“The UW-Madison’s School of Education recently hosted an exhibit with signs and shirts that read, ‘All White People are Racist’ and ‘UW’s Free Speech = White Supremacy'”, notes The College Fix.
The same ideology is reflected in a course that “teaches future educators ‘social justice’ and ‘anti-racist behaviors.’” The College Fix notes that a
similar course, called “Perspectives in Multicultural Education,” teaches “ethnic studies, black studies, feminist theory, antiracist pedagogy, bilingual education, and critical race theory” to promote “multicultural education.”
The content of these courses has raised academic freedom concerns.
Graham Piro, faculty legal defense fund fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The College Fix, “The First Amendment prohibits government actors from requiring that people adopt or express specific points of view under threat of punishment….mandating that faculty adopt specific ideological views to advance their careers or teach in the classroom violates their academic freedom.”
“Universities are explicitly restricting the expression of specific ideas concerning race or gender, and that raises just as severe academic freedom concerns,” he said….FIRE has “been extremely critical of mandatory DEI statements, which can too often function as implicit ideological tests.”
In addition to academic freedom concerns, others have criticized the uselessness of these courses.
Neetu Arnold, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, expressed concern that UW-Madison is teaching future educators “Latinx Literacies” and making claims about “how policies sustain white privilege” even as students are struggling with “basic reading & math.”
The UW-Madison’s School of Education recently hosted an exhibit saying “All White People are Racist” and “UW’s Free Speech = White Supremacy.”
It also contained a sign showing UW’s mascot, a badger, “wearing a KKK hood and holding a noose,” while other signs showed the severed heads of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
For a university to declare that “All White People are Racist” is itself racist. It is a racially discriminatory stereotype that can foment a racially hostile work environment in violation of the civil-rights laws. Courts have ruled that “baseless accusations of racism” made against white employees because they are white can be racial harassment that contributes to a racially hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. (See Underwood v. Northport Health Services (1989)).
College DEI staffers often are hostile to whites because of their race. For example, at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Director of Race and Equity advocated denying white employees leave because of their race. That director, Johnathan Perkins, also claimed that “every white person is racist to some degree”, and falsely claimed that “white people cannot be victims of racism,” and “only white people can impose racist harm.” These claims disregarded court rulings finding that whites can be victims of racism and nonwhites can act illegally in committing racist acts. Perkins told whites not to wish him a “Happy Juneteenth” because he will “flip tf out” if they do. He reacted to the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth by saying,“Good riddance.”
