This article from the British Telegraph reports on a story of a British Oxford Professor who rejected an application for internship from a prospective student based on him being an Israeli. This kind of story brings to light a problem that I saw existing in the higher education system of the U.S. also. Namely that many professors who claim to have a monopoly on being “open minded” are often just as close minded as non-academics when opinions that are opposition to theirs are expressed.
The point of my statement is not to imply that all professors exercise such a double standards. The point is that no one is capable of being totally unbiased. We need to stop treating academics as if they have some super power (not available to us mere mortals) that somehow allow them to look at all situations with logic, clear thought, and consistency. Doing so will help move society into a better position to evaluate itself with honesty and integrity. Its not wrong to have bias (we all have biases in one way or another); the secret is to admit our bias and to try and keep it from being the sole influence on our decision making process.
