After the horrific police killing of George Floyd, activists are demanding that all kinds of institutions condemn racism and take action to fight the “institutional racism” that supposedly plagues America. Organization after organization, company after company has made virtue-signaling statements and donated hefty sums to Black Lives Matter and other leftist organizations claiming to oppose racism by advancing a radical agenda. My alma mater, Hillsdale College, which was founded in part to oppose racism at a time of truly despicable institutional racism, has found itself accused of complicity if not worse for remaining “silent” on these issues.
The leaders of Hillsdale College have refused to cave to pressure, however. They wrote a powerful response to the outrage mob, explaining that Hillsdale opposes racism and injustice — as it always has done — and condemning the “cheap” virtue of jumping on “cost-free bandwagons of public feeling.”
Many of my fellow alumni have attacked Hillsdale College for its alleged silence, though Hillsdale has never been silent. My alma mater was founded in 1844 by freewill Baptists who established an institution of higher learning that did not discriminate on the basis of race or sex. The college was founded by abolitionists and the male students left en masse to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The college invited former slave Frederick Douglass to speak.
Yet even former alumni — who may not have paid attention in class — have charged Hillsdale with “negligence — or worse.”
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