Call it a case of the empire striking back. We are beginning to feel stirrings of it now in all aspects of American society, which over the past eight years has been shackled by one politically correct edict after another. A biological male who for some reason believes he is female wants the right to tinkle in the ladies room? No problem. Black students demand that a university provide them with “affinity housing” so that they can live free of the specter of white privilege? Here are the keys — and, no, you are not a racist and what you are calling for is not a return to segregation.
The latest effort to break the chains of victimist oppression has taken the form of a bill introduced in the Arizona state legislature by Rep. Bob Thorpe, a Republican, that would effectively ban the teaching of courses that promote “white bashing” in private universities.
The bill, House Bill 2120, would extend the purview of a 2011 law that, according to The Arizona Republic, “forbids public and charter schools to teach anything promoting ‘resentment toward a race or class of people’ from kindergarten through 12th grade.”
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The legislation would give the state attorney general authority to withhold up to 10 percent of a school’s state funding if the school violates the ban.
“The bill is very simple: Taxpayers should not have to be paying for classes that discriminate,” Thorpe said. “This is drawing a line in the sand that says, ‘Higher education: If you want to have classes that teach resentment between individuals, you should have to fund them.’ “
Not surprisingly, the proposal is getting push back from the snowflake lobby and its sympathizers:
Randy Perez, an Arizona State University student triple-majoring in political science, public policy and justice studies, said lawmakers are misrepresenting the purpose of ethnic-studies courses and activities.
“Where they say ‘division and exclusion,’ we say ’empowerment,'” he said. “So many different minority communities who feel marginalized take the classes that are being targeted here — African-American studies, justice studies — to learn more about the sides of history we usually don’t see, to learn about their identities and to build equity in society.”
But many schools have gone far beyond what Perez is advocating in the interests of mollifying students who feel triggered. To cite a few examples:
- George Washington University in D.C recently decreed that a course in American history will no longer be a requirement for history majors.
- The University of Wisconsin-Madison defended the recent addition to its African Cultural Studies curriculum of a course titled “The Problem of Whiteness” by issuing a statement assuring white students that the class “is not intended to be offensive.”
- A spokeswoman for Washington, D.C.’s public school system has advocated abolishing all white men from the district.
The great irony in all these “reforms” is that are carried out by people who claim to champion inclusivity.
