In recent years, American public life has entered a period of reassessment and backlash. The post-2020 surge in anti-racist politics has been met by the rollback of affirmative action, growing skepticism toward DEI initiatives, and the reemergence of white identity politics. These developments raise a deeper and more unsettling question: have we entered a new phase in American political culture—one that signals a broader rejection of the moral premises of the Black freedom movement itself? In this moderated conversation, Glenn Loury, professor emeritus of social sciences, economics, international and public affairs at Brown University, will explore what these shifts mean for American citizenship, democratic legitimacy, and public discourse. Drawing on his recent work on race, inequality, and civic belonging—as well as his book Self-Censorship—Loury will examine not only the politics of backlash, but the quieter, often overlooked phenomenon that accompanies it: the growing tendency of citizens, scholars, and institutions to withhold dissenting views out of fear of social sanction.