Using Words like "male" or "female" can earn you an F in class

[Chocolate Cake]

"White students in Professor John Streamas’s 'Introduction to Multicultural Literature' class, are expected to 'defer' to non-white students, among other community guidelines, if they want 'to do well in this class.'”

What's up with that? I guess I understand the concept, but it just seems like another form of racism to me.

It is racist and ridiculous.

I don't need, nor do I want anyone to "defer" to me ever.

 

[pryncess527]

"White students in Professor John Streamas’s 'Introduction to Multicultural Literature' class, are expected to 'defer' to non-white students, among other community guidelines, if they want 'to do well in this class.'”

What's up with that? I guess I understand the concept, but it just seems like another form of racism to me.

I did not see that -- I agree, that seems much harder to justify on academic grounds than the instructor who is taking off points for using the "unapproved" language in written assignments.

 

[GaryDis]

I suppose there would be some transgender situations (very small percentage) where it might get tricky, but for the most part, the majority of people are either male or female. There are actually movements to ban the words "male/female" or "boy/girl" all together.

So, if you know someone is a male, you can still receive a bad grade for referring to them as such in these classes

If the purpose of the course includes getting students to understand the distinction between physical gender and mental gender, then it seems reasonable within the context of the course to insist on using specific terms instead of the more general male/female. It seems to me just like a physics course that insists on using mass and force instead of weight.

I don't know whether the news article is exaggerating the degree to which a violation could result in failure. But I could well imagine failing a physics student who, at the end of the semester, still used "weight" as a synonym for "mass".

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Amazing what happens when someone gets tenure.

 

[SirDuff]

I had to look at the article to confirm this was really a university department, and you weren't just joking! I wonder if it is a major too...and what kind of jobs can you get with such a degree? I guess you could become a professor in the department (or similar departments in other universities???), or a writer, or maybe an EEO Specialist in some government agency? I apologize to any of you who may have majored in this or something similar, but if one of my kids decided to major in this, I would have to say great, but you're paying for it!

I also noticed that nobody has mentioned the other requirement listed in the article at the second link:

"White students in Professor John Streamas’s 'Introduction to Multicultural Literature' class, are expected to 'defer' to non-white students, among other community guidelines, if they want 'to do well in this class.'”

What's up with that? I guess I understand the concept, but it just seems like another form of racism to me.

What is actually says is "Reflect your grasp of history and social relations by respecting shy and quiet classmates, and by deferring to the experiences of people of color." Which, to me, is very different than just saying "defer to people of colour". The professor still seems like a bigot (I looked at his "rate my professor" page) and I'd unlikely to take a class that he taught, but I do think that the change in wording makes a difference.

If the purpose of the course includes getting students to understand the distinction between physical gender and mental gender, then it seems reasonable within the context of the course to insist on using specific terms instead of the more general male/female. It seems to me just like a physics course that insists on using mass and force instead of weight.

I don't know whether the news article is exaggerating the degree to which a violation could result in failure. But I could well imagine failing a physics student who, at the end of the semester, still used "weight" as a synonym for "mass".

Yes, there is exaggeration. The failure is noted as a "worst case" situation.

Repeated use of oppressive and hateful language will be handled accordingly – including but not limited to removal from the class without attendance or participation points, failure of the assignment, and - in extreme cases - failure for the semester.

As above, still could argue that this is inappropriate, but is not the same as receiving a failing grade for a single use of the word "male".

 

[GaryDis]

"White students in Professor John Streamas’s 'Introduction to Multicultural Literature' class, are expected to 'defer' to non-white students, among other community guidelines, if they want 'to do well in this class.'”

So I followed that link. What it actually says is

Reflect your grasp of history and social relations by respecting shy and quiet classmates, and by deferring to the experiences of people of color.

(emphasis added).

"Deferring to experiences" is not the same as an unqualified "defer to non-white student." I have no problem with reminding white students that the black students in their class are highly likely to know more about what it's like to grow up as a black person in America than they are. Nor do I consider it racist to assume that people are likely to have different experiences depending on their race.

 

[JaxDad]

I was quoting directly from the article linked in Chocolate Cake's second post...

Here is another link:

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6770

 

[kamik86]

I would never take any of the classes that are discussed in this article. However the idea someone said above about a physics class and saying weight instead of mass makes sense.

In 6th grade our science teacher would doc points on any papers where we said the words thing or stuff we were supposed to use more precise language in her classes. She didn't doc points for slipping in class but would make you restate whatever you just said the right way.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Sounds like a pre-requisite course for people going into the HR field.

 

[GaryDis]

I was quoting directly from the article linked in Chocolate Cake's second post...

