Richard Spencer is a polarizing scar left-over from the election and he and his followers recently made the rounds on the news and social media promoting their “version of freedom and liberty” based on racial ideals that many Americans find repugnant.

I want to say that Richard Spencer does not speak for me, nor am I even remotely convinced that anything he says is morally right, and no matter how much I dislike what he says, he has a constitutional right to say it and citizens have a constitutional right to call him out on it.

A few days before Spencer’s talk at Texas A&M, I had already come across this article on Bloomberg by Ramesh Ponnuru where he championed the cause of students having their beliefs challenged and to encourage critical reflection not based solely on emotion or what a prevailing theme is on social media.

Sure, campuses should be safe places, but being safe and being sheltered are two different things. The challenge for my students (any student, really) is to champion your cause because you believe in it, not because it’s popular or unpopular. College campuses should especially challenge its students and it doesn’t and shouldn’t always have to be connected to a course or a project. Knowledge for the sake knowledge is good.