New Berkeley dean: "Right-wing ideology says ‘women should be put back in their place'''

The University of California-Berkeley’s new social sciences dean has some opinions about “right-wing” politics.

UC-Berkeley announced in May professor Raka Ray’s promotion to the position, where she will be responsible for leading the biggest academic division at the institution. The decision to appoint Ray was in part based on her demonstration of “an abiding commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in both her academic life and administrative work.”

But a 2017 International Women’s Day lecture given by Ray suggests that the professor may not practice equity and inclusion when it comes to political opinions.

In this lecture, Ray calls out “Trump’s hideous pussy-grabbing version of sexism,” implying that “Hillary was vilified” by people saying “she lied too much,” “didn’t smile enough,” or that she was “unlikeable.”

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“Right-wing ideology says ‘women should be put back in their place,’” Ray told her lecture attendees.

“And how do they demonstrate that?,” she asked rhetorically. “They demonstrate it by anti-abortion politics, by mocking women who are leaders, by a sort of aggressive discourse that makes it uncomfortable for women to be in places where they should not be. So, the kinds of jokes circulating about Hillary, those sorts of things.”

“So what I want to say is the right wing has been far more adept at creating an integration of the politics of redistribution and recognition,” Ray explained. “And they’ve done it really by highlighting and concentrating ideas and myths that have had long standing in American culture.”

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The professor, whose faculty profile labels her as a “sociologist with interests in gender and feminist theory,” claims that the right “highlights that there is this difference between the Deserving and the Undeserving poor.”  She explains that right-wingers believe that “the deserving poor are these men who are losing status, who are hard-working and had jobs but now they’re losing their jobs, they’re the deserving. And the undeserving are those who are on welfare, who never had jobs, who came here to live off the state, right? That’s your undeserving poor.”

“And along with that, they heighten nativism, the sense that, you know, foreigners are taking our jobs, whether it’s foreigners in China or it’s the foreigners coming into our country,” Ray said.

“They also highlight this idea that dependence on the state...the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’ you know, ‘if you work hard you can do this and if you don’t work hard then you get to rely on the state.’ So, the state, therefore, reliance on the state is a weakness. So, right-wing ideology highlights that.”

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”As a member of faculty, Dean Ray enjoys full freedom of speech and expression,” UC-Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told Campus Reform. “At the same time, individual employees, including faculty, do not speak for or represent the perspectives of the University which does not, as a public institution, take positions or offer comment on issues of this sort.”

Mogulof suggested getting in touch with Ray, but the professor, as well as Berkeley College Republicans, Cal Berkeley Democrats, and other individual students did not return requests for comment in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @celinedryan