It is disconcerting to acknowledge that despite the United States’ reputation as a bastion of free speech, those with minority views are susceptible to reprisals. The mere act of writing this frightens me, as I fear that even a hint of dissent from my future ever-progressive classmates could lead to my being ostracized. Hoffman to reconsider whether universities really are “fundamentally broken” when they do the bare minimum, such as diversity training sessions, to try to make historically marginalized students more comfortable at their institutions.Īdam Hoffman’s essay strikes a chord with my own apprehensions as I prepare to start college next fall at a highly liberal institution. Hoffman’s ego is really so fragile that he finds it unbearable to take seconds out of his day to acknowledge the considerable privilege from which he benefits? Or has he fallen prey to the right-wing politicians’ and media’s manufactured outrage against “woke” initiatives?

Writing as a fellow white man at a prestigious university, I wonder whether Mr.

However, while I question the efficacy of gestures such as “land acknowledgments” or trigger warnings, I fail to understand how such actions could justifiably push one farther to the political right. As a student at the University of Virginia, where last spring former Vice President Mike Pence’s visit was met with what I believed was overly dramatic pushback from progressive students, I would have agreed with virtually every word of his essay. The writer is a freshman at Princeton and an executive board member of Princeton College Democrats.Īdam Hoffman brings up some valid points concerning the state of free speech on college campuses.

What is the opposite of woke