When ‘Critical Social Justice’ Rules on Campus

Fight anti-Semitism by ditching toxic forms of DEI

Letter to WSJ. 

"Let me put a finer point on Barton Swaim’s argument in “The Marxian Roots of Campus Anti-Semitism” (op-ed, WSJ.com, Oct. 13): DEI drives anti-Semitism on the college campus.

I say this as a former diversity, equity and inclusion director who was fired by California’s De Anza College earlier this year. When I started in 2021, I made it a priority to create an inclusive learning environment for all students, including Jews, only to be stymied by some colleagues and administrators who were fully bought into “critical social justice.”

I was repeatedly told that fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Jewish inclusion don’t matter. Why? Because Jews are “white oppressors” and it was our job to “decenter whiteness.” Besides being willfully ignorant of the diversity of the Jewish diaspora, such racist language reflects an obsession with dividing people of different racial groups into categories of “oppressor” and “oppressed.”

My colleagues at campuses nationwide have told me about similar experiences. Schools captured by DEI agendas stoke hatred toward Israel and, more concerning, toward individual Jews. That frightening fact should be front and center as student groups and faculty continue to hold protests celebrating terrorism as bravery against systemic oppression and write screeds lambasting the Jewish people and state for being evil. If we’re going to get anti-Semitism off campus, we should start by ditching toxic forms of DEI.

Tabia Lee

Senior fellow, Do No Harm

Sacramento"