Posted on 11/20/2015 4:33:55 PM PST by Altura Ct.
A student at Columbia University is urging the school to inject more diversity into its required courses, claiming she suffered severe emotional trauma from reading too many books by and about white people.
Columbia students and faculty gathered Wednesday night for a panel discussion on âRace, Ethnicity, and University Life.â According to the Columbia Daily Spectator, much of the commentary revolved around the idea that minorities on campus simply spend too much time being traumatized by the white-centric content of their classes.
One of the panelists at the event was black Columbia student Nissy Aya. Aya was supposed to graduate in 2014, but instead is only on track to receive her degree in 2016. That, Aya says, demonstrates âhow hard it has been for me to get through this institution,â though itâs worth noting she is an exceptional case, as Columbia has one of the highest four-year graduation rates in the country.
Aya attributed some of her academic troubles to the trauma of having to take Columbiaâs current Core Curriculum, which requires students to take a series of six classes with a focus on the culture and history of Western, European civilization. Aya says this focus on the West was highly mentally stressful for her.
âItâs traumatizing to sit in Core classes,â she said. âWe are looking at history through the lens of these powerful, white men. I have no power or agency as a black woman, so where do I fit in?â
As an example, Aya cited her art class, where she complained that Congolese artwork was repeatedly characterized as âprimitive.â She wanted to object to that characterization but, in the Spectatorâs words, was âtired of already having worked that day to address so many other instances of racism and discrimination.â
Roosevelt Montás, Columbiaâs associate dean for the Core Curriculum, didnât exactly offer a spirited defense, instead saying Aya was showing the troubling racism that may lurk inside the Core.
âYou cannot grow up in a society without assimilating racist views,â he said, according to the Spectator. âPart of what is exciting about this conversation is that itâs issuing accountability for us to look within ourselves and try to understand the way that racism shapes how we see the world and our institutions.â
This isnât the first time students have complained about the mental anguish of studying the Western canon. Last spring, four students published an editorial for the Spectator complaining that a student was triggered by having to read Ovid, and proposed replacing his offensive works with those of Toni Morrison.
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My thoughts exactly.
Primitive art has it's aficionados, but to me, all I see is just that.
Primitive.
It's pretty boring just seeing poorly made fertility statues, sloppy paintings, and a bunch of bowls. A jug if you're lucky.
It's not just Africa, either.
It's pretty much all primitive art that exists from every continent.
Until civilizations and empires arise, only THEN do you see something worthwhile to look at.
The Chinese have plenty of great art from 3000 years ago.
Some elegant vases worth millions of dollars, depending on dynasty.
Last I checked, they weren't "powerful white men."
I understand the feeling.
I can no longer eat black bean burgers because I just can’t live with the havoc my pearly whites inflict on said burger.
I’m also afraid I’ll soon have to banish salt and pepper from my table. They don’t seem to be getting along anymore.
To all the white, liberal trolls reading this site: The people you follow and believe in are denying your very right to exist. If it isn’t comfortable for them to even hear about you then it is not too far a step to the next logical step of killing you. If America falls, where will you go?
Whenever I see the term “White privilege,” I translate as “White competency” and typically the article makes more sense.
We also kicked ass from tiny colonies on the east coast all the way the West Coast (manifest destiny, read up on it) and about 50% time we were kicking ass on Mexico just for giggles!
I say we load up our C30 transports and dump these bastards in the middle of Africa and the muzzies in the middle of the desert
I dunno, the representation of Jar Jar Binks in the first one is pretty good.
The one of Ringo and the Shriners is kind of interesting also.
As that line by Jack Nicholson ...
“Wait’ll they get a load of me!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwX8Dg_aVro
‘GOBBLE TILL YA WOBBLE!!!’
Methinks Miss Aya senses she’s about to run into a buzz saw when she gets out in the real world. Her act won’t take her too far.
Methinks Miss Aya senses she’s about to run into a buzz saw when she gets out in the real world. Her act won’t take her too far.
To get writing above 7th grade level, guess where you have to go? Into the past. Now, if you want high level writing by black authors, you can get some good stuff from Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano. But most of the rest of it is going to be by highly educated white people. That's just the way it is.
And oh by the way: our students can't process any of it. Seriously, I'm in L.A. and these kids cannot process anything beyond 6th grade level. They do NO reading for pleasure, none. Never have. Not a book in their house. They can barely process The Hunger Games. Oh, there are about...2 out of every 30 who can, and 3 more who can... kind of. The rest? Lost as puppies.
You know, I’m beginning to think that 50% of the people in our prisons might be more “fixable”, i.e., worthy of investment by society, that these worthless turds.
You know, these kids, considering how “internet savvy” they are, aren’t thinking very far ahead. They had better come up with that revolution pretty quickly and/or become “successful” (whatever that means) activists, because college will end and then they will have to find a job with The Man. Even if The Man happens to be a Black WoMan, I don’t think that they would be too interested in these basket cases. And background research (including all the goodies on the Internet) is getting cheaper and cheaper and that capability is trickling down to to become affordable to smaller and smaller employers.
We are AMERICA!!
She comes from a culture thousands of years old who were known far and wide for their skills throwing sticks at animals and each other, and using fire
Whatever she’s majoring in, there is no marketable employment value in the degree she’ll get.
Will she go happily shopping on “Black Friday”, or will it be an insult to her?
Why not establish all-black colleges that teach an all-black curriculum? Wouldn’t that solve the problem?
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