OpEd: Universities Provoking Racism?

In 2017, Michael Rubin, resident scholar of American Enterprise Institute, wrote an article titled "Are universities driving racism?". The entire tone of the article was condescending and the article lacked a poignant theme. I think Rubin misses a bigger point than he is trying to make about universities driving racism.

Rubin, in his article, said multiple times that universities are bubbles, their own universe, and professors are teaching their own agenda, disconnecting students from reality and truth. Depending on the university you attend, these sentiments can be true to an extent. The more elite the college, the further you are into a bubble and an entirely different universe. However, I still believe this article to be problematic and highly controversial. Rubin claims that universities are indoctrinating their students and non-conformist (implying conservative) students reject the indoctrination of anti-racism preaching.

I do agree with Rubin, universities are provoking racism. Professors, Ph.D.'s, teacher's aids, guest speakers provoke thought, educate, and urge people to change the world around them by emphasizing the cruelty, injustices, and racism that still exists today. Universities have become more diverse in population and subjects of study. Today you can find hundreds of majors and specializations in broader areas of study.

Now, there are majors consisting of women's studies, African American studies, and American history studies - to name a few. It’s not all grouped together like it had been only 60 years before that. But that is not an inherently bad thing like Rubin makes it out to sound.

When you study the same events in different classes or different majors, there will be some discrepancy because the lens of learning is different, but overall, the facts are there, racism, sexism, and classism exists, it happened, the biggest difference when studying these certain topics: history doesn’t always acknowledge this is still happening.

College and university educators do focus on teaching the truth in a less rose-colored lens than we're used to. This is uncomfortable for many, but it should be uncomfortable to encourage radical change. And change we are starting to see.

Rubin's article did not age well, as it was written in 2017 and Trump had only been in office for a few months. Racial tension and injustices were not quite as prevalent as they are now. But even being written over three years ago, this article still has many flaws and few valid points.

According to Rubin, racism is no longer about discrimination of ethnicity, but about power and politics. The culprit of this new narrative: teachers at these elite and non-elite liberal schools. While I don’t necessarily disagree with his statement that racism is more of a political agenda, who has power and who doesn’t, I wholeheartedly disagree that racism is not as bad as it was back in the 50s. Rubin says that professors claim the statement – “racism is just as bad as it was back in the 50s” – as a pseudo-reality because college is a bubble, but if we look at what is going on in the world now, he is quite mistaken.

Rubin lacks poise in his arguments due to his condescending tone and as I said earlier, he is missing the biggest point: universities are way too expensive, creating a strong case of classism due to a discrepancy in the diversity of wealth among students on campus.

So, do universities highlight the injustices and systematic racism in America and on a global scale? Yes, yes they do. Universities shape and mold some of the brightest minds to set out and change the world, which can be scary to the cis, white males, for whom the world was made for, so instead, they have libel the good name of a liberal arts college education, while missing the problem of class, wealth, and debt of young students.