On White Academic Freedom: A Black Philosophical Approach Toward Epistemological Justice in Higher Education

Abstract Recent challenges to academic freedom in the U.S. have centered on conservative policymakers' attempts to limit academic concepts that they deem as divisive and un‐American. These challenges underscore the acknowledged yet unnamed racialized aspect of academic freedom in U.S. higher education, which privileges Euro‐western academic thought. In this article, I recognize academic freedom not as a color‐evasive and politically neutral professional agreement, but as a race‐conscious and ideologically driven tool used to perpetuate intellectual white supremacy. Naming this concept white academic freedom , I explain how academic freedom privileges knowledge and knowledge dissemination that (re)creates and protects white supremacy, while stifling knowledge and knowledge dissemination that challenges it. Using insights derived from a Black philosophical approach, I then describe the characteristics of white academic freedom and how they advance epistemic injustice and white supremacy. In naming white academic freedom, I do not advocate for the abolishment of academic freedom for the sake of epistemic equity—rather, I call for the reframing of academic freedom under a Black philosophical lens to embrace collaborative knowledge generation and dissemination, which can disrupt white supremacy in the academy. I name this reframing Black academic freedom , as an expansive approach to embracing knowing and knowledge generation outside of white normativity and supremacy.