After openly criticizing “anti-vaxxers” who did not buy into the whole COVID-19 vaccine hoopla, one of my professors at Emory University jokingly posed this question to the lecture hall: “Everyone here is a liberal, right?”
As a freshman who had claimed a philosophical exemption just to attend my university, I cringed. Even though I was still a political floater then, I was turned off by the Biden administration’s aggressive push for vaccination—among his other draconian policies. From that moment on, I quickly learned that leftism was what was acceptable. Conservatism was not.
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It didn’t take long for me to realize that college wasn’t a place for open inquiry—it was an indoctrination camp. Rather than exposing me to a range of ideas, it immersed me in a “woke” ideology, with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) woven into nearly every aspect of campus life.
Ostensibly, DEI claims to promote representation and inclusion for the underrepresented. But in practice, it excludes any ideology that doesn’t align with liberal ideals—an irony, given that conservatives are undoubtedly a minority on campus. Instead of fostering intellectual diversity, DEI encourages students to fixate on their differences, particularly race and gender—drifting further from the ideals of color and sex blindness. It also tends to reward minorities simply for just being minorities.
Because of this, I face a double whammy.
First, as a black and Latina woman, people assume I must be a staunch liberal. When I tell them I’m not, I’m met with puzzled looks and subtle challenges to my racial loyalty. The left seems baffled by the idea that my race and ethnicity don’t dictate my worldview. But I think for myself—and I’ve found that I align with conservative principles: limited government, traditional values, and the importance of a strong family. If intellectual diversity still mattered on campus, many others might realize they share these values, too.
Second, because honest observers recognize that DEI often elevates identity over merit, I know my achievements will be questioned. My education and professional success resulted from dedication, perseverance, and hard work—my skin color had nothing to do with it. Yet DEI policies, which reward people based on race, cast doubt on that success. Others may assume I’m where I am not because of my effort but because I was given a leg up to fulfill some DEI quota—diminishing the true value of what I’ve earned. As Cato Institute Research Fellow and President of Free Black Thought, Erec Smith told me, “a minority’s merits are always in question. More than one person has suggested that I, myself, am a diversity hire, even though my credentials and politics align with my institute’s mission.”
DEI policies not only prioritize identity over merit, they also reinforce stereotypes—especially for students like me. As a black and Latina woman, I face the constant assumption that my political views must align with the left. This reduces me to a mere representative of my ethnicity, ignoring the individuality of my thoughts and beliefs. It implies that I must subscribe to liberal ideologies when, in reality, I have my own values.
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Ending DEI would be a welcome change. These policies diminished my college experience by, rather than promoting true diversity of thought, merely perpetuating the myth that minorities can’t succeed without a leg up. DEI fails to recognize the hard work, dedication, and merit that contribute to my success, and instead, it assumes that I must have received preferential treatment to fulfill a quota.
I hope that with Trump’s attempt to eliminate DEI, diversity of thought will return to college campuses sooner rather than later.
Image: Candler Library, Emory University by Mpspqr on Wikipedia
This article was originally published at www.mindingthecampus.org
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