This essay uses Paulo Freire as inspiration of thinking about the limits and possibilities of building bridges between elite universities in the Global North and communities around the world given the historic and present-day entanglements between these universities and empire, colonisation, and epistemic violence. It sheds lights on how racialised and gendered capitalism distorts our collective possibilities for shared thriving, freedom, and bridging relations of difference. The essay reflects what is at stake in our current world and puts forward ideas for how we might begin to the process of transforming the modern-colonial structures of elite universities to create conditions of solidarity between universities and communities.