Professor Jonathan Zimmerman has sent Minding the Campus a brief response to Ronald Radosh’s critique of his recent Christian Science Monitor op-ed on “affirmative action for conservative professors.” Here it is:
I’m grateful for Ron Radosh’s kind words, but I’m also confused by his argument. He takes history professors to task for their ideological blinders, which cause them to twist or ignore evidence that does not suit their dogma, and he singles out NYU’s history department for special disapprobation in this regard. But the fact that I’m a member of that same department—and that I’m also, by his own lights, a “real believer in tolerance”–doesn’t seem to have affected his own judgment at all! In other words, Radosh ignores evidence that contradicts his presupposition. . . which is precisely the sin that he imputes to others.Jonathan ZimmermanProfessor of Education and HistoryNew York University
Professor Zimmerman, you’re generalizing from a single example, I’m afraid. And your conclusion is counter-intuitive. The “Liberal” hegemony Radosh singles out is so obvious to any campus person these days that it does not need a survey coming up with precise numbers.