Oxford University: The Delirious Capital of Political Correctness

Oxford University: Delirious Capital of Political Correctness

  • Oxford University had been criticized for “lack of racial diversity”. So, in the name of the multiculturally correct view, Oxford purged “male, pale and stale” with gay, female and black icons. If you think about it honestly, that is racist.
  • The Oxford Equality and Diversity Unit, which monitors respect for the canons of anti-racism, has ruled that not looking into the eyes of a student belonging to a minority constitutes a “microaggression” that can lead to “mental disorder”. Oxford’s multicultural political correctness looks as if has come right out of George Orwell’s “1984”.
  • For the first time in 800 years, Oxford eliminated the obligatory course on Christianity for theology students.
  • Oxford Professor Timothy Garton Ash announced that today, at British universities, “Jesus Christ would be banned”.

“Don’t feel guilty about our colonial history”, Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar titled a column in The Times. He asked his colleagues and students to have “pride” in many aspects of their imperialist past:

“Pride at the Royal Navy’s century-long suppression of the Atlantic slave trade, for example, will not be entirely obscured by shame at the slaughter of innocents at Amritsar in 1919. And while we might well be moved to think with care about how to intervene abroad successfully, we won’t simply abandon the world to its own devices”.

Dozens of Oxford academics immediately united to condemn the “simple-minded” defense of British colonialism by the professor. Student associations also branded Biggar a “racist” and a “bigot”, and asked the university to suspend him. Trevor Phillips, former chair of the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission, said that Biggar’s critics are using “an attack line of which Joseph Stalin would have been proud”. Its goal, in fact, seems the moral destruction of the intellectual adversary.

Biggar’s case illustrates the atmosphere in Oxford, the West’s capital of political correctness. Oxford’s students and professors are the leaders of a movement which, under the guise of “anti-racism”, is closing the Western mind and killing the Western culture with dogmatism, tribalism, anti-intellectualism and groupthink. All this indoctrinating has led only to a militant loathing of the Western past and a public revulsion for humanistic Western values, culture and the ability at least to try to correct our wrongs — as only the West does. Students and professors are now unable to explain why a culture that treats women and men equally or that protects freedom of thought is superior to a culture that subjugates women and oppresses individual choice.

Oxford now preaches the cult of “diversity”. But the true diversity for which a university should fight — the diversity of opinion and thought — is continually eroded and often completely destroyed. Roger Scruton, in an article for The Times, defined what is happening at Oxford as an “indoctrination without doctrine” and has charged Western universities with reviving the notion of “heresy”.

A series of hagiographic portraits of former students now appears on the walls of Britain’s most famous university. The initiative is part of Oxford’s “Diversifying Portraiture“. The university had been criticized for “lack of racial diversity”. So now, in the name of the multiculturally correct view, Oxford has purged “male, pale and stale” with gay, female and black icons. If you think about it honestly, that is racist.

For almost a year, Oxford University debated whether to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from campus, because of his links to slavery and colonialism. Rhodes’s statue was not dismantled, but a plaque commemorating Rhodes on Oxford’s Oriel College was removed from public view.

Pictured: A statue of Cecil Rhodes on the outer wall of Oxford University’s Oriel College. For almost a year, Oxford University debated whether to remove the statue, because of Rhodes’ links to slavery and colonialism. (Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

Besides statues and portraits, the multiculturalists have targeted the curriculum. Malia Bouattia, when she was head of the UK National Union of Students, declared that a “Eurocentric” curriculum had a “psychologically devastating” impact on black students.

In November 2018, Oxford’s Magdalen College announced that it will introduce mandatory courses for first-year newcomers on “institutional racism, cultural appropriation and implicit bias,” to ensure that ethnic minorities do not feel “offended”.

Oxford also announced that history students would be required to write “at least one exam paper focusing on black, Asian and other non-European history,” to balance the “white” curriculum. Shortly before that, for the first time in 800 years, Oxford University eliminated the obligatory course on Christianity for theology students. Oxford’s multicultural political correctness looks as if has come right out of George Orwell’s “1984”.

This frightening racist wave of institutional “anti-racism” is also trying to reprogram the students’ private habits…

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About the author

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author