Opinion: Liberal Democracy Under Attack In Ukraine — And In U.S. State Capitols And Universities

By Peter C. Herman, Times of San Diego

March 8, 2022

In an analysis published in the New York Times, Damien Cave proposed that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine might have the salutary effect of reviving liberalism. Rather than having, as Putin said, “outlived its purpose,” the unified response to Russia’s aggression shows that there’s still life in the old order yet. Democracy and liberalism can still mount an effective defense against authoritarianism.

But the enemy is not only without, it’s also within. Because the bedrock assumption of liberalism—toleration of differing views—is under attack in the United States from both the Left and the Right.

From the Right, no fewer than thirty-eight states have either passed or are considering bills outlawing the teaching of certain ideas about race, gender, and sexuality. In Texas, for example, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tweeted: ““I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed.”

In both Florida and Iowa, conservative lawmakers have proposed installing cameras and livestreams in K-12 classrooms to ensure that “teachers are teaching the kids properly,” as one state representative put it. Missouri, for some reason, leads the pack with sixteen bills that not only ban certain topics from the classroom (e.g., the 1619 Project), but mandate that teachers present only a “positive” view of U.S. history.

Book-banning is also on the rise. The American Library Association reports that it received an “’unprecedented’ 330 reports of book challenges.” And as with the legislation banning Critical Race Theory and other topics, the point is to ban viewpoints the Right doesn’t like.

“You’re seeing really powerful movements under way to constrain expression. It’s not about discussing ideas objectively. It’s about not discussing them at all,” says Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Acadia University who tracks free speech in education.

The same applies to the Left. On college campuses, an atmosphere of fear and conformity often pervades. A recent poll by RealClearEducation, College Pulse and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found that over 80% of college students self-censor because they feared retribution, and the survey also found a significant uptick in the percentage of students who said it’s acceptable to silence a speaker by shouting them down.

Emma Camp, a senior at the University of Virginia, illustrates the dry numbers with her lived experience. Instead of “intellectual diversity and rigorous disagreement,” she finds that her “college experience has been defined by strict ideological conformity.” Fearing lower grades and social ostracization, self-censorship is the norm.

And for good reason, because even tenured faculty can find themselves cancelled if they step out of line. Recently, at San Diego State University, J. Angelo Corlett, a professor in the Philosophy Department, was removed from teaching two classes, Critical Thinking and Philosophy, Race, and Justice, because he used “racially charged language” in the classroom.

Specifically, he listed 10-12 terms that have been used against a variety of ethnicities, including Black and white people. The terms, in other words, were not used in a pejorative context, but for educational purposes: ““You have to mention the words in order to explain why they are racist and should not be used,” said Corlett to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

But what makes this case so outrageous is that it wasn’t even a registered student who complained. According to the Union-Tribune report, “On March 1 an unidentified Black student, who was not registered in Corlett’s course, stopped by and repeatedly challenged the professor’s mention of epithets, particularly one regarded as the most offensive slur against Black people.” Note that Corlett did not ask the interloper to leave, as certainly would have been his right, but instead, attempted to engage this person in a dialogue.

According to a student in this class, Doretta Ponce, Corlett spoke the epithets to illustrate the “use/mention” distinction: “In order to argue for why people should never use racist language, the mention of certain racial terms was necessary to drive the point home. Rather than using watered down code words such as ‘b-word’ or ‘n-word.’ which hold the very same linguistic meaning as their less watered-down counterparts, Dr. C mentioned the actual terms for the purpose of teaching us the point.”

It did not matter. Later that day, Dean Monica Casper (whose tweets sparked their own controversy and accusations of intolerance) relieved Corlett of his duties in two out of three classes because “There have been numerous student complaints and it is clear you are not effective in the course.”

He was not given any further explanation. According to Ponce, Dean Casper did not inquire if the other students were offended by Corlett’s teaching, or if they believed he was so ineffective as to merit immediate removal.

To say the least, what happened to Corlett is an outrage, a deep offense against academic freedom. His removal shows that the university will actively police the classroom, and just like the anti-CRT bills, if the professor departs from orthodoxy, then out you go.

The complaint doesn’t even have to come from someone taking the course. It seems we now have minders dropping into classrooms to ensure that everyone toes the proper ideological line.

If this sounds eerily familiar, it should. I have several colleagues who grew up in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Soviet Union, and they tell me SDSU is increasingly resembling a world they thought had disappeared.

Back to Ukraine: if the United States is to revive liberal multinationalism, then it must first get its own house in order. We cannot fight tyranny abroad if authoritarianism is rampant in our state legislatures and college campuses.

Peter C. Herman is professor of English literature at San Diego State University. He has published on Shakespeare, Milton and the literature of terrorism, and has published essays in Salon, Inside Higher Ed, as well as Times of San Diego. His most recent book is “Unspeakable: Literature and Terrorism from the Gunpowder Plot to 9/11” (Routledge, 2020).

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