Scholar: University of Michigan Social Justice Course Is ‘Straightforward Political Indoctrination’

Peter Wood, the president of the National Association of Scholars, argued this week that a “social justice” themed course at the University of Michigan amounts to political indoctrination.

In an interview this week with Campus Reform, Peter Wood, the president of the National Association of Scholars, condemned a course offered at the University of Michigan this semester. The course is titled “Social Justice, Identity, Diversity and Community.”

“This seminar will explore a wide range of issues on social justice, social identity and intergroup relations, community, and everyday politics and democracy,” the course description reads. “It will examine the possibilities for building community across race, gender, class, sexual orientation and religion as students explore their own racial and other social group identities.”

Wood argues that the course is designed to manipulate students into rejecting non-progressive perspectives. By enrolling the course, a student is admitting that they agree with the “social justice” worldview.

“Social Justice, Identity, Diversity and Community is just like hundreds of other such courses for first-year students at colleges and universities across the country. It is straightforward political indoctrination for left-wing activism,” Wood said in the short interview. “The course is intended to impress on University of Michigan students the worldview and the values of progressives and to blot out, as far as possible, the legitimacy of any alternative views.”

Wood says the the course’s title itself reveals its leftist political biases. “All four words in the title of the course are code for a political agenda that is smuggled into the curriculum as though it were a simple civics lesson,” Wood added. “Will any of the students have the opportunity to read and consider writings by critics of the ideas of ‘social justice’ or ‘diversity?’ It is extremely unlikely.”

Breitbart News reported in May that the public University of Iowa will spend $3 million on their politically-charged diversity, equity, and inclusion office. A similar office at the University of Michigan has a massive $11 million annual payroll for its 100 employees.

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