Racial Justice Should Be the Highest Priority of the University | Portland

Street Epistemologist Reid Nicewonder begins this conversation with two Portland State University students. They examine the claim, “Racial justice should be the highest priority of the university.” One student stands on “Slightly Agree” and the other on “Disagree.”

Peter Boghossian jumps in as host halfway through the discussion to focus on one student’s perception that university officials don’t truly address racism, but are simply “performative” activists. When she mentions PSU President Stephan Percy, Peter reveals that the claim being discussed came directly from Percy.

This student also proposes that university officials, including Percy, should participate in one of these conversations. It turns out Percy *did* briefly participate earlier that day on the issue of overpopulation, but left early. (We think he left when he realized Peter Boghossian was the host. When Peter resigned from PSU [https://www.commonsense.news/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for] he excoriated university officials for creating an ideologically intolerant environment.)

Footage of Percy’s departure from the conversation at 26:02.
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Connect with Dr. Peter Boghossian: https://linktr.ee/peterboghossian

Book: "How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide" by Peter Boghossian & James Lindsay
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738285323/ref=cm_sw_r_api_i_7DPKY2S21SSNAV8PCBW3_0

This work is only possible because of your generous support. The best way to support is by sharing with your friends or becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://boghossian.substack.com

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Chapters
0:00 Intro & initial thoughts
5:43 How big of a problem is racism on PSU campus?
7:41 What would you need to shift your confidence to a different line?
12:09 Peter asks students a hypothetical question
20:42 Peter and student discuss Social Justice at PSU
26:02 When Percy participated

#peterboghossian #portlandstateuniversity #racialjustice