June 30th, 2014
This entire piece is beyond parody–I kept looking for a tip-off that it was being done tongue in cheek. But my favorite part comes from Wash U. prof who dismisses the liberal bona fides of his racial studies students:
The complaint I receive often, while teaching at a private, elite institution, where many students think they are highly liberal: “I am so tired of thinking, talking, writing about race.” Some go so far as to say they’re experiencing “race fatigue.”
Often my response is flippant: “Imagine how tiring it is being tired of the racist bigotry, prejudice, and unjust treatment within and outside the classroom.”
This is also my opportunity to have my largely white classroom deal with its privilege . . .
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“Can you imagine always having to take orders, recommendations, and criticism from folks who look different than you while being told that your difference doesn’t matter? Oh, and, would you like fries with that?”
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See: Steve Buscemi feminist bookstore sketch from Portlandia
Brian Coleman July 1, 2014 at 10:24 am
There is a place for this sort of thing in academia – but the problem is that it pervades and saturates everything, and churns out a steady flow of Social Justice Warriors who lack real and deep content knowledge, instead replaced with a laser sight trained to detect the slightest hint of injustice.
Without going all Allan Bloom here, the real injustice is that the souls of the folks who get trapped in this vortex miss the opportunity for enrichment that comes with a liberal education, and instead they are narrowed to this modern day puritanical pursuit.