University of Iowa Assistant Professor Jodi Linley is under fire for an article in a “peer-reviewed academic journal” in which she pledged to expose her students to “their own white ignorance.” She says that she used her “identities as a queer, able-bodied, cisgender woman” to offer a “teaching paradigm” that strips away white privilege. She segregates by race and works toward “interrupting oppression” that occurs in classroom settings.
As a white professor, Linley insists that if she did not actively try to expose the white privilege” of her class and “deconstruct whiteness,” she would be perpetuating white dominance. She adds: “As a white assistant professor of mostly white graduate students who will become higher education leaders, I work to dismantle whiteness in my curriculum, assignments and pedagogy.”
She also segregates by race because “For white students, talking about race with an all-white group of peers … [reveals] their own white ignorance.” She says that she rejects the notion that “neutrality and objectivity are realistic and attainable.”
Linley writes extensively on race and teaching, including her two most recent works Racism Here, Racism There, Racism Everywhere: The Racial Realities of Minoritized Peer Socialization Agents at a Historically White Institution (Journal of College Student Development) and Teaching to deconstruct whiteness in higher education (Whiteness & Education).
Linley has been called a bigot for her teaching approach and views of her students. The school has correctly defended her right to publish such views and to condemn threats directed at her.
This woman is a quack. I wonder what kind of a neighborhood she lives in. I’ll bet it’s whiter than the one I live in. Another jerk with a 6 figured income that doesn’t know her a$$ from her elbow about life.
Another example of American universities eschewing rigorous thinking and promoting gobbledegook, all the while producing an inferior product at an inflated price.
It is said a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and waste is what we have here.
Some have suggested the professor is an opportunist. I agree with that assessment. Her words quoted appear as if she is going out of her way to castigate white people and makes much mention of that and the word racism. I suspect she is gaming for some form of self-promotion.
I certainly recognize there is merit and value in having institutions offering many areas of study and inquiry, especially since multiple disciplinary pursuits result in novel discoveries and provide students a base for which to grow their talents. But there are limits to what should be offered.
Universities recently have seen an expansion of administrative staffing and other costs, burdening students with higher costs. Departments that attract academics such as this professor promote discord and almost achieve a level of sacredness no budgetary administer would dare touch, fearing the usual retaliation for questioning the value of these racist departments. Succinctly, how can a student realistically expect to have economic success outside academia in receiving a degree in minority studies, women’s studies, or “bringing down ‘Whitey'”? In the regular workforce, many employers seeing an applicant who’s resume includes racist academic pursuits are going to treat such an applicant as a being a radioactive potential trouble maker; especially given what we have seen in recent years with the social justice warrior movement.
When it comes to cost / benefit on behalf of these institutions cutting extraneous courses, especially ones that cause controversy that reflects badly on the school’s reputation and treats particular races of students with shaming and confrontation, should be the first on the chopping block.
She might want to read a page or two on the topic of Conformation Bias.
Darren Smith – you are absolutely right. If I saw a gender studies class on the list of classes for someone I was considering, unless they flunked, they would go to the bottom of the pile. I do not need the aggravation.
What??? You don’t want to hire someone with a degree in Critical Race Studies? LOL!
TIN – Just what would you hire them to do?
Paul – There is really nothing they can do except teach the same nonsense to others. If they were hired for real jobs, the employer might as well hire an employment law attorney at the same time to figure out how to get rid of them, hahaha.
Segregation and race baiting isn’t a way to teach inclusiveness. I think this professor is disturbed or an opportunist. I think that it is likely to be the latter.
If I as a student I read such a course description, I’d run the other way. The professor is too wrapped up in her own identity teach anyone anything.
Justice Holmes – it is probably a required course in the education dept. She has a captive audience.
Such a SICKO.!!!
Is it any wonder, as I go through the College process, with and for, my grandson, I find numbers going down.?
Not MONETARY numbers but spaces left because, people are more discerning where they want to spend the FORTUNE, that is now, AN EDUCATION, IN THIS COUNTRY. Our money is not going to be spent, giving
lunatics free reign over our kids.
People are waking up to the problems with Colleges.
