Reed College has reached an agreement to revise a mandatory freshman humanities course focused on the Western Canon after protests that the course was . . . . well . . . to Western. Students denounced the curriculum as “Caucasoid” and “Eurocentric.” The decision of Reed College comes after the respected academic journal, American Historical Review announced that it was going to “decolonize” the publication. In a new column, Alex Lichtenstein, professor of history at Indiana University at Bloomington and editor of American Historical Review declared “I have come to believe that the AHR should take the risk of confronting its own potential complicity in the inability of the profession to divest itself fully of its past lack of openness to scholars and scholarship due to race, color, creed, gender, sexuality, nationality and a host of other assigned characteristics.”
We previously discussed the protests at Reed by “Reedies Against Racism” demanding “Humanities 110 – Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean” to be “reformed to represent the voices of people of color.”
Now the school has agreed to change its course traditionally focused on scholars underpinning Western Civilization from Aristotle to Plato to Ovid. Student Alex Boyd, complained that“I am a student of color who has trouble focusing because the curriculum at Reed is Eurocentric and is unrelated to my lived experience. Being told that the West is the most important topic of study damages my mental health and makes me less able to learn.”
Professor Libby Drumm said that “In spring 2019 two new modules will be implemented, both focused in the Americas and consisting entirely of new materials and lectures.”
However, the students reportedly are still not in agreement. Protesters want assurances that the addition of New York city in the cities covered by the course will include Harlem. They also posted a Facebook statement that they oppose starting a course with Athens or Rome because they believe that “centering the first module on Athens or Rome maintains the racist notion that the West is the key to other civilizations.”
The article says “to Western”. Did ya mean “too Western”? Or “two Western”?
Remember this: East of Corfu The Ten Commandments Do Not Apply.
JT’s “decolonization” link above, in turn, has a link to the blackballed professor defending himself in an essay published at VDARE. Long but fascinating read.
http://www.vdare.com/articles/we-are-living-in-a-new-dark-age-raymond-wolters-on-his-blacklisting-by-american-historical-review
Apparently, what got the professor in trouble with the leftist cultural Marxists was he used the word “sociobiology”. A word that’s been around since the early 1970s, and gave rise to fields like evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology. But the cultural Marxists who dominate history, sociology, and other social sciences are either ignorant of, or refuse to acknowledge, the vast literature that legitimizes these fields. That is, evolutionary biological adaptations help explain differences in the distribution of aptitudes and other traits by race/ethnicity (or the politically correct term “population”). Acknowledging it gets him labeled a racist.
What parent would spend vast sums educating their child in this idiot hall of mirrors?
“I am a student of color who has trouble focusing because the curriculum at Reed is Eurocentric and is unrelated to my lived experience. Being told that the West is the most important topic of study damages my mental health and makes me less able to learn.”
I’m sorry. This is stupid. Students are becoming neurotic from this constant victimhood. They need counseling on how to be a productive members of society. If someone cannot learn about Plato and Socrates and the underpinnings of Western Civilization, in a Western Country, then they are going to have a problem.
If they want to learn about other cultures, there are myriad courses to take in universities across the country. Western Humanities are the foundation upon which Western education is laid. And that Western eduction is used around the world.
Take Wangaari Mathali. She benefitted from merit-based immigration in the Kennedy Airlift. As top in her class at the Western, Catholic school where she attended in Kenya, she was selected to further her Western education in the United States. She went on to become a prominent environmental and political activist in Kenya, and a thorn in the side of its leaders who engaged in intense tribal discrimination against other tribes. She founded the Greenbelt Movement. Her push for democracy was a Western idea based upon Greco-Roman traditions. If learning about Eurocentric curriculum gave her a tummy ache, then she would have stayed in her village, illiterate, and been dominated by her husband. The Greenbelt Movement would never have existed, and a great many life giving trees would not have helped lift women villagers out of poverty and starvation.
I wonder if Alex Boyd grew up in the United States? He says he is a person of color and thus the Eurocentric class doesn’t represent his lived experience. I don’t care what color his skin is, if he is western then his history is the same as all of our history. I’m half Indian but my lived experience is not based on the color of my skin or my heritage. Does that mean if he took a class in Asian studies he couldn’t concentrate because that is not about him either? This mindset is starting to read like “I only want to learn about things that are about me”. That’s not what college is for.
