An English course is being offered at Arizona State University that offers to help students explore theories on race and the "problem of whiteness" when it comes to literature and culture.
The course, "U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness," is part of the optional literature classes through the school's English Department, and will be taught by assistant professor Lee Bebout, who is white, according to
The Washington Times.
According to
a course description, the instructions will include "major critical schools of recent decades — postcolonialist, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist, feminist, new historicist.”
There are several texts required for the course, which has enrolled 18 students, leaving 20 of the 38 available spots still open for the class, which began on Jan. 12. Students will study from books that include "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness," "Critical Race Theory," "Everyday Language of White Racism," "Playing in the Dark" and "The Alchemy of Race and Rights."
The class has caused some commentary among students, one of whom says it shows a "double standard."
"I think it shows the significant double standard of higher education institutions," James Malone, a junior economics major, told the
website Campus Reform. "They would never allow a class talking about the problem of 'blackness.' And if they did, there would be an uproar about it. But you can certainly harass people for their apparent whiteness."
Bebout has taught other classes such as "Transborder Chicano Literature," "Adv Studies Theory/Criticism," and "American Ethnic Literature."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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