I really hope so. That is the only way they will get the message in this day and age of greed. People like this are not of sound mind, in my opinion, and have no business being in positions of authority. It’s just common sense: further divisiveness and narrow mindedness plus current diversiveness and narrow mondedness do not in any reality equal inclusion. Students do not need nanny classes that illustrate in great detail what other people have decided is wrong with them. This is ass-backward beyond belief, and I am in awe that any person calling themselves a self-actualized adult human (wait! She doesn’t – she very literally defines herself by someone else’s contrivances and can’t live with the fact that others are employing their free will in response! Oh, the irony!). These people are straight-up not well. To be fair, most parents these days are pretty pathetic, too. It’s a recipe for disaster down the line.
An educator’s job is to open minds and to encourage questioning about the world. I think what Linley is doing is admirable. These students will have been shielded from many the realities of life. Ultimately, the best way to learn is through experience and if the college had a more diverse intake of students or encouraged engagement with different local communities (say through volunteering), that would also educate them. Unfortunately those born into a privileged background don’t see that privilege and assume that their good fortune is the result of their hard work and nothing less. They don’t see the barriers that others, less fortunate in life circumstances, have to traverse in order to “get on”.
emma cownie – new teachers come from the middle class, not the privileged class. She could have come from either. However, I bet her parents are proud of her.
Yes, teachers are almost all from middle class. I have worked with a handful of working class teachers whop are amazing people. I hope all her friends and family are proud of her too.
emma cownie – what, you don’t think the middle class works? The middle class is the working class. Right now they are the only people, besides the 1% paying income taxes. The lower class is on welfare, food stamps, Obamaphones, etc. Or minimum wage jobs. None of those pay enough to put a kid through college.
I think she must be from a wealthy family. If her father were a bricklayer, and her mother a cashier at Piggly Wiggly, I very much doubt that they would have paid for her to get a Ph.D in queer studies.
She is a ditzy lunatic, and if you admire her, then you are a lunatic also. People like her spew the nonsense they do because they are the ones insulated from reality. Leave Ames, and Swansea, and come on down to Memphis or New Orleans. Or, if you prefer a colder clime, try Detroit or Baltimore on for size.
And if you do, then by all means bring your color-blindness along with you, and seek out the most affordable housing you can find, which will be in neighborhoods of color, euphemistically speaking. After your tenth break in, or your 15th Amazon package that is not there when you come home, or perhaps your third or fourth assault or rape, then tell us how wonderful life is with those zany Negroes! After you buy a kevlar blanket to sleep under, or glue phone books to your windows to keep out the bullets, tell us how much more exciting your nights are, now that you have escaped those staid old white people!
Unless you are a quick learner and skedaddled at first site of the menacing chimps strolling around with their pants around their knees, or caught a glimpse of some female ghettopotamuses slugging it out in the parking lot, accompanied by the music of their heartwarming pant hoots!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Reading this is great, this is what happens when people live in a pool of easy government money. I agree with you, many of the students will discuss and accept this person’s ideal as justice as what should be reflected in reality. We know this will never happen, at least not in their lifetimes, because populations do not change on a dime. Not Darren’s Confirmation Bias above. Alot of these pronoun-addled academics need to revert to a rigorous scientific method. I am an art major. My son did not go to a school like this, he will be an engineering major. Hopefully he will work on projects that will improve the human condition and the real threats to it–not antagonize it with some groupthink ideal.
Unfortunately those born into a privileged background don’t see that privilege and assume that their good fortune is the result of their hard work and nothing less. They don’t see the barriers that others, less fortunate in life circumstances, have to traverse in order to “get on”.
How could you possibly know this to be true? First of all there would naturally be those born into privilege that would perceive themselves less fortunate than others and work to improve their lot; then their would be those born less fortunate that would see themselves more privileged than others and do nothing to improve their lot. Barriers exist for everyone regardless of identity. If it were so cut and dried as you make it out to be, then every person born of privilege would achieve the same result and every person born into less fortunate circumstance would never achieve anything.
Right, emmie. Every person who worked for what they have is “privileged”, too stupid to see it and beholden to the poor but exceedingly moral underclass. The Left is every so intelligent and hence they lose every election because the working class masses aren’t enlightened enough to see the magnificence of their compassionate betters. The “privileged” have the obligation to boost those “less fortunate” up and deprive their own of the fruits of their labors. “No War but Class War,” eh Comrade? If you think that is “opening minds” you need a political science class from a university not saturated by Che Guevara wannabes.
