#RaceClass

Last week, Harvard University started fighting back against Trump's assault on higher ed. In this episode of #RaceClass, Jon and Arnie discuss why immediate praise for Harvard is premature. To deserve our praise, Harvard needs to do more than defend itself. It needs to leverage its near $60 billion endowment to defend all universities against unlawful federal interference. Harvard need not do it a...

We recorded about twelve hours after plainclothes federal officers abducted a Tufts University graduate student off the street in Somerville, MA. The student's apparent "transgression"? Writing an op-ed in Tufts' student newspaper advocating for Tufts to divest from Israel. To understand how we've reached this moment, we start to unpack how President Trump is wielding both anti-Black racism and an...

In this episode, Arnie and Jon explore why so many universities have voluntarily scrubbed websites and shuttered still lawful and mission critical diversity, equity and inclusion programs. We also discuss why President Trump's anti-DEI measures are themselves legally suspect. Part of the reason is that Trump's war on DEI rests on, and reinforces, the morally repugnant and empirically bankrupt noti...

In this episode, we discuss how Trump’s first week in office reflects what we already knew. Racism remains one of Trump’s favorite political tactics. He’ll use it to demean and delegitimize political opponents, and to distract from a separate pillar of his administration: massive self-dealing. As always, Florida stands out as a model for how opportunistic politicians can leverage racism, sexism an...

In this episode, the #RaceClass Podcast explores Trump’s relationship with higher education. On the one hand, independent universities present a threat to Trump and his authoritarian ambitions. On the other hand, universities can aid Trump by voluntarily ceding power or otherwise providing cover for his antidemocratic aims. To preview how Trump might try to break and capture the nation’s universit...

We discuss “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that contains one of the largest concentrations of fossil fuel and petrochemical operations in the Western Hemisphere. These facilities expose nearby residents, who are disproportionately Black, to toxic pollutants and “severe health harms including elevated burdens and risks of cancer, reproductive, maternal, and ne...

[This episode first aired as a live virtual panel on September 27, 2024.] Since the summer of 2020, rightwing officials and organizations have orchestrated a coordinated campaign to redefine antiracism as the new racism. Early iterations of this campaign presented a caricature of Critical Race Theory to discredit modest antiracist reforms and to limit classroom conversations about racism, bias, an...

In a surprising turn of events, a federal judge recently upheld most of Oklahoma’s HB 1775, a law widely perceived as banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the state. However, the ruling delivered an ironic twist: Judge Charles Goodwin—a Trump appointee—clarified that the law does not prohibit teaching about race, racism, or related concepts like implicit bias. Instead, it compels such instruction...

Following the 2020-21 school year, the Sullivan County (TN) school board fired Matthew Hawn, a high school social studies teacher. As was reported at the time, the School Board punished Mr. Hawn after he assigned his Contemporary Issues class a Ta-Nehisi Coates article and shared a spoken word poem by Kyla Jenee Lacey. On Monday, after nearly three years, Mr. Hawn had his first opportunity to chal...

Dr. James Whitfield joined the #RaceClass Podcast for a wide ranging conversation about his racial education as a multi-racial child in west Texas; the hostile environment teachers and students face in Texas today; and reasons for optimism even in oppressive times. Dr. Whitfield is an award-winning education advocate centered on creating safe, nurturing, and equitable learning environments which,...

In this episode, Dr. OiYan Poon joins #RaceClass to discuss her new book “Asian American is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action and Family.” Dr. Poon is a distinguished social scientist and race scholar. In a wide ranging conversation, Dr. Poon explores her own racial education as child in western, MA; how the term “Asian American” originated within the broader Civil Rights Move...

It has been a long semester, and we are tired. In this episode, Jon and Arnie connect lots of dots to explore the many ways race shapes contemporary fights in American society. From the Governor of Alabama dog whistling at the UAW, to pundits scolding university presidents who “negotiate” with student protesters, to GOP leaders weaponizing antisemitism for political gain, race is doing work—one wa...

