Thread by @kelly_j_baker

It seems that we are going to get the "if more people went to college, they wouldn't participate in deadly ideologies" take.

What I would note is that there are white supremacists with undergrad & grad degrees.

Going to college is not a cure-all.

This is part of a long standing narrative that white supremacists are backward and uneducated.

But my research on white supremacists, particularly the 1920s Klan, showed that they were middle class and had jobs that required college degrees.

One of the most shocking things to audiences when I gave talks on the Klan or the alt-right was that these folks had degrees and were teachers, lawyers, bankers, pastors, etc. And some had degrees from elite schools.

But, the idea that white supremacists are working class has stuck.

Partially because middle and upper class white folks want to push white supremacy onto the working class and ignore that white supremacists are just like them.

So, yeah, getting more people to college is not a solution for white supremacy.

Because there are white people who attend college, get degrees and still participate in a coup.

Of course, there's also assumption in these takes that higher ed is somehow immune to white supremacy.

Yeah, that's not the case.

I guess I have to say this:

I am not against going to college. College should be available to everyone.

I was a working class student from a trailer park. Going to college was a big fucking deal for me. Getting a PhD was too. Other folks should have those opportunities too.

Okay, one more thing:

College can encourage critical thinking and intellectual and personal growth.

But, unless colleges are also committed to dismantling the white supremacy of their own institutions, colleges are going along with the white supremacist status quo.