The problem with this assessment is that being white is equated with being shielded from the realities of life. I think that is a faulty assumption. There are plenty of middle class and poor white people that have not been shielded from anything. Being non-white isn’t in an of itself anything. By segregating people in classrooms she is creating a division where one should not exist. Do you not agree that in the best of all possible worlds we are not paying attention to skin color, religion, sexual orientation or economic class in and out of the classroom? a classroom is a place to learn how to think, not what to think. She has somehow assigned herself as the one with the correct perspective. I don’t think that is how teachers should teach.
Kathy – it has always been my philosophy that you can lead a student to knowledge, but you cannot make them think. I think her pedagogy is all wrong.
But there aren’t any “races”. There are very slight genetic differences between people and peoples. More profound are ethnic groupings, sometimes called cultures. As in multiculturalism. Which we certainly have in the USA.
So, isn’t that the way it really is? So why do we need to talk about it? We were doing much better when people just went to work with other people, with the occasional snarky comment about race. Geez, maybe my mom was a genius–she had something novel, “if you don’t like what someone says or feels about you, ignore them.” Whoa! Humans always seek leverage points against other humans, and as we know, race is just one.
It’s what’s amazing about this whole strange movement allowed from too much money in universities that give rise to silly courses. I can’t wait for the day when it will be a time of shame when people have to admit they made money this way. The resolution of deficit spending will expose all of this at some point.
I’ll tell you what, I work on my own victimization. When I met my wife’s to be grandmother, off the boat from Syria, she immediately sniffed out my Jewish lineage–“oh, you didn’t tell me he was one of those….” I guess instead of laughing I was supposed to be feel deep offense and the urge to retaliate??? Or jump into a garbage bag as a quick safe space?? Just get a job. And if you have rainbow hair, do some Grecian formula No. 2 or whatever that was on the TV when I was growing up. I don’t really give a rat’s behind-end over your personal armor that you hide behind.
But there aren’t any “races”.
Who should I believe, you or my own eyes?
I’m going to go on just a tiny bit more-
‘why do you white people want to make us black people like you, your education, your food, your houses, your laws, your clothes, your government. why do you think that your way is the best way for us. you even tell your own people how you should deal with and treat us. Why don’t you just leave us alone and let us live our lives, not the life you want us to live, your lives. Why can’t you just leave us be?’
I edited the above for language and tried not to infringe on any cultural appropriation.
I gave this a good long hard think and I believe after talking to many African Americans that like the Israelis black folks in the US need their own sovereign state/territory/land within the US. A place just for them to live and develop as THEY see fit – without interference from the US government or anyone they deem unwanted in their land. I believe as free human beings they are entitled to this and at the end of the Civil War it should have been a given. Black people in America will never be truly free until they are unburdened by the white man’s world.
The laws should be for all. If some group feels unjustly treated, work to change the laws.
I do.
Hmmm, I don’t think that having self-governing nations within the U.S. (“Reservations”) worked out all that well for the Indians. And the former French and Spanish Caribbean islands that were left to the former slaves to run are among the poorest countries in the world. Setting aside a geographic area in the U.S. for blacks only is an interesting concept that perhaps could have transpired immediately after the Civil War, when Lincoln, Henry Clay and others advocated sending the freed slaves back to Africa, but it’s not going to happen in this day and age.
best look up (wiki) the Republic of New Afrika
What a sad assessment. What should become of my interracial friends and their families?
I prefer a world where people are judged on the content of their character. I find it perplexing that you would rather interact with others based upon the shallow parameter of skin color.
here’s the catch:
“This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” -MLK
we know he meant women and gays too – at least we can figure he would have come around to it, eventually.
NOW, how did they let such a STUPID person in to represent the university?
you know what course SHOULD be mandatory in high school or at least college, LOGIC.
get some lady.
ITMT, let her learn how the real world free market works, fire her.
OH, the best thing this woman can do is step aside and make the recommendation that she be replaced by a woman of color who is gay and trans/ She should then take up the position that most people of color now have, cleaning offices or serving up fries.
