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.
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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.
This is satire, right?
No.........................
Before there were whiteboards there were blackboards and those were considered racist. So now all learning and communication methods are racist. That’s my take.
An education these days is utterly worthless.
Tell me what you think about my white skin.
We had GREEN boards in schools when I was a kid................
😜👌👍...................
Utterly unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Organization is undeniably a good thing.
Who would disagree with that, and what kind of world do they want to live in?
We did too. Maybe they were Martian boards!
Fine, go back to blackboards, er, boards of color. Or since those also work, would they be considered Uncle Tom boards or maybe Oreo boards?
Also related!
Blackboards identify too closely with black culture…
“We had GREEN boards in schools when I was a kid...”
Not saying they were Aliens, but....
These people should have their reproductive organs removed, and be banished to a former Leprosy colony.
make it look like a brick wall or the side of a freight train car...
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