Is Academia Serious About Diversity?

Greg Mankiw commenting on this article by Larry Summers:

If right-wingers are underrepresented in universities relative to the population and discriminated against by the left-wing majority, as Larry suggests, should there be affirmative action for right-leaning academics? It seems that, on principle, those on the left (who favor affirmative action to promote diversity and correct past injustice) should endorse such a university policy, and those on the right (who more often oppose affirmative action) would be against.

My guess is that those in academia are primarily concerned about diversity when it makes them look as though they are beneficently helping the poor and downtrodden "voiceless" classes. Since right-wingers don't fit this mold too well, I expect the left-wing majority won't be too keen on letting them in.

Right-wingers challenge the left-wingers in a way that often makes them look bad. Helping the "disenfranchised" makes them look (and feel) good. Unfortunately, the incentives to make academia more politically (and intellectually) diverse just aren't there.

See Thomas Sowell's The Vision of Anointed for more on this.

P.S. -- More thoughts from Megan McArdle:

Don't get me wrong: I don't think there's any sort of conspiracy against conservatives in the academy. I think, rather, that a combination of more subtle factors erects a wall that it's harder for conservatives to climb over. Unless they are really, really brilliant, academics, like everyone else, need personal connections to help them up the academic ladder, from recommendations to mentors to advisors. Those personal connections are always much easier to make with people you agree with. Nor would I discount the possibility that, just as women's work can be subtly dismissed because we know women aren't as bright as men, academics who think that conservatives are stupid would factor that into their assessment of someone's intelligence--and then factor that assessment into their assessment of someone's work. And of course, one's ideas are to some extent socially constructed; simply by virtue of the arguments and information we hear, even if there is no social pressure to conform, being surrounded by a political culture will tend to drag our ideas in their direction.