We Must Not Pre-Comply with Authority

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, I started binge reading books on American history, politics, and sociology. In many courses I teach, students want to know what to do about sexism and racism in society once they understand its history and the many ways it shows up in every day life.

Ibram Kendi recommends supporting and voting for policies and candidates that are anti-racist and anti-sexist.

Heather McGhee reminds us that social forces often put pressure on us to see others who share our identities as our allies. Instead, we must learn to find solidarity and build bridges with people and groups who do not share our identities but with whom our interests are aligned.

Mikki Kendall offers a vision of an inclusive feminism that seeks the thriving of all in society by tackling poverty, food insecurity, housing, gun violence, and other issues not traditionally understood as feminist ones.

After the election in November 2024, I re-read Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, which serves as an informed listicle of ways that we can resist the onslaught of racist, sexist, anti-immigration, anti-trans, ablest, and anti-democratic tide of executive orders and legislative bills at the state and national levels.

Snyder’s point that resonates with me the most is that we must resist pre-complying with unjust laws and policies. If we pre-promise that we are going to comply with rules that hurt other people, we will not be able to resist when our moment of truth comes.

This is especially important for us in the Mormon, fringe Mormon, and ExMo communities. Over and over again, I heard as a child, teen, and adult, that “Obedience is the first law of heaven,” a statement not supported by scripture. We were taught to pre-comply with authority and to acquiesce to the demands of leadership, regardless of the consequences to ourselves and others, in the name of faith and obedience.

A new state law in Utah, passed in 2024 (HB 261), requires professors at state universities and colleges to submit all course readings and lecture outlines for required courses to a publicly available database.

At my university, I see professors racing remove potentially controversial content from their courses in an effort to pre-comply with a legislature that is anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion. Some feel that by doing so they will protect themselves from this new state surveillance system, but at the expense of student learning.

Pre-complying in this way makes it easier for the state to remove academic freedom and to police content taught at universities that is about inequality in our society, because such content is viewed as controversial from an extreme political point of view. We live in a world full of complex systems and we must continue to teach our students about these realities.

I am actively talking to colleagues about continuing to teach content that is socially relevant to our courses, our research, and the lives of our students. In this time of fear, we must not pre-comply.