Chicago City Wire

State Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) fears a looming destruction of core educational values.

“There is a systematic approach to destroying this country, and it starts with education,” the veteran state representative from the 109th District told Chicago City Wire. “What better way to do that than to devalue our core being, starting with the English language? It’s time for elected officials to deal with this issue in a real way.”

Bailey’s growing concerns stem from news the University of Chicago’s English Department graduate programs will only be admitting applicants who plan to enroll in Black studies this year.

The university posted news of its standing alongside a proclamation “that Black Lives Matter, and that the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks matter, as do thousands of other named and unnamed who have been subject to police violence.” Among other areas of study, the department’s Black studies program works with other faculties to “study African American, African and African diaspora literature and media."

“More and more, we’re seeing these crazy, separatists ideas happening that only a couple years ago wouldn’t have went anywhere,” Bailey said. “It speaks to the way conservative, common sense-minded elected officials are in the supermajority and explains why I’m so vocal about making sure people are aware of what’s going on in our government. This totally goes against everything our constitutional republic stands for.”

Northwest Side GOP Club Vice President Ammie Kessem also fails to see the logic.

“I wonder how they think this is going to better society and especially the black community as a whole,” she told Chicago City Wire. “Will they be adopting the agenda that has been put forth by the misleading and false narratives of the 1619 Project in which American and especially Black exceptionalism is frowned upon?”

Will County Republican Chairman George Pearson views such undertaking as an indictment of the entire system.

“Anyone still referring to some of these colleges and universities as ‘higher institutions of learning’ might not be smarter than a fifth grader,” he told Chicago City Wire. “Time and time again, we have witnessed a bunch of liars and thieves taking these racially bias, racially divisive, and gender studies programs to place a check in their acceptance box or to, in the leftists' terms, commit culture appropriation. At some point, Black people have got to wake up and realize that these liberals are selling them short and labeling them as inferior.”

Pearson argues the special treatment of minorities stand to have the opposite effect of what those who support such standards claim they want to see in creating such programs.

“I know Blacks are just as capable as any other race on the planet,” he said. “To set up ridiculous admission standards lowers the bar and disrespects who we are as a people. America has always been thought of as a melting pot. That means we all would share in one another's richness.”

University of Chicago Assistant Director of Public Affairs Gerald McSwiggan is defending the school’s actions by insisting that the school is only able to “accept a limited number of Ph.D. graduate students in the 2020-21 application season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited employment opportunities for English Ph.Ds.”

According to McSwiggin, there are currently 77 Ph.D. students studying within the English Department, and the university plans to admit five new students for 2021.

"The English Department faculty saw a need for additional scholarship in Black studies, and decided to focus doctoral admissions this year on prospective Ph.D. students with an interest in working in and with Black studies,” he told Campus Reform. “As with other departments in the university, the department’s faculty will decide which areas of scholarship they wish to focus on for Ph.D. admissions in future years.”