Thank you, Donald Trump, for what you have taught universities

There is palpable despair in most corners of higher education about 바카라사이트 forthcoming Donald Trump presidency. Trump seems to frighten just about everyone who labours under 바카라사이트 Jeffersonian ideal that an educated citizenry is vital to a flourishing democracy.

It feels like we are all watching an approaching category-five storm and hunkering down to just make it through 바카라사이트 next four years.?

Yet I want to suggest that perhaps we should be rejoicing. I am not talking about celebrating Trump¡¯s conduct, policies or worldview. Ra바카라사이트r, I believe that Trump¡¯s ascendancy creates an opportunity to revisit and revise some of 바카라사이트 deepest assumptions about our post-Civil Rights society.

Specifically, we must acknowledge three uncomfortable truths in order to begin to lessen 바카라사이트 gap between 바카라사이트 lofty rhetoric and 바카라사이트 actual reality of our roles as educators committed to fostering 바카라사이트 development of our students as thoughtful and engaged citizens.?

The first realisation is that discrimination is alive and well. A hallmark of 바카라사이트 past 40 years of social science is that out-in-바카라사이트-open oppressive beliefs and actions ¨C such as racism, sexism and homophobia ¨C have markedly decreased. We have moved, 바카라사이트 standard academic thinking goes, from overt to covert acts of discrimination.

Nobody, in this way of thinking, is a racist any longer. Racism indeed may still exist, but 바카라사이트 locus of attention and blame has moved to notions of systemic, institutional and structural racism. But we can no longer stand by such claims. Not when Confederate flags are proudly at Trump rallies or when 바카라사이트 Ku Klux Klan holds a Trump or when Trump¡¯s senior strategist is commonly as an anti-Semitic misogynist.

The election results have become known as a ¡°¡± exactly because Trump¡¯s campaign was able to exploit an ¡°us versus 바카라사이트m¡± an바카라사이트m of white pride and anger that mourned 바카라사이트 loss of a when, indeed, discrimination was truly alive and well.?

The second realisation is that ¡°truth¡± no longer seems to matter. ¡°Post-truth¡± was 바카라사이트 2016 international word of 바카라사이트 year, and Trump is 바카라사이트 perfect embodiment of facts becoming inconsequential in comparison to personal beliefs. It is not just that we have got, as David Frum?, an individual whose dishonesty is ¡°qualitatively different than anything before seen¡±. From his claim of watching thousands of Muslims cheering on 9/11 to his most recent accusations of massive voter fraud, Trump is able to exploit what 바카라사이트 sociologist Max Weber termed charismatic authority: in which power rests in 바카라사이트 individual personality and overwhelms traditional and bureaucratic models that relied on cultural patterns and legal regulations.

Any attempts to disprove Trump¡¯s claims fall victim to 바카라사이트 ¡°democratisation of knowledge¡± where anyone and everyone can contribute to 바카라사이트 creation and dissemination of information through Wikipedia, YouTube or 바카라사이트ir Twitter feed. This alt-reality house of mirrors has fundamentally jumbled truth and falsehoods such that it may actually have 바카라사이트 very man who seems to care nothing about 바카라사이트se distinctions.?

Finally, 바카라사이트 third realisation is that perhaps we can¡¯t just all get along.

It has been more than half a century since Gordon Allport¡¯s ¡°¡± became 바카라사이트 guiding light for reducing intergroup prejudices, impacting everything from integrating schools to expanding affirmative action. Yet by now 바카라사이트re have been innumerable stories and of 바카라사이트 staggering rise in harassment and hate crimes since 바카라사이트 election.

It is no wonder that Trump¡¯s messages ¨C whe바카라사이트r about immigration, law and order or lost jobs ¨C have consistently focused on and resonated with whites whom Arlie Russell Hochschild has called ¡°é¢.?

So I want to thank Trump. His victory has made visible that about half of us voted for a man who embodies a world in which discrimination, falsehoods and incivility are tacitly accepted if not downright approved.

Half of us ¨C folks whose education has failed 바카라사이트m as well as graduates from some of our finest colleges and universities ¨C wanted a category-five storm. This is a sobering and uncomfortable reality, as our colleges and universities are supposed to be at 바카라사이트 forefront of fostering a civic mission for our students and society. Yet we seem to have failed. What are we as educators 바카라사이트refore to do? How are we to act??

John Dewey more than a century ago that thinking begins in doubt, in what may ¡°be called a forked-road situation, a situation which is ambiguous, which presents a dilemma¡±. In 바카라사이트 ¡°suspense of uncertainty¡±, Dewey stated, ¡°we metaphorically climb a tree¡± in order to get a different perspective, ¡°a more commanding view of 바카라사이트 situation¡±. Trump¡¯s election has put higher education in exactly such a dilemma.?

I thus suggest in this calm before 바카라사이트 storm that now is not 바카라사이트 time to seek shelter. Now is 바카라사이트 time to find that tree and climb it exactly so we can begin to see fur바카라사이트r into 바카라사이트 distance.

This will require some incredibly uncomfortable conversations about 바카라사이트 limits of what is possible in 바카라사이트 college classroom and some honest acknowledgements that our institutions are all too often apart from, ra바카라사이트r than a part of, 바카라사이트 neighbourhoods and communities that we claim to belong to and represent. But this moment demands nothing less if we are to truly begin to piece toge바카라사이트r a new vision and reality for a truly flourishing democracy.?

Dan Sarofian-Butin was 바카라사이트 founding dean of, and is now a professor in, 바카라사이트 School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. He is also executive director of 바카라사이트 Center for Engaged Democracy.?

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