Angry racial protests have been a feature on many American campuses over the last several years. But just what do the students really have to be angry about? They’re treated almost like royalty because minority students add that magical ingredient for learning, “diversity.” They seldom have to work very hard in their courses since it’s easy to find enough easy courses to pass. They often get to have separate centers, dorms, and “safe spaces” on campus. And their protests objectively accomplish nothing other than virtue signaling.


In this Martin Center article, British academic Joanna Williams provides an explanation, namely that college officials are largely to blame for creating the conditions that lead to campus protests. How so?

First of all, Williams notes, most schools plant the notion that race is terribly important by making all incoming students take some sort of diversity training or coursework. That sets the tone: Because of their race, some students are special. Rather than simply focusing on giving all students an equal opportunity to learn, school officials emphasize that race is a major concern. As Williams writes,

students are not able to leave their personal circumstances at the door of the classroom and tackle ideas as intellectual equals. Instead, their subjective feelings, drawn from their identity, become an undisputed source of evidence. The more oppressed the speaker, the more respected their response.


Then the curriculum stokes the fire by conveying to students in many of their classes that grievances based on race (and class, and gender, and other things about people) are of paramount importance. Students who are already inclined to see the world that way can be turned into seething social-justice warriors who can’t wait to show how committed they are. On most of our campuses, you’ll find professors who want to turn students into “progressive” activists. Williams indicts them. “This form of teaching,” she writes, “confuses politics and education. What’s important is not the knowledge students acquire but the values they demonstrate. The politicized classroom becomes a confessional for white students to admit to their inherent guilt and a psychiatrist’s couch for black students to share experiences of victimhood.”

Williams fears that our campuses will continue to be rocked by racial protests because the people in charge can’t say “no” to those who want to use higher education for purposes of indoctrination. I can see no reason to disagree.