Pamela Paresky’s thoughtful and thought-provoking essay in Sapir Journal considers how, in America, the concept of ‘whiteness’ in critical race theory is implicated in anti-semitism: American Jews have generally looked upon Jewish success in the United States as evidence of the country’s fundamental (if far from fully realized) commitment to the principles of tolerance, fair […]
Two Concepts of Free Speech, From Classical Athens to Today’s Campus
James Kierstead on how two concepts of free speech might offer a way forward in today’s campus controversies
Impartiality Is Needed for Academic Freedom
Jim Butcher, writing in Spiked, responds to Middlesex University’s formal rejection of the government’s report on racial and ethnic disparities with an important rejoinder: Universities should be places where staff and students are free to share and develop their views. This includes those who dissent from prevailing orthodoxies
BBC Asks ‘Is Uni Racist?’ – DDU Replies ‘No’
Read DDU’s review of a BBC documentary that asserts universities are institutionally racist.
Universities Should Exercise Healthy Scepticism Towards The Universities UK Report
Two DDU supporters argue why many universities are wrong to uncritically embrace the Universities UK Report, ‘Tackling Racial Harassment in Higher Education’
The University and the Social Justice Movement: A French Perspective
Michel Tavernier at Areo wonders why French universities, home of intellectuals closely associated with postmodernism, seem immune from the excesses of postmodernism’s political expression that beleaguers universities in the Anglophone world: Tuition fees, which are the product of freewheeling neoliberal economics, have spiralled out of control in the Anglophone world in general and in the […]
Tackling Racism In Higher Ed
In November 2020, UUK issued a set of radical recommendations in its report “Tackling Racial Harassment in Higher Education”, in response to alleged endemic racism in British universities. Don’t Divide Us supporters in academia respond. Read more
UUK: ‘Tackling Racial Harassment in Higher Education’ — A Response from Don’t Divide Us
As a group of DDU supporters who work in academia, we feel compelled to draw attention to the potential problems of the Universities UK report. We contacted Universities UK (UUK) with a request for information about their methodology, including sample surveys used, in order to get a fuller picture. These were not made available. In […]
Cambridge Dons Win Free Speech Row, Defeat New ‘Authoritarian’ Rules
Camilla Turner at The Telegraph interviewed Dr Arif Ahmed, a philosophy lecturer who spearheaded a campaign at Cambridge University to amend a proposed free speech policy. The policy would have prioritised respect for different groups and opinions over a commitment to tolerance of free speech. Had the proposal passed unamended, it could have fostered division, […]
The ‘Anti-Racism’ Movement Is Sowing Deeper Divisions
Andy Doyle, comedian and founding signatory of DDU, argues that today’s so-called anti-racists are based on an illiberal notion masquerading as a liberal one: The most damaging aspect of this mindset is that it renders impossible the task of rooting out racism. Falsely assuming that racism is everywhere, and insisting that people fundamentally opposed […]