First-year students at the University of Delaware are being subjected to a mandatory one-credit course that appears to target white students with a message that because of their skin color they are privileged.
Freshmen at UD are required to complete the "UNIV 101: First Year Experience" course to allegedly assess their level of privilege. Aiding that assessment is a "privilege checklist" (originally composed by the Boise State Writing Center) associated with the course with subsections such as: "White Race, Ethnicity, and Culture Privilege," "Cisgender Privilege," "Sexuality Privilege," and "Male/Masculine Privilege."
Craig DeLuz of Project 21 Black Leadership Network argues that students will benefit more by resisting the mandatory class than by caving to it. "Students who stand up to stuff like this are going to learn logic and critical thinking," he explains. "I hate to say it, but the only real way this could provide any sort of benefit academically is going to be by those who are opposing it."
The course will utilize a pass/fail grading system. DeLuz explains how administrators will determine if someone fails the course.
"If you do not buy into what they say, then you have 'internalized racism'; if you disagree with them, well then, you are in fact a racist," he describes. "[In their eyes] your disagreement becomes evidence to them that they are right."
DeLuz expects this will eventually lead to a lawsuit filed by a student with standing who either doesn't want to take the course or objects to being required to have a course where he or she is being discriminated against.
Nipped in the bud
Another school in the Northeast, however, decided to postpone its highly controversial "tired of white cis men" event after word got out on social media. Hosted by the Gender Sexuality and Resource Center at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, the event invited people to "come paint and write about" being tired of straight, white men.
The Rev. Steven Craft of Project 21 tells AFN the event – which was originally scheduled for November 12 – is nothing but divisive.
"And they know that," he emphasizes. "But they're not going to stop because they're getting paid from the federal government with grants and all kinds of money to keep pushing this stuff. So, the divisiveness is there."
Rev. Craft believes the best way to push back against this event is to point out the weakness in their argument about alleged "white supremacy."
"If you believe that America is irredeemably racist and must be replaced, then you must also believe that blacks must be socially inferior," he says, "because you can't have white supremacy without having its opposite – which would be 'black inferiority.'"
The event was first brought to light by members of Young America's Foundation at the school. They had submitted complaints about the event through the Gettysburg College bias incident reporting system.
