I once again turn this space over to a liberal academic, who does not adhere to Leftist orthodoxy.
By Jonathan Zimmerman
News flash: People who teach at universities don’t like Donald Trump. And the feeling is mutual.
Indeed, Trump has made university-bashing a centerpiece of his campaign to retake the White House. He recently proposed a new federal online academy that would provide free college degrees, funded by an endowment tax on the institutions Trump loves to hate: large private universities. “We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet, they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists,” Trump said in a campaign video. “We can’t let that happen.”
So why are so many academics helping Trump?
Not on purpose, of course. Almost all of us are part of “The Resistance,”or so we like to think.
But we are playing right into his hands. Political scientists have shown that many Republicans dislike Trump but plan to vote for him anyway because they dislike the Democratic Party more. And that includes the institutions they say have been captured by the Democrats: mainstream media, Hollywood, and — yes — universities.
So, the more reason we give people to hate on higher education, the more likely they are to pull the lever for Trump. Yet we keep assisting him — however inadvertently — in at least four ways:
Calling America racist
When politicians like Nikki Haley say America “is not a racist country,” we scoff. We know the real scoop: America was born in slavery and Native American genocide, and it’s still defined by that legacy.
But most Americans — including most Americans of color — disagree. They don’t deny the presence of racism in our past or present. Yet they reject the idea that America is inherently hateful and intolerant.
According to a 2021 Pew Research Center study, more than 90% ofAmericans think the country has made progress toward “ensuring equal rights for all Americans regardless of their racial and ethnic backgrounds.” And a 2019 Cato Institute survey found that three-fourths of naturalized citizens say they are “very proud” to be American. If the country is so unrelentingly racist, why would immigrants — most of whom are not white — celebrate it?
Calling universities racist
In 2020, 350 Princeton professors signed a statement claiming that “anti-black racism has a visible bearing upon Princeton’s campus makeup and its hiring practices.” But as the Black law professor and former Princeton trustee Randall Kennedy replied, Princeton and other universities have made extensive — and expensive — efforts to recruit more African Americans for their faculties and student bodies.
[Editor’s Note: The Philadelphia Inquirer has called itself racist.]
To be sure, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision barring affirmative action will limit what universities can do in this area. Yet most of the elite schools have made it clear they will continue to seek legal ways to admit more Black students. That may not work, but it’s certainly not anti-Black. (Also, why would any Black student willingly enroll in an institution that calls itself racist? Just asking.)
Establishing — and enforcing — new rules around language
Universities have taken the lead in attempts to change our vocabulary, especially around race. The latest example is Latinx. We say that’s preferable to Latino and Latina — which are gendered terms — and Hispanic, which connotes an ugly history of Spanish colonial domination.
But the great majority of so-called Latinx people don’t approve or even recognize the term. And they surely don’t like academics telling them what they should call themselves. No wonder a growing number of Hispanics support Trump, who happily flouts our linguistic pieties.
Suppressing dissent around trans issues
Most Americans support the right of people to define their own gender identities. They differ about whether trans people should be allowed to participate on sports teams — and shower in locker rooms — that match their gender.
But we academics have decreed that anyone who raises concerns about the subject is a “transphobe.” Never mind that some female trans athletes have suggested that competing against other women gives them an unfair advantage. They’re wrong and we’re (always!) right. Any questions?
I’m not asking my fellow professors to change what they believe … I’m asking them to show more humility about those beliefs.
I’m not asking my fellow professors to change what they believe, about trans athletes or anything else. I’m asking them to show more humility about those beliefs, and — especially — to show more tolerance toward Americans with different ones. If we call them bigots and ignoramuses, they will turn toward the welcoming embrace of You Know Who.
Let me be clear: Like most of my colleagues, I regard Donald Trump as an existential threat to our democracy. A second Trump presidency would be a disaster for the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, and many other essential American principles and practices.
To quote Trump, we can’t let that happen. So if you want to stop him, dear professors, stop giving Americans more grounds to distrust us. As a recent Gallup poll confirmed, public confidence in higher education is already at an all-time low. And every time it dips further, it’s more votes for Trump.
