BY MATTHEW BOEDY

Here in Georgia in the last few days: 

• Lawmakers failed to pass a bill to end DEI in student activities and programs in our public university system. The bill would have codified into law policy moves already done to erase DEI in the last year by our system administration. 
• One of our private schools—one of the best in the nation—was targeted by the DOJ for investigation of its DEI policies. 
• A presidential search at a public HBCU garnered alumni criticism for being closed. The university system chancellor responded by saying closed searches are what “most experts” think create bigger and better candidate pools. 
• Professors and graduate students across the academic disciplines spoke up to the media against their federal grants being abruptly ended due to links to DEI. Some of those grants aiding teacher training were restored after a lawsuit. 
• A private female-only HBCU started a new AAUP chapter.  
• A draft resolution began circulating among faculty at a large research institution urging its administration to respond better to the “extraordinary moment” the school finds itself in. 
• I attended a conference put on by the group who has me on its Professor Watchlist.

These are extraordinary times indeed. 

I list the first six to give faculty—especially in the South—some idea that working together may help, speaking out may help, legal action may help, anything may help. Do it. Do it with others. Do it now. 

The last item of course isn’t like the others. I have attended events put on by Turning Point USA before. This time the event was a ten-minute drive from my house and focused on audiences within Christianity, audiences well within my research agenda.

I went as a scholar—to study, to better understand, to write about. I also went as a professor. I profess in a new book and other articles that the ideology presented on stage and applauded for from the attendees—Christian Nationalism—is dangerous to our democratic nation. No one though asked my opinion at the conference. 

I also went as a person who holds to the basic tenets of the faith named from the stage. One speaker had the crowd recite aloud the Apostles Creed. I didn’t participate. But it’s something I know by heart. 

I bring that up not to begin a theological debate. But the cognitive dissonance a Christian may have of hearing their religion twisted and torn into something that is not reality helps a professor deal with the cognitive dissonance of hearing a twisted version of higher education spouted by conservatives (and perhaps others), nationally and locally. 

I am both of course. I can scoff and say they are wrong. I can be angry at the falsehoods and fact-check the specifics. I can also sigh and go about my day, ignoring the impact on me. 

I can also attend their event and stand in their shoes. Not to record their thoughts but to think those thoughts as them, with them. To play the “believing game” as one scholar in my field says. The “doubting game”—where we critically analyze everything—is easier, the scholar notes, because it’s what we have been trained to do and what we train others to do. 

But to believe is a whole different story. 

What would it mean to believe there is a vast conspiracy against me? 

What would it mean to believe the government wanted to deem the thing that creates my identity “non-essential?” 

What would it mean to fight back? 

Maybe these are questions you have already answered and are acting accordingly. Do it. Do it with others. Do it now. 

Maybe you need some motivation or persuasion to act. One thing that might do that: the people I heard from this week are not stopping. They want, in the words of one speaker, a 10-15 year exorcism of all the evil in our nation. And let’s be clear. All schools from Harvard to the Nowhere U where I teach are included in that. 

That said, I also attended the event as a teacher. Some of these people will go to college. Or their kids will. Even while they attend some will still think of it an indoctrination camp. They will do the work but perhaps not engage. They will be assessed as learning but not have learned. They will retain information and also retain the myths given to them at the event. 

In response to that, we cannot merely sigh and go about our day. I heard at this event that young people want to be told the truth. We should do that. We should do it with others. And we should do it now. 

Contributing editor Matthew Boedy is the president of the Georgia conference of the AAUP and works at the University of North Georgia. He can be reached through email or his Twitter account @matthewboedy.