Whiteness Class Draws Conservative Ire, But They Need To Get Over It

Conservatives are ridiculously riled-up over a controversial English class at Arizona State University called “U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness,” a social engineering course that examines perceptions of race in America.

I believe Arizona State University is offering students a much-needed, progressive, thought-provoking class to stimulate intellectual discussion about cultural awareness in a nation that is steadily becoming blacker and browner.

So what’s the problem? Fox News and some white conservatives have taken issue with the class, claiming the course that explores “Whiteness” philosophically assaults white people even though the professor who teaches the class, Lee Bebout, is white. Go figure. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, another narrow-minded ultra-conservative on Fox News, called the class “quite unfair, and wrong, and pointed.”

I should note that Hasselback, who is long on rhetoric and short on facts, hasn’t read the course syllabus or spoken with Bebout. She’s basing all her knowledge of the class on her warped perception of a growing multicultural America and Arizona State University student Lauren Clark, who objects to the required reading for students — which include “Playing in the Dark” by Toni Morrison, a celebrated African-American writer who has won a Pulitzer Prize, a Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The other books listed on the syllabus are “Everyday Language of White Racism” by Jane Hill, “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction” by Richard Delgado,” “Alchemy of Race & Rights” by Patricia Williams, and “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness” by George Lipsitz.

“All of these books have a disturbing trend and that’s pointing to white people as a root cause of social injustices for this country,” Clark told Hasselbeck on Fox and Friends. Clark also said that examining white privilege in a collegiate setting “causes more problems than solutions.”

But let’s be clear: The problem with conservatives like Hasselback isn’t really about this particular class; it’s about the broader notion that America’s white citizens are shrinking in population and being overtaken by Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians. Racial diversity has never been a concept that conservatives openly embrace because they are ruled by fear; fear of social change; fear of the unknown; fear of anything that is different from their sheltered collective experiences.

Here’s how Arizona State University defended its decision to offer the class:

This course uses literature and rhetoric to look at how stories shape people’s understandings and experiences of race. It encourages students to examine how people talk about — or avoid talking about — race in the contemporary United States. This is an interdisciplinary course, so students will draw on history, literature, speeches and cultural changes — from scholarly texts to humor. The class is designed to empower students to confront the difficult and often thorny issues that surround us today and reach thoughtful conclusions rather than display gut reactions. A university is an academic environment where we discuss and debate a wide array of viewpoints.

Eighteen students are enrolled in the class offered every Monday and Wednesday and half the class is empty. Sadly, Bebout said he’s been inundated with hateful emails after the Fox News segment but he remains committed to teaching the class to those students who have signed up.

“We need to have these difficult conversations,” Nolan Cabrera, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, told reporters. “He (Bebout) is doing exactly what a university professor is supposed to be doing in provoking and engaging difficult discussions and trying to foster critical thinking in his students.”

I hope the class on race and “whiteness” fills up. Conservatives like Hasselback can’t stop the racial demographic shift that is sweeping the country no matter how often they shout it down on Fox News. Here’s a thought: Deal with it.

What do you think?

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