Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Last week sometime, I noticed that a few of the professionally outraged people I follow on Twitter were calling one of my editors at the Wall Street Journal racist. I know Naomi Schaefer Riley well enough to know that this is laughable. What did she do to warrant such a charge? Why, she criticized the topics of a few dissertations from black studies departments that were highlighted in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article. Riley, who has long written about higher education, is one of the bloggers at the Chronicle's Brainstorm blog. Here's much of what she wrote in this blog post:
Then there is Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of “Race for Profit: Black Housing and the Urban Crisis of the 1970s.” Ms. Taylor believes there was apparently some kind of conspiracy in the federal government’s promotion of single family homes in black neighborhoods after the unrest of the 1960s. Single family homes! The audacity! But Ms. Taylor sees that her issue is still relevant today. (Not much of a surprise since the entirety of black studies today seems to rest on the premise that nothing much has changed in this country in the past half century when it comes to race. Shhhh. Don’t tell them about the black president!) She explains that “The subprime lending crisis, if it did nothing else, highlighted the profitability of racism in the housing market.” The subprime lending crisis was about the profitability of racism? Those millions of white people who went into foreclosure were just collateral damage, I guess.
But topping the list in terms of sheer political partisanship and liberal hackery is La TaSha B. Levy. According to the Chronicle, “Ms. Levy is interested in examining the long tradition of black Republicanism, especially the rightward ideological shift it took in the 1980s after the election of Ronald Reagan. Ms. Levy’s dissertation argues that conservatives like Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, John McWhorter, and others have ‘played one of the most-significant roles in the assault on the civil-rights legacy that benefited them.’” The assault on civil rights? Because they don’t favor affirmative action they are assaulting civil rights? Because they believe there are some fundamental problems in black culture that cannot be blamed on white people they are assaulting civil rights?
Seriously, folks, there are legitimate debates about the problems that plague the black community from high incarceration rates to low graduation rates to high out-of-wedlock birth rates. But it’s clear that they’re not happening in black-studies departments. If these young scholars are the future of the discipline, I think they can just as well leave their calendars at 1963 and let some legitimate scholars find solutions to the problems of blacks in America. Solutions that don’t begin and end with blame the white man.
And how did academia respond to some extremely mild criticism? They flipped out. They kept flipping out. They lost their ever-living minds.
They claimed she was bullying kids (which is, apparently, what we now call people my age who are getting their doctorates). They were super upset that she hadn't read the dissertations for a brief blog post riffing on a sidebar from a Chronicle article. (Really.) Then they thought she couldn't criticize dissertations because she hasn't written one (worse, perhaps, she's written dissertation-length books that people have actually read and enjoyed). Finally, they said she was racist. One comment I read from the Chronicle web site suggested that Riley, who is white, really needed to sleep with a black man. A classy comment, I'm sure you'll agree, even if Riley and her black husband weren't expecting their third child in a few weeks.
Anyway, news comes tonight that Riley has been sacrificed on the altar of political correctness for her crime of pointing out how ridiculous a few black studies dissertations were. An editor announces they've fired her for her blog post.
We can all sleep safely now. Or as a friend wrote, "The liberal mob has spoken. The expiation has occurred. The new gods of diversity are satisfied. The sun will rise tomorrow."
This does confirm for me that academia is far and away the least tolerant, least diverse, least interesting and most petty environment in which to work.
And apparently it's also not very good at preparing students and professors for even the slightest of criticisms. But those folks on Twitter that I mentioned up top? Well, they're celebrating tonight.
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Sep '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
I read the Faculty Lounges: an excellent book. Two words: Rollo Tomasi
Dec '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Mollie,
What was at first a desire for a deeper social analysis of race collapsed in the 70s. The quota based mentality simply ended any hope of deeper analysis. In fact it enforced a shallow divorce from reality. For a brief moment Riley broke through that divorce and made them face reality head on.
