Notre Dame moves ahead with ‘racist’ class on ‘white privilege
Conservatives, Catholics and many students are rallying and speaking out against a controversial new course at the University of Notre Dame on “white privilege.”
The seminar is being co-taught by Iris Outlaw, director of the multicultural student programs and services; Emmanuel Cannady, assistant director of outreach services for the Gender Relations Center; and Ke’ana Bradley, assistant director of programming for the multicultural division.
The one-credit, six-week seminar is described as “The goal for each participant is personal transformation: to leave the class… more aware of injustices and better equipped with tools to disrupt personal, institutional, and worldwide systems of oppression,” according to a report by The College Fix.
Opponents claim the subject matter is biased, inflammatory, and meant to shame white people and indoctrinate students.
The College Fix noted that only “eight students have enrolled in the course” after completing “a 15-20 minute interview prior to acceptance.”
“[P]eople consciously and unconsciously simultaneously participate in and are affected by systems of oppression. However, since these behaviors can be learned, they can be unlearned.”
The course includes a university-funded trip to the annual White Privilege Conference, which is being hosted in March in Louisville, Kentucky. The website for this conference states the fee for one college student is $195. That adds up to $1,560 for eight students, not including travel costs and fees for professors.
Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown told the Irish Rover independent campus newspaper in an interview that covering such costs is not out of the ordinary.
“The university will assist with funding for the conference,” Brown said. “There is nothing unusual about such funding for student participation in for-credit, off-campus experiential activities.”
When asked about the definition of white privilege and the logic behind awarding credit for this class, Brown replied that all universities explore complex issues.
“The theory of ‘white privilege’ is a well-established area of academic inquiry within sociology and certainly is a subject worthy of close examination by students who are interested in better understanding race relations,” Brown explained.
Many critics have called the conference anti-Christian. As the Cardinal Newman Society reported, recent workshops have accused Christianity of “punishing the poor, destroying the environment, and contributing to the war on terror.”
