The academy is an institution that has frequently been singled out by those who view academia as an environment that is erudite, elitist and dismissive of those are unable or unwilling to ascribe to its often avant-garde image. Scholars have long been targets of vicious attack from varied quarters – politicians, students, fellow colleagues as well the larger society in general. Such periodic ire directed at the ivory tower is nothing new. However, over the past few years, it appears that there has been a more vicious, intense, unrelenting, onslaught from various segments of society to target academics. In a June 26, 2017 article for Inside Higher Education, Colleen Flaherty provided detailed examples of this alarming trend.

• In early May,Tommy J Curry, associate professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, faced death threats and race-based harassment for talking about violence against whites in a 2012 podcast interview about the gory Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. Portions of Curry's opinions were quoted in right-wing publications, where he was portrayed as advocating violence.

• Bret Weinstein, a professor of biology at Evergreen State College, was warned to stay of that campus by security officials in May 2017 after he questioned the logic of a student request that all white students and faculty members stay away during a day of protest. The college temporarily shut down after further threats and demands from some students that Weinstein be fired.

• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton University, canceled planned public talks last month, saying she received hateful messages and death threats for criticizing President Trump in a commencement speech at Hampshire College.

• Sarah Bond, an assistant professor of classics at the University of Iowa, faced threats and harassment -- some of it anti-Semitic -- after publishing a piece in Hyperallergic .She argued that classicists should do more to highlight the fact that statues were often painted and so not necessarily reflective of the “classical ideal” now equated with white marble. Bond's views are widely backed by scholars in her field.

• At Syracuse University, Dana Cloud, a professor of communication and rhetoric, was the subject of threats and harassment after she tweeted for counter demonstrators to join her and “finish off” a dispersing group of protesters against Islamic law.At Syracuse University, Dana Cloud, a professor of communication and rhetoric, was the subject of threats and harassment after she tweeted for counter demonstrators to join her and “finish off” a dispersing group of protesters against Islamic law.
  

• Lisa Durden, an adjunct professor of Communication Studies at Essex County College in New Jersey was put on leave and later terminated by university officials for her vigorous defense of a Black Lives Matter celebration during an appearance on the FOX News program, the Tucker Carlson Show.

• Most recently, Johnny Eric Williams, an associate professor of sociology at Trinity College in Connecticut, said he had to flee town due to threats -- and the campus shut down for a day -- after conservative news websites shared Facebook posts he made about race. He used the hashtag #Let Them Fucking Die in response to an online article about racism of the same name. Some have argued he was advocating violence against whites, but he's since said he was referring to systemic racism. After several weeks silence, Trinity absolved Professor Williams of any wrongdoings or violations. Nonetheless, he was given a semester leave for a sabbatical. These are just a few of the more higher profile cases that have managed to garner national attention.

In the cases of Keeanga-Yamaahtta Taylor and Johnny Eric Williams, direct threats of violence prompted both scholars to take serious preemptive actions to protect themselves and their families. Taylor has canceled several scheduled public talks and Williams and his family were forced to leave the state due to intense harassment and death threats.

Conservative organizations such as Campus Reform and Professor Watch list an offset of Turning Point USA, have been at the forefront of focusing intense and microscopic attention on academics by featuring a list of specific professors on their website whose philosophy and viewpoints they deem as radical and antithetical to those they (Campus Reform and Professor Watchilst ) feel are appropriate for campus and public consumption.

Not surprisingly, the AAUP has denounced such threats against scholars, has urged all institutions of higher education to support targeted faculty members and has harshly denounced those colleges and universities that have failed to come to the defense of embattled faculty members. The AAUP has been joined in its efforts by the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) an organization headed by Greg Luniakoff. Luniakoff, a Stanford educated attorney has long been a strong proponent for free speech and a vigorous opponent of speech codes, trigger warnings as well as other movements that he sees as dangerous barriers that aid in curtailing free speech and vigorous debate.

