only recently allowed to participate in the conversation and censoring any discussion of inequality. The reality that racism and other inequalities exist is being questioned.
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As a sociologist who has studied white supremacy for decades, I am horrified. That should scare you too. As I warned in my first book, The Failing White Man: Race, Gender, and White Supremacy, mainstream and far-right views flow along a continuum. Ideas once considered extreme now involve Republicans as part of a more ambitious goal of controlling the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government. And they are successful.Anyone committed to the dream of democracy Must I thought of it, but it was a lucky day.
The anti-Semitism hearing follows years of attacks on DEI, expands the scope of educators, classes, programs, offices, and universities that can be targeted, and is scheduled for a March 7 meeting of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development. Public hearing on “Divisive, Excessive, Ineffective: The Real Impact of DEI on College Campuses.” Suicide rates among young people and college students have skyrocketed, and students of color have a much higher suicide rate than white college students because this care “encourages students to study critical race theory.” Even funding for mental health services is being denied at a time when mental health costs are so high. It is outrageous that teaching students to “get along with others” has been politicized. What's next? Is asking kindergartners to use their “inner voice” to be considered an attack on free speech?!
Fueling these attacks is an overarching myth of liberal indoctrination on campus, most clearly articulated in a widely cited 2023 report self-published by a major right-wing think tank. The Manhattan Institute's unscientific research cannot withstand peer review by academic journals. For example, adults aged 18 to 20 surveyed in this study said: heard Statements such as “white people have white privilege” Any Adults at school are described as evidence Of edification. Even if we pretend that hearing this observation represents indoctrination, it is at best a correlation and should not be confused with causation. One of the report's far-fetched and overtly racist conclusions is that black students are hurt by DEI because they no longer learn from white students who no longer feel comfortable. Criticize they.Criticism of individuals, not white people. criticize their work. This is their defense against harmful and racist microaggressions. Perhaps that's why discussions about microaggressions are also prohibited.
False studies like this are offered as evidence that censorship is justified. As of November 2023, lawmakers have enacted 40 of her educational gag orders in 22 states, and more are being considered. The Manhattan Institute also offers a model bill to make it easier. Protecting not only white students, but also straight and cisgender students from discomfort (we'll call them “snowflakes”) is the actual legal basis for the supposed freedom of speech. What led to the censorship is dangerously ironic.
These legal obligations build on decades of attempts to censor teachers and curriculum through cyberattacks, harassment, abuse, and threats of violence. This harassment typically occurs on a few student “news” websites like Campus Reform, a program of the Leadership Institute, an organization that trains students to become the next generation of “conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process.” It starts with an article on the site. ” These sites publish thousands of articles denouncing the liberal indoctrination of teachers. They pay students to find articles about “liberal” professors and conservative students' suppression of free speech. Many of the incidents are caused by financially motivated students and are often inaccurate or taken out of context and misunderstood. These articles are picked up by other right-wing media outlets and even appear on FOX News. Social media trolls then coordinate a cyberattack that results in hundreds of harmful emails and social media posts, many of them by robots. They fueled claims of liberal indoctrination on campus, with devastating consequences for many victims.
While the student organization behind the website has gotten little attention, the fact that The Leadership Institute's 2022 net worth exceeded $33 million should raise some eyebrows. These organizations do not disclose their donors and are caught up in a labyrinth of dark money funded by plutocrats bent on maintaining the power of America's elite white men.
Higher education institutions need to cooperate and act proactively according to the right-wing strategy. We need to take advantage of the great resources provided by organizations like AAUP, PEN America, and the American Council on Education to be proactive, support our teachers, and break out of the reactionary cycle. I think these attacks will get worse. You also need to realize that these attacks are not new. This is just one moment in a long history of politically motivated injustice in education. At one time, the majority of Southern states had laws prohibiting teaching slaves to read and write, and in Northern and Western states, free blacks were denied public education. It is still fresh in my memory that schools were legally segregated in this country. People of color and women were excluded from white higher education institutions and professional degree programs.
we have to recognize that Education is inherently political. Who can teach, who can learn, and what can be taught is ultimately a question of whose lives matter. The fact that we are still fighting over these issues is all the proof we need that racism still exists.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. Not Scientific American or the University of Colorado Springs.