Politicians on the right know that the kind of work we do in college classrooms—the work of inquiry and deep questioning, the work of nurturing curiosity, the work of exposing the myths and fantasies that inform students’ fears—can create an informed and powerful citizenry. The students who sit in college classrooms like mine today can become powerful leaders in the fight against racism, sexism, and homophobia two decades from now. Politicians seek to quash all possibility of this kind of work.
