Article image Posted on 04/26/2022 12:40:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
"Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: A Case Study" was published last month in Physical Review Physics Education Research.
"Whiteboards can be racist like how housing, employment, and the judicial systems were found to contain racist practices," the co-author told Campus Reform.
Stevie Gibbs '23 | Arkansas Campus Correspondent Monday, April 25, 2022 1:44 PM
Did a recent physics study argue that whiteboards are racist?
"Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: A Case Study" was published last month in Physical Review Physics Education Research. The study observed three students as they worked to solve a physics problem and analyzed how "whiteness" is present in academia.
The study found that whiteboards can have racist undertones and perpetuate whiteness.
Seattle Pacific University Research Associate Professor of Physics Amy Roberton served as lead author. W. Tali Hairston, director of community organizing, advocacy, and development at Seattle Presbytery, served as the co-author.
Hairston told Campus Reform that although whiteboards "are not inherently racist," the common classroom object can perpetuate racism.
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"Whiteboards can be racist like how housing, employment, and the judicial systems were found to contain racist practices," Hairston stated.
According to the authors, the role of the whiteboard as being the center of attention in classroom learning contributes to its role in student discussion and attention.
"Our findings support other studies that have found the study of physics to include racism and sexism," Hairston added.
"Whiteboards display written information for public consumption; they draw attention to themselves and in this case support the centering of an abstract representation and the person standing next to it, presenting," the authors argue in the study. "They collaborate with white organizational culture, where ideas and experiences gain value (become more central) when written down.”
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According to this argument, when students use a whiteboard to display work, they are drawing attention to themselves that may portray characteristics of "whiteness."
University of Arkansas student Whitney Hines, who is currently enrolled in physics courses, told Campus Reform that "science is not meant to be subjective."
"I do not see how an objective topic can be seen as racist," Hines added.
Campus Reform contacted Seattle Pacific University and Roberton for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
I didn’t know that when I picked up a baby armadillo.
Luckily I was drunk and alcohol kills germs...
oundsay oodgay.
I don’t think you have white skin. It is more like pink.
The reasoning behind this is utter gibberish. They apparently believe that if they use enough words, a really stupid idea somehow acquires academic qualities. You can read the entire article, and still have no real sense of what was meant.
You mean the honky board.
Unless it scratches you or you have a open sore you are safe...............
I told you what color it is.
I’m good. This was 19 years ago.
I don’t drink or pick up wild animals anymore...
I was told that “Blackboards” were racist years ago in Richmond.
The guy said Yankee, around here we call them chalkboards.
Aside from the illogic of attributing intentions (collaborate) to an insensate OBJECT and doubling down with the "white organizational culture", this sentence demonstrates good teaching practices, does it not? I have years of being taught and demonstrating through practice, that writing something down aids in comprehension, clarity and memorization! Yet these skulls-of-mush [Bonus points for the ORIGINAL source] treat the concept like that old-fashion 2+2 must equal 4.
empty=nothing...
it’s impossible to divide nothing in half... 😁
Likewise, you can’t use White chalk on a blackboard because the White chalk violates the blackness of the blackboard.
I’ve seen black guys that didn’t put lotion on that looked like they bumped into a blackboard full of chalk...
Well, I’m from Tennessee and we called ‘em blackboards...
Neither half full nor half empty. Either 2/5 full, or 3/5 empty. Gotta measure from where the liquid starts, not the very bottom of the glass. ;^)
And with yellow chalk!
I get Physics Today as a benefit to go with a professional society membership. Nowadays each issue has something on climate change, equity or some other BS.
So the Blacks want to go back to slapping erasers back together?-)
Seems I remember we had BOTH black and green boards...Depended on what part of the school the classroom was in...
(In elementary, we loved to throw the erasers at each other)
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