Leicester University denies it is dropping Chaucer for being 'too white' after proposing modules on race and sexuality instead

Daily Mail ^ | 21 January 2021 | Dan Sales & Ross Ibbetson

[nickcarraway]

Leicester University has denied it is dropping literary giant Geoffrey Chaucer for being 'too white' after proposing replacement modules focused on race and gender.

Plans have emerged to shelve The Canterbury Tales and Beowulf - two of the most important works in English literature - in favour of a 'decolonised' curriculum.

The English faculty has been told that the foundational texts could be replaced by more popular works - but Leicester said this wasn't down to their 'whiteness.'

Dr Christine Rauer, a lecturer at the University of St Andrews, told MailOnline: 'It's hard to see why race, ethnicity, sexuality and diversity can't be taught alongside Chaucer and Beowulf.

'Bring in the new topics while also keeping the medieval! Curriculum planners should think big – their students will later compete with people who studied elsewhere and who have a much wider range. You will feel left out, if you only know half the story.'

Asked whether the texts might be too difficult, Dr Rauer said: 'Medieval literature can seem hard at the beginning, but most good things in life are like that. Self-confidence comes from overcoming difficulty, and the unexpected.'

[allendale]

Britain and France have committed cultural suicide. Never again should American blood and treasure be spent on their behalf.

[Blennos]

Don’t forget Germany.

[Da Coyote]

“It’s hard to see why race, ethnicity, sexuality and diversity can’t be taught alongside Chaucer and Beowulf.”

Yup, we know that those “popular” works will be every bit as lasting and insightful as those old ‘out of date’ works, eh?

After all, we just know that rap music is far superior to Mozart and it’ll be all rap all the time 100 years from now. (Typed while laughing.) That university is doomed. No, make that their artsy fartsy departments are doomed. For shame, UK, I really thought your standards were better than our so-called Ivy League collections of clowns.

[ClearCase_guy]

“Baby Got Back” or “Don Giovanni”? Which shall stand the test of time? Homey don’t know.

[livius]

We’re not doing much better, alas.

[John S Mosby]

What idiocy— they gonna invent their own origins-— like it would be some “game of thrones” idiotic crapola. Senseless and mindless... to be cut loose of actual origins is at a minimum utter lunacy.

[chuckee]

I thought Chaucer would be dropped for being too damned boring before he would for being too white.

[poinq]

You know they call it The English department right?

[struggle]

Chaucer literally solidified the English language and it’s modern nuances into Middle English.

[struggle]

Chaucer? Boring?

Read the story about the guy who gets a red hot poker up his ass.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Replace Chaucer with a work by an Afro-Caribbean transgender omnisexual feminist writer from the 14th century. Maybe offer novelizations of “Lifetime” movies.

[doc maverick]

There is a lot of reverse discrimination it all started under King Obummer.
Now white people are made to feel like shit. And for what reason?
Because some white people in the south used black people for slaves?
Well, a lot of white people LOST THEIR LIVES to free these slaves.
So what is the problem NOW?
WHY are white people being made to feel bad based on color anymore?
A lot of black people have made something of themselves in a lot of ways based on opportunities especially for THEM.
So what is all the whining and demonizing of white people all the about NOW?
The civil war was hundreds of years ago. White people FOUGHT AND DIED for blacks.
The CONSTANT FOMENTING OF RACISM NOW IS SINFUL.
It is divisive!
So it’s high time to STOP all this radical racism crap NOW.
PERIOD.
And the misinformation about whites being privileged is pure horse shit.
There are quite a few white people who have zero money.
They are barely making it.
My parents came to this country very poor.
My dad slept in a chicken coop and my mom’s family had no house until my grandfather made enough money to build a small two bedroom for a family of 9!
So how is that white privilege?
So stop the white privilege narrative also because for most whites it has NEVER been true.
There was NO WELFARE for my parents either.
So cut the bullshit.
You have a choice: You can either whine for money or WORK HARD and whiners never get anywhere.
IF you are STUCK ON RACISM, you’ll not get anywhere either.

[proxy_user]

You must have missed out on the Miller’s Tale.

[Cecily]

Has this university forgotten that the literature and history of England actually is overwhelmingly WHITE?

[blueplum]

People go to universities, in part, to learn from and experience Western Culture, a culture which has survived for thousands of years. When western culture is erased from the curriculum, or even belittled, there is no draw over a university in say, Japan, that has the same exact ‘woke’ curriculum, but also teaches Japanese history and culture. THose that attend college in foreign nations are looking for cultural immersion and are willing to pay a proud price for it, not woke immersion they can get back home for free.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Leicester University will henceforth be known as Lice-turd University.