Students Told to Disavow ‘American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality’

This is what is wrong with American Universities. I am a Black, Heterosexual Male who believes that African American studies, Woman Studies, Asian Studies, and hispanic Studies produce math phobic dolts who couldn’t produce a real product if necessary, that is why they teach. Tell that stupid black female, quit hatin’ on the white boys and get a real profession/degree like Mechanical Engineering or Computer Engineering http://www.youtube.com/oldblackguyondaright

the guy should croak on a chicken bone and watermelon pits, what an utter A _ S H _ _ e.

DIVISION! To conquer a nation, there must always be DIVISION…everywhere! Divide the races, the marriages, the families, the church’s, etc…the nation will eventually fall as it is much easier to conquer the nation when divided!

I think the point is to have you attempt to demonstrate through your writing that you understand the concept of positionality.

First, as a journalist, you would want to write in a way that doesn’t assume the positionality of your reader. For instance, would you write about going to the bathroom as if all people had penises and used urinals? No. You would specify that you were talking about male bodies, because since slightly over half of the U.S. and world population is not male-bodied, you would be alienating a majority of the population. That’s not good for your future job prospects.

Second, in a liberal arts college, being challenged to be able to be explicit about your relationship to the larger society is a central part of what you are learning – critical thinking and writing skills. To do so, you have to demonstrate you understand those whose ideas and opinions are different from your own. You don’t have to agree, or even like it, but you do have to show that you *understand.*

Third, many times I have found that I actually share many common experiences with people – and groups of people – with whom dominant society would tell me I have nothing in common. It has been pleasurable, in fact, to learn about many points of view and multiple experiences.

Peace.

This is just an explicit example of what kids are being taught in college now. This all comes down to the ides of “kyriarchy” where straight white males use interlocking prejudices to keep everyone else down, which can only be overcome by purging anything related to white-ness, male-ness, or straight-ness from society.

I came across this article as a Facebook post; wasn’t previously familiar with The College Fix or its ideology while reading the article or comments. My unbiased reaction was pure confusion at what seems to me to be an over-reaction by the author and commenters to an overall reasonable instructional method. Obviously noted to be coming from a liberal point of view, yes, but also logical in its aim to get students to think about and approach issues from perspectives other than the cultural majority, in order to develop a richer and more nuanced understanding of the issues. I don’t think the professor is out to demonize heterosexual white middle-class American males. Just to help students develop greater awareness and comprehension of the world around them, as a springboard for formulating their own thoughts and opinions.

I support this student’s voicing his experience of feeling offended, and challenging the professor on the necessity of offending white males through the tone of the syllabus in order to make a point (I’m not really into ‘an eye for an eye’), but I think it would have been more productive for all involved to discuss this in the class rather than drop it. His perspectives could have been a valuable contribution to the class, and it’s also too bad that he’s potentially missing opportunities to enrich himself by short-sightedly swearing off all courses in Arts and Sciences, esp as a journalism major…

About me/my bias: Indian American, female, heterosexual, middle class, Christian, in a relationship with a white American, heterosexual, middle class, male. Went to state school.

Cheers!

“Social Justice” is Marxist theory in practice. Fact. Do your own research.

‘No pronoun that is gender neutral’?? – how about WE!

Let me articulate that in a sentence for you. WE think you are an idiot Howard!

How much money is the white middle class paying for this BS? Minorities, you better watch out because once the white’s are fleeced, you are next.

Inclusive only if you agree with their views. Diversity is an esoteric goal based on visual things like skin color, ethnicity etc.. It has its limitations when you discuss diversity of thought. Can’t have that! Ironically, the diversity crown implies that skin and ethnic difference automatically create a diverse environment – it does not. If 99.9% of instructors on campus are liberals, it matters little what their skin color, gender or sexual orientation is.

Looks like parents are going to have to start homeschooling their college students.

So they want you to write from the perspective of a poor lesbian mexican woman. I found the syllabus online and found this interesting GRADING SYSTEM AND BONUS POINT STRUCTURE “any AFRICAN AMERICAN would qualify as a non-American. +2.5 bonus points if the student is transgender. +5 points if its a man living as a woman. +7.5 points if its a woman living as a man but pregnant!! +5 Bonus points if you are handicapped (no bonus if the handicap is related to military service, i.e. vetren) +.25 points for every year of being on some form of government assistance (Food stamps, section 8 housing, welfare, and yes you can double dip). +25 points if you are pregnant when you start the class but can show proof of an abortion before the final exam.+30 for late term abortion. +15 points if you are in the country illegally.”

