In the mission statement presented on its official website, the University of California-Los Angeles claims to be “committed to academic freedom in its fullest terms” and to “value open access to information, free and lively debate conducted with mutual respect for individuals, and freedom from intolerance.” Yet a closer examination of the campus culture and speech regulations reveal that these platitudes are far from the truth. UCLA has persistently shown itself to be an institution that is hostile to free speech and diverse viewpoints, both within its classrooms and without.

Take the testimony of tenured UCLA anthropology profession Joseph Manson, who announced his retirement in a viral blog post last summer. Manson cited “the Woke takeover of higher education” as well as “thinly disguised Jew-hatred” and public pressure on educators and scientists to promote radical gender theory that denies the existence of “the human sex binary,” among the reasons for his departure.

In his resignation post, Manson recounted the story of his colleague, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, a “standard-issue liberal Democrat,” who was essentially cast out of the academic life of his department for creating software to predict urban crime. Apparently, Brantigham’s academic work did not fit the woke narrative that claims that systemic racism is responsible for our nation’s growing crime epidemic.

“Not only was Jeff ostracized, he was unpersoned,” Manson wrote. “None of the faculty talked about him, if they could possibly avoid it. Meanwhile, our department chair opened most faculty meetings by solemnly intoning that our department was a community, a family, and that ‘we’re here for each other.’ In private conversations, I was able to elicit from some of my colleagues an embarrassed acknowledgment that the Woke faction had treated Jeff abominably, and that we strongly resembled a dysfunctional family in denial.”

The anthropology department’s horrific mistreatment of his colleague was only one of many fascistic actions taken by the university. Manson also noted that “Statements recounting one’s activities on behalf of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are mandatory in faculty job applications and in promotion dossiers” meaning that faculty that disagree with the far-left view on these issues are barred from even applying for academic positions or are forced to lie about their views. A university task force is also working on updates to its “Gender Recognition” policy recommendations which would compel university instructors to include “non-binary and intersex identities in biology courses for health care practitioners”—forcing scientists to teach pseudoscientific woke pablum as fact. 

“UCLA as a whole is showing all signs of Woke capture that typify the contemporary U.S. university,” Manson concluded.

Other faculty members at UCLA have experienced this punitory environment firsthand. In the summer of 2020, UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein ran afoul of the campus censors when he refused a request from a non-black students to offer leniency in grading African-American students due to their potential distress in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Klein responded with a somewhat satirical email, asking how he was supposed to identify black students in his online-only class, whether white students from Minneapolis also deserved leniency, and how mixed-race students might fit into the equation. He also questioned the student on how Martin Luther King Jr.’s entreaty not to evaluate people on “the color of their skin” might fit into his handling of the request.

In the rarified environs of UCLA, Klein’s eminently reasonable response was treated as a hate crime. A screenshot of his email response quickly went viral, leading UCLA Anderson School of Management Dean Antonio Bernardo to issue a memo accusing Klein of “troubling conduct” and stating Klein was suspended from teaching and that his courses had been reassigned. Only after an investigation and the intervention of an independent advocacy group was Klein cleared of any wrongdoing. In the meantime, student activists and others conducted an online war to promote his permanent termination from the university resulting in physical threats against his person. Klein is currently suing UCLA for breach of contract and labor violations, among other issues.

UCLA’s fascistic tendencies can also be seen in the lack of reaction to an abominable tweet from Johnathan Perkins, the director for race and equity at UCLA, who expressed his hope that black conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would die. At the time, Thomas was in the hospital.

In a tweet published on March 24, 2022, Perkins wrote, “No one wants to openly admit [we all] hope Clarence Thomas dies.”

“This whole rule we’re not to wish ill on people is silly,” he continued. He also referred to Justice Thomas as “Uncle Thomas,” a reference to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” where the titular figure is a black man who is considered weak and spineless. Twitter ultimately removed the tweet as not complying with their policies, although they left up other tweets from Perkins including one stating “Clarence Thomas can choke as far as I’m concerned.” While other faculty members have been investigated and put on leave for much less, Perkins’ death wish to a sitting Supreme Court justice didn’t even merit a disciplinary hearing from UCLA.

UCLA’s horrific and prejudicial treatment of faculty who refuse to parrot leftist narratives merits its inclusion on the list of the most fascist universities.