Viewpoint Diversity

The Wall Street Journal ~ John Cuneo

Amy Wax, a law school professor, has been running the gauntlet of political correctness erected by the dean and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Wax's problems began when she and Larry Alexander, a law professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, bylined an op-ed, Paying the price for the breakdown of the country's bourgeois culture, in the Philadelphia Inquirer last August.

Wax and Alexander suggested that tenets of bourgeois culture after World War 2 like marriage before (and after) children, faith, hard work, patriotism, service, and charity were the things that helped ensure success and bind a nation toward common purpose and progress.

"The culture laid out the script we all were supposed to follow: Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime."

These opinions earned Wax an open letter from 33 of her law school colleagues who accused her of attacking the school with racist views, and invited students to report her for any further stereotyping and bias. The dean then piled on and asked Wax to take a leave of absence and no longer teach a required first-year course.

Such ideological confirmation bias and echo chambers are becoming the norm on campuses as evidenced by Jonathan Haidt's work examining viewpoint diversity and freedom of expression, as well as the work of Canadian Jordan Peterson. Next up? Workplaces like Google.