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Credit towards a degree should not be given for these alleged classes. They should be the equivalent of taking an adult class through your county or city. Financial aid should be prohibited from being spent on them either.
I thought conservatives were all about less government oversight. Now you want some sort of government committee to approve or disapprove every single college class at every single institution in the US?
huh? Do you honestly believe in a multicultural society like the United States of America, not discussing racism is in our near future?
Well, to answer your question. No, I am not suggesting people shouldn't be discussing racism or race; I certainly am not suggesting everybody should just be colorblind.
If you really want to go there, then I would argue, there are TRUE civil right leaders like MLK who basically fought for HUMAN right, (including white people), and there are radical Progressives today always look for someone they can use and victimize them by getting them to claim victimhood.
Liberals used to be the live and let live types. They used to hate bullies. But no more. SOME OF THEM become bullies. Aggressive, quasi militant attitudes about eradicating any behavior, symbol or speech they disagree with.
MLK did not fight for white people's rights. Their rights were already recognized by local, state, and federal government. He specifically stated in various works that he was fighting for Civil Rights for black Americans/Negroes and this is why he was considered an "agitator" and a domestic terrorist. Doing anything or blacks/negroes throughout American history makes one a threat. King also spoke about the system of "white supremacy" in various works. Contrary to what you all believe, this is not a new SJW phrase. WEB DuBois spoke about "white supremacy" in the late 19th/early 20th century, which is why he is included in the course description. This stuff is not new, you just all want to act like it doesn't exist for some reason or that not talking about it will make it go away.
We need to have these discussions IMO because many people, including yourself, seem to take some sort of rose colored glasses, fantasy look at history. This is especially the case for MLK for a lot of conservative people. You've been around here a long time and I have already shared the above so I know that you know that MLK was a TRUE progressive and that being "progressive" was not about a political party. In the past there have been both Democrat and Republican progressives. He was also considered an "agitator" and was blamed for causing "riots." He was jailed and considered a criminal. He spoke about how the "white moderate's indifference" and rationalization of racism was the reason why racism existed in our country and I agree with him on this point. Talking about it and challenging it is the only way to diminish race based prejudice. He also spoke about how whites always wanted black people to be quiet about racism and to "wait" for things to get better. You need to read more that MLK wrote himself instead of basing your view of him on one speech.
And IMO flipping the discussion to white supremacy and examining white supremacy as a part of the "white experience" of our country, is a valid POV instead of always talking about how blacks and other poeple of color were "harmed." IMO this class is seeking to explore how this has "harmed" white people as well.
I am black and am well aware that the "black experience" is filled with negatives inherent to some cultural aspects of being black in America. However, I am also aware that "black culture" has many inherent positive attributes that are frequently not mentioned in media or academia. The opposite is done for "white culture" in America. Positives are mentioned much moreso for whites and negatives overlooked when it comes to socio-economic conditions and behaviors. IMO this is the cause for much of what people view as "white privilege." I'll also be honest and state I personally think that "white privilege" is not a huge issue/concern of mine because it is built on prejudice and creating new terms for "prejudice" does nothing but confuse people. But "white supremacy" is ideologically a huge part of American culture and a huge component of colonialism. So in that context "whiteness" is valid to explore when studying the concept of "white supremacy" and how it came to be.
On "liberal agenda" too many people today always think something is an "agenda" (gay agenda, black agenda, lots of paranoia IMO). No one wants to have an honest conversation about race and IMO it is great to do so within the confines of academia, such as what is being done at this university. Because outside of academic discussions, people rely too much on media and how media frames "issues" of the day such as references to a "liberal agenda." People take the view of their media sources as their own and that limits their outlook and the discussion. IMO that is what is going on in this very thread. You were the one who said you didn't know about "whiteness" or what it meant to be "white." Why would you think that taking a class about this is racist?
As I've shared, I'm neither liberal or conservative. I am speaking from a non-political view point and base my view on my own knowledge, primarily learned via studying various sources (primarily books) and historical figures like WEB DuBois and MLK and our Founding Fathers amongst others. To me, there is no such thing as a "liberal agenda" or a "conservative agenda" there is only having an open mind, learning, exploring and coming to one's own conclusions about a subject after examining all view points.