If not she is nothing more than an entitled big mouth hypocrite.
While I agree that all should study some logic, nothing she is doing is illogical.
Where did she get her expertise in the matter?
David Benson – develop a logic augment for her class. Frankly, in all the time I was teaching, the students I had the least trouble with were white. And my classes were color-blind. Actually, they were the ones I had to protect in the classroom from the Blacks and Latinos.
Assistant professor teaching what, her own agenda? There are far to many left wing self hating loonies like her in our colleges and universities trying to teach nonsense like White “privilege”. We have abandoned “best and brightest” regardless of color, race and religion, that’s why we do so poorly in math and the sciences compared to other nations.
Would that it be so simple as your last sentence implies.
She seems rather arrogant in thinking that she can teach about the experiences and perspectives of various minority groups. As well as ignorant in assuming that there is some monolithic, overall manifestation of “whiteness.”
TIN – actually, when I was in teacher school with my other white classmates we did take a class on various ethnic types and what to expect. Nothing was bad, just things we could expect to see and boundaries we should not cross. This really helped in some cases. I was never given bad advice. However, they could have warned me about doing my student teaching in a school that was 70% Mormon. That would have really helped. As I became a more experienced teacher, more of that advice became handy.
Paul – I would think that Mormons would be well-behaved….that’s the stereotype anyway.
TIN – when I first moved to Arizona I was advised to date Mormon girls. They know nothing about sex and want to learn. 🙂
Judging all people in a race as the same is, by definition, a racist act. The professor is, therefore, a racist.
Richard Barbazette – I do not understand how she decided, that of all people, she was to lead this Crusade against Whiteness. Do we know she has won the battle with herself? She doesn’t look like she got the snot beaten out of her at a rally. I think she should take her self and her significant other (assuming she has one) and go to Sturgis, SD for the bike rally and preach there. So far she can talk the talk, but can she walk the walk.
Yeah, the bikers would totally embrace her at Sturgis. 🙂
Cape Cod Skeptic – maybe she could take some of her students to show how persuasive she is?
Paul, now why does that put me in mind of a revival tent with a charismatic preacher and a enrapt audience? Perhaps this teacher is emblematic of the Third Great Awakening? 🙂
Sheeesh, but you can look at her and tell she is not right in the head. She is one of those people that I would like to see get her directions screwed up, and run out of gas in the dark section of town on a rambunctious Friday night.
Is that mean???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Clinically insane sounds about right. Iowa is another school that is going to start losing students.
Seriously doubt that.
David Benson – well, I can be an am chair psychologist, just like any newsreader on CNN. I have enough hours to have a minor , which is more than they can say, or Dr. Phil.
Phil McGraw has a Psy.D, if I’m not mistaken, and was in partnership with his father in a counseling / therapy practice. He said he got out of clinical work because he was bad at it (derived from disliking his patients, something I suspect is quite normal for men in that trade). He opened up a jury consulting business, working as a subcontractor for trial lawyers.
DSS – Dr. Phil no longer practices. His license expired in 2006.
He hasn’t practiced in decades. He was a jury consultant before he landed his TV show in 2003.
I expected the article to say she was a prof at Grinnell. Did not know they employed post-modernist, intersectionality-blathering whites at Iowa, also. Students are probably forced to take her class to satisfy part of a core liberal arts requirement that many Universities mandate.
Cape Cod Skeptic – she is in the College of Education. Only the education majors will be inflicted by her. However, that is enough. I read a list of her papers and publications, she should be in Gender Studies. She has not written one article or book about men.
I hope you are right, Paul. My son, who is attending a Big 10 school, has to take a core of liberal arts classes and they run the gamut of social science offerings. BTW, I am not opposed to liberal arts classes, as long as they cover useful topics. He told me he wanted to take a gender studies class just to giggle throughout and get into heated discussions with his classmates. I told him we wouldn’t pay for it, and he can’t afford to play Russian Roulette with his grade.
Cape Cod Skeptic – keep him out of Gender Studies. They will emasculate him publicly.
Paul, I hear you, but he is a red-pilled weightlifter who reads Seneca and Marcus Aurelius in his spare time. Not really sure the SJWs can do much damage–the kid has a good head on his shoulders.
