Prof Walks Before They Make Him Run

I received this message yesterday from an occasional correspondent, a veteran college professor. He has given me permission to post it, with the proviso that I slightly edit it to preserve his identity:

I’m in my last semester at my college, having started here decades ago, when it was a more open, more tolerant place. This was a university that while its faculty leaned left (And what faculty at a state university does NOT lean left?), there still existed a commitment to the last vestiges of academic liberalism, free speech, and real diversity. The curriculum was a fairly classical one in that and students received the kind of educations that were not markedly different than what previous generations had enjoyed.

Our student body decidedly is not elite. Many are first-generation college students, a good portion of our students are African American, and our entrance standards are not difficult. In my own teaching experience here, I have had students who probably could have done well anywhere and others that probably didn’t belong in college at all. (That is fine; college is not for everyone, and I strongly believe that there are many good jobs in the trades that for many people would be much more fulfilling than becoming a bureaucrat, which is many graduates become these days.

I prefer the non-elite students to elites, who have a ridiculous sense of self-entitlement and who always are looking for new and better ways to be offended. Non-elites tend not to become activists because they are not full of themselves or believe the rest of the world exists for their amusement. For my entire career here, I have had students of all backgrounds, races, nationalities, and orientations and have found the experience very rewarding and would do it again.

Unfortunately, the university where important things once mattered is being transformed into a place where everything is politicized, and a politicized place is a sick society that, in your words, lives by lies. We now have a Diversity Officer who, in reality, is the chief political officer on campus, and she is trying to turn as many students as possible into campus activists ready to pounce at the next alleged injustice. She sent out an alert not long ago to warn that there had been an act of “cultural appropriation” on campus, and that it was being investigated.

First, “cultural appropriation” is a term that didn’t exist just a few years ago but now has been elevated to a Crime Against Humanity. In the modern list of cultural crimes, “cultural appropriation” can rank from a white person in blackface to someone wearing a sombrero, and I suspect the list will continually grow until a Caucasian singing a spiritual is handcuffed and dragged off stage by Diana Moon Glampers herself. Nonetheless, no one was told what this alleged Crime Against Humanity was or why we needed to have a campus alert. (We get those at times when a bear is seen running on campus.)

While no one yet is required to list one’s pronouns, we already have faculty members doing it and it only is a matter of time until the practice is mandatory. We already have had to undergo diversity training in which we are told that the Golden Rule really is racist and that the Platinum Rule (Do unto others as THEY would like) which means that any action that one can twist into an act of racism/sexism/anti-trans/anti-gay/etc. is treated as though the perpetrator intended for it to happen — even if it is obvious that there is no malintent. It doesn’t matter; only the perception of the “victim” is important.

In practice, the most innocent and well-meaning comment or gesture can be interpreted as a racist, hostile action which demands justice, and that usually means humiliation, firing, or some other consequence visited upon a human being who then is stripped of all humanity and treated as yesterday’s garbage. We have seen this in practice in the former USSR, Eastern Europe, China, and elsewhere. Having taught in China, I have first-hand experience seeing what happens in a society where everything is politicized and where real-live political officers abound. (You can tell who the Communist Party members are, as they have nicer clothes and drive better cars.)

Now, in my classes I have gone into a lot of detail about things that have happened in U.S. History, the lynching, the discrimination, and the horror that went with it. I’ve never sugarcoated our history but neither have I presented things the way our political officers want them portrayed, so all of my teaching is racist, etc. You get the picture.

I’m not waiting around until I am accused of a Crime Against Humanity such as “misgendering” someone or not going to the right church. I’m old enough to retire, so that is what I will do. Interestingly, the old-line Democratic liberals on campus also are aghast at what they are seeing. These movements are being inspired and directed by people whose mindset is totalitarian. At the present time, there are still liberals on campus that do not go along with what is happening, but soon enough they will be gone and all that will be left are those that believe all of life should be about political propaganda. I truly fear for our future.

I have a Black wife, Black in-laws, and Black children, but none of that counts for anything in this new world on campus. Thanks to Intersectionality and Critical Theory, the only thing that matters is conformity to the latest iteration of the Sexual Revolution and whatever ideological organization George Soros wants to bankroll, such as Kendi’s Anti-Racism Center or Black Lives Matter. Sadly, these folks rail about economic inequality between Blacks and whites, but then pursue political and economic policies that guarantee that the economic gaps only will grow larger. Maybe that is their plan; create terrible conditions for marginalized people, rail about the situation, and then demand money to fight the problem. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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