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> And by reprisal I mean the following: if I were to merely discuss --as in, not advocate for, but merely discuss as a concept -- reparations, I'd immediately b

> And by reprisal I mean the following: if I were to merely discuss --as in, not advocate for, but merely discuss as a concept -- reparations, I'd immediately be dismissed and generally forever known as the angry black guy. As someone who was in college at roughly the same time, this doesn't sound like what I remember. Google scholar shows lots of academic discussion around reparations at that time (I'm assuming you mean for slavery, so I searched specifically for that) [0] I'm sure it depends on what institution you were at and who you spoke to, but I don't think it was at all a taboo concept generally speaking in American academia. Edit: Further googling found that there were even state legislatures creating legislation or resolutions in favor of reparations in the 1990s[1]: "In 1990, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of reparations. In 1991, legislation was introduced in the Massachusetts Senate providing for the payment of reparations for slavery, the slave trade, and individual discrimination against the people of African descent born or residing in the commonwealth of Massachusetts." [0]: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=reparations+for+slavery&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C15&as_ylo=1995&as_yhi=1999 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=reparations+for+slavery... [1]: https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/reparations-has-the-time-finally-come https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/reparations-has-the...

jrm4 4y ago
This is the difficulty of trying to get someone else to see through your eyes, right? The fact that it shows up in books/papers can be a universe away from the actual space of a classroom.
- allturtles 4y ago
  Sure. I can definitely believe that in a given classroom setting being the advocate for reparations was uncomfortable. But even as that has become more acceptable, being an advocate for other things that would have been considered mainstream in the late 90s has now become uncomfortable. The acceptable range of discourse in college classrooms has shifted, but I'm not sure it has grown. In any case, those scenarios are different from academic freedom in what I think of as the more typical sense, in terms of scholars being allowed to pursue and publish on whatever research topics they like. Reparations were not (I believe) outside the realm of academic freedom in the 1990s that sense.
  - jrm4 4y ago
    I agree, it hasn't grown and there are problems to consider. But ngl, from my point of view the discussions (inside the realm of "academia," i.e. purely in the papers) have gotten far less stupid.

jrm4 4y ago

This is the difficulty of trying to get someone else to see through your eyes, right? The fact that it shows up in books/papers can be a universe away from the actual space of a classroom.

allturtles 4y ago
Sure. I can definitely believe that in a given classroom setting being the advocate for reparations was uncomfortable. But even as that has become more acceptable, being an advocate for other things that would have been considered mainstream in the late 90s has now become uncomfortable. The acceptable range of discourse in college classrooms has shifted, but I'm not sure it has grown. In any case, those scenarios are different from academic freedom in what I think of as the more typical sense, in terms of scholars being allowed to pursue and publish on whatever research topics they like. Reparations were not (I believe) outside the realm of academic freedom in the 1990s that sense.
- jrm4 4y ago
  I agree, it hasn't grown and there are problems to consider. But ngl, from my point of view the discussions (inside the realm of "academia," i.e. purely in the papers) have gotten far less stupid.