Diversity at Dartmouth

Here’s a piece from The New York Times that features Dartmouth predominantly. It’s an article about diversity training on college campuses. True to its reflexive inclinations, the Times sees only the politically correct handwringing it feels is necessary when addressing issues of race — and completely ignores any alternative views. Where is there room for a critique of multiculturalism? Where is there room for a critique of affirmative action, or of the notion that some interior quality derives from race? No, the Times — along with, sad to say, Dartmouth — mutters tired old pieties and creaky shibboleths, in what amounts to a puff piece for the multi-culti mavens.

The article also notes the ideological boot camp that makes up Dartmouth’s UGA training. (For those of you who know me, you know that I’ve seen this slop first-hand; those who read The Dartmouth Review know about it second-hand.) “Training for staff members includes workshops in which they are asked to think of Dartmouth in terms of classism, racism and sexism, and then to make recommendations for improvements. They are also told to find ways to incorporate those suggestions into their own lives.” The goal, the College claims, is to increase what it calls “cultural competence.” Social engineering at its finest, ladies and gentlemen: the College wants your soul.

The article cites the “ghetto party” of a few years back as justification for promoting diversity. It is unfortunate that the issue has been thus framed, but the fault lies heavily with those who opposed the racial McCarthyism of that event. They never stood up to those calling for the scalps — er, heads — of the “racists.” Consequently, the media was in a tizzy, and papers like the Times were able to frame the question as an issue of racism, rather than one on free speech. A crucial lesson is to be learned from this — though, to judge from subsequent flaps, it has not been learned at all.

One last thing. “The white students are friendly in a superficial sort of way,” says a Dartmouth senior, Deanne Battle, who is black. One wonders how such a racist comment would fly were a white student saying it about a black student. But I think we all know the answer to that one.

For the last word on the issue of thought reform that passes in the guise of diversity training, see Alan Charles Kors’ “Thought Reform 101” from Reason Magazine.