Social justice ideology is turning higher education into an engine of progressive advocacy, according to a new report by the National Association of Scholars. Left-wing activists masquerading as professors are infiltrating traditional academic departments or creating new ones — such as “Solidarity and Social Justice” — to advance their cause. They are entering the highest circles of college administration. From these perches, they require students to take social justice courses, such as “Native Sexualities and Queer Discourse” or “Hip-hop Workshop,” and attend social-justice events in order to graduate.

But social justice education is merely a symptom of an even deeper perversion of academic values: the cult of race and gender victimology a k a “diversity.” The diversity cult is driven by one overwhelming reality: the seemingly intractable achievement gap between whites and Asians on the one hand, and blacks and Hispanics on the other. Radical feminism, as well as LGBT advocacy, are also deeply intertwined with diversity and social justice thinking on campus and off. But race is the main impetus. Liberal whites are terrified that the achievement and behavior gaps will never close. So they have crafted a totalizing narrative about the supremacist white norms and racism that allegedly hold back black achievement.

Objectivity, a strong work ethic, individualism, a respect for the written word, perfectionism and promptness are among the “white norms” that diversity and social-justice theory seek to deconstruct. In New York City, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is inflicting social justice ideology on local schools. Any act of self-discipline or deferred gratification is now simply a manifestation of white supremacy.

The test for whether a norm is “white” and thus illegitimate is whether it has a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics. Given the behavioral and academic skills gaps, every colorblind standard of achievement will have a disparate impact. The average black 12th-grader currently reads at the level of the average white eighth-grader. Math levels are similarly skewed. Truancy rates for black students are often four times as high as for white students.

The solution to this disparity is not greater effort on the part of students, according to social-justice and diversity proponents. Instead, teachers are now taught about “inclusive grading” and how to assess writing without judging its quality, since such quality judgments maintain white language supremacy.

It is impossible to overstate how fierce and sweeping the attack on meritocracy is: Every mainstream institution is either furiously revising its standards or finds itself in the crosshairs for failing to do so. Due to the diversity imperative, medical schools admit black students with MCAT scores that would be automatically disqualifying if presented by a white or Asian student. An oncology professor at an Ivy League medical school was berated by a supervisor for giving an exam in pharmacology that was too “fact-based.”

The only precedent for our current resentment-driven war on the West’s magnificent achievements is the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and that didn’t turn out well. Anti-racism has become the national religion, with the search for instances of racism to back up that religion becoming ever more desperate.

In fact, America is among the least racist countries on the planet. There is not a single mainstream institution not trying to hire and promote as many underrepresented minorities as possible.

Conservative philanthropists and firms spend billions each year on uplift programs to close the achievement gap. Taxpayer dollars are as liberally distributed from government coffers. We so take these efforts for granted that we don’t even see them; they have no effect on the dominant narrative about white indifference and exploitation.

How a civilization survives with so much contempt for itself is an open question. The claim that every feature of our world rests on racial oppression undermines the moral legitimacy of our country. The greatest sin of the social-justice and diversity crusade, however, is to teach students to hate their cultural inheritance. That inheritance allows us to trace the ever-changing reflection of human experience in the mirror of human imagination. The social justice crusaders are stripping the future of everything that gives human life meaning: beauty, sublimity and wit.

Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor of City Journal, from which this column was adapted.