Summary

In 2015, a student named Jonathan Butler began a hunger strike at the University of Missouri to protest racial inequality at the institution. Bulter's protest and the solidarity of other students, including the football team, resulted in the resignation of the university president Tim Wolfe. This was only one example of antiracist campus activism that began to rise at the time. Conservatives critiqued these protests as attempts to "overthrow [...] our constitutional republic" while liberals debated the question of free-speech absolutism. Chang argues that student protests are a form of free speech that is often shut down when people call out so-called political correctness. However, free speech "is not a neutral good equally available to all" (34). Institutional neglect of racism and injustice is the result of ingrained power structures. To counter this, student activists band together in their...