Professors Criticize Democratic Governor Hopefuls Over USC Debate Controversy

California Democrats are facing criticism from academics who claim they are stifling academic freedom and engaging in racial identity politics. This backlash emerged after the University of Southern California abruptly canceled a gubernatorial debate that did not include candidates of color who were polling lower.

Four Democratic candidates, all of whom are people of color and among the lowest in polling, raised concerns about their exclusion from the debate.

“There are genuine instances of racial bias and discrimination in our society,” commented Jarred Cuellar, an assistant professor at Cal Poly Pomona, following the complaints from the four non-white candidates regarding their omission from the event.

“This situation undermines legitimate claims of racial bias, and it seems more like dissatisfaction with the results,” Cuellar added.

The debate was initially set to feature six candidates, including two Republicans, three top-polling Democrats, and Democrat San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. Those who were excluded argued that the decision led to a debate stage devoid of racial diversity, sparking further criticism from prominent state Democratic leaders.

USC professor Christian Grose, who developed the candidate viability formula based on polling and fundraising, found himself at the center of the controversy.

Around 50 academics came to his defense in a letter sent to the USC’s president, stating that the formula was independently formed, peer-reviewed and academically sound.

Grose said that state Democrats muzzled free academic speech by calling for the debate to be axed.

“I do think that this has a chilling effect on academia, because that public education part — people like me are not going to want to do this in the future,” he told Politico. “That political objective has now been achieved, to chill academics doing anything besides reading their books and writing articles.”

The debate should have gone on, multiple professors said, to give Californians information they need to cast an informed vote. Morris Levy, an associate professor at USC, called the candidates’ claims of racism “preposterous.”

“They made insinuations that were on the conspiratorial side,” Levy said. “They are irresponsible and that they reflect quite poorly on those candidates, even though, in the end, I guess they got their way.”

The incident showed that Democrats are no better than the Trump administration they’ve attacked for putting pressure on universities, Cuellar added.

“We’re at an era where people are already kind of — it seems like we’ve seen loss in trust and expertise in universities, and that’s typically been attributed to the right, which we see now is it’s not the case,” he said.

USC President Beong-Soo Kim insisted political pressure played no factor in the decision to cancel the debate.

“I want to make it very clear that my decision was not in any way influenced by those demands or threats,” he told the Daily Trojan.

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