A more inclusive university

Dan Little looks foward to A more inclusive university.

This fact presents a major challenge to people who want to see universities change fundamentally with regard to race and culture. We want the twenty-first century university to be genuinely multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic. We want these “multi’s” because our country itself is multicultural, and because we have a national history that has not done a good job of creating an environment of equality and democracy across racial and cultural lines. And we want the universities to change, because they are key locations where the values and skills of our future leaders will be formed. So if universities do not succeed in transforming themselves around the realities of race and difference, we cannot expect the larger society to succeed in this difficult challenge either.

Emphasis Mine

Liitle is an elitist because he believes society cannot change without the leading institutions (like universities) doing so first. He cannot imagine such fundamental change originating from the lower social orders.

Yet, this idea of elitism is another chain that binds us to the existing social order. We are continually told to look to and petition our elites for justice nad peace. We are told not to do anything on our own initiative because we do not the complete picture that our betters do.

Yes, there has been fundamental change from our betters granting us concessions, but these were won after bitter and prolonged struggles. Even these gains are being eroded.

A new society is needed in which we are all adults rather than obedient children hoping for benevolent parents to look after own interests.