Posted on 03/26/2006 3:56:37 AM PST by summer
Katie Fleischer, a senior at the University of Colorado, had just started watching an anti-racist documentary in class one day when something on the TV screen seemed all too familiar. The film, “Blue Eyed,” showed an Iowa schoolteacher with blue eyes giving special treatment to those students who also had blue eyes.
“That’s basically what classes are like sometimes,” said Fleischer, 26, a white student who said she has had only white professors. “You go into it and you have a certain background and the professor looks like you, thinks like you. It’s kind of like you’re given a free token.”
“Whiteness Studies,” the title of the class in which she saw the documentary, is a controversial look at what it means to be white in America. Dozens of colleges have introduced similar courses over the past several years. Many focus on the privileges that white people experience, sparking debate over whether the field educates or merely demonizes whites.
“Whiteness is pretty much unexamined and invisible to most whites,” said Duncan Rinehart, a professor who teaches the class in the sociology department at Colorado. “I think most whites are well-intentioned. They just don’t experience race as much of an issue.”
Whiteness studies means different things to different people. The names of the classes vary, from “The Power of Whiteness” at Providence College to “White Racism” at the University of Connecticut. They are taught in departments like sociology, American studies, ethnic studies and women’s studies.
But all share similar views of American history — mainly, that whiteness is a false notion that has long been used to deny wealth and power from nonwhites. Many of the courses are taught by white professors to largely white classes, although the demographics can vary depending on the racial complexion of the school.
The purpose of teaching whiteness studies is both academic and socially progressive, professors said. By understanding the social structure that has given whites privileges, the idea goes, students will be better equipped to help end — or at least reduce — racial inequalities.
“The greatest difficulty in the class is to help white students begin to identify their racism,” said Elaine Cleeton, a sociology professor at State University of New York at Geneseo, where her “Sociology of Whiteness” course was introduced in January.
Many conservative critics have questioned the legitimacy of the entire field of study, calling it a leftist exercise in white bashing that stands in contrast to the celebratory nature of other ethnic studies classes.
“It’s pretty ridiculous,” said Jason Mattera, a spokesman for the conservative Young America’s Foundation. “I doubt anyone’s view is going to be changed by studying whiteness studies. What is going to change is they’re going to look down now against white people.”
Critical writing on the subject can be traced back as far as W.E.B. DuBois. And required readings in many classes include books from the 1970s and ‘80s.
But only after a 1997 conference at the University of California, Berkeley called “The Masking and Unmasking of Whiteness” did more than a handful of colleges begin offering whiteness studies classes. Jeff Hitchcock, executive director of the Center for the Study of White American Culture, said that as more professors took a research interest in the topic, more colleges began offering related courses.
If nothing else, the classes have provoked thought. According to professors who have taught the classes, it often takes time before students feel comfortable enough to talk openly about race. But once they do, they speak passionately.
Liz Standley, a 20-year-old junior in Rinehart’s class, recalled a February class in which a white girl expressed frustration about how nonwhites are treated as victims when whites deal with stereotypes about their wealth and privilege. A black girl in the class was incredulous, Standley said.
“I walk down the alley at night and people turn the other way,” the girl said. “You don’t see that.”
Standley said later: “You had people in class standing up and being like, ‘You’re ridiculous,’ to both parties. It was definitely heated.”
The debate over white identity and privilege has also played out within the families of some students. When Fleischer mentioned white privilege to her parents, she said they seemed taken aback. Then they became defensive, she said, arguing that they never owned slaves, had lots of black friends and were not at all racist.
“They act like I’m being accusatory but I’m not,” Fleischer said.
When a whiteness studies class was introduced at San Francisco State University in 2004, the reaction went beyond campus discussion. After a story on the class appeared on a local television news program, Amy Sueyoshi, the Japanese-American professor teaching the class, said she received hate mail from area white supremacist groups for several weeks. The school added security patrols outside her office and had an officer escort her to her car at night.
