I finally agree, college isn’t for everyone
White nationalist activity on campus has shown me that higher education doesn’t need to be inclusive at all costs
I've been proven wrong. The evidence has overwhelmed me. I take it back.
“Stop saying ‘College isn’t for everyone,’” is one of my favorite retorts to the oft-aired argument, “Some people don’t belong in college.” It’s really a euphemism for, “Those people aren’t smart enough for college,” and is usually heard anywhere black and brown people live. But now I realize I have to rethink it, or in the very least use it in proper context. A wave of white nationalist activity on campus makes clear there are some people whom higher education shouldn’t make room for. For in making room for them, everyone suffers.
Between the election and the beginning of May, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that monitors hate groups, recorded more than 150 new reports of white nationalist fliers and recruitment materials on college campuses. But many colleges choose to downplay the spike in white supremacist activity on campus when they see it through the lens of academic freedom and free speech: It may be hateful, but it is acceptable. For many faculty members and administrators, xenophobes are just one kind of shopper in the marketplace of ideas.
But the temptation of the argument that even hate speech should be allowed in a place of learning in the name of unfettered thought is wrong-headed because white nationalism is based on a brutal and artificial hierarchy. This separatism harms higher learning. Society progresses when ideas are vulnerable to different people, fresh ways of thinking and new knowledge. Inclusion fuels the machine of higher education — the main reason I cringe every time I hear, “College isn’t for everyone.”
Join the conversation later on Andre Perry’s radio show, “Free College,” hosted Tuesdays on WBOK1230 in New Orleans at 3pm Central/4pm Eastern 504.260.9265.
Bigoted white nationalist speech isn’t just harmful to learning; the ideology of white supremacy manifests corrupted actions too. White nationalists have often resorted to violence against those who are I finally agree, college isn’t for everyone - The Hechinger Report:
