The Review: Sanctimony, Politics, Republican Theater

Campus culture gives politicians a chance to throw red meat to the base, says Jonathan Rauch. ADVERTISEMENT [Academe Today Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. “I oppose CRT today, I oppose it tomorrow, and I will oppose it as your governor.” That’s Jim Pillen, a University of Nebraska regent running for governor. Let’s assume that the echo of George Wallace is unintentional. As our Emma Pettit [reports]( Pillen’s proposed resolution “would not ban the teaching of the theory” but would rather “ensure that no student is required to learn about it in order to graduate.” Unlike a direct curricular prohibition, which would almost certainly fail in the courts, a resolution like Pillen’s might have legal legs. But it’s still pure grandstanding, since, as the Nebraska system’s President Ted Carter explained, “There is nothing in our curriculum that lists critical race theory as a requirement to graduate either at the undergraduate level or the graduate level.” (As of this writing, the resolution failed.) As ever with these performances, it’s hard to know exactly what’s being targeted, in part because “critical race theory” is a fairly nebulous entity. It originated as a variant of legal realism, and involved problems specific to jurisprudential theory; every step away from that origin has rendered it less concrete as an object of analysis. This vagueness makes it a convenient proxy for larger, more general political commitments. For many of its proponents and its critics, it seems now to refer quite broadly to a sociology of race underpinned by left political assumptions and goals. SPONSOR CONTENT | ADOBE [Learn how d]( literacy resources enhance hybrid learning environments.]( For figures like Pillen, the nebulousness is the point — “critical race theory” stands in for an academic culture thought to have been captured by leftist ideologues. [In an interview]( with The Chronicle, Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, suggests that they’re not entirely off the mark. Rauch sees campuses as bathed in censoriousness and fearful self-censorship. This atmosphere “distorts the information environment by spoofing consensus. In a chilled environment, you don’t know what people around you really think.” Rauch is unambiguous about political interference: Politicians “should never, ever, ever” interfere in curriculum. But now that it’s underway, he predicts such meddling will continue: “This is America, it’s a populist country, it’s a democratic country, and you’re going to see political entrepreneurs make hay with this.” A certain ambivalence marks Rauch’s position. He is under no illusions about the manipulative political theater in which the sponsors of anti-CRT legislation are indulging. But unlike many on the left, he does not pretend to think that the miasma of politicized sanctimony drifting through college campuses is merely a mirage, a right-wing fantasy. “My admonition to people in academia is that there’s more to come if you don’t get more conscientious about making campuses more hospitable to a true diversity of ideas.” [Read the whole interview.]( ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. 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Recommended: - “Maybe I’m a bit slow, or maybe I was just learning how to work in the archives, or maybe this is how everyone figures things out. At some point I came across a document with JEWS written in all caps, but this time the scrawl noted, ‘See JEWS to Snyder.’” [At his]( the historian Charles Petersen]( on discovering a smoking-gun document in the archives attesting to Stanford’s historical discrimination against Jewish applicants. - “People like Engel write books not to shock society but to free themselves, to violate some inner constraint that makes the agreed on forms of living unbearable.” At the London Review of Books, [Patricia Lockwood on the Canadian novelist Marian Engel]( whose most famous novel is about having sex with a nonmetaphorical bear. - “The history of book reviewing is a history of frustration and disappointment. Why should our era be different?” n + 1's editors’ letter, [on the travails of books criticism]( now, which revolves around a fictional instance of the so-called “Contemporary Themed Review” (CTR for short): “The failures, offenses, and excesses of [Sally] Rooney, [Ben] Lerner, and [Rachel] Cusk occupy the bulk of the piece  —  until the final fourth, which seems to be about Christopher Lasch, as well as cancel culture.” At the revived Gawker, [Christian Lorentzen responds:]( “As far as I can tell, there aren’t any pieces out there that discuss both Ben Lerner and Christopher Lasch (I Googled it). His presence here seems to be dog whistle to associate n+1’s unnamed targets with other unsavory millennial media figures who like to talk about Lasch. How pointlessly coy!” SPONSOR CONTENT | SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE [Committed to Paying it Forward]( Recognizing her teachers, mentors and colleagues for her list of professional achievements, Dr. Karen Wooley is making life-changing impacts for countless students in all aspects of their development. Write to me at len.gutkin@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [Today's Mission Critical Campus Jobs]( Explore how key campus positions are growing in strategic importance compared to how they have traditionally functioned, why they've recently grown more essential, and how they're continuing to evolve. [Order your copy today.]( JOB OPPORTUNITIES Apply for the top jobs in higher education and search all our open positions. What did you think of today’s newsletter? [Strongly disliked]( | [It was ok]( | [Loved it]( This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. 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