Wokeism in Academia

By Walter E. Block (June 2025)

“We encourage authors to choose language that is inclusive and respectful. Submissions should not contain anything that might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, gender, culture, sexuality, or any other characteristic. Inclusive language should be used throughout. Further information can be found in the author guidelines.” —Source

This publication requirement comes to potential authors who wish to publish in the International Journal of Social Economics, put out by Emerald Publishing. This is a prestigious academic journal and a renowned scholarly publisher. Initial hiring, tenure and promotion in academia are based, in large part, upon publication in periodicals of this sort.

However, obviously, all non-black individuals are “superior on the grounds of race” in that blacks are more vulnerable to the disease called Sickle Cell Anemia. On similar grounds, all blacks are superior to all whites in that the latter are more vulnerable to sunburn. “Any other characteristic” certainly includes religion, which the editors of this journal disgracefully forgot to mention. On this basis, all non-Jews are superior to all Jews in that the latter are more vulnerable to Tay-Sachs disease.

We have only begun to probe the difficulties with this politically correct woke statement. I go further. All individual men, on average, are superior to all individual women, again, on average, in that the former are taller, bigger, heavier, stronger than the latter. Take that, women! On the other hand, again on average, females are better than males, regarding sensitivity, ability to give birth (I know, I know, Arnold Swartzenegger got pregnant in his movie, “Junior” but this exception proves the rule), and ability in ultra marathons and very long distance swimming, where the event takes not minutes or hours to complete, but actual days (this is due to the fact that biology has enabled women to bear extreme pain for 48-72 hours for childbirth).

As for sexuality, bi-sexuals have it all over mere homosexuals and heterosexuals. Each and every one of the latter, members of all four categories, discriminate against half the human race in terms of bed partners and romantic love interests. This includes evil lesbians, horrific female heterosexuals, monstrous gay men and abominable male heterosexuals.

So far we have not said anything really controversial. At least these facts cannot be seriously called into question. Even the wokist of the woke can readily subscribe to them. They may object to the foregoing on the basis of “these examples are not what we meant.” However, their verbiage is clear. They are supposedly careful scholars. If they do not relish the indisputable logical implication of their actual statement, they should revise it. Better to eliminate it entirely, as an infringement on academic freedom, but that is another matter.

We now consider some other examples, those that our friends on the left cannot be brought to bear to embrace, even kicking and screaming as in the previous examples.

Blacks are better athletes when it comes to track and field events, basketball and football, on average. For every superb white member of the NBA such as Larry Bird, for example, there are dozens, no, hundreds, of basketball players of equal or superior ability and accomplishment (I apologize for using the “S” word in the previous sentence). On the other hand, whites are far better at swimming than blacks. Look at the pool in the finals of the Olympics, and nary a black person you will see. Previously, this was because people with this type of pigment were simply not allowed in the pool. But this prohibition, thankfully, has not been in effect for decades.

I have no comment to make about intelligence, industriousness, studiousness, non-criminality. None whatsoever. I am a tenured professor, but wokeism is still so powerful in academia even with Donald Trump, bless him, on the warpath against it, that I will still risk losing my job if I do. Some cultures and races are endowed with more of these than others, but I dare not say which is which.

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Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than 600 refereed articles in professional journals, three dozen books, and thousands of op eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous others). He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows. He is the Schlarbaum Laureate, Mises Institute, 2011; and has won the Loyola University Research Award (2005, 2008) and the Mises Institute’s Rothbard Medal of Freedom, 2005; and the Dux Academicus award, Loyola University, 2007. Prof. Block counts among his friends Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard. He was converted to libertarianism by Ayn Rand. Block is old enough to have played chess with Friedrich Hayek and once met Ludwig von Mises, and shook his hand. Block has never washed that hand since. So, if you shake his hand (it’s pretty dirty, but what the heck) you channel Mises.

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