Kathy – the major problem with changing the canon is if you add someone, you have to take someone out. However, if you are true to the canon, Western Civilization has spread all over the world. You really have to include all of the Americas. I currently have on my shelf Vol I of Am Lit (college edition). There is no way any professor assigns the entire text for the semester. They have to pick and choose.
Very true Paul – ideally professors use lesser known or unknown authors. I took a class in African American Lit a few years ago – also a Norton Anthology – and was introduced to many fine writers I would otherwise most likely never have read.
*not use – “select” =)
I love Norton Anthologies. Which writers do you recommend? I personally like Pearl Cleague.
Karen S – I am a big fan of August Wilson.
Thanks, Paul! I’ll have to check him out.
So are you saying it should be changed? And if so is it just because it doesn’t represent all of western civilization or is it because it doesn’t represent his lived experience? It is this part that I take exception to:
Kathy – in 1961 it did not meet any of my lived experiences but I got through it and took even more. I think it is an idiotic stance. Sorry, I did not make that clear earlier.
Testing
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – test failed. Retry. 😉
I tried three times to post the GW-banana story, which just came out above. Without success. But, it got here after all!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The approach of these students, ironically, begins to resemble a fundamentalist religion as their cause envelopes all aspects of their life; which of course must be according to them forced upon others.
That is true. Extremism ruins everything.
Michael, is that ” Keep It Simple Stupid”?
Attention Students: Reed College will now be pronounced “Red” College and Mao suits are the dress code. That is all, Comrade.
After the course is ready for teaching,that first test,if given, would be interesting.
Why?
ridiculous. Note the organizations that activate this poppycock and send your children elsewhere. Totally off topic but posed merely to point out the farce that this folderol represents: how do we know what color of skin tone the ancient Greeks were composed of?
Not so long ago that DNA studies on remains might provide an answer. But just using standard archaeological deductions, brownish. Similar to present day Semitic peoples.
Not that it matters.
Marky Mark Mark – are you nuts? We know perfectly well what the skin tone of the Greeks was, same as today. Are you sure you went to college?
And the rot continues…..
Reed College
2018 Schedule of Classes
POLITICAL SCIENCE
The Glories of the New American Fourth Reich
How to Follow Orders
The Final Solution To Whites
ARCHITECTURE
Designing Industrial Size MEGA OVENS with Automatic Conveyor Belts, Robotic Gold Tooth Pickers, High Speed Hair Retrieval Systems and Precision Laser Skin Slicers
ENGINEERING
Building a Better Gas Chamber
CHEMISTRY
Refining Zyklon-b
Better More Efficient Methods to Kill Whitey
Sarin Gas The Future of Modern Genocide
BUSINESS
Making Money Selling Fertilizer Made From Human Ashes Online
ART
Using Your Tattoo Skills in Service of The State
The Art of Creating Beautiful Lamp Shades from Human Skin
The Art of Creating Beautiful Lamp Shades from Human Skin II Working With Infant Skin for More Translucence in Your Lampshade
This is beneath you.
“This is beneath you.”
Maybe, but certainly not beneath the democrats. Your scandalized attitude of there are certain things a lady or gentleman does not do is one they are counting on to use against you. Unless you wise up and call these kinds of baby steps toward hell out into the light are are willing to fight fire with truth we will lose this country to a handful of evil, power mad control freaks who wil do what it takes to get what they want. As counter to traditional morality as it sounds,
sometimes the ends DO justify the means when that it the complete battle plan of the other side.
Hilarious! Morbid. Scary. Prophetic. But still hilarious!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The course will be replaced by a liberal approved one called
Steps to Utopia
Course description
Step One
Indoctrinate moron millineals with violent hatred.
Step Two
Indoctrinate them with Nazi dogma the ends justifies the means.
Step Three
Make Whitey the target.
Step Four
Fill them with rage against Whitey.
Step Five
Order them to take out Whitey at all costs.
Step Six
Upon graduation install them in deep state and business positions of power over the everyday lives of Whitey.
Step Seven
Outlaw Whitness, Remove Rights of Whites
Step Eight
Fire up the ovens and let the roundups begin.
Victors usually (re)write history. We’ll be the first civilization that allow losers to do it.
Besides the Confederacy…
“The South will rise again! “
David Benson – except for Florida, the South has risen again.
Not in the sense of the quotation, fortunately.
