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If the book this essay is based on reflects this excerpt, it is entirely made of straw. wsj.com/articles/the-d…
Reading this excerpt on the recent Bret Stephens column about the book it becomes apparent that, despite lip service to the ideal, these folks have no desire to diversify the elite academic spaces.
Oh, they'll let some women and black and brown people in the gates, but they should know better than to try to change anything once there because prior to their entry, the institution has been engaged in the dogged pursuit of truth, don't you know, and this can't be interrupted.
That pursuit of truth, mind you, is not political at all. It's simply a rational and dispassionate weighing of the evidence, an ability those already inside the gates are uniquely positioned to do. Anyone who thinks otherwise is indulging "grievances" which have no place here.
The insistence by these self-proclaimed defenders of the academy that movements toward diversity have somehow injected politics into the space that were not previously present is so laughably, obviously untrue that they should be embarrassed.
Of course there were politics before, but because anyone with even a different view wasn't allowed a voice no one bothered to notice. Now that some groups after 40 years of waiting for institutional change are pointing at the f-d up shit and saying, that's f-d up, it's a problem.
This, "we're over here pursuing truth" business is a fig leaf, an expression of deep fear that as it turns out, they might not have a monopoly on the truth, but to allow diverse voices to change how we see truth diminishes the existing structure's power, which we can't have.
Diversity without change isn't diversity. They are resisting change. They have more akin to the movements that have elevated Trump than those they say are somehow harming democracy. It's bullshit.
The good news is these arguments are so bad that the elite consensus is clearly in its death throes. The bad news is that so many of those inside the gates are desperate to cling to power, they'll embrace and promote these bad arguments anyway.
Here is my fervent plea for someone inside the gates who also holds the necessary prestige and power to start calling out their brethren for their nonsense. Those of us outside the gates can only have so much effect.
The paternalism is infuriating. They're like, "We let you in what else do you want?" "We took the name of the most notorious white supremacist off the building named after him in 1933 so we could make it clear no blacks were allowed, but we've changed. What else do you want?"
They're like, "Why can't you appreciate that we've allowed you inside this citadel of truth? Why do you keep insisting that there might be longstanding structures that may stand in the way of your equal contribution now that you are inside? Why are you so unappreciative?"
They can't believe that marginalized people now given partial access to the power and prestige of the elite space aren't willing to settle for that, rather than acting to change that space to reduce their marginalization. This Yale dude thinks that's an assault on democracy.
Fuck that. And fuck the people who take it seriously.
That these motherfuckers think they have a monopoly on the truth and are defenders of democracy because of it really is just another flavor of white supremacy. Thankfully I can say that without them leveling the charge of "grievance" because I'm a white dude. Motherfuckers.
Please read this paragraph and tell me who is practicing blind group loyalty, the people the author criticizes or, I don't know, the author himself. The irony is off the charts. 
Look at has"legion" of examples. This is legion? Always Oberlin because Oberlin is so representative. If these are the most troubling examples, we have nothing to worry about.
How about a legion of other examples? Like three Ole Miss students posing with a shot up memorial to Emmett Till? jbhe.com/2019/07/three-…
How about Ohio U. students on video doing a racist chant? jbhe.com/2019/04/racist…
How about the defacing of a campus memorial to enslaved persons? jbhe.com/2019/04/vandal…
