In the Spring 2017 semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a “Problem of Whiteness” course was offered to students that explored how white people are the root of all racial problems in the world. Well, apparently the racist class was such a success, they’re bringing it back for the Spring 2018 semester. Great.
“Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive – students said they found it valuable to examine majority cultures and how power imbalances are created, sustained, and challenged in societies around the world,” a UM spokesperson said.
Back at the helm will be African Studies Professor Damon Sagnani, who is white, according to The College Fix. The course description for “Africa 405: The Problem of Whiteness” reads in part:
Have you ever wondered what it really means to be white? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably “no.” But here is your chance! …
[S]ince white supremacy was created by white people, is it not white folks who have the greatest responsibility to eradicate it? Our class begins here. We will come together with our socially ascribed identities of Black, white, mixed and other and, with the problem properly in its place we will ask ourselves and our allies, what are we going to do with it?
The class will also explore “what it means to be #woke” and how “treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.”
Two quotes are included in the description to give a potential enrollee a better feel for the course:
"There is no Negro problem in the United States, There’s only a white problem." —Richard Wright
"How does it feel to be a problem?" — W.E.B. Du Bois
The College Fix was told by UM that Professor Sagnani has “continued to research” the topic of whiteness and hopes to expand on what students learned before. One thing he is adding to the next semester’s course is a rap performance — he's a rapper, too — of a song he wrote called “The Problem of Whiteness.” Lyrics include, “But you know what your number one problem of whiteness is, you don’t even know what the fuck whiteness is.”
Guilty.