Rinehart, like other professors interviewed, maintained that the purpose of whiteness studies is to understand white identity, not criticize it. But he also said the classes could do a better job at looking at white cultural contributions.
“Any culture has its magnificent things that it’s done and not so good things, and whiteness is the same,” he said. “It’s neither all good nor all bad. It’s a lot in between.”
back = black person got off a city bus...
Get whitey!
The war on white people goes on.
Why are we promoting a culture that continually spouts the lie that all whites are racists and evil and all blacks are our downtrodden victims?
But what's going on with this in academia, I don't know. I guess you could take any one race or ethnic group and study them, and that typically goes on in fields like sociology. Yet, the article says cultural contributions of whites seems to be omitted from these new college courses, so it seems one-sided in those courses.
FYI.
Always ask "cui bono?" It usually explains everything.
By the mid-1990s, straight white male senior faculty in humanities and social sciences were still happy teaching (mostly) traditional subdisciplines, but they had basically pulled the ladder up behind them, reserving most new hire and promotions for minority and women candidates, or for "subaltern" subdisciplines (women's studies, queer studies, ethnic studies, etc.) which were practically limited to members of the allegedly oppressed group in question.
"White Studies" was a rather clever, if utterly cynical, invention that would give straight white male graduate students and junior faculty a way to organize, establish their anti-capitalist / anti-traditionalist credentials, and (most importantly) give senior faculty to hire and promote them.
What a boatload of horse crap.
White students fall for crap like this?
Unbelieveable.
Glad I never made it to college ,I never was taught to hate myself.
I think you would find that blacks teachers favor black children because they identify more with them. I have a problem with concentrating on racism just among whites. I think it makes whites defensive and it implies that they are the only ones capable of racism.
I think they need one class where they look at racism honestly and acknowledge that ever race has the same level of racism within it's ranks. I think you do a whole lot more to bring people of different races together when you acknowledge that we are more alike than we are different and we all have the same problems dealing with the differences.
I agree -- anyone is capable of racism; it does not require a certain color or religion.
BTW -- what you described could be the basis of a very interesting college class: Examining racism and discrimination from many sources.
"The Power of Whiteness” at Providence College to “White Racism” at the University of Connecticut. They are taught in departments like sociology, American studies, ethnic studies and women’s studies."
Rigorous academics no doubt. Just what type of career is an ethnic studies or women's studies major qualified for?
All the white bashing aside, there can be no doubt that, as a white male, I am given a certain amount of deference and respect, even from non white males, that minorities and women do not always enjoy. I took it for granted for a long time and used to think that everyone was treated equally. It is subtle to me, but it is definately there. If the class' purpose is merely to make people aware and sensitive to this, I don't see where the intention is so bad. The problem is that such a class is far more likely to produce an incredible amount of misunderstanding and resentment than do any good. I also think that, by merit, I deserve a certain amount of respect and deference that others don't get. There are a lot of screwed up people out there. When a person looks at me they know better, not just because I am a white male, but it is not just a coincidence that I am. I am not the one who is going to hold up the line. I don't see why I should have to wait for the screwed up person who does. Of course, I can say the same about young vs old, smart vs stupid, handicapped vs able. Although our society is based on the notion that all men are created equal and should be treated so, corners do get cut.
Starbucks.
Seriously. Is there any wonder to the need for H1-B visas? Foreign students are studying engineering, medicine and computers while our students are studying this crap. We are losing our competitive edge.
I have found in life that among friends, acquaintances, club members, Post members,people you work with , people you know and people who know you, That you get the respect you have earned. It doesnt matter if you are black or white.
Dont let a guilt trip make your life miserable, be who you are . This whiteness course is just a guilt trip laid on students by liberal asswipes who bathe in their own guilt trips.
Treat all you meet with respect until they either do something to lose it or gain more. Thats what I do and it works for me.
Someone ought to tell this Einstein that Whites are by far the least racist people on earth.
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