By the way, the South takes more from the federal treasury than it contributes.
Reparations for The Northern War of Aggression.
The South Carolinians started it.
“War between the states”
David:
Blue states tend to be richer. Think New York. Unless you disagree with a progressive tax system, and want the poor to pay more, then richer states pay more in individual taxes. As for the “taking” part, “Of the ten states with the lowest percentage of funds coming from Washington, three are red, six are blue, and one is purple. The state with by far the lowest level of federal subsidization was the deeply red state of North Dakota. The highest ten included eight red states, but also two blue states: Oregon and New Mexico.”
Yet another issue is budget size. A relatively small influx of federal funds can show up as a significant percentage of a small budget, and a huge infusion of cash can seem smaller in a huge budget. If you compare federal funds per person, rather than as a percentage of budget, then the figures are reversed. “Against a national average of $1,935 in intergovernmental spending per American, red states receive just $1,879. Blue states get considerably more, at $2,124 per resident. Purple states see the least of their money returned to them per capita, at just $1,770. Measured in this way, the blue states are getting quite a bit more than the red or purple.”
http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/17/red-states-tax-takers-blue-states-tax-makers/
David Benson – payback is a bi*ch. 😉
Not surprising when a large portion of your population has a 77% illegitimate birth rate, and thinks education is “acting white.”
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/New_2000_black_percent.gif/220px-New_2000_black_percent.gif
But, i would like to thank all you Blue States and Yankees for supporting all our Southern Blacks! You know, if you really want to help them even more, you could ask large numbers of them to move to your states! I know personally, I would hate to see them go, but I would find a way to survive the loss.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Don’t know what your metric is, PCS, but things don’t look so bad to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP
And African Americans. Who are the ultimate bunch of losers in the whole world. The very epitome of losers! We let them not only rewrite history, but “write” current events!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Your slip is showing once again Squeeky.
No, reality is showing. To wit,
It would be racist to believe that things have to be this way, and racist to continue to excuse the bad black behaviors that cause this ridiculous disparity.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“A total of 403 people were surveyed.” -from Squeeker’s Boston Globe article
True. But a study a few years earlier found about the same thing, that the average black woman had a net worth of $5.00:
Which, what else would expect from a baby daddy culture???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Not just African Americans, but Africans anywhere. Sad but true.
Not true. You are better than that statement.
It is a sad truth. It is fixable.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Racism-thrives-because-black-nations-fail-_19196594
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I gently chastise TIN for making a statement that Africans are losers. You claim I’m wrong and offer up as evidence for my error an op/ed piece on racism from a former Jamaican advisor to the Minister of Education (whom nobody here has ever heard of), who was criticized for taking a $5M pay package while teachers on the island were not getting agreed-upon reimbursements for furthering their education.
In the piece you link, Dr. Johnston argues that black nations won’t get respect until they are military superpowers, and he praises Communist China because it “….built economic success, got WMDs, and got respect.” These are the rantings of a maniac.
Sometimes maniacs get it right. I tried to find an article I read several months ago by a Nigerian who dissected the problems in Nigeria. But I could not find it. It was along the same lines, that black countries do not seem to be able to grow beyond the personal graft and corruption level, which retards the progress of the entire nation. But if you do not agree, then what it is that holds back countries which have more than ample farmland and natural resources yet still their people live in poverty and starve? You can include Venezuela in this list.
As far as China, I respect them also for being to grow beyond the level of the third world, although how far is questionable. Similarly, Japan was able to transform from a medieval society in the mid 1800s to a major power which was able to defeat a European navy in 1904.
Meanwhile, black countries pretty much go nowhere fast. These are fixable problems, but first you have to admit there is a problem. More relevant, is the status of blacks in our own country, where “loser” behaviors are insuring blacks will continue to go nowhere for quite a while. The illegitimacy rate is up to 77%, and the disdain for education, as is evident in this very article, are how “losers” can stay “losers.”
What is going to happen to those black kids in Baltimore, in the multiple black schools, where not one of the little savages is proficient in English or Math? What are they going to do if Toyota builds a plant in Baltimore? Sweep the floors or clean the toilets?
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, typically in discussions such as this, your main point is that almost 80% of black children in the US are born to single mothers. We have discussed the numerous studies showing that single motherhood (regardless of race) is a recipe for chronic poverty, lack of education, increased domestic violence, and crime. I don’t dispute your claims in this regard, and I regularly agree that changing that problem is the surest way out of poverty for American blacks (and poor whites, as well).
