From the Archives: Free Speech and the Racial Reckoning (October 21, 2020)
with Carlos Carvalho and Richard Lowery
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Every so often I like to plumb the archives of The Glenn Show and revisit some of my favorite moments. I’m heading out to the University of Austin this coming week to deliver a lecture and sit in on some classes, so I was pleasantly surprised to stumble on this conversation with Richard Lowery and Carlos Carvalho from October 2020. Carlos has just been appointed president of UATX, and here you’ll get some sense of why I think he’ll do an excellent job in the role.
In fact, one of the funny things about this conversation is that I propose an idea for an alternative university that sounds a lot like what UATX has become. I’m in no way claiming credit for the monumental effort required to stand up a sustainable educational institution, and of course online alternatives, like Khan Academy, have been around for a while. UATX is trying something different, modeled on a cross between a tech startup, a literary salon, and a great books program.
When I look back at this episode from less than five years ago, even I’m a little surprised by my stridency at some moments. But that was one intense year: a pandemic, widespread rioting, the George Floyd-inspired “racial reckoning,” and one of the most brutal (rhetorically, at least) presidential campaigns in living memory all happened at the same time. It’s a wonder we didn’t come apart completely.
The issues about which I get most exercised here haven’t gone away, either. While we’re past “peak woke,” and many of the DEI excesses I criticize are being either reined in or obliterated outright, the core issue remains relevant: who can say what? (That also happens to be the subject of my forthcoming book, Self-Censorship.) I’m less concerned now than I was then that conservative voices are being drowned out. Rather I’m concerned that today’s conservatism risks sliding into the thing it claimed to abhor. We cannot simply adopt the progressive censoriousness I criticize here. I have high hopes that institutions like UATX can exert a moderating influence, one that will train students to engage in actual debate rather than shutting down the discourse in the name of their preferred ideology, and will do so under the auspices of a commitment to free expression.
0:00 Glenn critiques attempts to make race a part of academic hiring
7:21 “Optics equality” and the denial of group differences
15:33 Improving low-income primary schools
22:03 Topics on which you can’t challenge the consensus
30:33 Glenn’s letter denouncing his own university’s president over BLM
38:58 Can academics “cite inclusively”?
45:38 Will online education disrupt colleges?
49:16 Advice for a nontenured professor with heterodox views
54:17 What should a university administrator do?
1:06:06 Audience Q&A
Recorded October 21, 2020
Links and Readings
Alice Goffman’s book, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City
Glenn’s response to Paxson in City Journal, “I Must Object”
Damn, Dr. Loury, that letter kicks ass. I remembered this exchange taking place, but only vaguely. Even reading it today, her letter is infuriating. I'm glad I could read your response immediately afterward to lower my blood pressure.
You used to comment that there could be a reaction to how far things were going. I think we're seeing it now in the form of indifference.
I remember this great episode, and I remember that crazy year. I heard this one many times on my iPod. I have also cited that letter from in some my work as a current grad student.
It's amazing that it has already been five years!!! Where would our sanity be today without Glenn's voice??