In this article, I am going to go through almost all of Ryan Wolfe’s sentences in “How Wake Forest Turned to the Left” to show how he is wrong. This is going to be a lengthy article so sit back and enjoy.

Here's the link to the original article:

http://wakeforestreview.com/wake-forest-turned-lef...

“In 2009, Wake Forest made a strategic decision to commit to a diversity and inclusion agenda that would change the face of the University.”

Reply 1: The “change” Wolfe is referring to is the introduction of a diverse set of students and the “face” that is being changed is this campus’s most dominant group: cis white people. It can be assumed, then, that Wolfe believes that the diverse set of students pose a threat to this school’s social norms, which reveals his implicit racism.

“However, this agenda went further than simply increasing the enrollment of minority students or the hiring of diverse faculty.”

Reply 2: The agenda Wolfe is referring to is Affirmative Action, whereby students of difficult backgrounds – usually people of color – are given certain privileges in admissions over students who come from an “easy” background. Wolfe’s assumption of Affirmative Action is that the only goal is to hire and accept more people of color, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The intention of the agenda is to provide opportunities to those who have been disadvantaged – and it just so happens that people of color are usually more disadvantaged than white folks.

“The Strategic Plan to Foster Diversity and Inclusion and its successors ended up fundamentally changing the role of diversity and inclusion on campus…”

Reply 3: Wolfe doesn’t explain what the original role of diversity and inclusion is, but he seems to think it’s being changed because of the “Strategic Plan.” Without telling the audience what real diversity and inclusion means, according to a cis white man, how does the author expect us to know where the administration went wrong? It’s safe to assume, then, that Wolfe has always been against diversity and inclusion, regardless of whatever direction it’s going – which is wrong because to think otherwise means that you don’t accept differences.

“…and took cultural Marxist dogma from the classroom and applied to the lives of students.”

Reply 4: The “Strategic Plan” Wolfe refers to implies that people on top knew exactly what they were doing. Ask yourself: do you really think a group in the administration asked within themselves “how can we apply cultural Marxism to the lives of our students?” No. Wolfe is driven by conspiracy theories that don’t hold up.

“Over the past eight years, a number of centers, institutes, and programs have been created to promote diversity and inclusion, social justice, or identity development at Wake Forest”

Reply 5: Yup.

“While none of these concepts seem nefarious on the surface, they come from an ideology that has been injected into student life at every level.”

Reply 6: The “ideology” that Wolfe is referring to is Cultural Marxism – an agenda-like theory which seeks to undermine Western culture by promoting diversity and inclusion. There are many things to be said about this sentence, and considering that this article is long, I’ll keep it short. Wolfe has a misunderstanding of what diversity and inclusion means and he is wrong to say that that idea is being “injected” into students. Listen, I get it, change is scary sometimes. Seeing people who are different from you can be overwhelming, but to embrace diversity means to embrace differences, which is a value I think all people should have. And as far as cultural Marxism being injected into students, refer to my 4^th reply: there isn’t some bogyman pulling the strings, trying to indoctrinate students maliciously – Wolfe is just paranoid.

“When one hears diversity and inclusion, they probably think of equality of opportunity as an essential value.”

Reply 7: Yup

“Many would agree that a school which is diverse and inclusive ensures there is an equal opportunity for all qualified students to attend and to integrate into student life.”

Reply 8: Many would agree but then many would also disagree. Regardless, Wolfe has, yet again, another misunderstanding of what Affirmative Action, a program intended to promote diversity and inclusion, is intended to create. I would say, with almost 100 percent certainty, that I was accepted because of Affirmative Action. My test scores were poor and my grades could have been better so it can be debated whether or not I was “qualified” to attend Wake Forest – but one thing is for sure, I came from a difficult background, which disadvantaged me to not do as well as other students who came from easier backgrounds. Thus, what Affirmative Action seeks to promote is the equality of opportunity by leveling the playing field.

“Instead of just believing in equality of opportunity, the document encourages equity, stating that, ‘Equity necessitates transforming our campus community to meet the needs, interests and cultural norms of our students, faculty, and staff.’”

Reply 9: Wolfe is implying that equity is bad, but why would accommodating for people’s needs, interests, and cultural norms be wrong? Think about it: if the administration didn’t do this, the Wake Forest Review wouldn’t exist; to accommodate for people’s desires means to allow them to form organizations that align with their interests. The alternative is allowing the administration to do whatever they want with campus life.

“By taking an equity-based view of diversity and inclusion, the University decided that its job was to allocate resources ensure the equal outcomes of between different groups of students.”