On Wednesday Apr. 24, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would tour Columbia University and host a news conference to discuss “the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses.” Just ten days’ prior, Johnson appeared alongside Donald Trump for a press conference that “echoed language from the racist [and antisemitic] great replacement theory.” With his pivot to Columb...

One increasingly encounters the claim that antisemitism is on the rise and progressive politics are to blame. For anyone familiar with Christopher Rufo’s unapologetic smear campaigns against CRT and DEI, there is a reflex to dismiss both claims as somewhat obvious propaganda. That reflex makes sense, but it invites two risks: one analytical, one political. The analytical risk entails discounting a...

In this episode, we explore two things that Brown v. Board of Education and DEI have in common. The first is the story we know well. Both Brown and DEI have been openly vilified by the Right—a history that spans the Southern Manifesto to an ongoing assault on racial diversity. The second is the story that’s almost never told. The Supreme Court’s most celebrated decision and contemporary efforts to...

Rightwing personalities are blaming DEI (“diversity, equity, inclusion”) for everything from broken Boeings and bankrupt banks to a flaccid military and train derailments. These are facially unserious claims. Yet they resonate with much of the public. One might say they enjoy a common-sense logic that pits diversity against excellence. We explore two factors that feed rightwing DEI smears: (1) eng...

On Dec. 5, the U.S. House passed HR 894, which states that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” On the same day, House Republicans charged the presidents’ of Harvard, Penn and MIT with institutional “cultures” that “foster [antisemitism] because you have faculty and students who hate Jews, hate Israel and are comfortable apologizing for terror.” As Noah Zatz recently observed, both claims rely on a log...

On October 7, Hamas launched horrifying and unprecedent attacks targeting Israeli civilians and continues to hold Israeli hostages. Israel responded within an ongoing assault on Gaza that includes airstrikes and a blockade on humanitarian aid. Current estimates suggest that over 1,400 people have died in Israel and nearly 6,000 in Gaza. The conflict remains agonizing front-page news. And yet it fe...

In this special hour-long episode, Professor Victor Ray joins us to discuss racial education, structural racism, identity politics and his recent book "On Critical Race Theory."

In SFFA v. Harvard, the Supreme Court narrowed a university’s ability to consider the racial identity of individual students during admissions. Justice Roberts also emphasized that universities may consider each student’s personal experiences with race or racism. Many schools have responded by adding admissions essays that prompt students to share how race or racism affects their lives. In this ep...

For our 20th Episode, we circle back to the beginning. In Episode 1, we asked why the mainstream press struggled so mightily to call the GOP’s campaign of discriminatory censorship what it is: an unapologetic assault on free speech. Unfortunately, little has changed. 18 months later, and much of the press remains mired in a dysfunctional and dangerous “free speech debate.” To correct that narrativ...

The opinion dropped. As we expected, conservative Justices invoked the claim that race-conscious policies stigmatize and mismatch their beneficiaries. Both claims have attracted sustained critique. But they still enjoy traction in the popular press and shape our national affirmative action conversations. In this episode of #RaceClass, we explore the racialized presumptions that anchor both claims....

Next month, the Supreme Court will likely ban universities from considering the racial identity of individual applicants. Many schools will seek “race-neutral alternatives” to retain a racially diverse student body. One likely alternative will be to consider each student’s class status (but not their racial identity)—or what Prof. Cheryl Harris has termed “class-NOT-race” admissions policies. If w...

Recent events have sparked well-worn debates about racial profiling. When these conversations arise, we often hear the claim that racial profiling is “rational.” We’re skeptical. Why? Because this claim rests on two faulty assumptions: (1) that we have accurate information in our heads & (2) that accurate information rationally shapes our behavior. Even were those assumptions correct, racial profi...

Consider the following two sentences: “White students are often over-represented on elite college campuses.” “Students racialized as white are often over-represented on elite college campuses.” The first might seem unobjectionable. The second might seem awkward and jargony. The challenge is, the phrase “white students” implies that “white” is some natural (perhaps even biological) trait that some...