Further, as you well know, I abhor the ideology of victimhood taken up by select minorities in the US (and I hold women in particular contempt here). What I do not find particularly helpful, though, are broad brush comments that all people of a particular color are losers whether they be here or in other countries. Do I think cultural mores in Africa prevent certain populations from achieving success in a capitalist system? Yes. Are many African countries victimized by corrupt leaders? Obviously. As is Venezuela (as you said), as is Puerto Rico, etc. ad nauseum. Do I have a solution for these problems? No. But, IMO, denigrating comments about these populations don’t improve the discussion of the topic at hand, and more importantly, they don’t benefit people’s default neural circuitry, which is prone to negativity.
Yes, but. . . how used are we to openly hearing denigrating comments about ethnic groups, besides white males? I mean when is the last time you heard a main stream politician take a dump directly on black women for their atrocious behavior? Never, is a pretty good guess.
Sooo, the reason I come right out and say these absolutely negative things is that nobody else directly does. In fact, we celebrate an absurdity called Black History Month, which somehow manages to completely avoid Illegitimate Kid Day, Crime Day, and Who Needs School? Day. In fact, positive things get said about black women, for egs,, Hillary’s “black girl magic” comment.
Things will never change if people don’t start calling stuff what it is, and I agree with you that any black person reading my stuff is NOT going to go away with a warm and fuzzy feeling. What I say is not going to make them feel good about themselves. But, is that really a bad thing?
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’ll tell you what I like about you (besides your talent at French and limericks): you do not go away angry. Your responses are always even-tempered and you stick with the conversation. I respect that tremendously.
Gotta run; hubbie just got home from China. Enjoy the game tomorrow. Go Pats!
I just hope that Reed College has proper counseling and support for Alex Boyd, the student whose ” mental health was damaged” by the “Western content” of the course.
https://www.reed.edu/health_center/counseling_services/index.html
Making an appointment helps.
Alex should join the Peace Corps – go live and work in a non Western nation and do some good. They are selective though – he probably wouldn’t get in due to his mental issues.
The is a big distinction between organic psychiatry and psychology of the Freud BS. The examination may be different if conducted by some doctor of each stripe. I do not think that mental health is damaged by reading a book, a magazine, a text message or a donut advertisement. There is something called a deranged snowflake which is an accurate description of this dork named Boyd. Everyone with his first name has a mind disorder so I won’t repeat his first name and cause others to feel like itShay.
A world civ course would begin with the fertile crescent and egypt, south asia and east asia. It would mention the civilizations of the rest of africa and the americas. My world civ course left out the latter two and I still know very little about the early civilizations of sub-sahara africa.
Here, it’s a quick read!
http://history-world.org/africa.htm
To recap: First, the unit of government was known as the “bloc.” Various tribes chucked spears at each others for the purpose of invading and controlling the other’s bloc. Every Friday and Saturday night they had bloc dances and bar be ques , which would quickly degenerate into spear fights. Finally, white people came to Africa, brought them God, and civilized the savage tribes. As you can see in this short documentary film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpdOiq-2DFU
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
OK, if there is any accessible history from Asia, Africa, or other places that exists prior to or contemporaneous with ancient Greece – it should be taught. Why shouldn’t it be?
Students this young need to understand that humanity and history extend beyond their ‘lived experience’. The lives of other people extend beyond their ‘lived experience’. That was once the intention of higher education – to broaden experience. Shutting out centuries of recorded history and censoring current events is going to make them worse, not better.
The parents of these millennials have a whole lot to answer for, they are dragging civilization in a decidedly backward direction. A fundamental component of all of this used to be attempting to understand someone ELSE’S ‘lived experience.’. This is all nonsense of the highest order, just more snowflakes refusing to extend themselves in any way shape or form. We can’t build a future on that.
No problem, but not taught in the same class that teaches the Western Canon, commonly known as Western Civ. Students need to understand the concepts that underpin their social structures and government organization.
Yup.
KISS most would just upgrade their Asian and African studies etc etc etc. let’s not forget indigenes world wide. BUT no gotta cut cut cut until one day someone say what are those students they look bleached and wow more moneyh need for a bleachazoid program.