Reply 10: I’m not sure I quite understand what Wolfe is trying to say here – his grammar is a bit off. But, my assumption is that he thinks that because the administration took an equity-based view of diversity and inclusion, they allocated resources – that could have been used for other things – to some groups of students. What isn’t clear and not mentioned is that those “different groups of students” are students that deserve the resources the administration offers to them and that the “equal outcomes” Wolfe is referring to means the quality of social life on campus. So, because Wolfe is against equity, as I’m assuming, it can be deduced that he doesn’t believe that those “different groups of students” should have a good time on campus, which is horrible to say.

“When the University made the choice to use equity-based principles to allocate resources, they needed some kind of framework to determine which groups students were less powerful on campus and required these resources.”

Reply 11: It’s not about which groups of students were less powerful, it’s about who actually needed them because they are disadvantaged. For example, the creation of the LGBTQ center was an allocation of resources to a marginalized group that needed a space to discuss issues pressing their communities – it is not because they “required” it, it’s because they deserve it.

“The framework of choice for Wake Forest was intersectionality”

Reply 12: I have two responses to this. First, Wolfe doesn’t provide any supporting evidence that shows Wake Forest adopted intersectionality as a framework, it’s just what he thinks they did. Second, even if they did (which they didn’t) why would that be bad? We all have identities that when combined result in a unique kind of oppression. Wolfe, of all people, should know this; his Twitter bio has a list of many of labels he identifies with, which, in his opinion, are things people use to persecute him.

“Intersectionality is a Marxist theory that organizes hierarchies of power based on identity.”

Reply 13: Yup, Wolfe is basically right, but I think he doesn’t explain intersectionality enough and assumes that the reader already understands what it means. I can’t provide a comprehensive definition of what intersectionality is and I’m reluctant to use Google’s definition, but it provides an easy enough understanding of what intersectionality entails:

“The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”

So, like I said, Wolfe was right to say that “intersectionality…organizes hierarchies of power based on identity.” So, ask yourself: who is at the top of the hierarchy, then? What group of peoples’ lives tend to be easier than others? If you guessed cis, straight, Christian white men – the majority of America – you guessed right. It’s easy to not see how other people are oppressed when one is part of the majority, but Wolfe takes a radical stance implying that marginalized people’s lives aren’t deserving of compensation.

“The theory posits that people who are a part of a marginalized identity group, like African-Americans, women, LGBTQ individuals, and disabled individuals, are subject to different kinds of oppression like racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.”

Reply 14: Yup.

“However, according to intersectionality, people who carry more than one of these identities, like a lesbian African-American woman, for example, suffer from a system of oppression that arises from their ‘intersecting’ identities.”

Reply 15: Yup, sort of. The oppression of a white lesbian is different from a black lesbian – and that’s what intersectionality is trying to emphasize.

“Through intersectionality, the University decided that those higher in the power hierarchy, namely straight white males, needed significantly fewer resources from the University than those who are lower in the hierarchy, like African-Americans, Muslims, and women, required more resources to reach equitable outcomes with more privileged students.”

Reply 16: It’s not that straight white males needed fewer resources, it’s that other identities deserved it more. And, again, it’s not clear what Wolfe means when he says “equitable outcomes.” Equitable outcomes in what? My assumption equitable outcomes of quality of social life on campus, so, if my assumption is true, Wolfe doesn’t believe these marginalized groups people should have as good of a social life as straight, white men.

“By adopting an equity-based approach that allocated resources based on intersectionality, Wake Forest decided to not treat students equally or based on income when allocating campus life resources.”

Reply 17: Equality can be discriminating. When one group can’t do as well as another group because they face sociopolitical adversities, it’s unfair to use equality as a framework when judging the results both groups produced. This is exactly why the resources are allocated to those marginalized groups on campus: they need that extra help in order to properly compete.

“Instead, they chose to distribute resources to students based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion rather than individual need.”

Reply 18: No, it’s not because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion – it’s because they need it, as I’ve explained countless times now.

“Between 2009 and 2016, Wake Forest University followed its strategic plan and invested heavily in diversity and inclusion.”

Reply 19: Again, Wolfe assumes there’s a group within the administration that is secretly plotting to undermine Wake Forest’s dominant group, which – even though it isn’t true – would not be all that, in my opinion. The school should accommodate for marginalized students, even if it means taking power from the already powerful group in order to ensure there’s equitable outcomes in students’ quality of social life on campus.

