Swordsmyth
03-25-2019, 07:27 PM
Did you hear about the Peking University course on Chinese thought that excluded the work of all Asian men, from Confucius to Lao Tzu to Sun Tzu? No, and such a curricular oddity wouldn’t appear in America, either — if it were a course on Chinese thought. An “American Political Thought” course that avoids study of all white men is a different matter, though, and this is exactly what’s being offered at the University of Colorado, Denver.
The offending, offensive, and apparently offended professor teaching it is one Chad Shomura. A student writing of his experiences with the course a few semesters back, Ahnaf Kalam, relates (https://www.thecollegefix.com/american-political-thought-course-at-cu-denver-removes-all-white-men-from-curriculum/) at the College Fix that Shomura “explained to the students in the room that most traditional ‘American Political Thought’ courses are too focused on the achievements of white men.”
Uh, well, yes, it’s “American Political Thought,” not “African Political Thought,” and, like it or not, the contributors to that thought, particularly during the founding era, were predominately white males. History’s not politically correct — it’s funny like that. Which is why teaching "politically correct" history skews history.
“As a consequence,” Salam continues, Shomura “told us he had removed every single white male and their theoretical perspectives from the entire course curriculum.”
Salam then points out that this is reflected in the syllabus:
This course aims to develop an understanding of American political life from the margins. Rather than surveying traditional figures of American political thought, it attends to historically marginalized voices at the crossings of race, gender, sexuality, and nation. It explores issues such as intersectionality, antiblack racism and the American Dream, ordinary life, borderlands and migration, public feelings, mental health, and settler colonialism. The materials we examine also exceed the usual genres of American Political Thought. They include, among other things, poems, an ethnography, academic articles, a novel, and a hacked tarot card set.
Of course, this is false advertising. The course would be better named “Fringe American Thought” — if what’s peddled therein could correctly be called thought.
Salam points out that in the syllabus (https://www.academia.edu/34287638/American_Political_Thought) there is “zero mention of the Founding Fathers (or any other U.S. president or political leader, for that matter) or any of the Western Enlightenment thinkers. Nothing on Washington. Or Jefferson. Or Madison. Or Hamilton. Not a mention of Locke or Rousseau. None of that.”
Instead, students must study Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who birthed the term “intersectionality”; “Filipino empowerment in Hawaii”; the racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and other isms that supposedly typify the United States; and “Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me,” which “disgustingly and shamelessly smears the 9/11 first-responders” (all preceding quotations were Salam’s).
Unfortunately, most students are victimized by this malpractice, too. Salam explains that not only is the course still being taught, but graduation requirements ensure that a majority of students take it.
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/31839-white-and-out-of-sight-cu-removes-all-white-men-from-american-political-thought-course
The offending, offensive, and apparently offended professor teaching it is one Chad Shomura. A student writing of his experiences with the course a few semesters back, Ahnaf Kalam, relates (https://www.thecollegefix.com/american-political-thought-course-at-cu-denver-removes-all-white-men-from-curriculum/) at the College Fix that Shomura “explained to the students in the room that most traditional ‘American Political Thought’ courses are too focused on the achievements of white men.”
Uh, well, yes, it’s “American Political Thought,” not “African Political Thought,” and, like it or not, the contributors to that thought, particularly during the founding era, were predominately white males. History’s not politically correct — it’s funny like that. Which is why teaching "politically correct" history skews history.
“As a consequence,” Salam continues, Shomura “told us he had removed every single white male and their theoretical perspectives from the entire course curriculum.”
Salam then points out that this is reflected in the syllabus:
This course aims to develop an understanding of American political life from the margins. Rather than surveying traditional figures of American political thought, it attends to historically marginalized voices at the crossings of race, gender, sexuality, and nation. It explores issues such as intersectionality, antiblack racism and the American Dream, ordinary life, borderlands and migration, public feelings, mental health, and settler colonialism. The materials we examine also exceed the usual genres of American Political Thought. They include, among other things, poems, an ethnography, academic articles, a novel, and a hacked tarot card set.
Of course, this is false advertising. The course would be better named “Fringe American Thought” — if what’s peddled therein could correctly be called thought.
Salam points out that in the syllabus (https://www.academia.edu/34287638/American_Political_Thought) there is “zero mention of the Founding Fathers (or any other U.S. president or political leader, for that matter) or any of the Western Enlightenment thinkers. Nothing on Washington. Or Jefferson. Or Madison. Or Hamilton. Not a mention of Locke or Rousseau. None of that.”
Instead, students must study Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who birthed the term “intersectionality”; “Filipino empowerment in Hawaii”; the racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and other isms that supposedly typify the United States; and “Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me,” which “disgustingly and shamelessly smears the 9/11 first-responders” (all preceding quotations were Salam’s).
Unfortunately, most students are victimized by this malpractice, too. Salam explains that not only is the course still being taught, but graduation requirements ensure that a majority of students take it.
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/31839-white-and-out-of-sight-cu-removes-all-white-men-from-american-political-thought-course