A reader sends word of this remarkable article by Patricia Olney, an associate professor of political science at Southern Connecticut State University.
Her article begins:
NEW HAVEN — THE NEW academic year has ushered in a barrage of affirmative-action initiatives at Southern Connecticut State University. One of these is achieving racial and ethnic diversity in the SCSU faculty.
The rationale for this is that a diverse faculty is a more competent faculty, better able to teach Black, Hispanic, and female students who would otherwise be taught by white males.
They assume that each minority groups has its own viewpoint and that minorities are victimized and being deliberately excluded from specialties dominated by white males. For that reason SCSU faculty must make racial and ethnic diversity a top hiring priority; they should “borrow’’ minorities from other departments for their search committees; and should also consider “candidates of opportunity’’ who are unqualified but possess “other exceptional qualities.’’
….
But hiring faculty in the name of “diversity’’ does not help faculty hiring committees bring better scholar-teachers to SCSU. Instead it institutionalizes discrimination against worthy candidates who happen to be white, male, heterosexual or politically conservative while lowering teaching and scholarship standards.
After that beginning she really says what she thinks….
The rationale for this is that a diverse faculty is a more competent faculty, better able to teach Black, Hispanic, and female students who would otherwise be taught by white males.
If one really believed this rationale, then the mere addition of non-White male teachers would not be enough to solve this problem. Since being Black is different than being female or Hispanic, how would it help Blacks to be taught by a female or Hispanics to be taught by a Black? Thus following this logic, the only way to provide for each group needs would be to have a separate class for that group taught by a teacher with the same race, ethnicity or gender. It would appear that the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision was wrong. Separate but equal is the way to go!
Or could these initiatives simply be an excuse to discriminate against White males? Perish the thought!