UCLA Professor Joseph Manson issued a powerful letter Thursday relinquishing his tenure at the university, explaining that “the woke takeover” of higher education has made freedom of expression on campus virtually impossible. He writes that “the ideological takeover of my university has ruined academic life for anyone who still believes in freedom of thought.”
These ideologic conquests take place at many educational institutions throughout the country.
Today, professors are not forced out of their positions because they don’t have the option. Ideological bullies force them to leave. UCLA Professor Joseph Manson has decided to leave. Why? https://t.co/LJIQzBybw5
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) July 7, 2022
Manson, 62, has been an UCLA anthropology professor since 1992. He was awarded tenure in 2000. His research covers topics such as human personality variations and non-human primate behavior. He starts his essay by detailing the “public torment and humiliation” of one of his colleagues, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, for allegedly being racist. What was his crime? He programmed simulation models of “the geographic and temporal patterning of urban crime” and marketed the software, called PredPol, to police forces.
Naturally, graduate students were quick to pounce—how dare he examine the statistics of urban crime?—and claimed he was “entrench[ing]Naturaliz[ing] the criminalization of Blackness in the United States.” For this, he was ostracized by other faculty and treated like a “pariah.” A group called #stoplapdspying plastered fliers all over campus. Here’s what their anti-police ideology looks like:
Police is rooted in colonization and slavery.
Read our Automating Banishment report, about policing’s roots in settler colonialism and conquest: https://t.co/GE1i8ZC6f5
— Stop LAPD Spying Coalition (@stoplapdspying) March 24, 2022
To Manson, the episode presaged where things were going on campus, writing that many professors keep quiet because of their “fear of the woke faction.”
These signs are everywhere. Discussing whether to stop requiring the GRE (a standardized test, like the SAT) from applicants to our Ph.D. program, one colleague told a meeting of the biological anthropology subfield that he regarded the GRE as the most informative part of an applicant’s dossier, but that we had no choice but to vote to stop requiring it. Why? We would then be considered racists.
He points out how race has entered almost every facet of university life, noting that “statements recounting one’s activities on behalf of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are mandatory in faculty job applications and in promotion dossiers.” In other words, you have to prove your DEIJ creds just to get hired or advance your career, no matter what subject you’re teaching. Manson says that this situation will not improve.
As Doris Day sang, the future’s not ours to see, but it’s a good bet that the grip of woke orthodoxy on the University of California, and most other once-great American universities, will only tighten in the years to come.
One of the reasons he’s pessimistic, he explains, is that:
…now that standardized tests have been dropped from undergraduate application requirements, a growing number of students will be simultaneously unable to handle university level coursework, and predisposed to denounce their professors for heresy, having been chosen for admission on the basis on their leftist activism as high school students. Meanwhile, California’s K-12 schools are increasingly substituting mind-damaging political indoctrination for education.
RedState reported before on declining viewpoint diversity at universities, but every new story shows us how serious the problem really is and the way these activists brainwash our children. Bari Weiss wrote the following:
It could happen to you, if it happened to him. Common sense will tell us. Common sense would say: What will stop the leopard from eating my face?
However, when the leopard approaches your colleague, I’ve seen that about 99% find a way out. Some say that the one who got their face eaten was not worthy. Or maybe the leopard was hungry just that day.
So true–and good for Manson for speaking out here.
READ:
Boston University releases a List that Connects Students and Teachers with Similar Sexual Interests
Ilya Shahpiro Resigns in Georgetown Despite Being Reinstated
Princeton Wants to Axe Tenured Professor Who Dared to Speak out Over School’s ‘Anti-Racism’ Policies
About Post Author
