I appreciate the spirit in which this was said, but man...this just does not resonate with my experience as a low-income college student, or what I’ve seen my former students go through. https://twitter.com/fernham/status/1246805187605549056

I get that a lot of professors are now seeing up close and personal the kinds of challenges their students are going through. but the fact that they were invisible while you were in the classroom doesn’t mean they weren’t ever-present for students.

it just makes me very sad for low-income undergrads to realize how many of their (white, middle-class) professors seemingly had no real grasp of the kinds of difficulties marginalized students deal with on top of their academic work.

I think we are seeing a stripping away of much of the facade that education is a meritocratic, playing-field-leveling institution. I am sympathetic to the fact that that is a *deeply painful* realization. but it's also one marginalized students often arrive at much sooner.

it's fine to feel rocked by this. but afterward, rather than "long[ing] to be back in that anonymous room" and wishing to return to a time when the inequalities were softened, more muted, maybe we should wish for (& work toward) a world in which those inequalities don't *exist*.

and to be clear — I say all this as a former low-income student for whom school was often a haven for me. there were many times when losing myself in learning gave me a brief escape from reality.

but that didn't mean the differences and challenges really fell away.