Auburn Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl: 'By teaching patriotism and love of the United States...you're somehow a racist'
Pearl says 'we're getting our a--es kicked' in higher education, because people are 'afraid' to teach the truth about history.
Auburn University Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl told Campus Reform in an interview that higher education is becoming a major issue, arguing that simply “teaching patriotism” often gets people branded as “racist.”
Pearl made the comments on Tuesday during an interview with Campus Reform, where he discussed higher education and anti-Semitism on campus.
When asked if colleges in the U.S. are doing a good enough job and protecting Jewish students, Pearl said not nearly enough by universities.
”I don’t and part of where where we’re losing, is we’re losing an education. That’s where we’re losing. And so it’s ironic that you’re talking about college campuses, which is supposed to be the hub of higher education,” said Pearl. “And yet we’re losing and we’re, we’re not just losing, we’re getting our a--es kicked.”
”Somehow, it’s became ... possible, that by teaching patriotism and love of the United States and our country, you’re somehow a racist, or you’re somehow excusing any of the mistakes that we as a country have made along the way. And that’s just not true,” he added. “And so where are we losing on college campuses? It’s not just about protecting Jewish students. It’s about teaching the truth. It’s about teaching history, American history, world history. And we’re not, we’re afraid to do it.”
”We’re the greatest country in the world with lots of flaws, and lots of lots of historical errors.”
One instance Pearl mentioned is when the U.S. turned away thousands of Jews fleeing Europe during World War II.
”Much of my family would still be alive today and would not have died in the Holocaust. If ship after ship after ship weren’t turned around in the ... early 1900s as Jews were fleeing Eastern and Western Europe knowing that something bad was about to happen,” said Pearl. “That doesn’t mean I don’t love this country.”
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The Auburn basketball coach said that his grandfather was able to get out of Europe and brought his three siblings, adding that many of his family couldn’t afford the trip and died in the Holocaust.
”We can’t teach that in schools, we’re not allowed to teach it,” he said, going on to praise Alabama’s teaching of the Holocaust in public schools.
According to a 2023 Axios report, 33 states don’t require students to be taught about the Holocaust.
”As people are listening to me, and they’re in education, you want to project make that your project, make your state invest in Holocaust education, and the middle schools and the junior high schools at a time when those kids can handle it, and understand it and teach it,” said Pearl.
