By: Gabrielle Dankanich
Students at a public university in Florida were forced to examine their racial, sexual, and educational “privilege” for a course grade, according to an anonymous tip sent to Young America’s Foundation’s Campus Bias Tip Line.
Professor Carolyn Silva of the University of Florida focused her summer “History of Education in the United States” course on the systemic discrimination of various minority groups by the American education system.
Rather than covering the evolution of the educational system, as an anonymous student suggested, this course takes an extremely critical approach that falls in line with the common trend of leftism being infused into the education system.
Encouraging students to “promote antiracist education,” Silva included resources that can “uplift” black communities. One of these resources included a link to a fundraiser for Black Lives Matter criminals.
Promoting bail funds for criminals does not “uplift” the black community. Releasing criminals back into neighborhoods across the country endangers peoples’ safety and does nothing to “uplift black humanity.”
Many of these articles advocate for mandatory courses that critique “white privilege,” arguing that white students have avoided “critical discussions of race their whole lives before college.”
“I believe it is important to learn the good and the bad of our nation’s history but that does not mean bending to the leftist narrative that everyone that is not straight, white, or male is systematically oppressed,” an anonymous student told YAF.
In addition to the clearly biased nature of the course material, the students were required to discuss their privilege for ten percent of their grades. These reflections were submitted as posts for other students to comment on.
Silva emphasized her students’ “positionality,” suggesting that people are a combination of their race, sexuality, gender, and other “layers.” She also stated in this post that one’s positionality is what forms a person’s beliefs and ideas.
Considering the aims to promote antiracism, recognize privilege, and monitor discrimination, students finished the course having learned very little about the American education system.
”I was shocked to find out that the class that was supposed to be about the history of the education system was more focused on telling me how different minority communities have been oppressed by our government,” the anonymous student added.
“Yes, our nation has several pieces of terrible history that we should learn about, but I felt like my knowledge of the education system did not grow at all,” the student continued.
The history of the American education system is more than a timeline of academic discrimination. People are more than a product of their race, gender, or sexuality–and so are their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas.
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