It turns entirely on what is meant by 'controversial.' Applying a 1950's sense of the word would indeed be hard to square with the rest of the statement. But a

It turns entirely on what is meant by 'controversial.' Applying a 1950's sense of the word would indeed be hard to square with the rest of the statement. But a 2020's sense of the word completely aligns with my own experience both as a student and as someone with several minority professors as close family. The most vocal and internally-conformist group, by far, are white female grad students and professors under 40 or 35 or so. Change any single parameter and the population of anti-controversial (in the current sense) voices drops sharply. Also familiar is a general undercurrent of sentiment among departmental and field-adjacent colleagues that the behavior of this group is noxious and counterproductive, even among those who broadly sympathize with them. Along with a resigned and quiet dread that nothing can be done about it.