In recent weeks, the anti-Israel demonstration swiftly spread from Columbia University to colleges nationwide. While many demonstrators were agitators outside of campuses, some were students who shouted antisemitic remarks and pro-Hamas slogans, even “death to America” — a stark reminder of the influence of extreme ideology.
An unpleasant truth is: many American college students have become indoctrinated. This phenomenon has been fueled, in part, by decades of politicization within higher education institutions. College administrators and progressive scholars have played a vital role in propelling it.
Even before stepping foot on college campuses, American youths find themselves immersed in a sea of propaganda propagated by progressive scholars and politicians. Divisive terms such as “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” “disadvantaged minority,” “racial equity,” and “overrepresented racial group” permeate their daily lives, reinforcing the narrative that they inhabit a racist country and must fight for social justice.
During college admissions, progressive college administrators not only employ race, sexual orientation, and other political lenses to select students but also intentionally recruit those with the high potential to become social justice warriors. Many college application essays are meticulously crafted to address “social justices.” For instance, in 2017, Ziad Ahmed, a high school senior from Princeton, gained admission to Stanford University after writing #BlackLivesMatter exactly 100 times in response to the application question, “What matters to you and why?”
Once on campus, champions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) do not necessarily encourage a diversity of ideas. Instead, they often suppress dissenting viewpoints. Left-leaning professors rarely equip students with the critical thinking skills necessary to properly define and address social justice issues, for example, analyzing underperformance of certain minority groups from both individual and societal angles. These professors attribute it all to “systematic racism,” despite the fact that virtually all laws discriminating Black and Hispanic Americans were abolished after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
When presenting historical facts, progressive scholars and media often lack balance. For instance, while they emphasize Palestinians killed by Israel during the Middle East conflict, they often omit the fact that conflicts among Arab nations have resulted in far greater casualties.
Worse more, progressor scholars actively indoctrinate students using a lens of Marxism, such as Critical Race Theory. Within this framework, innocent Americans are categorized as either “the Oppressors” or “the Oppressed.” According to CriticalRace.org, at least 236 out of 500 examined colleges or universities have implemented some form of mandatory student training or coursework related to CRT.
When applying the “oppressors” and “the oppressed” framework to social justice topic, many American students became indoctrinated and radicalized. For instance, Johannah King-Slutzky, a demonstration leader at Columbia University, is currently pursuing her PhD, focusing on “Theories of imagination and poetry as interpreted through a Maxian lens.”
Historically, China learned a harsh lesson about radicalizing students through ideological indoctrination. In 1962, Chairman Mao launched the nationwide Class Struggle Education campaign, categorizing innocent Chinese people into two groups: the “oppressors” (landlords and capitalists) and the “oppressed” (peasants and workers). Through a web of fabricated stories, Chinese students in every classroom were taught how landlords ruthlessly exploited poor peasants and why they needed to “liberate the oppressed.”
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Within a mere five years, Maoist ideology had permeated tens of millions of innocent Chinese students, filling them with intense hatred toward their perceived class enemies. When Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution in 1966, these students became Mao’s foot soldiers—the infamous Red Guards and Revolutionary Rebels. They systematically destroyed much of China’s cultural heritage, mercilessly murdered thousands, and subjected millions of so-called “class enemies” to brutal torture, including my father. Ironically, even some communist scholars who had disseminated class struggle theory earlier became victims of their own radicalized students.
History serves as a stark reminder: those who sow the seeds of ideological extremism among students will inevitably reap the bitter consequences. Today, Ivy League college presidents find themselves in precarious positions, swallowing the poisoning pills of the politicization of higher education.
Influential donors, like Bill Ackman, have already awakened to the urgency of the situation. It is high time to halt the politicization of higher education—an imperative step to prevent a widespread cultural revolution from unfolding within America’s academic institutions.
Yukong Mike Zhao is the president of Asian American Coalition for Education. In his book, Critical Race Theory and Woke Culture: America’s Dangerous Repeat of China’s Cultural Revolution, he revealed the dire consequences of Marxist indoctrination in educational institutions.