Mandatory DEI Statements Are Ideological Pledges of Allegiance. Time to Abandon Them.
Crimson | Randall Kennedy
HLS Professor Randall Kennedy argues that “by requiring academics to profess — and flaunt — faith in DEI, the proliferation of diversity statements poses a profound challenge to academic freedom.”
He goes on to say, “By overreaching, by resorting to compulsion, by forcing people to toe a political line, by imposing ideological litmus tests, by incentivizing insincerity, and by creating a circular mode of discourse that is seemingly impervious to self-questioning, the current DEI regime is discrediting itself… I am a scholar on the left committed to struggles for social justice. The realities surrounding mandatory DEI statements, however, make me wince. The practice of demanding them ought to be abandoned, both at Harvard and beyond.”
Randall’s piece is part of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard’s column, which pairs faculty members to write contrasting perspectives on a single theme. Read Professor Ned Hall’s companion to Kennedy’s piece here.
