Debate Rages As University Stands By ‘Problem Of Whiteness’ Course

[j-mac]

MADISON, Wi. (CNN) — The University of Wisconsin-Madison is offering a course next semester called “The Problem of Whiteness,” and it’s not sitting well with a Republican legislator.Wisconsin Rep. Dave Murphy, who is also the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, has asked the university to cancel the course, saying it prompts racial division.
“I am extremely concerned that UW-Madison finds it appropriate to teach a course called, ‘The Problem of Whiteness,’ with the premise that white people are racist,” Murphy said in a statement this week. He even threatened to pull funding for the state university.
The course, taught by Professor Damon Sajnani, is part of the African Cultural Studies program at the university’s College of Letters and Science.
“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.'”

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/12/23/debate-rages-as-university-stands-by-problem-of-whiteness-course/

Good Lord....What the hell are our Universities becoming?

 

[Fletch]

The least they could do is offer a course on "The problem of blackness." Oh that's right, that would be racist...:roll:

 

[Cardinal]

Good Lord....What the hell are our Universities becoming?

I'm putting a dollar on this story being not as it's framed to be.

 

[TheGoverness]

The least they could do is offer a course on "The problem of blackness." Oh that's right, that would be racist...:roll:

Both would be equally as racist in my eyes.

 

[joG]

Both would be equally as racist in my eyes.

Worse than racist. More like professional racism and spreading hate. Not at all nice.

 

[Beaudreaux]

I'm putting a dollar on this story being not as it's framed to be.

It appears to be framed accurately: "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.'"

 

[TheGoverness]

It appears to be framed accurately: "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.'"

Are you #woke, Beaudreaux? :2razz:

 

[Abbazorkzog]

I'm putting a dollar on this story being not as it's framed to be.

You now have $2.00

 

[Helix]

I'm putting a dollar on this story being not as it's framed to be.

it's tough being a white person, especially if you're a middle aged dad in a commercial.

 

[TheGoverness]

it's tough being a white person, especially if you're a middle aged dad in a commercial.

Or living in a trailer park.

 

[Militant_Vegan_]

there are inherent advantages in being born white. that's just a fact.

 

[Helix]

Or living in a trailer park.

it generally boils down to socioeconomic division.

 

[TheGoverness]

it generally boils down to socioeconomic division.

Agreed.

 

[Cardinal]

It appears to be framed accurately: "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.'"

I'm not letting go of that dollar yet.

 

[Henrin]

there are inherent advantages in being born white. that's just a fact.

inherent -existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute.

Are you sure that's the word you wanted? That would mean that no amount of social change would make a difference towards the advantages.

 

[Beaudreaux]

I'm not letting go of that dollar yet.

Nor would I. Never believe anything you hear or read at first blush, and only believe about half of what you see with your own eyes because about half is not actually as it appears and it will not last.

 

[Beaudreaux]

Are you #woke, Beaudreaux? :2razz:

I've been called a lot of things, but that's not one of them, since I'm a cis gendered straight white mail over 50.

 

[Militant_Vegan_]

inherent -existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute.

Are you sure that's the word you wanted? That would mean that no amount of social change would make a difference towards the advantages.

so you're a guy who advocates social changes and the end of white dominance. good show.

 

[TheGoverness]

I've been called a lot of things, but that's not one of them, since I'm a cis gendered straight white mail over 50.

I guess #woke is supposed to mean a white person who accepts their 'inner-racism'.

 

[Nap]

there are inherent advantages in being born white. that's just a fact.

Tell that to white people born into poverty. Coming from a single teen mother being born white was largely a disadvantage for me personally. I won't deny that black people still suffer from racial discrimination and bias but to paint all white people as somehow privileged is ridiculous. The only privileged class in America is the rich.

 

[Beaudreaux]

I guess #woke is supposed to mean a white person who accepts their 'inner-racism'.

Well, since I had to look it up, Google says it means a person that is awoken to the plight of social woes of others not like them in the community around them. In other words, it's unadulterated SJW PC BS.

 

[TheGoverness]

Well, since I had to look it up, Google says it means a person that is awoken to the plight of social woes of others not like them in the community around them. In other words, it's unadulterated SJW PC BS.

I've heard that rhetoric so many times before.

 

[Helix]

a person that is awoken to the plight of social woes of others not like them in the community around them.

the horror.

 

[azgreg]

I'm not letting go of that dollar yet.

Here is the online class description:

The Problem of Whiteness
African 405

Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30pm

Professor Damon Sajnani

“There is no Negro problem in the United States,
There’s only a white problem.”
-Richard Wright

“How does it feel to be a problem?”
-Du Bois

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! In Frantz Fanon’s famous Black Skin, White Masks (1952), his chapter “Look, a Negro!” interrogated the meaning and experience of coming to know oneself as Black under the constant scrutiny of the white gaze. It is an experience concomitant with W.E.B. Du Bois’s observation that under systemic racism, even well-meaning whites are constantly asking, in one way or another, “what is it like to be a problem?” But, Like Richard Wright’s quote above, philosopher George Yancy’s book, Look, a White! (2010), turns the question around, and rightly returns “the problem of whiteness” to white people. After all, since white supremacy was created by white people, is it not white folks who have the greatest responsibility to eradicate it? Our class begins here. We will come together with our socially ascribed identities of Black, white, mixed and other and, with the problem properly in its place we will ask ourselves and our allies, what are we going to do with it?

Critical Whiteness Studies aims to understand how whiteness is socially constructed and experienced in order to help dismantle white supremacy. 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. 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.”

Readings will include:
W.E.B. Du Bois, 1920. “The Souls of White Folks” in Dark Water
George Yancy, 2010. Look, a White!
Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015. Between the World and Me
Damon Sajnani, 2015. “Rachel/Racial Theory: Reverse Passing in the Curious Case of Rachel Dolezal”
Tim Wise, 2016. White Lies Matter: Race, Crime, and the Politics of Fear in America

The Problem of Whiteness | African Cultural Studies

Unfortunately i can't take the class as I'm busy Wednesdays.

 

[Chomsky]

Good Lord....What the hell are our Universities becoming?

Whether the class is legit or not, WTH business is it of a legislator to get involved? Unless there's some immediate, present, or imminent danger?

State funded or not, it's not the job of government and politicians to tell academia what - or what not - to teach. I'm a big believer in academic freedom (& the 1A), and the last thing I want from academia is to have them teaching the government line. College campuses should be bastions of free-speech & intellectual freedom, IMNSHO.