The removal of a statue of Revolutionary War soldier George Rogers Clark from University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va., July 11

The removal of a statue of Revolutionary War soldier George Rogers Clark from University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va., July 11

Photo: Erin Edgerton/The Daily Progress/Associated Press

Editor’s note: This Future View discusses critical race theory on campus. Next we’ll ask, “Is a graduate degree in your field worth the cost?” Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before Aug. 10. The best responses will be published that night.

What’s Your Sign?

Critical race theory and related ideologies dominate the University of Virginia’s campus culture. Beta Bridge, painted by students in a longstanding UVA tradition, was painted over the summer with “ACAB”—short for “all cops are bastards.” The Washington and Jefferson societies barely hold formal debates anymore; any disagreement with current woke standards is unacceptable. Students feel compelled to fall in line or risk being ostracized.

The prestigious lawn rooms, once a place for a UVA class to house and display the best of its students, have been co-opted by a vocal activist class. One student living there, angry with the administration for not restructuring the school’s Academical Village—part of a Unesco World Heritage site—in light of her temporary ankle injury, affixed a “F— UVA” sign to her door and listed the reasons the school is awash in bigotry: “UVA operating costs—KKKops, Genocide, Slavery, Disability, Black and Brown Life.” Within a week, probably half the students living in the lawn rooms had the same “F— UVA” signs and systematic-racism banners pinned to their doors. That is their right, but I wonder why so many of the students selected as the university’s top scholars and leaders believe displaying obscenities on their doors, simply because someone else did, will lead to productive dialogue and improved race relations.

Thomas Jefferson wanted UVA to create statesmen to lead our republic. But critical race theory is divisive, and its teachings don’t prepare my generation to lead a diversifying America. It engenders distrust and tribalism, and leaves no room for forgiveness. It’s a “F— you” sign to people who believe progress and healing is possible, expressing a preference for wallowing in past misdeeds and keeping us in eternal cycle of discrimination.

— Katherine Hennessy, University of Virginia, math

A CRT-Free Education

Frankly, I have had no experience with critical race theory in my life, from elementary school to medical school. The first I heard of it was in a Republican state legislative hearing on a Texas law aimed at banning teachers from discussing contentious modern issues. The discussion about this theory has been more dangerous than the theory itself; government-enforced censorship in our schools should be a major cause for concern.

— Jason Lin, University of Texas Southwestern, medicine (M.D.)

Corporate Race Theory

I am baffled by the tendency to think of the classroom as a marketplace of ideas. Education and the liberal arts have always served an explicitly moral purpose: to shape future citizens, inculcate certain virtues and promote specific conceptions of the good life. We are being shaped by universities in ways that go far beyond a relativistic “live and let live” mentality, as our predecessors were. Only the virtues that colleges cultivate have changed.

Unfortunately, few students come across serious works of critical race theory in college. What we get instead is a pasteurized version of human-resources workshops, transposed to university life by an ever-growing caste of administrators. The version that most students encounter—which we could call “corporate race theory”—is to critical race theory what Taco Bell is to gourmet food. Where the best works of critical race theory engage with canonical texts, discuss the subtleties of the past and propose concrete paths to reform, corporate race theory does nothing but bombard students with obscure neologisms, ahistorical analyses and simplistic slogans.

This corporate race theory doesn’t make its way into the classroom. Unlike administrators, professors who teach critical race theory tend to do so with tact and dedication. But as colleges become corporate Disneylands in which academics matter little and workshops abound, the need for reform is increasingly urgent. The solution is simple: Dismember the university’s administrative octopus and let professors be the only ones who shape students into citizens.

— Mathis Bitton, Yale University, philosophy and political science

Critical Thinking, Not Theory

I attended a private, liberal-leaning high school with little diversity, and we would often have special assemblies and seminars focused on racism and systemic injustice. Students were never told that they were learning critical race theory, but in hindsight it’s clear that framework was being used implicitly. As a high-schooler absorbing this perspective, I never thought there could be other ways to analyze racism in America rigorously.

It was only after going to college that I realized that I had been fed a framework without the opportunity to question its validity. In college I am exposed to a wider array of voices, and while many of the prominent ones support critical race theory, there are students who believe there are other ways to think about social issues. Critical race theory should neither be overly praised nor vilified but carefully scrutinized and debated. This will result in a deeper understanding of the theory that allows students to make educated decisions.

— Michael Manasseh, Columbia University, economics

Classrooms Remain a Sanctuary

I attend Columbia University, one of the nation’s most progressive schools. President Trump once referred to it as a “liberal, disgraceful institution.” I’ve witnessed many instances in line with the conventional wisdom that college campuses are bastions of left-wing thought, but it has rarely been within the four walls (or Zoom panels) of the classroom. Professors will make their political opinions known, but, in my experience, won’t let those views affect the way they teach. During my yearlong class “Masterpieces of Western Literature and Philosophy,” certainly a discussion ripe for critical race theory to dominate, the topic was never even mentioned.

— Sam Beyda, Columbia University, economics

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Wonder Land: Teaching "systemic racism" was imposed on students, until politics pushed back. Images: AP/Everett Collection Composite: Mark Kelly The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition