Exclusive Left-Wing DEI Ideology on Campus

Universities, DEI, and the politics of exclusion: A closer look at the DEI apparatus, its abuse of power, its left-wing ideology, and campus conformity

Tokyo, 5^th November 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

[Series] Trump vs. America’s Elite Universities – part 7  

Under the Banner of “Diversity”, Left-Wing Ideology Takes Root

The Battle Against “Cultural Marxism”

by Yosuke Yamazaki (山崎 洋介) in Washington DC

See also part 1: Ideological War: Trump Targets Cultural Marxism

See also part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See also part 3: How Marxism Shifted from Revolution to Culture

See also part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See also part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

In recent years, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” programs have expanded across American universities. Contrary to their name, however, the reality is that they have become a means of excluding dissent while spreading left-wing racial ideology.

See also Modern Society: Deep Moral and Spiritual Crisis

One of the earliest and most persistent critics of this issue is conservative journalist Christopher Rufo. In 2023, he obtained and released materials from the University of South Florida detailing what he described as an “extreme DEI program that separates students by race.”

According to these materials, white participants are first made to experience “white guilt” and to think that “being white feels bad”. They then enter a process of identity “collapse”, followed by “reintegration”, ultimately leading them to engage in “activism opposing systems of oppression”.

The materials strongly criticize “systemic racism” in the United States and encourage students to participate in racially segregated counseling programs to address “privilege” and “oppression”, reflecting what appears to be the influence of “cultural Marxism”.

In recent years, organizations promoting DEI have rapidly penetrated universities, expanding into powerful internal “bureaucracies”. This trend accelerated particularly after the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

The University of Michigan stands out in this regard. According to research by Mark J. Perry, a former professor at the university, Michigan employed 241 DEI staff members and paid them a total of more than $30 million. A 2021 survey by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation covering 65 U.S. universities found that each university employed an average of 45 DEI staff members ‒ 1.4 times the number of history professors.

One academic who spoke out against the bloated DEI apparatus was Professor Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist at the University of Chicago. In a co-authored article published in Newsweek in August 2021, Abbot alleged,

“Nearly every decision ‒ admissions, faculty hiring, course content, and teaching methods ‒ is made through the lens of DEI.”

He also argued that those who oppose this trend are forced into “self-censorship”.

Events that followed soon appeared to validate his claims. In September of that year, Abbot had been invited to give a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but the invitation was abruptly canceled. MIT cited the Newsweek article as the reason.

Among DEI initiatives, one practice in particular has been criticized as functioning as a “litmus test” to exclude dissent: the requirement of “DEI statements” in faculty hiring and promotion. These statements have had tangible effects on hiring decisions. For example, the life sciences division at the University of California, Berkeley reported that in the 2018 academic year, 76 percent of job applicants were eliminated from consideration solely on the basis of their diversity statements.

Documents obtained in 2023 through public records requests by the conservative nonprofit organization National Association of Scholars revealed how DEI statements were evaluated for more than a dozen applicants for faculty and staff positions in the biology department at Texas Tech University. In one case, an applicant stated,

“I respect my students and treat them equally, so I do not see DEI as an issue.”

This response was marked down for “demonstrating a lack of understanding of issues of equity and inclusion.”

A major setback for DEI ‒ long associated with preferential treatment for specific racial groups ‒ came in June 2023, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that considering race in college admissions is unconstitutional. Furthermore, when President Trump issued an executive order banning DEI initiatives on his first day in office this January, momentum grew not only within the federal government but also among universities and corporations to reconsider such programs.

Attention is now focused on how far Trump’s vision of “color-blind equality under the law”, which rejects policies that generate “reverse discrimination” against groups such as white men and suppress dissenting views, will permeate American society.

See also part 1: Ideological War: Trump Targets Cultural Marxism

See also part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See also part 3: How Marxism Shifted from Revolution to Culture

See also part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See also part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

Featured image above: President Donald Trump signing 42 executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations on his first day in office, 20th January 2025. Photo: The Trump White House. Public domain image

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Also related to left-wing DEI ideology: Modern Society: Deep Moral and Spiritual Crisis

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