More from Professor Abbot about his literal cancellation at MIT

Here (earlier coverage).  The rejoinder to Professor Abbot's call for treating individuals as individuals based on their merits is always that this isn't "really" what's going on, and in some respects, I think that is right:  this is why departments tend to replicate themselves, ideologically and often in demographic respects too.  But insofar as the latter is a problem (it is), it's hard to see how doing more of the same, but in new directions, is the optimal solution, even if it is sometimes the second-best approach.