King’s College London has bowed to the demands of snowflakes and agreed to add a “wall of diversity” to counterbalance the presence of portraits and busts of the school’s white founders, the UK’s Telegraph reports. It marks the latest effort in a series of similar moves on college campuses to place a greater emphasis on race and ethnicity, which often includes targeting and eliminating white men.
Students at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College are claiming ethnic minorities are intimidated by portraits of former faculty staff at the main entrance because they feature white men. Professor Patrick Leman, the Institute’s dean of education who is himself white, is leading the charge. He states that the school should not be filled with “busts of 1920s bearded men” but with more modern, diverse scholars so that the Institute is less “alienating.” He bemoaned the portraits lining the main entrance as “almost entirely white middle-aged men,” and recommended that they be re-hung in less prominent positions.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail, two of the portraits believed to be within the scope of Leman’s statements are that of Dr. Henry Maudsley, a British psychiatrist whose donation is the reason the Institute exists, and Sir Frederick Mott, who drew up plans for university’s courses for training in the field of psychiatry in 1896.
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A spokeswoman for the university spoke out to clarify that the busts and portraits will in fact remain, but that a new photographic exhibition will be added to the gallery and an exhibition of women will be moved to more prominent positions.
“It is important,” she stated, “that we celebrate our diverse and international community alongside our history. One of these initiatives is our ‘Inspiring Women — Professors at the IoPPN’ photographic portrait exhibition which comprises over 31 women professors and is located near the main reception. This is likely to be relocated across the Institute in prominent places in the relevant departments. In its place, the IoPPN is considering a new photographic exhibition provisionally entitled ‘Portraits of a Global Diverse Institute’ and featuring a series of photographic portraits of IoPPN staff, students and alumni.”
Simply replacing the portraits of white men is not enough to reach the level of diversity that the Institute is hoping to achieve, however. Leman said that the school will also be replacing teaching materials, such as diagrams of the human anatomy, with ones that reflect a wider “range of ethnic groups,” instead of just the “standard white male.”
According to Professor Leman, this is all part of an effort to make its minority students feel more represented.
“We’re trying to reflect the diversity in terms of students we have, but also trying to be more inter-cultural, more international in terms of how we develop the science,” he told the The Telegraph.
But the actions by King’s College underscore that the pursuit of diversification does little more than separate and isolate different groups. Rather than honoring science’s icons for their merit, the school is selecting them based on race, ethnicity, and gender and separating them accordingly. What’s more, anyone who has made important contributions to science and happens to be white is treated resentfully.
Critics contend these actions are the result of a more insidious agenda to systematically remove white men from history and culture under the guise of diversification. In the diverse world the Left seeks to create, whites are unwelcome and a greater emphasis is placed on race and ethnicity than merit.
Popular YouTuber Stefan Molyneux made a similar observation during a July 8 episode of his YouTube show, The Death of Canada. Prepare Yourselves Accordingly, on which he said, “Diversity … means non-whites.” Molyneux contends that “diversity” is a buzzword that serves as a euphemism for a system that replaces merit with racial and ethnic quotas.
But it’s not just the alleged goal of “diversity” that is the problem, notes Sam Barrett, president of the King’s Conservative Association. It’s also the students’ mentality that they should not have to tolerate anything with which they disagree.
“It’s a de-colonization of the curriculum,” Barrett declared. “Any sort of view that some students disagree with — if you shout loudly enough the university will react to it.”
For example, King’s College made headlines two years ago for removing a photograph of Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, because of his opposition to gay marriage.
Barrett contends that what’s happening at King’s College is “political correctness gone mad.”
Photo of King’s College London: Thinkstock
