by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n For anyone familiar with the American university and its gospel of multicultural diversity, the revelation that Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren exploited her 1\/32 Cherokee ancestry to pass as a minority is a dog-bites-man story. For decades now universities have depended on the superficially non-white \u201cother\u201d to fulfill and tout their \u201ccommitment to diversity\u201d and their doctrine of \u201cmulticulturalism.\u201d Meanwhile, the only diversity that counts, the diversity of minds and points of view, is ignored. Instead, the rigid leftist ideology of American historical wickedness and oppression is imposed on the presumed bastions of truth and free minds.<\/p>\n The phoniness of such \u201cdiversity\u201d is evident on multiple levels. Warren\u2019s ploy is not that much more egregious than the thousands of Caucasians with Hispanic surnames who pass as minorities in American universities. White Chileans, Argentines, and Mexicans come to American colleges and are transformed into \u201cChicanos,\u201d a category that has little reality outside a college campus. Hiring Basques or Spaniards counts as increasing \u201cdiversity,\u201d even though they have nothing culturally in common with the mestizo or Indian children of farm-workers. So too African or Caribbean blacks are hired not because they bring the unique perspective of their homelands to their intellectual work or teaching, but because they count as \u201cblack,\u201d and thus are assumed to have some mystical connection with American black students and their cultural identity, which owes much more to American culture and history than to African.<\/p>\n Of course, socio-economic differences among American minorities are also ignored in the rush to promote diversity. A Mexican-American dentist\u2019s or schoolteacher\u2019s daughter who never cut a grape or washed a dish supposedly has some special insight into poor or working-class Mexicans. A light-skinned black son of college-educated parents who grew up in the suburbs gets to campus and suddenly has a rapport with the \u201cbrothers\u201d and their experiences. An upper class Chinese is thought to be better able to relate to anyone designated by the meaningless category \u201cAsian-American,\u201d which obscures the fundamental differences and histories of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Laos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Hmong. The social capital that comes from education and wealth and that is used to define \u201cwhite-skin privilege\u201d suddenly has no value when it comes to the equally privileged ethnic \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget, no matter how poor or underprivileged, no white people have anything to bring to the campus diversity table in the eyes of diversity-mongers. Indeed, not even all the non-white ethnic groups get the same privileges given to those anointed as contributors to \u201cdiversity,\u201d no matter how much their people have suffered. Punjabis darker than most black Americans don\u2019t add \u201cdiversity\u201d to campus. Armenians whose ancestors were slaughtered in the Turkish genocide, and who faced legal discrimination like real-estate covenants barring them from certain neighborhoods, don\u2019t count either. Other groups like Italians or Poles faced discrimination and racist slurs in at the turn of 20th century, when General Francis Amasa Walker, president of MIT, wrote in the\u00a0Atlantic Monthly<\/em>\u00a0that such dusky immigrants were \u201cbeaten men from beaten races; representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence,\u201d possessing \u201cnone of the ideas and aptitudes which fit men to take up readily and easily the problem of self-care and self-government.\u201d So pervasive were these prejudices that the 1924 immigration law effectively stopped such \u201cunfit\u201d people from coming to America. And obviously, despite their long subjection to anti-Semitism, exclusion, and mass-murder, Jews don\u2019t add diversity either. Indeed, they\u2019re fair game for campus prejudice and ethnic slurs. To the university, all these victims of historical oppression and exclusion based on their cultural differences are officially \u201cwhite\u201d with nothing to offer to campus diversity.<\/p>\n The diversity scam works by relying on a fraudulent concept of ethnic identity that submerges the individual into crude stereotypes and cultural clich\u00e9s. Blacks all have \u201csoul\u201d and a special insight into the life of emotion, the body, and folk wisdom denied to uptight repressed whites. \u201cHispanics\u201d all put greater value on the family and the collective, contrary to the selfish individualism so prized by American whites. Most of these stereotypes are merely modern variations of the old noble savage myth that for centuries has been used to compensate for the trade-offs and complexities of civilization. The denizens of complex civilizations can make themselves feel good by fantasizing about the simpler, more authentic, more fulfilling lives of the dark-skinned \u201cother\u201d free from inhibition and repression. Thus despite their stale, reductive crudity, these caricatures are constantly recycled, not just in the classrooms of ethnic studies or ethnic literature programs, but in novels, television shows, and the movies, where most black characters function as dispensers of wisdom and insight to inept dopey whites.<\/p>\n Worse yet, this phony ethnic identity is founded on the notion of victimhood and oppression generated by pervasive white racism and prejudice. Skin color and exotic surname thus signify this victim-status and the resulting privileges, institutional benefits, and special treatment that all comprise the reparations owed for those historical sins. No matter if the person has benefitted from education and a comfortable upbringing, he nonetheless deserves special privileges based not on his personal experience but on the accident of his ethnicity. Look no further than Barack Obama, who by any objective criterion has nothing in his life that makes him \u201cblack\u201d other than a genetic accident. The only thing that makes him \u201cblack\u201d other than our illiberal racialist obsession is the assumption that he has been subjected at some level to racism and prejudice, even though his presumed ethnic identity has in fact been the source of advancement and privilege far beyond his deserts.