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NAS’s Dr. Peter Wood on Diversity and Anger in America

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This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars. Dr. Wood discusses the invention of the modern concept of diversity and how it has replaced earlier understandings of human unity, liberty, and equality as exemplified by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's civil rights message of “a single garment of destiny." He traces the history of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the use of diversity in college admissions while also addressing how a culture of anger seems to pervade American life, including our music and politics. Dr. Wood concludes the interview with a reading from his latest book Wrath: America Enraged.

Stories of the Week: Barry discussed a piece in First Things in which Mark Bauerlein discusses rising Catholic school enrollments and gives a defense of traditional liberal arts education; Mariam cited an Axios story discussing a recent Gallup poll which found declines in American patriotism, with just 18 percent of those ages 18-34 feeling very proud to be Americans.