On Too Many College Campuses, We Are Afraid of Truth, Reason, and Tolerance. But They Be All That Can Save Our Civil Society.
“Antisemitism really isn’t a problem anymore.”
This week, I was having a discussion with a group of college students when that statement was uttered. The speaker was an educated, well-meaning individual. The speaker was seeking to emphasize how we, as a community, must become more strongly focused on diversity, equity, and social justice. The speaker was seeking to redirect concerns about what is happening today on college campuses from Los Angeles to Austin to Boston, believing that the powers that be were seeking to silence voices calling for divestment and calling out perceived apartheid.
What was missed in the soliloquy was concern for a growing number of Jewish students fearing their own safety, given additional credibility as Columbia University shifted to virtual classes because of recent “activism.” What was missed was the 360% increase in antisemitic activity in the United States since October. What was missed was the history that drives misguided activism today. And what was missed was understanding that free speech does not mean speech free from accountability.
Nearly seven years ago, I watched my undergraduate alma mater — the University of Virginia — serve as the staging ground for one of the worst displays of ideology-based violence and hate-based words and actions. The Unite the Right rally served as a true canary in the coal mine, forcing many in our representative democracy to examine their social values, priorities, and commitments. It forced us to confront our complex and messy national history in a way few were comfortable, as we sought to determine what we believe in, what we are eager to advocate for, and what we are willing to sacrifice to achieve.
Now, I watch the campus of the institution of higher education that will hopefully confer me a doctorate next year — the University of Southern California — confront the latest challenge to determine the soul of our community, our education system, and our nation. Unfortunately, USC — like Harvard and Columbia Universities before it — is not standing as a beacon for what we are capable of. Instead, it is a reminder of how far we can stray from what the nation is capable of.
On too many college campuses today, we see growing vitriol, receding tolerance, and rising threats of violence performed in the name of belief. We see a president at Columbia University who once called acts of terrorism “a form of protesting against a system.” More than six months after the October 7 massacre, we still see few campuses that are willing to call out Hamas as a terrorist group. And we see a growing number of college students refusing to speak, out of fear that we will shout down, condemn, and cancel those whose free speech doesn’t perfectly align with our own thoughts and actions.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with students on four college campuses. We spoke of hate, violence, and ideology. We discussed the roots of our collective fears and of our future concerns. And we tried to focus on some of the realities and facts, in an environment where most seem to be driven by opinions and emotion.
At each campus, the need for clear, honest, direct public engagement was evident. As we watch the world burn, college campuses seem to be prevented from doing the right thing, from respecting disparate voices, and from protecting the interests of all of their students. Colleges are either unwilling or unable to lead. But as the moment has chosen these institutions to serve as ground zero for such debates, they have little choice. A few common threads in these discussions kept presenting themselves.
Free speech does not mean free of consequences. Yes, the Bill of Rights provides us the ability to think whatever we want to think and say what we believe. But it does not absolve us of responsibility for our words or our actions. We are all responsible for what we say (and type online). If we seek to threaten others, if we put others at risk, we are accountable. This is particularly true when our words are designed to harm others based on their race, religion, nationality, gender, or political beliefs. And to be clear, this lesson needs to be learned by both students and teachers. College faculty must understand that the concept of academic freedom is not a blank check, authorizing one to preach hate-filled ideology or endorse harmful propaganda with impunity.
Social justice is not an either/or debate. Too many students today seem to believe the fights are about binary choices. That, for instance, if one is concerned with the plight of Palestinians in Gaza then they must stand against Israel or the Jewish community. One can both condemn Islamophobia and antisemitism. One should. We all should fight for the best in human rights, not create a personal ranking of whose rights are more important to us and whose rights can be sacrificed for the common good.
History matters. Racism did not end with the passage of the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. Misogyny didn’t go away with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. And antisemitism wasn’t solved with the establishment of the nation of Israel. Reasoned discussions on complicated issues require an understanding of what brought us to this moment. It also demands we understand the bigotry and ignorance that has historically allowed for hate, intolerance, and biases to take root. We only evolve if we can learn from our past. We can’t learn from the past if we don’t know it or if we try to cancel it. And on issues like antisemitism and racism and other hate-based ideology, we just don’t know it.
Sadly, student vision is myopic. If recent demonstrations are any indication, we know that we embrace free speech … as long as the speaker agrees with us. We seem to believe that threatening other at-risk populations is an effective way to help those we are most concerned with. In the name of progressive ideals, today’s college students have embraced the teachings of Osama Bin Laden, while others justify the use of the swastika. And they certainly don’t see the irony of embracing Hamas (or even refusing to condemn them) at a time when violent white supremacy groups are similarly embracing the terror group. Despite their access to unlimited information and viewpoints, today’s students seem to reject the spirited, informed debate they call for, seeking to cancel those who may disagree or even question their views.
Where does all this leave us? It is easy to grow more and more cynical with each passing day, focusing on that which divides us and refusing to entertain educated debates to better understand those with whom we disagree. While college campuses may be a root of the problem today, they can also serve as a potential cure. They can serve as home for civil discourse. They can embrace differing views. They can preach compassion with accountability. They can teach how we coexist in a world that is less homogenous than it ever has been, and will be even more so tomorrow. And they can advocate for respect, understanding, and tolerance.
As much of this occurred on the steps of Mr. Jefferson’s University, it only seems fitting to quote TJ (despite recent efforts to cancel the Founding Father). Jefferson famously wrote, “for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error as long as reason is left free to combat it.”
Never has that sentiment been more important to our nation than today. The battles over antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and a host of other extremist ideologies demand an embrace of truth, tolerance, and reason. Where better to develop such characteristics than on college campuses, institutions entrusted with educating the next generation of leaders.
