The students claim that the curriculum is too white and that professors of color are being denied tenure.
The College Fix reports:
Williams College students boycott English Department, claim it’s ‘whitewashed,’ ‘racist’Students at Williams College have launched a boycott of the entire English Department, claiming the curriculum is “whitewashed” and its scholars “racist.”Joined by alumni and others, the “Boycott English” effort calls “on the students of Williams College to boycott the entire English Department,” according to the activists’ lengthy online missive.Their main complaints include allegations of scholars using the N-word, a curriculum that prioritizes white authors over authors of color, and claims that professors of color are not given tenure at the private and preppy Massachusetts institution.“As such, we have no choice but to call for an indefinite boycott of all English Department classes (ENGL) that do not engage substantially with race,” the activists’ online manifesto states.“A token assignment of ethnic literature in an otherwise whitewashed syllabus is not enough. Refusing to enroll in English classes is one way that we can create the pressures necessary to promote change,” it states.Williams College’s spokesman Greg Shook did not respond to emails and a phone call Sunday and Monday seeking comment. Several professors in the English Department did not respond to emails Sunday and Monday seeking comment. A couple professors in other departments also did not respond to The College Fix’s requests Sunday and Monday for comment on this issue.Much of the contention in the activists’ online boycott declaration centers on two “black queer feminists” at Williams who left earlier this year, citing vague allegations of microaggressions and “violent practices” at the school as the reasons for their departure.
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