Dr. Michael Phillips, a professor of American history at Collin College in McKinney, Texas said “the United States has always been exceptionally racist,” in a tweet Thursday.
This came in response to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s tweet stating, “In TN, our students will be taught unapologetic American exceptionalism.” The tweet prefaced the announcement of schools and districts in the state who received the 2020-21 Tennessee Excellence in Civics Education distinction.
The concept of American exceptionalism holds that America is inherently different than any other nation in the history of the world, and better-suited than any other to spread the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This isn’t the only accusatory tweet by Phillips this week. On Wednesday he called conservatives in the Texas state legislature “murderous, gutless hypocrites,” for preventing government schools from mandating masks.
Also on Wednesday, he said “The racism in the Texas GOP keeps getting more and more explicit,” and warned that violence against “Latinx” people will become “more explicit.” This was a retort to Senator Ted Cruz, who is Latino himself, after he raised concern over the spread of Covid-19 at the southern border.
Thursday, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services classifies gender reassignment surgery as child abuse, Phillips called him a “transphobic bully” and warned that “kids will die by suicide because of this.”
Young America’s Foundation reached out to Collin College for comment by phone and email and has not received a response.
Unfortunately, Phillips is not an outlier. Leftist professors are a commonplace in our universities. In many cases these professors are not passively teaching course material, they are using their position to push their personal agenda. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, so long as those opinions don’t seep into the classroom. With such a large quantity of far-left teachers, this concern is very real.