“The Office of Multicultural Affairs grew into a web of centers, institutes, offices that worked to not only provide resources to minority students but also to promote the concepts underpinning their decision making.”

Reply 20: Wolfe’s negative impact to all of “this,” as mentioned towards the end of the article, is that it creates divisions within the campus. So, what Wolfe is saying is that because the Office of Multicultural Affairs created clubs for marginalized students, the school is divided. Really think about that. I mean, really think about that. Because certain groups of students finally have a space to interact with other people like themselves, that creates division on campus.

“In 2009, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created to oversee the growth of the diversity industrial complex at Wake Forest.”

Reply 21: Yup.

“The LGBTQ Center was founded in 2011, followed by the Women’s Center in 2013, the Pro Humanitate Institute and Anna Julia Cooper Center in 2014, the Intercultural Center in 2015, and the Social Justice Incubator in 2016.”

Reply 22: Yup.

“These centers generally have a similar format: provide valuable programs for students mixed with programming that promotes the importance of identity, intersectionality, and social justice.”

Reply 23: Yup.

“Service, counseling, and mentoring programs that are extremely important to student life at Wake Forest are located within all of these centers.”

Reply 24: Yup.

“There are counseling and mentoring programs under both the LGBTQ and Intercultural Center that are designed to help new students adjust to life at Wake Forest and support them during their trials and tribulations in college.”

Reply 25: Yup.

“Almost all of the school’s service initiatives, including Campus Kitchen, Project Pumpkin, Wake N Shake, Hit the Bricks, and DESK are administered by the Pro Humanitate Institute.”

Reply 26: Yup.

“But outside of these essential service opportunities and support systems, these centers and institutes exist to promote leftist ideology.”

Reply 27: No, those opportunities and systems are just there to help people. Only someone who believes in conspiracy theories thinks that our school spent millions of dollars to promote cultural Marxism. If cultural Marxism was implemented, things would look totally different. All I see on campus is apathetic students that don’t give a fuck about anyone else other than themselves.

“The sole purpose of the majority of the programming that takes place in Wake Forest’s diversity industrial complex is to promote cultural Marxism.”

Reply 28: Cultural Marxism isn’t anything other than a right-wing conspiracy theory. Literally anything that the Right doesn’t like they just assume it’s being caused, or is a result of, cultural Marxism. From African American studies to globalization, etc.

“The Intercultural Center hosts “identity development” programs for black and Latino men, black women, and Asian women.”

Reply 29: So to develop an identity is to promote cultural Marxism?If so, Wolfe should remove the labels he identifies with in his Twitter bio.

“The Women’s Center has a L.E.A.V.E (Leaders who Educate, Advocate, and lift Voices for Gender Equity) program for students, where the goal is to “leave” the ever-present patriarchy behind.”

Reply 30: This part scares me the most. When Wolfe says “leave” in quotation marks, I get the impression that he assumes people won’t be able to leave, almost as if he acknowledges that the patriarchy is a powerful not to be reckoned with.

“The LGBTQ Center hosted a speaker in 2016 that advocated for the belief that heterosexuality is “its own unique mode of engaging homosexual sex, a mode characterized by pretense, disidentification, and racialized heteronormative investments.””

Reply 31: Yup.

“The Pro Humanitate Institute hosts the BRANCHES Social Justice Retreat every year, where students spend 3.5 days talking about identity.”

Reply 32: Yup.

“There are too many examples of leftist programming from these centers for me to highlight in this article, and if you are interested in reading more I encourage you to go look through their websites.”

Reply 33: Ah, yes, anything Wolfe finds disturbing is Leftist and must be trying to promote cultural Marxism. So far, Wolfe has literally provided no reason why these organizations are “Leftist,” other than because they focus on identity, which doesn’t say anything about Leftism at all. He also assumes that these organizations have been carefully orchestrated by the powers that be to promote cultural Marxism, a “theory” that is used by the Right to name things they don’t like.

“The underlying goals of Wake Forest’s leftist turn were not just to offer stimulating intellectual discussions, provide support for minority students or increase the University’s diversity.”

Reply 34: Yes, those were the goals.

“It is, according to the 2012 prospectus from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, ‘long-term transformation,’ by fundamentally changing the culture of Wake Forest.”

Reply 35: Yes, long-term positive change, which I’ve detailed already.

“The creation of these centers and institutes have recruited or created activist students to facilitate this transformation…”

Reply 36: Yup.

