The soft bigotry of low expectations

Yet more racist policies at Oxford and Cambridge in the name of ‘progress’…

At a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 2000, President George W. Bush criticised the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’. The term was coined by his speechwriter Michael Gerson, and has become the go-to shorthand for the racial paternalism at the heart of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) industry.

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have now supercharged their commitment to DEI by announcing a move away from ‘traditional’ examinations towards a ‘more diverse and inclusive range of assessments’ that will artificially boost the grades of students from minority racial groups. In this, they do not mean to support Asian Pacific students – who already outperform their white peers and are therefore considered ‘white-adjacent’ – but rather those from ‘lower socio-economic backgrounds’. The plan by the University of Cambridge specifies that it aims to improve results from black students and those of Bangladeshi heritage.

The ‘inclusive’ forms of assessment include open-book examinations and take-home papers. There are reasonable arguments for the former, given that it is perhaps better to assess analytical skills than capacity for rote-learning, but take-home papers have always increased the likelihood of unfair practices. The old-fashioned examination system, while not necessarily perfect, at least guarantees a level playing field. But all these disputes aside, the universities’ decision to overtly racialise this debate is needlessly divisive. One can only imagine how racial minority students will react to being patronised in this way.