Corey Robin Publishes Salon Essay on 'Whitewashed' Princeton Debate

In a new essay for Salon, Professor Corey Robin (GC/Brooklyn, Political Science) comments on the recent debate at Princeton University over Woodrow Wilson's legacy, which campus activists assert is tainted by racist views and policy.

Protesters wanted the school to rename the buildings and programs named for Wilson, who led Princeton before becoming the 28th U.S. President.

"Most of us are fairly ignorant about how central race and racism were to Wilson's politics," Robin writes. "By forcing this question, not only on Princeton's campus but throughout the country, Princeton's students are actually doing the job that Princeton itself is supposed to be doing: they're educating all of us."

Robin is the author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (2013). He is currently writing a book about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

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