The Eyes of History Are Upon You: Toward a Theory of Intellectual Reconstruction for Higher Education in a Post-Truth Era

"The Eyes of Texas," the official song of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), was written during the Jim Crow era, was first performed at a 1903 minstrel show, and was inspired by Robert E. Lee. This legacy and the enduring institutional racism at UT bring into question the purpose and propriety of the song in a post-truth era, where observable and documented facts may not be as influential in shaping public sentiment than subjective perceptions. This conceptual essay urges institutional leadership in higher education and academia writ large to practice intellectual reconstruction, or an education—not a celebration—of minoritizing institutional anachronisms in order to (re)purpose and (re)appropriate these anachronisms, many of which may be crucial to an institution's identity, history, people, and place.