Law Professor Pens Cutting 'Diversity' Statement in Defense of Conservative Students
A Pulitzer Prize or Medal of Honor is hardly in order for the slew of reporters, commentators and political influencers “exposing” the academic left’s hypocrisy on the issue of “diversity and inclusion.”
Just about any campus conservative could sit down at a computer and remind the world that, despite the borderline obsessive demands for diversification being made by modern professors and university administrators, America’s ivory towers of higher education are bereft of the most important form of diversity: intellectual diversity.
It takes an entirely different brand of backbone and intellectual honesty for someone within the academic establishment to do the same.
University of California, Los Angeles School of Law professor Stephen Bainbridge did just that Dec. 23, however, publicly releasing his bold statement on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” that is apparently required from any professor seeking a merit-based raise at the institution.
I submit herewith my “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” statement for my merit raise at UCLAW https://t.co/ENH7WtLZKW
— Professor Bainbridge (@ProfBainbridge) December 23, 2019
Breaking from left-wing academic orthodoxy, Bainbridge used the statement not as an opportunity to espouse tired social justice truisms, but to issue a harsh rebuke of the “relentlessly liberal and secular” university climate that has left conservative and Christian students nationwide feeling “alienated and estranged.”
“Although I am aware and respectful of the many dimensions within which a university properly seeks a diverse faculty and student body, I have long been particularly concerned with the lack of intellectual diversity at the law school,” Bainbridge wrote. “A survey of U.S. law professors in general found that white Democratic professors (both male and female), Jewish professors, and nonreligious professors ‘account for most (or all) of the overrepresentation among racial, gender, religious, and ideological groups in law teaching.'”
“The groups that ‘account for most of the underrepresentation among racial, gender, religious, and ideological groups in law teaching’ are Republicans (both male and female), Protestants, and Catholics,” the professor continued, citing a wealth of pertinent academic literature.
“This disparity persists even though ‘religious and political diversity are probably more important for viewpoint diversity than gender diversity and roughly as important as racial diversity,'” he added.
Bainbridge did not stop there either, proceeding to cite a study exposing that the “ratio of liberal to conservative faculty members” at UCLA was an astounding 141 to nine.
Moreover, the professor added, Federal Election Commission data revealed more than 92 percent of political contributions made by current UCLA faculty had gone to Democratic candidates “and affiliated groups.”
So, how has Bainbridge contributed during his time at UCLAW to the university’s supposed commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in response to these staggering realities?
Well, “Because conservative students and students of faith often feel alienated and estranged in an environment that is so relentlessly liberal and secular,” the professor wrote. “I have made particular efforts to reach out to and support such students.”
“I have served as a mentor for leaders of The Federalist Society and Christian Law Students Association. I have given talks to both organizations,” Bainbridge wrote. “I taught a Perspectives on law and Lawyering seminar devoted to Catholic Social Thought and the Law, which gave students — whether Catholic or not — an opportunity to consider how their faith (or lack thereof) related to the law and an opportunity to learn about a coherent body of Christian scholarship that might inform their lives as lawyers.”
“I have also tried to lead by example, such as by serving as a volunteer with the Good Shepherd Catholic Church’s St. Vincent de Paul chapter, which raises funds for distribution to poor persons who are in danger of losing their home due to inability to make rent or mortgage payments,” the professor concluded.
Hundreds of BU students march silently in protest ahead of Ben Shapiro’s appearance and speech on campus. @BUNewsService pic.twitter.com/4TfQfvwSlS
— Hannah Harn (@hannahrharn) November 13, 2019
“Walk toward the fire. Don’t worry about what they call you,” the late media mogul Andrew Breitbart wrote in his New York Times best-seller “Righteous Indignation.”
“All those things are said against you because they want to stop you in your tracks,” Breitbart added. “But if you keep going, you’re sending a message to people who are rooting for you, who are agreeing with you. The message is that they can do it, too.”
With this one statement, Bainbridge perfectly exemplified the courage Breitbart was talking about.
And in a political climate where any guest speaker, professor or student who dares espouse a right-wing political opinion is liable to be met with throngs of angry, sometimes physically aggressive, left-wing demonstrators, that kind of courage is hard to muster.
But this is exactly the kind of courage conservatives and Christians must begin to exhibit in their everyday lives if they want to see continued success on the American cultural battlefield.
Anything less will fail to win hearts and minds.
Anything less is uninspiring.
And unfortunately, anything less is exactly what the left has begun to expect from us.
Why else would they have become so militant?
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