--- title: An Epidemic of Discontent description: Students across the country have risen up in protest recently over racial inequality in a range of areas, from underrepresentation to ineffective leadership to Halloween costumes. Is all of the outrage warranted? canonical: https://time.com/4119957/an-epidemic-of-discontent/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T12:12:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:45:43.697Z article:section: Ideas og:title: An Epidemic of Discontent og:description: Students across the country have risen up in protest recently over racial inequality in a range of areas, from underrepresentation to ineffective leadership to Halloween costumes. Is all of the outrage warranted? og:url: https://time.com/4119957/an-epidemic-of-discontent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An Epidemic of Discontent twitter:description: Students across the country have risen up in protest recently over racial inequality in a range of areas, from underrepresentation to ineffective leadership to Halloween costumes. Is all of the outrage warranted? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # An Epidemic of Discontent > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=72d0f95e-73ac-4260-9f9d-5e98bb4ba748&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 19, 2015 12:12 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 19, 2015 12:12 PM UTC **The new millennial morality** By Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning From racist insults to political disagreements to terms that trigger unpleasant memories, campus activists believe words cause great harm. Students thus take to social media, stage demonstrations or, in extreme cases, starve themselves. Their cause is just, their plight is severe, and others must help. We might refer to these variations as different moral cultures. But what accounts for the increased sensitivity and dependency? It likely matters that student populations include members of multiple cultural groups interacting as equals. Social media provide ready access to the court of public opinion and to officials who might not otherwise notice that a student was offended. Moral sensitivity combined with moral dependency means that nothing is beneath concern, nor can concerns be handled without calls for official action. _Campbell and Manning are the authors of Microaggression and Moral Cultures_ **Zero tolerance is the only way to stop racism** By David Boren Last Spring at the University of Oklahoma, a video went viral of a small group of our students singing a violent racist chant. We were shocked. We thought such an event could not happen here. I was hosting a group of American historians for dinner when a staff member showed me the video. I immediately decided that the fraternity would be closed within 24 hours and its affiliation with the university canceled. The next day the windows of the building were boarded up, and the Greek letters were pried off the building. The two students found most accountable withdrew permanently from the university. That morning, while it was still dark, I spoke to several thousand students on campus and marched with them as they chanted, “Not on our campus.” One of the most important conversations took place in private in my office. About a dozen African-American student leaders met face to face with the officers of the responsible fraternity. The African-American students felt excluded, endangered and disrespected. The fraternity officers seemed stricken by what they heard and apologized. It was a moving experience for all of us. Today, we are a better university and an even stronger community. Quick, decisive action must be taken to confront racism. There is no time to advise with lawyers, vice presidents and others. There is only time to consult one’s own conscience and moral compass. We cannot remain silent. Often we say to ourselves, “Why can’t we all just love and respect each other?” We can–but it’s up to each one of us to take action. _Boren is the president of the University of Oklahoma_ **Prepare for more protests** By Eddie S. Glaude Jr. What we saw in Columbia, Mo., was different from the protests of the 1960s and ’70s. The new student protesters are shaped by the startling contrast of the nation’s first black President and the Black Lives Matter movement. They have seen the viral videos of police brutality, and many have watched family and friends struggle to recover from economic devastation. They have witnessed, some even participated in, the convulsions of Ferguson and Baltimore. And they have taken to heart the lessons of those protests. Today’s students revealed a kind of power in coalition that the first wave of black student activists in the 1960s simply did not have but whose labor made possible. What’s more, these activists have given students at other schools a blueprint for change. Can you imagine what would happen at Ohio State or the University of Alabama or UCLA or any other major institution if similar coalitions dared to act in a similar vein? The nation has been put on notice. We should brace ourselves for more protests to come. _Glaude is the author of the forthcoming book Democracy in Black_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4119957/an-epidemic-of-discontent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4119957/an-epidemic-of-discontent/"},"headline":"An Epidemic of Discontent","datePublished":"2015-11-19T12:12:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:45:43.697Z","description":"Students across the country have risen up in protest recently over racial inequality in a range of areas, from underrepresentation to ineffective leadership to Halloween costumes. 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