While the inauguration of President Donald Trump might signal the death knell of wokeism in the U.S., plenty of other Western nations still seem to be in its grips.
The United Kingdom, for example, is now making international headlines for the controversial and seemingly racist concessions being made by some of the world’s most exclusive institutions of higher education.
According to Brietbart:
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are among those preparing to implement “inclusive assessments” such as open-book exams and take-home essays rather than monitored in-person testing in the hopes of cutting the gaps between groups of students, The Telegraph reported.
In its annual Access and Participation Plan (APP) — a yearly report into how a university is seeking to improve the lot of disadvantaged student groups — the University of Cambridge said that traditional “assessment practices” may be responsible for varying performances among groups.
Cambridge said that it would specifically seek to “improve outcomes” for Black and Bangladeshi heritage students. The university went on to cite research from its own academics, finding traditional tests represent “threats to self-worth” for students.
Meanwhile, Oxford University’s APP reportedly said that it would seek to “use a more diverse and inclusive range of assessments” in order to “improve the likelihood” of better grades for students from “lower socio-economic backgrounds”.
The news sparked significant backlash on social media:
Oxbridge is under pressure to adopt cartoonishly easy assessments because it aggressively excludes brilliant applicants from independent schools in favour of ones who would not have been considered for interview before the social engineering began. https://t.co/XF12QZG4ap
— James Orr (@jtworr) January 25, 2025
Yet again, racial minorities are being patronised by the authorities at Oxford and Cambridge.
More racist policies in the name of “progress”… 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/oDZX6luKos
— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) January 25, 2025
Even some who might have benefited from these identity-based advantages still spoke out against them:
If this is true, I really honestly hope that Cambridge and Oxford think twice.
As someone who statistically stood very low odds of going to University, let alone Cambridge for my Masters, I suspect this sort of activity would be aimed to 'help me'.
No. No. No. pic.twitter.com/kv72Q4J0md
— Dr. Neil Gilbride (@nmgilbride) January 26, 2025
Then-President George W. Bush addressed what he saw as the root of such policies, speaking out in a 2006 speech against the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”
As a White House transcript of his remarks reveal:
Surely, we share the same goal: We want an excellent education for every child. Not just some children, but every single child. I can remember being the governor of Texas — I don’t know if there’s any Texans here or not. (Applause.) Tell them “hi” at home. (Laughter.)
I remember going to a ninth grade class when I was the governor. It was in a neighborhood that’s — a low-income neighborhood there in Houston. And I asked the ninth grade teacher, I said, how’s it going? The man looked me in the eye and said, my students cannot read. That’s wrong to hear a ninth grade teacher say, my students cannot read.
I decided to do something about it when I was the governor, and I decided to do something about that when I became the President. See, we must challenge a system that simply shuffles children through grade to grade, without determining whether they can read, write, and add and subtract. It’s a system — see, I like to call it this: We need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you have low expectations, you’re going to get lousy results. (Applause.) We must not tolerate a system that gives up on people.
Here’s some additional commentary regarding the latest reports:
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