Victor Ray, a white-looking man himself who teaches on "Race and Ethnicity, Gender, Stratification, (and) Qualitative Methods," according to his bio page, claims that the whole idea of "diversity of thought" in education represents nothing more than an ideological Trojan Horse being propagated by conservatives whose goal is to make "racist and misogynist ideas acceptable."
In a recent op-ed, Ray identified what he says are three faulty premises that arise whenever people claim that university and college campuses are too liberal. One of these, he says, is the idea that conservatives ever act in "good faith" when pushing for their views to be heard.
In Ray's opinion, conservative ideology at its core is nothing more than a "political tactic to exert power over higher educational institutions." He refers to conservatives beliefs in his editorial as merely being a "rhetorical move" that appeals to "merit or free speech" – and that none of this is ever a good thing.
In an attempt to prove this, Ray uses the example of the academic achievement gap that exists between white and black students, which many conservatives believe stems from "ghetto" black culture's low view of education. Black students who achieve academically are often accused by their non-achieving counterparts of "acting white," simply because they're succeeding.
The prolific idea that academic achievement inherently represents "whiteness," a derogatory buzzword to describe white culture, is precisely what holds many black people back from succeeding in life. But Ray disagrees with this ideology, claiming that "science" shows otherwise – case closed.
Rather than encourage open debate about these and other controversial topics, Ray says all viewpoints that oppose his own should be silenced. He further labels beliefs other than his own as "racist," "misogynistic," and various other denigrating adjectives.
Ray also uses the creation versus evolution debate and climate change as two other examples of "diversity of thought" that aren't acceptable. Allowing anyone to speak from a different perspective on these two issues is "attempting to undermine disciplinary consensus," Ray insists.
Victor Ray: If you're a conservative, then you don't have any right to express your viewpoints in academia
Ray also hilariously claims that it's a misnomer that conservative ideas are marginalized in higher education. He believes that current trends somehow show that the Left is losing ground in academia, pointing to "fights with graduate unions, the increasing reliance on contingent labor and the retreat from affirmative action" as evidence of this.
Perhaps Ray's most ridiculous claim is the idea that conservative thought represents the opposite of diversity.
"What is diverse about a body of thought reliably in support of a reactionary status quo?" he writes with postulation. "Those people who claim universities are insufficiently open to conservatives often pose as brilliant, renegade outsiders, presenting dangerous knowledge that the politically correct educational establishment has unfairly marginalized.
"But there is nothing edgy or very thoughtful about denigrating people of color or women, assuming that the natural order of the world is out of order because we had a black United States president or attacking trans students for simply existing," he adds.
Ray concludes this ironically reactionary diatribe by claiming that conservative ideas are "hegemonic," which in his view automatically discounts them from having any place in higher education. He claims it's all just a cover for "white identity politics," and that any perceived marginalization or mistreatment against people with conservative viewpoints on campus is simply imaginary.
"They [white men] remain stubbornly at the top of the organizational hierarchy across the landscape of higher education, and their calls for so-called diversity of thought are attempts to extend this lead," Ray concludes.
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