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Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at Penn. This originally appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Well, America certainly has a racist history. That is inarguable. And racism still exists in this country, which is also inarguable (see Charlottesville incident and many others). The issue here, I think, is painting the entire country with that wide brush. I think that’s wherein lays the problem. This is similar to the beating Hilary Clinton took when she called Trumpists “deplorable”. She was absolutely right in my opinion, but it pissed a lot of people off and hurt her at the ballot box.
I don’t know who is calling universities racist, but I certainly don’t know any liberals who do that. That’s bull.
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I find this kind of stuff trivial and asinine. I don’t know why there has to be any debate on such subjects. If someone doesn’t like what you are calling them, they can certainly speak up for themselves. This does not have to be an issue decided by any university or other such group or organization. It is annoying.
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This point is well taken. There are certainly varying opinions about this subject. I am pretty much considered a bleeding-heart liberal, though in prior years, I might actually have been considered a moderate (think about THAT one). But I definitely have concerns about whether female trans people should be permitted to compete against other women. Men and women are different, always have been, and always will be. If that makes me a “transphobe” in the eyes of others, so be it, and those making that assertion can fuck right off.
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The most important sentence in this piece. Yep.
“When politicians like Nikki Haley say America “is not a racist country,” we scoff. We know the real scoop: America was born in slavery and Native American genocide, and it’s still defined by that legacy.”
“But the great majority of so-called Latinx people don’t approve or even recognize the term. And they surely don’t like academics telling them what they should call themselves. No wonder a growing number of Hispanics support Trump, who happily flouts our linguistic pieties”
“But we academics have decreed that anyone who raises concerns about the subject is a “transphobe.” Never mind that some female trans athletes have suggested that competing against other women gives them an unfair advantage. They’re wrong and we’re (always!) right. Any questions?”
“Let me be clear: Like most of my colleagues, I regard Donald Trump as an existential threat to our democracy. A second Trump presidency would be a disaster for the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, and many other essential American principles and practices.”
The biggest problem, for me, is the lack of nuance.
Any time you make a statement about “All,” you are going to be wrong (almost) every time.
I can’t recall ANY column I have written that was accepted (or rejected) by ALL.
HOWEVER, I can recall one Facebook post that EVERYONE liked: An RIP appreciation of James Garner. NO opposing opinions. That was 10 years ago.
But Stu, “nuance” is a dirty word on both ends of the political spectrum. “Moral clarity” requires that you deny that there are shades of grey, competing social interests, problems that do not have a ready solution, no “other side” to the question and requires you to believe the world is sharply divided between the good guys (us) and the bad guys (them). Differences of opinion cannot be reasonable. There can be no debate, only conflict.
Me, I love nuance, which is why I read writers who understand it exists.
I agree the extremes hate nuance.
Wow freeze. I couldn’t have done better. I agree 100%. You must have been on the same long distance wave length with me.
Zimmerman hits the nail on the head. I can’t stand Trump either (although I consider both him and Biden to be threats to our democracy – remember all the time the Supreme Court overturned unilateral actions by the Biden administration?), but neither can I tolerate the uber woke professoriate in the academy at places like U Penn and my own alma mater.
I won’t vote for Biden either. But I will vote.
Voting for a 3rd party isn’t tossing my vote away. It’s showing that I will drag my sorry ass out to the polls and vote, but unless one of the major parties gives me an acceptable choice, I’ll vote 3rd party. My vote is available, but it’s not for free.
I voted Libertarian in 2020. I have also written in the name of my mother for president when offered a choice I did not like.
Trump will lose because he is Trump, and Biden will win because he isn’t Trump. And in his second term, Joe Biden will mistakenly start WW III because he pushed what he thought was the PAUSE button and it was the button that launched all of our nukes.
Is that supposed to be funny Vince? If so you failed. If not you are a very sick person to make a comment like that.
I’m not sick, the president is. He is quickly slipping deeper into senility, so let us hope the LAUNCH button is well hidden.
This column is dead on, but I am afraid it will fall on deaf ears.
True that.