Penna Dexter

The vast California State University system announced last month that anyone receiving a degree from one of its schools must complete coursework in ethnic and social justice studies. These courses, like English and science, are now required for a bachelor’s degree. This requirement simply makes official the political indoctrination of students that’s taken place, and is growing, at universities across the country. Students are taught that America is systemically racist and that the drivers of prosperity and the American way of life that draws people to this country are not worthy of their admiration. The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzales, author of the new book, The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free, says the courses have a revolutionary purpose. He describes ethnic studies as courses meant to teach members of minority groups that they have “a long list of grievances against the United States, and particularly against whites.” A minority, he says, is a group that has been officially deemed marginalized by the university bureaucracy. The other target audience for these courses is the oppressor class. Oppressor students are white males, white women, Jews, and increasingly — because they “have had the temerity to succeed” — Chinese and Indian Americans. Mr. Gonzalez says they are taught that they must “assume the burden of collective guilt for sins in which they have taken no part.” John Ellis is professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He’s written a book titled The Breakdown of Higher Education. Far from being places where important political and social issues can be researched and debated, Professor Ellis says campuses now offer “fierce, one-sided advocacy of dangerous and destructive ideas.” This comes at the expense, he says, of “real education” and the acquisition of expertise in “general skills like critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.” He says the current violence in our streets is a result and should be a wake-up call.