It’s not an overstatement that our Universities are in trouble when it comes to the ability to exercise academic freedoms. If you put your name to a letter that argues that Maori indigenous knowledge “falls far short of what we can define as science”, you are forced to resign.

But it seems it’s quite acceptable to publish an article in a medical journal claiming that University meritocracy is a result of white supremacy.

Merit should be redefined and universities should take greater notice of indigenous self-determination and “a lived understanding of socioeconomic adversity”, academics from the University of Otago argue.

White supremacy, privilege and “meritocracy” were stubborn hurdles to a more just approach to student selection, public health specialist Prof Peter Crampton and colleagues contend in the New Zealand Medical Journal today.

The authors argued principles of meritocracy and the ideology of white supremacy had ensured barriers to higher education remained in place, although well camouflaged.

As I said, this is in a Medical Journal.

Professor Peter Crampton must feel terribly upset and ashamed at being part of the white supremacy he complains so vocally about.