A discussion of structural racism lead to a reprimand for Shannon Gibney, who teaches Intro to Mass Communications at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Three white male students complained they were singled out by Gibney, reports City Pages...That she feels safe even saying that says more than we need to know not only about her attitude towards white people, but about the environment in which she operates.
The vice president of academic affairs found it “troubling” that Gibney “alienated two students who may have been most in need of learning about this subject. . . . While I believe it was your intention to discuss structural racism generally, it was inappropriate for you to single out white male students in class. Your actions in [targeting] select students based on their race and gender caused them embarrassment and created a hostile learning environment"...
“I don’t feel safe in the class anymore,” Gibney told City College News.
“I definitely feel like I’m a target in the class. I don’t feel like students respect me,” she continued. “Those students were trying to undermine my authority from the get-go. And I told the lawyer at the investigatory meeting, ‘You have helped those three white male students succeed in undermining my authority as one of the few remaining black female professors here.’”
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Friday, December 06, 2013
Doesn't It Make You A Racist If You Think You Should Feel Safe Intentionally Offending White Males?
She got a reprimand:
Tempest in teapot. The only time, in story at least, that she mentioned 'guys' was in a generic 'you guys' ... and that, in response to people who were being rude to her in class. "Why do we have to talk about this in every class?" is roughly equivalent to "When will I never need to know algebra?" Personally, I think the topic of structural racism is a legit topic for a class in mass communications, whether or not you agree with the professor's perspective. And what other form of structural racism in this country has ever been perpetuated by people who weren't white? I'll grant you, it does indicate her disdain for 'white people', but that was kind of the topic. Now ... if she started grading people down for having differing opinions, then I'd be all over it.
ReplyDeleteStructural racism's an example of the pathetic lengths to which self-styled, but late to the party, anti-racism warriors are willing to go to enjoy the sensation that they're part of a mighty, moral struggle. Sorry, that bird has flown and you're not going to ride on the Freedom bus or walk in the Freedom march or listen to MLK Jr. at the Washington monument.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences on your disappointment but there's a black guy in the White House and the Ku Klux Klan's important campaign du jour is to adopt a section of some highway somewhere so they can pick up garbage, probably in a southern state with a black governor so it's time to move on.
No amount of reassurance, given and taken between people holding identical opinions, is going to impress anyone outside the academic/left wing echo chamber that newer and better forms of racism are still available to be resisted by expressing stern disapproval via tightly-pursed lips. The bi-racial couples that frequent every public venue, eliciting no interest, are a daily repudiation of every reasonable definition of racism so the good professor really is wasting the time of those students and a few, a very few, in a shocking disregard for for unquestionable and undiscussable taboos, have decided to complain about having their expensive time wasted.
What's sad is that so few students stand up to the sort of anti-intellectual bullying the professor feels comfortable doling out.