Behold The White Freakout Over A College Class On 'The Problem Of Whiteness'

[DonViejo]

Officials at Arizona State University probably weren't expecting the full Stormfront treatment when its English department advertised a spring semester class exploring the "problem of whiteness."

But that's exactly what the university got. The floodgates opened in late January after an ASU journalism student complained on Fox News that the class singled out white people as "the root cause of social injustices for this country." Neo-Nazi types and white supremacists then reportedly threatened the white professor who was teaching the course, Lee Bebout. They publicly shared his personal contact information and flooded message boards with menacing rants against him.

TPM recently spoke with the leader of a white nationalist group that's leading the charge against the "problem of whiteness" class, an effort they have dubbed "Operation Bad Teacher." The leader of the group, Angelo John Gage, argued that Bebout’s course was “racist” and a sign of what he said was the increasing oppression of white people in the U.S. He insisted on speaking to TPM via Skype because he said he wasn't comfortable giving his phone number to people he didn't know.

He also insisted that his group was not the one behind the threats to the professor.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/angelo-john-gage-asu-problem-of-whiteness

[GummyBearz]

1. Out of all the names to give the class

He lands on that? I think he was looking to start some type of backlash... anyway, all is fair as long as any professor can start a class saying "the problem with ____" I suppose.

[stone space]

2. "the problem OF ________"

"the problem with ____"

[GummyBearz]

5. OF. Got it.

Thanks for saving the universe

[BainsBane]

3. Whiteness studies is an established subfield within ethnic studies

The crowd mentioned in the OP is late to the party with their outrage.

[GummyBearz]

4. Yea

Which is why I was wondering why he would give it the name he chose... I guess he wanted to get a lot of attention, so it worked.

I did woman studies classes to satisfy my humanities requirements, and one of them definitely could have been titled "the problem of maleness". But instead the instructor kept the title at a more intellectual level and let the text book material speak for itself. Which is what I think 99.9% of professors do... except for this guy who wants his 15 minutes of fame.

[stone space]

6. The problem of course titles? (nt)

[GummyBearz]

8. Whats in a title... hmmm

"African American Studies 1A"... pretty standard neutral title.
"N-word Studies 1A" .... pretty damn offensive

Yes, titles are important

[ismnotwasm]

10. You are not comparing a course on the dominant and oppressive state of whiteness

Using a jab at AA studies I hope.

[GummyBearz]

11. I'm saying titles matter

Quite clearly...

[BainsBane]

7. Hey, FTEs

Snazzy titles get the enrollment numbers up. It's do or die in universities these days. I know what you mean though. Not the most dispassionate title.

[KamaAina]

16. I would have called it "White Privilege 101"

or "Unpacking White Privilege". Just sayin'.

[Nye Bevan]

9. A deliberately provocative course title. Something like "the problem with racism" would have been better.

Imagine a college starting a course on crime in minority neighborhoods and giving it the title "the problem of blackness". That would also provoke quite a negative reaction.

[kiva]

12. The actual title of the course is “U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness”

The instructor would have been fine using the first half of the title but honestly is attention-seeking. He got 20 students so the class made, which is probably what he wanted...well, that and some attention that might help him when it come to seek tenure (if he doesn't have it, don't know ASU's title structure).

[LittleBlue]

13. And we wonder why we're falling behind the rest of the world

Wasting resources on useless classes like this one while the rest of the world produces our scientists and medical doctors. Shameful.

[Octafish]

15. Give me a break. The rest of the world's doctors come here to practice...

...because this is where the money is.

Cuba's doctors are equal in talent and ability and they practice for the love of humanity.

[Octafish]

14. Whiteness isn't the problem.

The problem comes from those who don't see how Whiteness is the problem.