Cape Cod Skeptic – he is going to be out-numbered 200-1. He will never have a chance, or get a date.
Good point, Paul…..he has already jettisoned two girlfriends and a group of female friends we used to call “the harem.” They were too emotional, needy and controlling. Wish I had his presence of mind at the same age.
I would advise against having any courses on his transcript that might make a future employer pause. I have ranked applicants for my agency, and anytime you see any indication of snowflake or social justice warrior, the application goes in the reject pile. There are so many good applicants to choose from, why take the chance on someone who might be trouble? I know it may be unfair, but employers are risk adverse, given the cost of dealing with EEO issues and all that…..
TIN, I agree with most of what you said above regarding hassle factor w/special snowflakes, but why would a transcript be submitted to an employer as part of a job application? I never submitted one (only a resume with the necessary pertinents), and my son currently looking for work also doesn’t need to submit one. Nevertheless, I will gratefully pass on your comments to Son #2, who is applying for grad school in a few yrs. Thanks.
Cape Cod Skeptic – I have had several jobs where I have had to submit my transcripts. However, I had to do it for all my teaching jobs.
Paul, thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated, and I’ll pass it along with TIN’s comments.
CCS – I work for the federal government and all applicants must include transcripts. When I was an attorney in private practice, the law firms I worked for required them as well. My son is a CPA and had to submit transcripts even before getting an interview with a major firm. When I was in college, we were warned that employers will not only look at grades, but will look at courses as well, and will not be impressed by someone who takes “fluff” classes to bolster his GPA. Maybe other employers don’t require them; I’m only aware of my own experience….
TIN, thanks for the reply. I had to submit transcripts for grad school, but not employment. Good to know others’ experiences. Son really has no wiggle room WRT classes as his science major requires full course load and his minor is in a completely different field, so no double dipping. But son loves to debate (he actually should be a pre-law major…..), thus the idea for the wasted class.
CSS – Best of luck to your son. He sounds like a great young man!
Thanks, TIN! I think he’s great, but I’m biased, natch! 🙂
Depends on the department. They’re the Hawkeye’s for heaven’ sake! Most of the state roots for them because of football and wrestling. They also have the lone medical school in the state.
Prairie Rose – well, that is 100 scholarships, but it doesn’t pay for the heating in the winter.
The question is not whether Mz. Linley is correct in her perceptions and solutions,
the question is how does the University of Iowa retain a student body.
Easy. It is a very good university.
David Benson – Iowa is a very white state. Once the parents read or hear of this, those students will be going to Iowa State, which is also a very good school.
Go, Cyclones!!
She’s in the teachers college, which is commonly a latrine in any school. The only way to make it something else is to staff it with people who teach educational testing and spare methods courses.
I think the best part of being a teacher is the ability to discuss into understanding and not to impose and force ideas on students. Subtly discussing issues and pointing out their anomalies make students think into their own conclusions. Even here in Africa, there are racists but teachers and lecturers approach the subject subtly to help students see their follies. Of course in the end, some still maintain their stance because of a bad experience or two but it is human nature. This is an unnecessary drawing of attention to self.
I agree with you that the best approach is to let students make their own observations and come to their own conclusions so that they don’t get defensive and close their minds. And even those who seem to stubbornly hold onto biased attitudes may change somewhat over time, it just isn’t always apparent right away. Once you put a seed of thought in their minds, it can begin to grow.
Well said! If only “teachers” like this one could understand the difference between guilt-inducing dogma and real intelligent discussion! I really don’t see the problem with firing “teachers’ like this. If you discover an employee is ill-suited to the job you hired him to do, why can’t you fire him? It’s not that she “holds unpopular views,”it’s that her purpose in “teaching” is not to educate! If we are to preserve education itself, these “teachers” must be forced to actually teach!
True. So true. A teacher guides for students to gather their own opinions. If a teacher does less, then teaching does not take place.
She better have her head on a swivel you never know who’s coming up behind you now a days.
This woman isn’t a bigot, she’s a racist.
She sounds like she might be clinically insane..
What does that make the University of Iowa and the many multiple similar campuses?
It is too subtle for you, George.