Responding To D Souza Essay, Research Paper

In D Souza s book Illiberal Education, he points out several specific

groups of students who received preferential treatment from educational

institutions. Homosexuals, African-Americans, and women are three such

groups who have advantages in today s educational system. In this

argumentative essay I will point out the advantageous treatment these groups

are given and give reasons why this behavior should be curbed.

First I would like to talk about how D Souza explains how women

were given preferential treatment in a specific class at the University of

Washington in Seattle. This is the story of Peter Schaub, who enrolled in a

Women s Studies class in the late 1980 s. As a male in the class, he was

clearly a minority student and was given a hard time by most of the students

and faculty, who were female. Unfortunately for Peter, he had certain

misconceptions on the curriculum of the course. Peter thought that Women s

Studies would have something to do with women in history and their

influence on society. In fact the course was based around the idea that men

have been oppressing women and that they should strike back at them in

anger. Since Peter had no interest in learning how to masturbate with a

feather-duster, he strongly protested against the misconceptions the teachers

and tutors were trying to teach. He was met with an uproar of disapproval

from the majority of the class, mostly female. His teachers had him banned

from the class the next day and had campus police officers waiting at the

door to escort him away

After several weeks of protesting to the campus administration, Peter

was allowed to return to class. Although he had the right to attend class, he

was asked by the Associate Dean James Nelson to drop out of the class and

be given full credit for the course.

This is one situation where the benefit of the doubt was given to

women because of the pc movement, pc being short for politically

correct . D Souza also mentions similar cases where this pc movement

has affected education for the worst. This is the case of the controversial

change in administration Duke University made in the mid-1980.

Duke saw an unusually high percentage of white professors teaching

their classes. What the university did was establish a quota for all of the

departments. This was to incorporate at least twenty percent of black

professors into the department or suffer one of many consequences. One of

them was grant reduction, so the various departments had no choice but to

hire more black professors, regardless of their teaching skills. Obviously the

most hurt by this new policy were the white professors who were looking for

jobs. Even if they were more qualified for the position, they re chances were

hampered by this new reverse-discrimination. So it seems blacks and

minorities have been struggling throughout the centuries to establish equality

with the Anglo-Saxon majority. Why would they want to regress after the

success they have enjoyed over the past decade? This preferential treatment

is only hurting the aspiring black professors by giving them the impression

that they do not have to work as hard as their white counterpart.

The last of the three groups that D Souza talks about is the homosexual

individuals that make up a small percentage of students on today s college

campuses. Sometimes these small percentages can have a strangle-hold on

the staff and curriculum as D Souza points out in his next segment.

In the late 1980 s, Yale University took on an image of being a gay

university because of the unusually high percentage of homosexual students

enrolled. So much so, that an article was published in the Wall Street

Journal to bring this controversial issue into the spotlight of the county s

media. President Benno Schmidt addressed the problem and responded by

saying, If I thought there were any truth to the article, I would be concerned

too. Immediately the gay and lesbian communities were outraged by the

president s comments and demanded to know what would be so bad about

being a gay university. Knowing the predicament he was now caught up

in, Schmidt swallowed his words and went back on his initial reaction by

saying that nothing would be wrong with a homosexual college except for the

fact that a proportionate number of heterosexuals would be required in order

to maintain cultural diversity. Basically the homosexuals pressured President

Schmidt into complying with their ideals by approaching him with the

potential threat of a discriminatory lawsuit, in which he was sure to be

crucified like most other conservative office-holding individuals in his

position. What they did was take advantage of the pc hype and turn it into

a weapon to be used against anyone that opposes them. This is not morally

right, but then again, most people would agree that neither is their type of

lifestyle.

As D Souza has shown the readers, the political correctness that is

sweeping through our nations college s and universities can be very harmful

to individuals, as well as entire ethnic groups. I think that what we as a

society have to work on is total equality between races, sexes, and sexual

preferences. There should be no favoritism as is found in today s system for

they are based on unjust rules. And I truly believe that it is the responsibility

of every good citizen to disobey unjust rules.