A great many university jobs are now rooted in the obsession with “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Almost every college and university has administrators who search endlessly for ways to keep people riled up over every racial disparity in America, always with the suggestion that government must do more.
The University of North Carolina is as bad as any in this regard and in today’s Martin Center article, Grace Hall writes about a recent symposium on “Race, Racism, and Racial Equity.”
She writes, “According to the UNC Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the symposium is ‘a series of virtual events that bring together scholars and researchers from across campus to share their work with Carolina and the broader community.’ The events are co-hosted by the University Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Jordan Institute for Families, and the UNC School of Social Work‘s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The fifth event, hosted virtually in December 2021, detailed research currently being executed at the university about ‘systems of oppression’ in the justice, education and health fields.”
There’s the key phrase — systems of oppression. Everything must be explained as the diabolical, intentional operation of a system.
Consider school discipline. If more black than white students misbehave in school and are punished for it, that’s systemic oppression. One of the symposium speakers talked about a policy in LA that led to a larger decline in punishments for minority students than for whites and Asians. Supposedly, that’s beneficial — more “equitable.” Hall observes, “But the real question, however, is whether or not this ban has improved or worsened students’ education in those schools. Non-violent behaviors can still disrupt learning. One way for students to avoid being suspended for such behaviors is to stop the behavior.”
Other speakers discussed “equity” in the criminal-justice system, arguing that defense attorneys should bring race up as much as possible in trials. In other words, change the focus from individual conduct to group statistics. That’s a perversion of the justice system, but it fits in with the grievance obsession.
I like Hall’s conclusion: Public universities are funded by taxpayers. Instead of spending money pushing one far-left argument, universities need to help form students into adults that can understand and debate difficult topics from multiple points of view. The Race, Racism and Racial Equity Symposium is not supporting this cause, it is hurting it.