The political correctness movement and its proponents are quickly becoming insane. There is such an effort in our society now to meet these artificial demands of not offending anything or anyone.
In recent months, we have seen Chick-fil-A voted off Indiana University-Bloomington, the Virginia Tech Young Americans for Freedom chapter lose its funding due to the club’s conservative values, and the implementation of “free speech zones” on Penn State’s campus.
The latest display of political correctness has occurred within the University of California system. The University of California Student Association Board, which is representative of all the students enrolled in the UC system, just voted to divest from America. Yes, you read that right—America.
In 2014, many student government’s across the country participated in the global Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement—a movement to pressure Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights. Sadly, many of these efforts have been successful and have exposed the deep and dark underbelly of liberal academia.
As if a global movement to divest from Israel wasn’t bad enough—now there is an effort by the University of California system to divest from America. The rationale, America engages in human rights violations through “drone strikes,” “deportation of illegal immigrants,” and of course through “racial profiling in our criminal justice system.”
It would be interesting to see if these same students would condemn Sharia law or the murderous record of Che Guevarra. It’s fascinating how hypocritical some of these efforts can be.
The political correctness movement is alive and well, and it’s important that we continue to expose their intolerance. As more campuses begin to adopt “free speech zones” and grant students authority to make administrative decisions on campuses—we must fight back. “Free speech zones” are designated small areas on campuses where students are allowed to speak freely, but the catch is that students are required to “reserve” the space if they wish to speak their minds, display information, or set up a table.
However, it shouldn’t come as a shock to any of us that these incidents are occurring seeing as many universities have liberal administrations and professors who support these types of efforts. Remember last year when faculty at Rutgers University protested their school’s invitation to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for the commencement address? Seems fair, right?
Hardly, seeing as the school extended an invitation to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to speak at the university’s Eagleton Institute, and there was no outrage from the Rutgers Faculty Council then.
The hypocrisy in higher education stems from the administrations and professors, who offer students their unabashed support for their student led efforts to make their campuses more “politically correct.” The problem here is that many of these efforts are at the expense of other students and don’t allow for opposing thought. The political correctness movement operates under the guise of tolerance and diversity of thought, yet it is limiting in so many ways. Students, particularly conservatives, are made to feel uncomfortable in these hostile environments where only some opinions are acknowledged.
It wouldn’t be surprising if we begin to see more of these “divest from America” resolutions spring up on campuses across the country after this large effort from the University of California system.