Rescuing “Diversity” from Affirmative Action and Campus Activists

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough diversity is constantly celebrated, the word is regularly used in a distorted if not dishonest manner. In connection with Fisher v. University of Texas and the 2003 Supreme Court cases involving the University of Michigan, for example, critics of racial preferences who promote color-blindness have been portrayed as enemies of “diversity.” Scrutinizing the recent explosion of racially themed campus protests reveals tendencies that are even more alarming. First, activists are demanding rapid increases in the hiring of minority faculty and staff while ignoring the antidiscrimination mandates imposed by the Civil Rights Act. Novel dangers to academic freedom and intellectual rigor, moreover, have been surfacing as student groups assert imperious authority over university affairs, threaten to squelch criticisms of Black Lives Matter, and demand that professors be evaluated for “microaggressions.”