Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - DP130035
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED334898 AUTHOR: D'Souza, Dinesh
TITLE: Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on
Campus.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1991
NOTE: 319 p.
AVAILABILITY: The Free Press, A Division of Macmillan,
Inc., 866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 ($19.95).
ABSTRACT: This book addresses the issue of angry campus
confrontations over issues of race, gender, and ethnicity,
and more broadly, the dilemma of the college's and
university's ability and desire to attain the goals of
liberal education while also desiring to be "politically
correct." It is noted that student activists have split the
university on moral grounds, charging that universities are
"structurally" racist, sexist, homophobic, and class
biased. It is argued that, while generally unrestrained by
administration and unopposed by senior faculty, junior
faculty activists, in their eagerness to create a
multicultural community, demand and receive changes in
admissions and other policies on the basis of race and
gender categories, rather than intellectual merit. Case
histories examine the admissions policies of the University
of California at Berkeley, the multiculturalism at Stanford
University, the roots of protest at Howard University,
racial incidents at the University of Michigan, the
subversion of academic standards at Duke University, and
the teaching of race and gender at Harvard University. Each
case is used to document the counter-productive effects of
preferential treatment and official double standards on
minorities themselves, and argues that university policies
designed to foster pluralism, diversity, tolerance, and
multiculturalism in fact promote ignorance, intolerance,
and racism. Finally, it is noted that the rhetorical
excesses and coercive tactics of the "politically correct"
have done much to drive reflective liberals into the ranks
of a conservative opposition. Contains an index and
reference notes for each chapter. (GLR)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Academic-Standards; Affirmative-Action;
Colleges-; Conflict-; Cultural-Pluralism;
General-Education; Higher-Education; Political-Influences;
School Administration; School-Policy; Sex-Discrimination;
Universities-
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Educational-Policy; *Equal-Education;
*Politics-of-Education; *Racial-Factors; *Selective
Admission; *Social-Action
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