The Intersection of Race and Gender and Political Ideology

To be sure, professors of varied ethnicities, sexual orientations and religions have come under attack by various groups who have taken offense at a particular scholar's opinions or message. Indeed, conservative media has been ruthlessly aggressive in promoting and espousing a dangerously intellectual dishonest message that campuses are under siege from derelict, supposedly communistic, unpatriotic, largely atheist, anti-White, self hating White, sexually fluid professoriate whose ultimate goal is to perversely instill and indoctrinate and manipulate wide eyed, naive, fresh faced undergraduate students with values that are designed to result in students hating an disregarding the very culture and nation they grew up in. Right wing pundits such as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, David Horowitz, Michael Levin, Brent Bozell and others have avidly espoused this retrograde message. What is more notable and troubling is the fact that past and recent trends indicate that faculty of color, in particular, Black faculty, tend to be the most frequent targets of dissent from conservative dissenters.

Back in 2015, African American professors, Saida Grundy, a professor of sociology at Boston University and Zandria Robinson a professor of sociology at Rhodes College found themselves in the center of a right wing frenzy as a plethora of conservative media outlets such as The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The National Review, The Daily Caller and others rabidly focused on comments both women had made on social media to their followers. Charges of racism, anti-Whiteness, and calls for their dismissals from their respective institutions. At the time, Robinson was a faculty member at the University of Memphis. After such a frenzy, both women have largely remained silent and stayed out of the public sphere. Other, more recent examples, have been discussed earlier in the article.

For a segment of White people, including a number of liberals, but primarily, conservatives, to hear and witness non-White people, particularly Black people, denounce and challenge racist rhetoric, behavior or exercise their (Black people ) free speech, a right guaranteed to them by the U.S. constitution frequently conjures up a diversity of feelings and often unhinged emotions such as fear, anger, paranoia, resentment in some cases, guilt, denial and so on. It is the “why are you talking about this?” “How dare you offend my sensibilities!” “You are the real racist, not me.” “I cannot help being White.” The list goes on and on. The message they are sending is “free speech for me but not for thee!” and “know your place.” Talk about arrogance! To quote that famous line in the 1980s cult classic Wayne's World , the appropriate response to such disrespectful behavior is “I don't think so.”

In fact, the latter, frequently cited example (I cannot help being White) is indeed true. No one decides what race or ethnicity they will be born. That being said, I have never heard any non-White person blame or deride a White person for being White. Rather, it is people of color who are often the subject of various forms of derision due to their non-whiteness or otherness in the eyes of the ruling culture. White fragility is real, erratic,unhinged, frequently ugly, unpredictable and raw. These attitudes manifest themselves in the academy as well.

While there have been individuals on the political left who have expressed concern with what they see as extreme speech on college campuses, the vast majority of discontent has emerged from conservatives, more specifically, the far right. What is disturbing and in fact, downright hypocritical, is the fact that many of these right of center critics who are quick to take to facebook, twitter, pinterest, conservative blogs and op-ed pages to decry and denounce what they see as a “deviant” and “sinister,” left wing assault on freedom of expression are often timid and in many cases, outright silent when vehemently vicious and violent inspired rhetoric, often including bodily harm and death threats emanates from the right. The hypocrisy and double standards are astounding; however, given the largely unhinged nature of the radical right, such behavior is hardly surprising.

The fact is that colleges and universities that fail to protect professors against dishonest and often distorted and information or rather, misinformation, are doing their faculty a grave disservice. Moreover, they are complicit in aiding and abetting extremists who are largely responsible for the rise of right wing propaganda and violence that is increasingly dominating the discourse on American campuses. The mainstream media must also do a much more aggressive and effective job in shedding light on countering such falsehoods. Such irresponsible and ominously dangerous and reckless rhetoric must be combated with the force of a hurricane. Otherwise, colleges and universities are in increasing danger of becoming Orwellian institutions devoid of any semblance of free expression and ideas.