Why College Was Too Woke For This Black Socialist Professor

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**Tyler Austin Harper** (2:08)
I think a lot of faculty members after Trump, they saw his election as an assault on expertise in this populous backlash and etc. They saw it as their duty to defend liberal institutions with an emphasis on liberal in this moment of consolidating authoritarianism. That's understandable, but that is not necessarily the ends to which a university is supposed to be put.

**Jon Favreau** (2:36)
I'm Jon Favreau and you just heard from today's guest, the Atlantic's Tyler Austin Harper.
AOC made some news the other week when she used the phrase, woke one was crazy to laugh off some of the policy and language choices progressives made in the late 2010s, early 2020s, which led lots of people to ask, what exactly was woke one? Well, it was a lot of things. Lefty policy positions, language that was used to replace certain words and phrases that had been deemed offensive. There's some public shaming and cancellations. But one fertile breeding ground for woke one was elite colleges and universities. Of course, the right has been saying this for a while. But mostly, I thought it was a silly caricature, like most of the right's silly caricatures. But then I read Tyler's piece in the Atlantic called, The Confessions of a Token Black Professor. Now, Tyler is a black self-proclaimed socialist who a few years back got a tenure track position at Bates College.
A selective liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. It was his dream job, but after a few years, he quit. And the reason he gives is the faculty and administration's relentless pursuit of what he calls performative progressive extremism. Faculty members accusing white students of attempting to lynch their black classmates because of a roommate dispute that led to the police being called. The college forcing math and science professors to teach racial justice courses, and hiring practices that made him question, for the first time, the value of affirmative action. Tyler joined me to talk about the piece and to break down the legacy of wokeism. We ended up having a great conversation about both, as well as why he believes the story of elite higher education's pursuit of woke is the same story as that of rising tuition costs, falling admission rates, and increasing exploitation of faculty and staff. It was a fascinating conversation. We will get to it in a moment, but before we do, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to Friends of the Pod. As a subscriber, you will get access to ad-free episodes of Offline, Pod Save America, and all your favorite Crooked podcasts. Plus, you will get access to our behind-the-paywall shows like Polar Coaster and Pod Save America Only Friends, all of our great substack newsletters, and exclusive perks to Crooked live events like This Fall's CrookedCon. Plus, it's a great way to support your favorite pro-democracy independent media. So head on over to crooked.com/friends to subscribe.