For a perhaps surprising, eye-opening account of how our “diversity” policies look to an American black writer writing in the London Spectator, take a look at “The Diversity Trap,” a warning that “Britain seems to be following America down a dangerous path.”
Among its observations:
- “There’s no reason to believe that proponents of affirmative action care whether or not the policy works. Nearly all of the data needed to adjudicate the wisdom of the policy has been kept secret for decades.”
- “In the midst of a recent discrimination lawsuit, plaintiffs have unearthed evidence that Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants low on personality traits such as ‘courage’ and ‘kindness’, driving down their odds of being admitted. [See my discussion of this scandal here.] According to the New York Times, Harvard ‘fought furiously’ to keep this a secret.”
- “Another minor scandal occurred more than a decade ago when two Harvard professors found that over half of its black students were not the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action — i.e., they were not the descendants of American slaves but the children of recent immigrants to the US. Since then, university administrators have blocked inquiries into the demographic make-up of black students at elite schools, sending a clear message: do not ask how we admit students, where they are from, and whether they thrive after they get here. In other words, do not ask for any data that bears on the questions of how, or if, affirmative action works. Proponents of affirmative action do not behave like adults instituting a wise policy by ethical means, but like adolescents guarding a dirty secret.”
- “As a space gets more diverse, diversity advocacy does not decrease; it increases. Consider universities. Why do we see the most energetic demands for diversity and sensitivity in precisely the places that are already the most diverse and sensitive? Because diversity demands do not vary with the level of societal prejudice, but with the level of societal guilt. Where white guilt is endemic, demands to redress racism will be strongest, regardless of how much racism actually exists.”
Read the whole thing.
