Opinion | Inclusion and Exclusion on Campus
To the Editor:
Re “Universities Are Failing at Inclusion,” by David Brooks (column, Nov. 17):
While most of Mr. Brooks’s piece feels true and insightful, especially in the way “ideological war zones” hinder true curiosity, learning and student safety, I feel that he has forgotten the possibility of “both/and.”
As a dean of student life for a New Jersey independent school, I openly identify as an educator committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging work, and I long for the ideal of a pluralistic society where all are celebrated for their various life experiences, identities and perspectives.
On the other hand, I do not believe that real societal growth toward pluralism is possible without recognizing and grappling with the long history of “oppressors and oppressed.”
It is not educators teaching about oppression who create the divisiveness; it is those who hold the most power in any society who create the divisions. Literal gated communities and figurative glass ceilings exist to highlight this divisiveness in bluntly metaphorical fashion.
And while we do live in a country where people with a multitude of identities have made the economic climb to “gated” status, that has often included the cost of fully assimilating to the presiding white suburban cultural norms and mores.
True pluralism would mean everyone having equal opportunities to contribute and strive within our society and economy while retaining and showcasing their full selves. And too many Americans do hold the key identity of being oppressed.
J.M. Williams
Burlington, N.J.
To the Editor:
While I commend David Brooks’s stand on inclusion, it’s a bit late. The uproar should have started on the day that universities started to cancel speeches by speakers who leaned to the right so as not to offend some vocal student groups.
Rather than allow an intelligent back and forth with those they might disagree with, these people were not allowed to come to their campus. Shame on the colleges for allowing this. They have shirked their responsibilities.
Rich Corso
Oceanside, N.Y.
To the Editor:
All that money and all those resources dedicated to D.E.I. bureaucracies, and they couldn’t even spot antisemitism? Time to acknowledge that the D.E.I. model and its teachings are a failure. Worse, it’s left students incapable of recognizing real evil and oppression.
Andrea Economos
Hartsdale, N.Y.
To the Editor:
My experience has been that the one place you can have the kind of open discussion David Brooks seeks is in the world of interreligious dialogue.
While religious groups have deep differences, they share a fundamental trust that allows for civil disagreement. They also celebrate the virtue of humility, a virtue that is notably absent in the world of higher education.
(Rev.) Mitchell Brown
Highland Park, Ill.
