Saturday, November 10, 2007

Learning at the University of Delaware

U Duh has just withdrawn a training manual for student life assistants which included the following definitions(with these it is a wonder that they would have ever used this idiotic pap):

A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture, or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists . . .

A NON-RACIST: A non-term. The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called “blaming the victim”) . . .

This was based on an earlier manual 1995 defined Race as "a specious classification of human beings created by Europeans(Whites) which assigns human worth and social status using "white" as the model of humanity and the height of human achievement for the purpose of establishing privilege and power." Indeed, in the scientific literature there is a lot of discussion about what race actually means. But if the developer of this curriculum thinks it is a "specious classification" then presumably she would also argue that the provisions in the Federal Civil Rights Act are also specious. I doubt that would be the case.

The "curriculum" was developed by one Shakti Butler whose PhD is from Ph.D. the California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA ( School of Transformative Learning and Integral Studies) (and one wonders why California has such renown around the country). From her own website Dr. Butler is described thusly "Dr. Butler is the producer and director of the groundbreaking documentary, THE WAY HOME . The video serves as a model for dialogue that sets the context for constructive conversations on oppression through the lens of race. Her work moves conversations beyond black and white and speaks to the interconnectedness of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia."

One wonders how Butler indoctrination. It might be like this: INDOCTRINATION: Only applicable when European ideas are being presented.

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