Universities should not be taking sides on racial politics
Their uncritical embrace of contested ideas like 'white privilege' threatens academic freedom.
Universities should be places where staff and students are free to share and develop their views. This includes those who dissent from prevailing orthodoxies. This is a simple principle, and has long underpinned progressive views of what a university is for. Academic freedom and freedom of speech ensure that minority, dissenting or heretical views can be heard, argued against, ignored or even satirised.