Right-leaning academics and many who have never set foot on a post-secondary campus will try to convince you that universities are bastions of leftist ideology and activism. They will lament their loss of academic freedom in an increasingly “woke” environment. They will complain about equity, diversity and inclusion policies and suggest that the real marginalized voices belong to conservative, white male academics. None of this is true.

Since higher levels of education tend to correlate with affinities for social liberalism, it is almost inevitable that many academics identify as moderates. Self-selection contributes to an appearance of homogeneity, as conservatives traditionally opt for professional, possibly more lucrative career pathways. Studies led by conservative academics in North America confirm that academia skews left, but also indicate that their own politics has not stalled their progress through the university system.

Yet few will question that the corporate university in the twenty-first century is a neoliberal institution with a bureaucratic scaffolding and a structure shot through with internal hierarchies. Universities for decades have starved their academic programs through the casualization of labour. Marginalized and equity-deserving groups are overrepresented amongst the precariat, some of whom make up the faculty complement of entire gender studies programs. And, as we know too well, the pandemic has only deepened pre-existing gender imbalances within academia.

Academia and activism historically have been uneasy companions. Once hired, activist academics are tolerated but largely kept at bay. Painfully aware of contradictions in that identity, they are often seen as a querulous group to be placated or dismissed when they become too vocal. Here they go again. Those feminists. Eye rolling. Redirect. Move on. And yet somehow, they are supposed to wield the power of suppression.

Racialized faculty remain scarce and continue to be tokenized in university recruitment, fundraising and community outreach. Diversity initiatives are often symbolic, “non-performatives” that, as Sara Ahmed argues, “do not bring about what they name.” One can still sometimes hear sharp intakes of breath at committee meetings when these members speak out about institutional racism. So impolite. Progress is hard won, often at considerable personal expense, and with support from colleagues acknowledging the need for greater representation while continuing to teach the same handful of authors on their syllabuses. Talk of decolonization is met with uncomfortable silence. Microaggressions continue unabated.

Yet some on the right would encourage us to believe that the white male academic is an endangered species. That His voice is being silenced when it continues to be the loudest in the room. When He continues to hold the balance of administrative power within institutions. We are meant to believe that somehow anti-racism initiatives discriminate against Him. It is a zero-sum argument born out of overweening entitlement. His freedom is at stake when rights are extended to all. What about Me? Why are you not paying attention to Me? “Progress” is a terrifying proposition, for what does change mean to someone already at the centre of the universe?

“I am being cancelled!” He cries from national media platforms, drawing sympathy from those outside academia but with the same ideological axe to grind. For they may be looked down upon with contempt by the elite right, but they too feel the ground shifting beneath their feet. The language of their youth is no longer acceptable. They feel judged and undervalued. And now their movements through social spaces are circumscribed by a pandemic that has gone on longer than any of us imagined possible. It’s too much. “We want our freedom!” they shout, as they drive their rigs into the seat of power and blockade the border in a show of protest and privilege denied to so many marginalized groups with legitimate grounds for complaint. They regain their swagger. They can overthrow the government if they wish.

At first glance, there is a labour and class element that seems hard to reconcile in this comparison, but are these positions not on the same continuum and fed by the same sense of discontent? The oppressed conservative academic does not have a truck. But from atop his mountain of privilege he can work to unravel any gains made by those who have for far too long been ignored and whose voices are only just now starting to be heard.

Academia isn’t perfect. At times it seems like an inert structure, grudgingly accommodating itself to change. Universities certainly need to work harder to ensure that they are accessible, affordable, and welcoming to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. But university classrooms can accommodate a wide spectrum of positions predicated on a basic acceptance of gender and racial equality.

Teaching students to think critically about society and to challenge unquestioned assumptions about the “natural order of things” is the very opposite of indoctrination. For the best students will also challenge their teachers too, and in these open conversations, these “brave spaces” of debate, ideas emerge that our graduates will use to confront the major challenges of our day. It is their creativity, imagination, and intellectual curiosity that is the lifeblood of academia and gives meaning to everything we do. Surely, they deserve something better than squabbling from those of us who have the privilege to work and learn with them.

In these times of conspiracy theory, conspirituality, and science skepticism, critical thinking has never been more important. And as hate symbols proliferate in public spaces and white nationalists co-opt the flag, perhaps there is something to be gained from listening to hitherto marginalized voices and learning the lessons they are willing to share. Perhaps universities have a role to play in building an inclusive society. Perhaps social justice isn’t the bogeyman after all.

Kelly McGuire is an Associate Professor in the departments of English and Gender & Social Justice and Trent University.