10 Years Ago, I Traded Honesty for a Degree

Originally published by RealClearEducation

It was the morning after President Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 election. Just before 8:00 a.m., I walked into the Brewster Building at East Carolina University to make copies for an exam I would be proctoring later that day. I was in my second year of graduate studies in American history, and after the previous night’s dramatic election results, I was curious to see how the campus was taking the news.

The experience was surreal. Ordinarily, the Brewster Building hallways hummed with the hustle and bustle of college life. On this day, they felt more like a funeral. Except that funerals are meant to provide comfort and solace for the grieving—this felt more like an intentional public spectacle.

All around, students and faculty were visibly upset. As I proceeded to the graduate student office, I briefly stopped to listen to two professors—both older white males—reading letters aloud to a single black, female colleague. The letters, apparently written to the men’s daughters, elegized the impending doom of America—and even the world—in the wake of Trump’s election.

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