People Who Say ‘Check Your Privilege’ Should Do It
16th June 2014
The paramount privilege at universities is not race, class, or gender but intellectual soft despotism. More revealing, those who have pushed the check-your-privilege religion have not grasped this lesson.
A student whose worldview clings to that of university administrators and professors has the advantage of accessing university resources, money, and time to drive his cause. These instruments are far more powerful in granting benefits to politically preferred groups in higher education than subconscious biases in favor of particular races or classes.
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Implicit acts of intellectual congruity—or “micro-aggressions,” in check-your-privilege parlance—are no less powerful in molding students’ minds into believing political discourse is acceptable only within certain boundaries. Subconscious decisions to assign course readings polished with a liberal slant; use class time to disproportionately cover liberal paradigms; and grade “conservative” arguments more critically in writing assignments are inevitable in a field in which 96 percent of Ivy League professors showered political contributions on President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, and in a field in which almost 90 percent of its members self-identify politically as “far left,” “liberal,” or “middle of the road.”