I apologize that we allowed you to think that the world outside of academe will be filled with therapy puppies, safe spaces and crying rooms. I apologize for black graduations, Hispanic graduations, lavender graduations and all of the other graduation-types that celebrate something other than academic achievement. During our lifetimes we’ve witnessed where tribalism leads (think Yugoslavia), and it never leads anywhere you’d want to live.
In fact, I apologize for what’s become of much of our educational system (although we’d be in first place were it not for 30 other countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment survey). Maybe I’m being too harsh. Okay, so we trail Slovenia and Estonia, just be happy you’re not in Moldova.
I apologize for the continuation of race-based preferences, even as the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow fade into the dark mists of history. Teaching at or sometimes leading three of our nation’s more diverse business schools, I’ve seen the damage these preferences visit on protected as well as majority groups. I’ve seen the way some judge the beneficiaries of racial preferences, and I’ve seen the way some of the beneficiaries judge themselves.
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