The leftist takeover of higher education has been accomplished not merely by recruiting progressive faculty, but also by installing a vast and expensive bureaucracy intended to enforce thought control on the campus. All in the name of "diversity."

A vivid example comes from the University of Minnesota this week.  John Miltmore writes in Intellectual Takeout:

University of Minnesota officials recently distributed documents to employees and student-workers advising them to keep "inappropriate religious celebrations" out of public spaces.

The document, titled "Religious Diversity and the Holidays," encouraged recipients "to recognize the holidays in ways that are respectful of the diversity of the University community." It listed several specific examples of "religious iconography" the university says are inappropriate for display.

"In general, the following are not appropriate for gatherings and displays at this time of year since they typically represent specific religious iconography:

Santa Claus, Angels, Christmas trees, Star of Bethlehem, Dreidels, Nativity scene, Bows/wrapped gifts, Menorah, Bells, Doves, Red and Green or Blue and White/Silver decoration themes (red and green are representative of the Christian tradition as blue and white/silver are for Jewish Hanukkah that is also celebrated at this time of year)."

The U of M (@UMNews) shared this letter with some faculty and student employees this week The colors red & green, blue & white/silver are verboten during the "winter celebration" period. Images of Santa, wrapped gifts, and bells are also deemed "religious iconography." #BahHumbug pic.twitter.com/sxzqDXLLqY

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) December 14, 2017

The document, which came from the school's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office, was provided to Intellectual Takeout by an employee of the University of Minnesota.

Note that this document was not intended to be seen by the general public, including the taxpayers of Minnesota.  It was supposed to be shared among those on the payroll and quietly enforced by them.  The Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office of the University of Minnesota did not want its wet blanket to be known to the public.  According to its dictum, physical manifestations of holiday cheer must be kept in private as if they are shameful, purely personal and disturbing – rather like the way the processes of bodily elimination are relegated to private spaces only.  This is incomparably stupid, as the colors red and green have no religious significance, but rather exclusively attach themselves to the season.  If there is a biblical reference to Santa Claus, it has escaped the attention of Christians for almost two millennia.

What on Earth do the pinheads at the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office of the University of Minnesota make of these pictures?

These are Christmas decorations in Tokyo, where 99% non-Christian Japanese enjoy the feeling of the holiday that comes right before the big holiday of the year in Japan: New Year's Day.  They use these colored lights and decorations to remind themselves of the season – the winter solstice and the promise of rebirth that comes with a new year.  I know from personal experience that Christmas decorations have been popular in Japan for over 50 years now, and the day is marked in Japan not by religious commemorations, but by material manifestations.  KFC has managed to persuade a sizable portion of the populace that "Christmas chicken" is the proper way to celebrate December 25, and so there are lines at the doors of KFC outlets all over Japan on Christmas. 

I suppose that the diversicrats at the University of Minnesota would have to denounce the Japanese Christmas decorations as cultural appropriation and tell the Japanese to eschew everything Western that they have embraced with enthusiasm.  Buh-bye, Toyotas, Hondas, Sonys, and the entire fruit of Japanese industrialization, which, after all, is all culturally appropriated.

The real motive of the diversicrats is not equity, but rather power – the power to harass the majority of citizens who love the seasonal celebrations and who must be reminded that they are evil, that only the victim classes championed by the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office of the University of Minnesota are allowed to be happy and embrace their own culture with joy.

Paraphrasing H.L. Mencken: "Multiculturalism: The haunting fear that some cis-gendered heterosexual Caucasian, somewhere, may be happy."