If I didn’t know any better, I would say that this article at The College Fix is clever satire, but what is going on under University of California President Janet Napolitano is all too real and part of a growing trend of totalitarianism on campus.
Standard conservative ideas have become verboten at some universities where offering a right-of-center opinion about American life is considered a “microaggression.” (Interesting: Spell-check doesn’t consider “microaggression” a real word. How’s that for a microaggression?)
“America is the land of opportunity,” “There is only one race, the human race” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” are among a long list of alleged microaggressions faculty leaders of the University of California system have been instructed not to say.
These so-called microaggressions – considered examples of subconscious racism – were presented at faculty leader training sessions held throughout the 2014-15 school year at nine of the 10 UC campuses. The sessions, an initiative of UC President Janet Napolitano, aim to teach how to avoid offending students and peers, as well as how to hire a more diverse faculty.
At the gatherings, deans and department chairs across the UC system have been instructed to be careful using (read: instructed not to use) phrases such as “America is the land of opportunity” or even use forms that provide only “male” and “female” check boxes, among a long litany of supposed microaggressions listed in a document underlying the “Faculty Leadership Seminars.”
The document has drawn little scrutiny until now, when a professor in the UC system pointed it out toThe College Fix. The professor chose not to attend the seminars, but myriad materials on the UC Office of the President (UCOP) website give indication as to what sort of lessons were taught there.
Other sayings deemed unacceptable include:
● “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.”
● “Where are you from or where were you born?”
● “Affirmative action is racist.”
● “When I look at you, I don’t see color.”
Martin Luther King’s dream of a “colorblind society.” where people are judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, was once embraced by Americans of all political stripes.
Now progressives consider that ideal to be a form of racism.
When even the ideals put forward by Martin Luther King are considered racist, we’ve gone round the bend. Nothing chills speech more than accusations of racism.
Freedom of thought, opinion, and expression is the basis of a fair society — and we’re quickly losing that freedom in order to appease the Gods of political correctness.
Denis G. Rancourt wrote about the dangers of this creeping totalitarianism recently in Veterans Today:
A society is totalitarian to the exact degree that the individual is prevented from effectually expressing his/her opinions and beliefs. Suppression of expression intended to exert influence is an accurate gauge of totalitarianism.
The elemental opposing force against runaway hierarchical dominance is the balancing force of the individual seeking freedom by attempting to exert influence.
Nothing can be clearer about societal organization. The violent oppression that necessarily accompanies society’s dominance hierarchy is countered only by the individual’s efforts to have influence, to have a significant say in his/her own life and in the life of his/her community.
The individual, acting alone or in association with other individuals, is the essence of the protection against totalitarianism, fascism, and oligarchic plutocracy, and this is as true in the so-called “free and democratic societies” as anywhere else.
The totalitarian left must be vigorously fought everywhere they try to shut down the speech of conservatives.
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