Very happy ‘bourgeois’ people.
In a sense, there’s nothing remarkable about Dean Ted Ruger’s annual letter to the greater Penn Law community (UPDATE: I’ve been told it’s more fair to call this an annual letter than a holiday letter despite the title). Like so many other law schools, the piece trumpets the school’s successes throughout the year and reminds alumni of all the wonderful work they can help fund if they open their wallets just a little bit more before Congress bans charitable giving.
And somehow, Dean Ruger managed to get through the whole letter without mentioning that America’s primary connection with the school this year was a professor raving about how she doesn’t “shrink from the word, ‘superior,'” when discussing why well-off white people do so much better in America. It’s that omission that really makes Ruger’s letter astounding.
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Professor Amy Wax (along with University of San Diego’s Larry Alexander) made a bold bid for their 15 minutes of Fox News fame this year when they penned an embarrassingly shoddy editorial making up some statistics while flat ignoring others to provide paper-thin support for their dog-whistling premise that “50s bourgeois culture” is the path to success. In other words, the more you can act like the Cleavers, the more likely you are to succeed… and looking like the Cleavers doesn’t hurt either.
Ruger’s ability to avoid any mention of the unpleasantness is even more incredible when you consider that about one-third of the letter is about “A Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.” Some students formally asked that Wax be removed from teaching 1Ls, given that 1Ls have no choice in their professors. Yet this controversy explicitly about “Diversity and Inclusion” isn’t even breathed upon.
As we’ve written throughout this year — this controversy created strife among the faculty, alienated students, and generally dragged the school’s reputation through the mud. Regardless of one’s stance on the “academic freedom” value of a professor using the school’s credibility to write flimsy prejudices posing as op-eds, this was the most significant event for the school this year, and the alumni deserve to hear the dean’s thoughts on the controversy and how he plans to address it, if at all, before asking for donations.
I appreciate that the whole “strong, silent type” — someone who buries all his feelings to project unspoken resolve — is a classic bourgeois value, but the alumni probably deserve a bit more here.
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Earlier: Law Professors Say White ’50s Culture Is Superior, Other Racist Stuff
Law Students Seek To Ban Professor From Teaching 1Ls
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.