Again race is this fairly recent thing. No one identified as a skin color as a shared identity for most of human history.
Quite literally human history is people with the same skin color killing one another over resources religion, etc.
The idea of race started during the enlightenment. It took hold because of the trans Atlantic slave trade.
There is nothing else to it.
Our nation as a matter of law was for 80% of its history dedicated to white racial dominance explicitly.
And those policies were based on the idea of the white race of whiteness.
So you gave this fairly new identity that rose out of slavery that dominated American law absolutely for 80% of our history so course objectively it's a topic for study and of course acknowledging this reality is going to puss off racists or people dedicated to that long standing tradition. .
Agreed.
The notion that shared skin color had any shared anything is easily disproven by how poorly the Irish immigrants were initially treated in this country. Its interesting but the quote that seems to be setting everyone off is actually written by a man who studied and wrote extensively on those issues and how they tied into future race relations in the US.
Yes, there is little historical basis for racism, even during classical greek and roman eras. Not that those people were any sort of peace, love and kumbaya, they just massacred each other for other reasons.
He is not going to get it because he doesn't understand what culture is.
It includes a shared language, shared experiences, shared laws, and shared customs. Under that framework maybe he will realize that Europe is a union of many cultures and not one based on race.
You're the one who doesn't understand what culture is.
What do you think scholars are talking about when they refer to "Western civilization," or "Western culture" or "European culture"?
They are talking about the history and intellectual/artistic accomplishments of Europeans.
Your research is correct, but you are kicking a dead horse trying to teach them. They have to seek out the knowledge for themselves. You will become so frustrated and tired trying to teach others who prefer to stay ignorant or stay true to their own belief system. Your knowledge is great and I highly advise you share it with those in your community or at a youth center or be a guest speaker at a school for Black History Month. So many ways for you to share your knowledge.
This is my community though. I am American. Black Americans on average have been here longer than anyone accept native Americans. Most white Americans arrived in the 1900's.
So that means black Americans consume city data just like everything else in this nation. If we only stick to places that are majority black then all that'll be out there for them to read is black people are the problem.
Racism doesn't exist. Bs.
So the reality is talking to all America is talking to my community as I understand it.
But I understand there will be opposition but that's expected. I don't think I can change anyone's mind.
I can't even change my children's minds if they are dead set to do something let alone a grown stranger.
I'm just putting my voice out there against the tide of there is something wrong with the black race lies it is needed for myself.
If you actually read serious books -- e.g., by such authors as Gabriel Marcel, Thomas Molnar, Karl Jaspers, Raymond Aron, Jean Francois Revel, Jose Ortega y Gasset -- you would know that Europeans are very conscious of having a distinct European culture as well as distinct cultures within Europe.
You obviously do not know what you're talking about, but that's not my problem, it's yours.
I have read Gabriel Marcel, for a philosophy class, he was an existentialist right?
Anyway, in which book (he has many I assume) does he discuss European culture? I would be interested to read his perspective and I found his philosophical work interesting back in the day.
The notion that shared skin color had any shared anything is easily disproven by how poorly the Irish immigrants were initially treated in this country. Its interesting but the quote that seems to be setting everyone off is actually written by a man who studied and wrote extensively on those issues and how they tied into future race relations in the US.
Yes, there is little historical basis for racism, even during classical greek and roman eras. Not that those people were any sort of peace, love and kumbaya, they just massacred each other for other reasons.
It's easily disproven by human history every where.
No one identified themselves as a skin color. No one did.
They have created these myths about European culture or African culture or Asian culture all because of the sick idea of race.
There is no such thing.
There are ethnic cultures or national cultures but racial culture is not a thing.
It Doesn't exist outside of white supremacy as a massive motivating factor.
You do realized you just presumed that one single person can speak for an entire group of people that vary widely, right?
Do you also think you speak for all white people?
There would be no black airline pilot at all if refineryworker was right.
So refineryworker is wrong.
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