University of Chicago's Steep Decline

 The Woke-ification of The University of Chicago is nearing its terminal phase.   I have to admit that I was amazed at how quickly this citadel to the creation of new knowledge and academic freedom crumbled.  Despite the eloquent and impassioned pleas from the likes of Dorian Abbot and Harald Uhlig, the university’s Senate voted to establish an entire Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity (“RDI”) Department.  Not just a center, but an entire department.

As an alum of both the College and the Booth School of Business, I have watched with morbid curiosity as the forces of Woke chipped away at this once fine institution—an institution that I was proud to be associated with.  In watching institutions cave to this insidious force, there are some observations that I have made.  First, Woke-ism is a terminal condition.  I have yet to see an organization that started to go Woke reverse course.   Like termites, it gets into the foundation and eventually, it consumes the organization and demonizes anyone that rejects its ideology, even when the organization begins to do nonsensical things.   The Art Institute of Chicago fired all of its docents because they were too “white.” The American Writers Museum featured an obscure trans author along with Kathy Griffin in one of their programs.  The Newberry Library heralds drag queens as “role models” for children.   The English Department at The University of Chicago suddenly will only admit students that wish to do work in Black Studies.  That is the mid=phase, when organizations begin to do things that on their face are absurd. Second, as James Lindsay noted in his book Cynical Theories, it starts in the communications area and begins to take over the controls--- just as a virus does, bit by bit, then at an ever increasing rate.   Third, the symptoms are unmistakable.   The infection communicates its presence with clear words and symbols that are at one time, innocuous yet deadly to the purposes of the organization.  “Inclusiveness,” “Reimagine,”  and of course, “Equity” and “Diversity.”  It will celebrate the rainbow flag and email notifications from individuals always have pronouns in the signature.   Those are all sure signs that the organization has contracted Wokeness.

The cancel culture is inseparable from Wokeness.   Wokeness does not allow for debate and empirical evidence.  Debating the Woke is like debating a fundamentalist Baptist about the rapture.  Don’t waste your breath.

Let’s tease apart this new, grand department.  Its birth name has meaning and we have to assume that it was deliberately given a three part name, each of which could be a field on its own (although they believe that there is some synergy having them together). 

Race.  A department of Race is a field of study only a National Socialist could love.  It runs counter to everything those of us baby boomers and later have been taught with the words of MLK—to judge a person not by the color of their skin but the content of their character.  And this was remarkably successful, relegating racism impotent in all of our legal, housing, and employment structures. 

Diaspora.   A department devoted to the study of diaspora already exists.  Diaspora is the movement of peoples over time.  That study already exists in the history department.  Indeed, a quick gander at the history department faculty shows that it already has 10-12 faculty members whose interests and study involve race, diaspora, and immigration or such things.  So this department already exists.

Indigeneity.  True Wokeness in academics always involves a word or words not in common usage.  How many times in your life have you spoke or written the word “indigeneity?”  As with “Diaspora,” a department devoted to the study of indigeneity already exists.  It is called the Anthropology Department.

We must assume that the order in which the organizers chose to name this division was deliberate, and they chose to put Race first.  That is symbolic.  After a couple of generations of teaching our society that race should be one of the last things to look at, suddenly it is first.

Wokeness overtook the University of Chicago with surprising speed.  It began with the small concession of law school professor Geoffrey Stone, one of the authors of the Chicago Principles of Free Speech. After an Iranian student objected to his use of the “N” word as an example in his first amendment class and some students demanded that Stone lose his job, Stone conceded.   It was the beginning of the end.

After the George Floyd riots, the English Department announced that in the 2020 academic year, it would only admit students interested in Black Studies.  So much for Shakespeare and Chaucer.

And then economics professor Harald Uhlig had the temerity to suggest that BLM was making a mistake by demanding to defund the police.  The university’s administration responded to claims that Uhlig was a racist by conducting a full investigation into his social media posts.  It found nothing.

Since then, several departments have posted statements that amount to swearing fealty to the preachings of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram Kendi. 

Scholarship and meritocracy are on the way out at The University of Chicago.  Equity and Inclusiveness are in.

It would have taken an exceptionally strong leader at the university to hold back the forces of Woke orthodoxy once they gained a foothold but President Zimmer was suffering from brain cancer and Wokeism began to flourish. 

Sure, there are some holdouts.  Professor Dorian Abbot is doing a courageous job of pushing back, as are a group of conservative students that established an online website The Chicago Thinker.  But they are mere holdouts.  The once great university has fallen.

I have a couple of predictions.  First, within three years, there will be demands for “common sense” amendments to the Chicago Principles of Free Speech.  Those amendments will make free speech and free inquiry less free.   Second, the new division will become a kind of commissar, and will begin policing other departments for signs of racism.  It will call out other divisions that do not have sufficient numbers of African Americans or women in their divisions, and will call them out for “unacceptable” research and study.  Eventually, it will elbow its way into a kind of super-division. 

Watching the Wokeification of The University of Chicago is like watching a parent go into hospice--a once vibrant, confident person important to your development withers away.