University of Wisconsin stands by 'Problem of Whiteness' course

[Jaecp]

Oh no, a controversial university course! This is why we have academic freedom gentlemen. The course description that Bill posted looks 100% at home in a university level analysis of how whiteness is a social construct worldwide and even includes how most white people are suffering to boot on class/gender lines, just not racial ones.

Honestly, Bill, you could probably stand to take the course yourself

[Darth Executor]

Oh no, a controversial university course! This is why we have academic freedom gentlemen. The course description that Bill posted looks 100% at home in a university level analysis of how whiteness is a social construct worldwide and even includes how most white people are suffering to boot on class/gender lines, just not racial ones.

Honestly, Bill, you could probably stand to take the course yourself

I take it you'd have no problem with a white supremacist teaching a course on biological differences between races then.

[JonathanL]

I take it you'd have no problem with a white supremacist teaching a course on biological differences between races then.

Is it "academic"?

[Bill the Cat]

Oh no, a controversial university course!

A blatantly racist one taught by a blatant racist. No surprise you are all for it though...

This is why we have academic freedom gentlemen.

No we don't. See the several articles I cited above.

The course description that Bill posted looks 100% at home in a university level analysis of how whiteness is a social construct worldwide and even includes how most white people are suffering to boot on class/gender lines, just not racial ones.

If it were only that... "It explores how they consciously and unconsciously perpetuate institutional racism", which is a truckload of bull crap.

Honestly, Bill, you could probably stand to take the course yourself

I'd love to. I'd rip that Professor a new one.

[Jaecp]

Haha, go for it man. You work for the DoD, right? You have access to benefits for continuing education? Go for it, you have my full support!

[Bill the Cat]

Haha, go for it man. You work for the DoD, right? You have access to benefits for continuing education? Go for it, you have my full support!

Alas, it's not in my area of work. I can only take IT classes. And it's not offered remotely. Wisconsin is quite a drive from Richmond.

[Spartacus]

'The Problem of Whiteness,' with the premise that white people are racist"

Look again at the article-- that's how the course's critic (Murphy) characterizes it, not how the professor (Sajnani) describes the course. How do you know that this is not a strawman on the part of Murphy?

[Bill the Cat]

Look again at the article-- that's how the course's critic (Murphy) characterizes it, not how the professor (Sajnani) describes the course. How do you know that this is not a strawman on the part of Murphy?

Read the course description from the Professor that I cited Spart. There's no other way to take it.

[Darth Executor]

Look again at the article-- that's how the course's critic (Murphy) characterizes it, not how the professor (Sajnani) describes the course. How do you know that this is not a strawman on the part of Murphy?

Just how stupid do you think we are? The title alone makes it clear it's anti-white racist garbage.

[Spartacus]

Read the course description from the Professor that I cited Spart. There's no other way to take it.

"Have you ever wondered what it really means to be white? If you're like most people, the answer is probably 'no.' But here is your chance!," reads the course description.
"In this class, we will ask what an ethical white identity entails, what it means to be #woke, and consider the journal Race Traitor's motto, 'treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.'"
The course description says it includes readings from W.E.B. Du Bois, Ta-Nehisi Coates and the professor's own article analyzing Rachel Dolezal.

Where is it asserted that to be white is to be racist?

[Darth Executor]

Read the course description from the Professor that I cited Spart. There's no other way to take it.

If the course was named "The problem of blackness" or "the problem of arabness" there wouldn't be any debate about what its contents are or whether it should be taught.

[Sparko]

"Have you ever wondered what it really means to be white? If you're like most people, the answer is probably 'no.' But here is your chance!," reads the course description.
"In this class, we will ask what an ethical white identity entails, what it means to be #woke, and consider the journal Race Traitor's motto, 'treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.'"
The course description says it includes readings from W.E.B. Du Bois, Ta-Nehisi Coates and the professor's own article analyzing Rachel Dolezal.

Where is it asserted that to be white is to be racist?

are you playing dumb? bill posted the class description

Our class will break away from the standard US-centric frame, and consider how whiteness is constructed globally, with particular attention to paradigmatic cases like South Africa. Whereas disciplines such as Latino/a, African, and Asian American studies focus on race as experienced by non-whites, whiteness studies considers how race is experienced by white people. It explores how they consciously and unconsciously perpetuate institutional racism and how this not only devastates communities of color but also perpetuates the oppression of most white folks along the lines of class and gender.

[Spartacus]

are you playing dumb? bill posted the class description

Our class will break away from the standard US-centric frame, and consider how whiteness is constructed globally, with particular attention to paradigmatic cases like South Africa. Whereas disciplines such as Latino/a, African, and Asian American studies focus on race as experienced by non-whites, whiteness studies considers how race is experienced by white people. It explores how they consciously and unconsciously perpetuate institutional racism and how this not only devastates communities of color but also perpetuates the oppression of most white folks along the lines of class and gender.

Ah, sorry: I missed that post. The only discussion of a course description I'd noticed was in the OP. Thanks for pointing it out.

But even in the context of the full course description, I don't even feel like it's a stretch to say that "institutional racism" is meaningfully distinct from segregation-era personal prejudice or eugenic theory.

[Starlight]

If the course was renamed to "The problems of colonialism and the colonialist mindset" while retaining largely the same content, would that pass muster? Is mention of "whiteness" just a trigger-word for you guys for subjects that have been discussed by reasonable people for a century?

[Darth Executor]

If the course was renamed to "The problems of colonialism and the colonialist mindset" while retaining largely the same content, would that pass muster?

No more than you changing your username would make your posts good.