Edward Said's collection of 46 essays, "Reflections on Exile" and Other Essays (2000) appeared in print three years before his death. One of those essays, "On Defiance and Taking Positions," begins with this sentence:
Compared, say, to most African, Asian, and Middle Eastern universities, the American university constitutes a relatively utopian space, where we can actually talk about the boundaries of the academy. (page 501)
Knowing how candidly self-reflective Said was, I wonder in this age of gotcha journalism if he would retract this statement. We have seen the results of accusatory rhetoric following Harvard's Claudine Gay, MIT's Sally Kornbluth, and Penn's Liz Magill testimony before the United States Congress, as well as numerous legal cases challenging employers over alleged discriminatory practices as a violation their free speech.
During my undergraduate years in the mid-1970s and graduate years in the early 1980s, I would have backed Said's observation. But I had already begun seeing signs of a reversal of freedom of speech on campus during my Rutgers doctoral years throughout the 1990s. Two instances come to mind. I failed one of four essays for my qualifying examination. The reader who failed me was a tenured political conservative professor who disagreed with my socialist approach to the education topic. He said, "Your paper got to the wrong reviewer." Fortunately, I passed the essay the second time around. Then a tenure-track liberal professor, recommended for my dissertation committee by the committee chairperson, said of my position, "You know that's a racist viewpoint, don't you?" I replied, "I could see how some people might agree with you, but ..." "I said it's racist," she interjected preemptively. The next day I asked my committee chairperson to remove her from the committee. He did so, but if he had not, I am certain I would not have attained a doctorate.
As you can see, there's plenty of blame to be shared by both political persuasions. A quarter century later, we are living in times when free speech is endangered. We need more thinkers like Said to swing the pendulum toward Americans' First Amendment rights.
