U. Colorado-Boulder Offering ‘Whiteness Studies’ Course

U. Colorado-Boulder Offering ‘Whiteness Studies’ Course

The professor of this popular course assures people that it is not a celebration of white people.

Campus Reform reports:

CU-Boulder offers class on ‘Whiteness Studies’

The University of Colorado-Boulder offers a course for students who wish to explore the “consequences” of whiteness.

Offered through the Sociology department, “Whiteness Studies” is a three-credit hour class that historically has been among the department’s most popular classes. When the class was offered last Fall, for example, 52 students enrolled, and others were waitlisted.

Professor Amy Wilkins—who was previously assigned to teach the class—suggested that the course title is misleading during an interview with Boulder News.

“It really should be called ‘Critical Whiteness Studies.’ People think it’s just some celebration of white people or something, which is not what the class is about,” she asserted, later calling whiteness a “neutral category.”

“It’s kind of interesting being at a university that’s (majority) white and having such a radical critique of whiteness in the classroom,” remarked Josh Kirby, a student in the class who described himself as Chicano. “I really didn’t expect that coming to this school.”

However, one student who took “Whiteness Studies” last year, Vidushi Goyal, uploaded 12 weeks of course notes to the site CourseHero. The notes appear to be summaries of readings assigned by Wilkins, but may alternatively have been taken during class.

During the third week of class, Goyal’s notes touch on the dangers of colorblindness.

“Colorblindness allows for white people to know that racism exists but then allows them to not have to take action on their white privilege,” Goyal writes, apparently summarizing the assigned readings for that week of class.

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