Episode #52: Anti-Racism and Illiberal Education

Peter Wood

Curriculum Vitae is back! We have a couple of wonderful guests lined up including Professor Wilfred Reilly on anti-racism and The 1619 Project, Nathan Schachtman on the intersection of science and law, and Alex Joske on China’s global talent-recruitment strategies. 

In today’s podcast, I’m joined by Professor Steve Hayward, a resident scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Two weeks ago, the University of Pittsburgh announced a new required course for all new students: “Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance.” This course, like so many others, forces students toward ideological conformity, especially in regard to the concept of “anti-racism.”

Anti-racist ideology, which is anything but, has swept across America’s campuses and is quickly becoming a creed du jour of America’s left-wing. In this episode, I ask Steve if he thinks courses like the one at UPitt are likely to continue sprouting up, and whether he thinks they are an intellectually honest attempt at engaging students on the topic of racism, or if these courses are simply masquerading as something else.

Worse, these courses often omit prominent black scholars, such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, and modern writers such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, William B. Allen, Wilfred Reilly, and countless others. Why, we ask? Listen in to find out.

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