The Dartmouth Observer

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Wednesday, April 14, 2004
 
Intellectual diversity

I missed yesterday's D and thus this atrocious piece by History professor Craig Wilder, in which he all but calls Trustee candidate T. J. Rodgers a racist and a sexist for opposing affirmative action:

His anti-diversity rhetoric targets students of color on this campus, but his malice also threatens the gains of white women in the faculty and student body.

Affirmative action creates opportunity; bigots contribute scorn.

Perhaps, he seeks to profit from mischief without being accused of malfeasance. Perhaps, he realizes his need for moral cover.
Like most strident proponents of racial diversity, Professor Wilder (who, it has to be noted, teaches classes on the Black Radical Tradition in America, the Ghetto from Venice to Harlem, and the Marxist Theory of the Past) ends up only reinforcing the need for intellectual diversity here at Dartmouth. Ted Knudsen '04 deserves kudos for making that point in his response to the good Marxist.