<\/p>\n Finally, this victim identity promulgates a crude, dishonest version of history in which the West is the arch-villain, the perpetrator of colonialism, imperialism, exploitation, and racism. Thus students hear from their teachers all about Western imperialism, but nothing of the brutal Islamic imperial conquests stretching from Spain to China, nothing of the enslavement, slaughter, plundering, ethnic cleansing, and cultural destruction that accompanied the armies of Allah. Students incessantly hear about American slavery and its horrors, but learn nothing about the role of African kings and rulers in supplying the humans to be sold. They never are told that the Arabs took as many slaves from Africa, around 10 million, as the Europeans did, or that most of the males were castrated to serve in harems, with millions dying in the desert during the long march to the Mediterranean. The massacres of American Indians are obsessively told and retold, yet the brutality of the Sioux against other Indians, the grisly torture of captives practiced by the Iroquois, the slaughter, torture, and mutilation of white settlers are all ignored or rationalized as understandable responses to white treaty-breaking, land-grabbing, and oppression.<\/p>\n This melodramatic history is the antithesis of the only diversity that counts, intellectual diversity, for it reduces a complex, variegated, universally flawed humanity into cardboard villains and victims. But the point of multiculturalism has never been \u201cdiversity.\u201d If true diversity were the aim, then the university would promote the diversity of religion, region, socio-economic background, and most important intellect and philosophy. And that\u2019s what \u201cdiversity\u201d of the sort that allowed a blue-eyed, blonde Elizabeth Warren to pass as evidence of Harvard\u2019s \u201ccommitment to diversity\u201d is really about: imposing a leftist ideological conformity predicated on America\u2019s historical crimes and sins.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine For anyone familiar with the American university and its gospel of multicultural diversity, the revelation that Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren exploited her 1\/32 Cherokee ancestry to pass as a minority is a dog-bites-man story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[79,22,120],"tags":[361,91,84,1023,360,1036,231,1042,93,1060,80],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-cU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-rise-of-faux-diversity\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":0},"title":"The Rise of Faux Diversity","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Defining Ideas In\u00a0Fisher vs. University of Texas, the Supreme Court heard legal challenges to the University of Texas\u2019s admissions policies, which allow consideration of an applicant\u2019s race in order to promote \u201cdiversity\u201d among the school\u2019s students. Such racial preferences are widespread in university admissions. In 80 percent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7258,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/one-cheer-for-the-schuette-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":1},"title":"One Cheer for the Schuette Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Front Page Magazine\u00a0 Many conservatives are applauding the recent Supreme Court\u00a0Schuette\u00a0decision upholding the right of the citizens of Michigan to ban racial preferences. As Charles Krauthammer\u00a0writes, the 2003\u00a0Grutter\u00a0decision, which like\u00a0Schuette\u00a0did not ban racial preferences altogether, was correct: \u201cThe people should decide.\u00a0The people responded accordingly. Three years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7030,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-outdated-business-model-of-diversity-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":2},"title":"The Outdated Business Model of Diversity, Inc.","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In today's divided society, universities would be wise to stress unity and academic rigor. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Diversity has become corporatized on American campuses, with scores of bureaucrats and administrators accentuating different pedigrees and ancestries. That\u2019s odd, because diversity \u00a0no longer means \u201cvariety\u201d or \u201cpoints of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/600px-Education_-_Red_Grad_Hat-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3127,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mission-lost\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":3},"title":"Mission Lost","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal \u201cWe offer unlimited opportunities to help students achieve their goals,\u201ddeclares\u00a0the California State University system on its homepage. \u201cWe prepare graduates who go on to make a difference in the workforce. We engage in research and creative activities leading to scientific, technical, artistic and social\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-academic-establishment-goes-after-bruce-bawer\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":4},"title":"The Academic Establishment Goes After Bruce Bawer","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Bruce Bawer, the intrepid international journalist and Freedom Center Shillman Fellow, has just published\u00a0The Victims\u2019 Revolution, an expose of \u201cIdentity Studies\u201d in American universities. These are the programs predicated on the allegation that certain minorities in America, mainly women, gays, blacks, and Latinos, are victims\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9430,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/diversity-historys-pathway-to-chaos\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":5},"title":"Diversity: History\u2019s Pathway to Chaos","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"America\u2019s successful melting pot should not be replaced with discredited salad-bowl separatism. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Emphasizing diversity has been the pitfall, not the strength, of nations throughout history. The Roman Empire worked as long as Iberians, Greeks, Jews, Gauls, and myriad other African, Asian, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":801,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}