University of Pittsburgh Hits Rock Bottom, Keeps Digging

A little more than a year ago I wrote at length here about the mandatory freshman course on racism adopted at the University of Pittsburgh that, judging from the detailed syllabus posted online, was being taught from a very narrow, far-leftist perspective. (No readings, for example, from Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr, James Baldwin, Richard Wright—not even Malcolm X, and not even Ta Nehesi Coates! Forget the idea that any student would get exposure to John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Sowell, etc. )

Now Pitt is doubling down with this job ad:

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported yesterday on how the wokerati are destroying elite secondary education in New York City. The whole story makes for revealing but predictable reading, but this passage stands out for special notice:

With the election of Donald J. Trump, teachers said, permissible disagreement narrowed markedly [at Grace Church School]. Mr. Rossi recalled some students in his “The Art of Persuasion” class hankered for contrarian readings outside what he called the “Grace political bubble.” So last autumn he proposed a work by Glenn Loury, a well-known economist at Brown University and a Black man with conservative leanings.

An administrator, Hugo Mahabir, whose family has roots in Trinidad, blocked that. He wrote in an email to Mr. Rossi that Mr. Loury’s argument — delivered to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics faculty — “rings hollow,” and that to give students a Black conservative view on race might “confuse and/or enflame students.” Mr. Mahabir did not respond to requests for comment.

I’m not surprised that Mr. Mahabir wouldn’t talk to the New York Times because his position is indefensible.  (A surprising number of faculty and administrators at these fancy private schools refused to talk to the Times.) And prohibiting students from hearing from Glenn Loury (or similar people) stems from a certain knowledge that their woke positions will be demolished. Let them debate the proposition. They won’t.

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