Which just shows that the author of that article is doing a poor job of critical writing. He has a more complete quote in the next paragraph, but seems to think his job is done without doing any comparison or explanation of the two different statements.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

So I followed that link. What it actually says is

(emphasis added).

"Deferring to experiences" is not the same as an unqualified "defer to non-white student." I have no problem with reminding white students that the black students in their class are highly likely to know more about what it's like to grow up as a black person in America than they are. Nor do I consider it racist to assume that people are likely to have different experiences depending on their race.

I grew up as a black person in America. I have had the same opportunities as everyone else in America.

My "growing up" experiences are just as different as my childhood neighbor who was raised by her Polish grandparents and my college roommate that was raised in Germany on an Army base.

We all have experiences that are different from the student sitting in the next seat. I would be furious if I was "deferred" to upon instruction of a professor because of the color of my skin. I don't need that assistance. I am not handicapped in any manner.

 

[smiths02]

What is actually says is "Reflect your grasp of history and social relations by respecting shy and quiet classmates, and by deferring to the experiences of people of color." Which, to me, is very different than just saying "defer to people of colour". The professor still seems like a bigot (I looked at his "rate my professor" page) and I'd unlikely to take a class that he taught, but I do think that the change in wording makes a difference.




Yes, there is exaggeration. The failure is noted as a "worst case" situation.



As above, still could argue that this is inappropriate, but is not the same as receiving a failing grade for a single use of the word "male".

So I followed that link. What it actually says is

(emphasis added).

"Deferring to experiences" is not the same as an unqualified "defer to non-white student." I have no problem with reminding white students that the black students in their class are highly likely to know more about what it's like to grow up as a black person in America than they are. Nor do I consider it racist to assume that people are likely to have different experiences depending on their race.

I have no problem that black students would have more experience as to what it is like to grow up as a black person, but history and social relations aren't just a study of what it is like to be black in America. So why should that experience be deferred to vs. "considered" "analyzed" "remembered"?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I had to look at the article to confirm this was really a university department, and you weren't just joking! I wonder if it is a major too...and what kind of jobs can you get with such a degree?

Become a professor, duh.

Or a journalist or get into politics, I suppose.

 

[Kies99]

Who the heck is foolish enough to enroll in courses offered by something called The Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies????

The future professors who will be banning the use of certain words in their classes!

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Those darn professors!

 

[RitaE]

Well, there's a Star Trek episode where a planet has attempted to eliminate Gender and they all walk around with the same really bad hair cuts. Anybody who declares themselves male or female is considered mentally ill and taking away for therapy to cure them of the gender affliction. Then one of he/she beings decides she wants to wear make up and kiss Commander Riker and Prime Directive consequences abound.

Star Trek, so often ahead of it's time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outcast_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

 

[barkley]

Who the heck is foolish enough to enroll in courses offered by something called The Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies????

it's a state general ed requirement to take it. dd attends a Washington state university (not WSU) and all students pursing any degree are required to take 8 credits MINIMUM in "Cultural and Gender Diversity, and International Studies). 4 credits in each area. She managed to whack out the Cultural and Gender Diversity requirement by taking 'Philosophical Voices and Pop Culture'-it was a philosophy class that focused on the tv show 'the walking dead'

 

[barkley]

A person who is in a country without proper documentation is, in fact, there illegally, regardless of your opinion of the use of the word.

I agree with you, but I remember as early as back in the early 90's being trained in social services to refer to these individuals as 'undocumented aliens' (or as we called them 'undocs'). our computer systems only had limited choices for the citizenship status field- u.s. citizen, refugee, visa (and we had to have the type because it wouldn't let you input without filling out that field as well) and UNDOCUMENTED.

so far as I'm aware u.s. law regarding official documents/status is still binary on gender so I would like to know what options other than 'male' and 'female' wsu as a public university as a whole affords their student's the option to officially self identify as because i.m.h.o.-the courses they offer should be in alignment with the university's official position (and I know dd's Washington public university only offers male/female b/c that's what gets fed into their state and federal report/fafsa data).

 

[mom2rtk]

So glad my college kids were not faced with nonsense like this. My engineering major doesn't have room in his schedule for crap classes like this (I'm pretty sure they don't even offer them). And my accounting major chose a nice little Jesuit University where I'm pretty sure this would not be an issue.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

So glad my college kids were not faced with nonsense like this. My engineering major doesn't have room in his schedule for crap classes like this (I'm pretty sure they don't even offer them). And my accounting major chose a nice little Jesuit University where I'm pretty sure this would not be an issue.

I could not imagine paying for these classes.