What Students Really Learn at University
Perhaps no one has written more about the plague of identity politics on America’s college campuses than MTC's contributor, Philip Carl Salzman. Salzman, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at McGill 
University, and a contributor to many public policy organizations, has now published some of his most powerful essays in an e-Book collection called Universities Today. Salzman writes, "Since the 1980s, universities have increasingly turned away from producing and disseminating knowledge and taken up as their objective neo-Marxist radical social reform, often labeled ‘social justice.’ Today, universities focus on political propaganda and activism and are increasingly like closed religious cults."
Attention Middle Easterners! You Don’t Have to Be White Anymore
So says Harvard University in a convoluted explanation of race, identity, culture and white privilege. According to Harvard, “Since 1944, Middle Eastern- and North African-Americans have been legally “white,” having to check the “white” box on demographic surveys like the U.S. census.” OMG—what a burden! Well, fear no more my Lebanese and Syrian friends, my pals from Iraq and Iran—you no longer have the burden of being white—you can be a MENA! A middle-eastern north African. What a joy to shed the mantle of white privilege once and for all. How wonderful to have such a joyous moniker of peace, achievement, cultural contribution, and tolerance to wrap around oneself.
If You're On Time, You're a White Supremacist
The National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, or NCORE, will feature a “pre-conference” session led by an educational consultant who believes being on time is a form of “white supremacy.” The story appears in The College Fix. NCORE is a function of the University of Oklahoma’s Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies. This year, Heather Hackman of the Hackman Consulting Group will speak about “…Racism and Whiteness and Achieving Racial Justice.” Hackman is a former professor of multicultural education at St. Cloud University who, at 2016’s “White Privilege Conference,” informed attendees that “the racial narrative of White” includes “making sure you’re not tardy.” Individualism, honesty, discipline, and rigor were other factors.
Peggy Noonan on the Coming Fall of ‘Woke’ Progressives
"The past decade saw the rise of the woke progressives who dictate what words can be said and ideas held, thus poisoning and paralyzing American humor, drama, entertainment, culture and journalism. In the coming 10 years someone will effectively stand up to them. They are the most hated people in America, and their entire program is accusation: you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist, your day is over. They never have a second move. Bow to them, as most do, and they’ll accuse you even more of newly imagined sins. They claim to be vulnerable victims, and moral. Actually, they’re not." -- The Wall Street Journal, January 4 -5
Let's Ban the SAT and ACT!
That's what a coalition of civil rights lawyers wants to do in California in order to end discrimination based on merit for Latinos and African Americans. According to a report in The New Yorker, the only tests the lawyers would allow are Advanced Placement exams. The shell game of accepting test results, then distorting them to achieve a "racially balanced outcome," has been known for years at some of the most prestigious schools in the country. But two events have prompted this action in California: One is the ongoing challenge by Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard to level the playing field for Asian students, who score high on grades and tests. The other is the changing makeup of the Supreme Court, which has become more conservative in the last few years. Does anyone care that American students continue to decline in global matchups against other developed countries?
If You're White, You're Wrong
Following a growing trend in higher education, a Dartmouth professor called for mandatory white privilege courses. Dr. Emily Walton wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for all students to take courses in white privilege and black history. She accuses white people of being afflicted with "white blindness" or a state in which racial privilege is invisible. She also claims the K-12 public schools perpetuate "white blindness" (read discrimination) by not mandating ethnic studies classes. To top it off, she equates the meritocratic system of hard work with white discrimination against minorities.
“Balanced Representation!”
What’s not to like??
Don’t we apply that rule to ordinary life… in all ways….at all times? And aren’t the results of “balanced representation” always superior to outcomes which are demographically unbalanced? Of course they are!
I used to prefer good, well-trained dentists….dentists who were good at dentistry….but then I read this study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which told me: “The underrepresentation of Blacks, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives among dentists raises concerns about the diversity of the dental workforce, disparities in access to dental care and in oral health status, and social justice.” And now I am convinced that social justice and diversity (which flow only from “balanced representation”) are vastly more important than being good with cavities and teeth. Huzzah!
I used to think that being a Basketball Wizard was and should be the primary qualifier for being in the NBA, but I have seen the light and have come to despise those incredibly unbalanced and unrepresentative teams which are filled to overflowing with really good players who all — dare I say it — look the same and display, always, the same incredible level of talent. Where are the short, uncoordinated Hispanics and Native Americans? Where are the fat White Guys who can’t dribble? Where — for God’s sake — are the women??? Women comprise 50% of the population and yet there’s not a single one on any NBA team? Can’t we trade a Stephen Curry to get, say, a Nancy Pelosi or a Kim Kardashian in the Golden State uniform? And just wait until that “balanced representation” team plays Houston next year!
And what about plumbing? Every time I hire a plumber, they all look like they grew-up in the exact same Plumbing Family (they all certainly buy the same gap-waist pants)! What’s up with that? Of course, they all have done a great job with all those plumbing things, but c’mon! What’s really important here? Great, cost-effective plumbing solutions installed by expert plumbers….or balanced demographic representation among all those who drive plumbing trucks? All I know is next time a pipe bursts, I’m gonna wait until I get a trans-gendered Black immigrant (I just hope he knows something about plumbing) before I accept an unrepresentative solution in my flooded basement.
And sadly, as I look back at all the women I dated, they were — in retrospect — pathetically unrepresentative of all the various demographic possibilities which are out there. I just hope my wife understands as I seek to — belatedly — make that population sample significantly more balanced.
“THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” That totally balanced, totally representative, totally equal future — it can’t get here fast enough. Vonnegut would be so proud!
You sir — or madam — are a gifted wordsmith.