Feeling the Problem: Working through Diversity Work

This article focuses on the attacks on "political correctness" and "identity politics" and the way they are deployed to hinder more thoroughgoing investigations of and challenges to white supremacy on college campuses. Self-proclaimed liberal educators who wish to appear "objective" or "neutral" in the classroom inadvertently reinforce systemic oppression out of a fear of being charged with "liberal bias" or impeding the "free speech" of reactionary speakers. The article explores the author's experience of "teaching while black" at a small, relatively conservative institution on Long Island, New York. He also describes how it feels to directly address white supremacy in the course material and in the classroom setting itself, particularly when coteaching on this topic with white colleagues.