Of course she was disciplined. The liberal phantasia world must be maintained at all cost. Meanlingless published papers, wasted grant money, and unwarrented tenured postions depend on it.
Regards,
Jim
Apr '12
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Agree with you on the deceit in using the word, kids, to describe students. There was a post earlier of the head of OWS who is nearly 30 but is a student. Shutting down free speech is a disgrace. What happened to a good debate between columnists or bloggers. This is intellectual laziness and it will amplify thoughts, not change them.
Jul '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Fear the credentialed contextualizers!
Jun '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
I guess the worst thing that we white people do is force so many young black men to avoid marriage completely, and abandon their out-of-wedlock children to the streets. Shame on us white people. There just isn't enough birth control available...apparently.
Feb '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Personally, I think that using the term "child" to describe someone who lacks the emotional and intellectual capacity to deal with criticism is perfectly apt. If someone chooses to be a child, that is their right. They should be allowed to have all the rights, and restrictions, that being a child entails.
Jul '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
So is it safe to assume that all liberal black studies students and professors are racists? If not then where is that black swan?
Jul '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Mollie, I just read her firing article and all the comments that followed in CHE. What a pointless bunch of fools there. Who in the world thinks that interacting with liberals serves any purpose that is positive? They never change their minds even when the facts are indisputable.
Feb '12
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Obviously, her husband, WSJ editor Jason Riley, isn't really black. First of all, he thinks for himself. That's a problem right there.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577271422640770022.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Jul '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
First they came for Derbyshire, and I said nothing because he was a rude meanie-face.
Seriously, I'm all for cautious (preferably sensible) talk from my betters on the Right in journalism and academia regarding touchy subjects like racial stuff. But if mildly mocking "black studies" departments for being trapped in the 60's is out, what's in?
Oh wait, I know this one! It's unconditional surrender.
Mar '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Stand by for the "Oh, but Derbyshire was different" defenses.
Apr '12
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
They claimed she was bullying kids (which is, apparently, what we now call people my age who are getting their doctorates).
Pet peeve of mine, there. "Kids" being people my age-- I've called myself middle aged more than once, just because I'm married, almost thirty (not caring) and at the general stage my folks were when they realized they were middle aged-- but somehow acting like a brat makes you a "kid." No, sorry, immaturity doesn't change the reality.
A classy comment, I'm sure you'll agree, even if Riley and her black husband weren't expecting their third child in a few weeks.
Oooh, Irony smacks HARD!
Mar '12
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
You're right, Mollie. That was rather mild criticism. The inordinate response to such tells us a great deal about value of their scholarship. Probably more so than their critics, they realize their work is a sham and are, not surprisingly, deeply insecure about it.
May '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
One of the truly evil things about affirmative action and all that it spawned, including ___ Studies Departments, is that it puts a permanent brand of incompetence on the very people it purports to help. At my UC campus we regularly heard comments implying that all Black students, for example, were AA admits. And as Brasidas suggests, it is probable that even the faculty realize that the ____ Studies department is a sop, and that their position, even if tenured, is simply not regarded the same as that of a professor in a science or engineering department....or even a history or literature department.
Jul '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Not very competent, even in protection of their precious Great Plantation politics. They still feature Riley's blog as a "Brainstorm Bloggers" entry on the page where they repudiate her.
Oct '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Conservatives looked bad when they were able to get richard grenell fired. Same thing with Liberals in this case.
Dec '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Or, as Kate McMillan at smalldeadanimals would say, "What's the opposite of diversity? University!!"
Mar '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
I believe I just heard Mark Steyn's volcano belch again.
Edited on May 9, 2012 at 12:34amSep '10
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Paging Joseph Epstein.
Nov '11
Re: Tolerance And Diversity At The Academy
Conservatives got Richard Grenell fired? I thought he resigned.
Where is the credible evidence that the comments of.... who, again? Bryan Fischer? caused Richard Grenell to resign?
Narratives.