“…provided resources to enforce ideological conformity…”

Reply 37: So far, Wolfe has not explained how this is true. This is the first time he mentioned the word conformity, yet he makes this argument out to be extremely important without providing any real justification or support as to why what he is claiming is true.

“…and has divided and polarized the Wake Forest student body.”

Reply 38: This is probably the stupidest argument Wolfe makes in the entire article. Wolfe really believes that people having access to resources on campus that they could not have gotten otherwise is polarizing. Polarizing to him and people who think like him, perhaps. The rest of campus doesn’t seem to be bothered by the creation of these centers at all and, actually, they’re rather apathetic, as my fellow writer Roohi Narula mentioned in her article.

“The direct result of creating the diversity industrial complex at Wake Forest is the development of leftist activists.”

Reply 39: No, leftist activists still would have existed even if these centers weren’t created, just like they did before they were created. And, this is where it gets contradictory. Wolfe is going to argue that these leftist activists promote cultural Marxism in the next sentence – and yet, he said a couple of sentences back that it was the administration, not the students. Which is it Wolfe? Anyone you don’t like?

“While students often heard Marxist ideas in the classroom, now their entire college life can be based on Leftism.”

Reply 40: The entirety of left isn’t intrinsically Marxist, and Wolfe’s overgeneralization of an entire population shows that he has never bothered to talk to someone in the “left.” There’s diversity within every movement, that’s why not all republicans are the same or libertarians, etc.

“Instead of integrating into other parts of campus, students can spend most of their time at the Pro Humanitate house, Social Justice Incubator lounge, or the Women’s Center in Benson.”

Reply 41: Yeah, with other people like them. And those “other parts of campus” are exclusionary; for example, only wealthy folks can get into Greek life so considering that half of the school participates in that system, that leaves the other half searching for things they like.

“They can attend multiple events every week that are sponsored by these centers, go on retreats and trips, and not spend much time with other Wake Forest students.”

Reply 42: I’m sorry everyone on campus can’t hold hands and sing kumbaya, Wolfe, but be realistic: people gravitate towards people they’re interested in. It’s naïve to think that we can be friends with everyone on campus.

“While they spend their time in these centers, students are indoctrinated with an almost religious belief in equity, intersectionality, and identitarian politics.”

Reply 43: Indoctrinated is a strong word. It’s not like people are holding us down and forcing us to learn their way of life – that’s indoctrination. What usually happens in these centers, if Wolfe would have taken the time to actually visit them, is that students just talk about social issues pertaining to their respective community. Nobody is lecturing, nobody is forcing students to be there – it’s simply just a place where ideas get exchanged. Ideas students already have that the centers help facilitate, not they indoctrinate in them.

“By manufacturing this base of support, Diversity and Inclusion staff know that they will always have students agitating for their department’s growth, protesting decisions they disagree with in the administration, and giving them significantly more power on campus.”

Reply 44: Yeah, the administration within in these centers just want more power. Power for what? To push the “cultural Marxist” agenda? For what? Why would they do that? Please, Wolfe, explain to me what the centers gain by growing and supposedly spreading “cultural Marxism.” Why is the bogyman doing what they’re doing? To undermine Western civilization? Yeah, because these people wake up in the morning and ask themselves how they can fuck over America. Wolfe is nothing but paranoid conspiracy theorist.

“These institutions and centers also provide programming for required diversity and inclusion training for students.”

Reply 45: Yup.

“Beginning this year, student organizations must send one of their leaders to a “diversity education workshop” on campus in order to be recognized by Wake Forest University. “

Reply 46: Yup.

“Workshops so far have included: Understanding Bias, Beyond the Waves: Understanding Feminism, and LGBTQ “Safe Zone” Training.”

Reply 47: Yup.

“This requirement exists purely to indoctrinate students and ensure conformity when it comes to any issue surrounding diversity and inclusion If you don’t conform, students can submit an anonymous bias report to the administration to let them handle the situation.”.”

Reply 48: So, an anonymous bias report is proof of indoctrination? Dude, literally all schools have this. How does this show that Wake Forest is trying to promote cultural Marxism?

I was having trouble writing a response to the last paragraph because I agree with Wolfe: the school is divided. However, I should note that our reasonings behind that conclusion differ. While Wolfe believes that these centers’ administration leaders are purposefully promoting cultural Marxism to divide the school, I, on the other hand, don’t know why we’re divided – but we are. I’m not sure what this means for the future or how we’ll be able to fix it – but I do know that acknowledging that the divide exists is the first step to changing it, and that being scared of differences, like Wolfe is, doesn’t help.