I’m sick and tired of defending my innocence against those who presume that I am a racist, a sexist or a homophobe simply because I’m a heterosexual, white male. My entire life I was taught to see past racial identities and judge people based upon “the content of their character”, as MLK dreamed we would all do. By assuming that I am inherently racist or sexist based on the fact that I’m a white male is, in and of itself… prejudicial, unfair and wrong. And unfortunately, being treated this way is making me now more aware of someone’s race than ever before. That’s a shame.

The first thing I would ask the “instructor/professor” is, “How long have you engaged in mental masturbation and aren’t you afraid of going blind?

Well, you’re paying for an education. You can do what you want for free. You’re not being judged, you’re being asked to not make assumptions about others. It’s an exercise–probably a silly one. But running away and removing your voice from the conversation isn’t a particularly noble response.

Just another prejudice against: American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status! The dean and the professor are asses! THEY are the ones that don’t get it. Pussies each one of them!

Pity the rich kid who can drop 40000 a year of his parents’ money on a private school but can’t take being challenged. Ryan, you’re a disgrace to the college, to Indiana, to the Bulldog alumi I know…..do you know how racists across the Internet are playing with your article?

You should be embarrassed

Stay strong Ryan! I had a class at Butler called Women and Rock and Roll back in the day, and the professor taught, graded and treated students with the same mentality. She was a bully towards any student, male or female, who didn’t think men were to blame for all her problems. She made a female student cry after class for being sympathetic towards men. I suppose these professors have to create issues so they can teach classes on how to solve these self created problems. I should have dropped the class.

Liberalism: “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”
This is from Russia and in the Pravda news.

I’m a self-sufficient white American male who believes in God and I’m not ashamed. Liberty is under threat. It’s not like we pass it on through our DNA. It’s not locked in a safe or guarded like a famous painting. It’s our job to protect it at all costs. All costs. We can’t allow liberty to go extinct.

You people commenting really make me want to die. On top of agreeing with what this rather crappy piece of journalism says–that complicated ideas inherent to the humanities can be simplified down to ‘this person is a racist’ or ‘this person is inherently bad’ or whatever–everyone’s attacking this professor for “not having a real job” or “not being able to do math” etc. As if any of that matters one iota to her having any sort of valuable opinions.

Let’s all check ourselves for a minute, and maybe not be so condescending to a person (or a set of complex ideas) who’s only trying to get us to look at how society functions.

only a tight nipwit would make such a recommendation. regardless of iclusivity every language in the world just as the english one has inclusivity into it. This is the product
of sinister domination and control. Simple minds will always converge on racism, classism
and religion.

Asking political science students to write without a bias? It’s almost like she’s encouraging student to write from a different perspective than their own…oh, wait…that’s part of the essence of learning.

Man. This is the biggest shit fit ever thrown over dropping a class. “I can’t write from inside my comfort zone? WEH WEH WEH”

Back in 1969, US Army, Germany, we got into some scuffles with the Black Panthers in the Army, and their followers. After one fight I talked with the instigator of most of the fights and asked him why we couldn’t just have peace as none of us white guys were really interested in fighting and as far as I was able to observe we never started any fights.
The instigator had no answer! Later his wall locker was shoved into the hallway and fire bombed, he was arrested and we never saw his sorry butt again.
We have an identity, which for me is White Anglo Saxon Christian, Caucasian. I’m happy and proud of my ancestory and no dimwit Psycho Babbling Professor is going to take that away from me.
I want peace but I won’t bow to this ridiculus “New Speak” where everyone but them are Racist and we Whites should somehow be ashamed.

Message to this University and this professor from an American
middle-aged, middle class, white male, heterosexual, independent conservative……..Go F*CK Yourselves you Far Left, America hating Liberal LOON-A-TRONS.
These fruitcakes perfectly illustrate exactly what has gone terribly wrong in this country over the past 40+ years…..and why……”Liberalism IS A Dangerous Mental Disorder!!”

If one is expected “to write and speak in a way that does not assume American-ness,
maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status, etc. to be
the norm”, a rational response would be to write alternatively as (1) a British female aristocrat (one of the Mitford sisters, perhaps), (2) as a homosexual Irishman (Oscar Wilde), and (3) a non-white colonial female writer who is a native speaker of English (Xu Xi).

There is no need to attempt to write, speak or think like a radical leftist American black feminist. Indeed, it would be quite amusing to toy with her by adopting literary and vocal personas that meet her criteria but are utter antithetical to the radical leftist racialist perspective she is trying to inculcate.

Good Lord this man is just plain nuts! And parents actually PAY for their kids to be exposed to this garbage?

College is for idiots.

Remember Animal Farm some are more equal than others; BS on PC idiot-ism.

“Misandry” doesn’t exist. “Reverse racism” doesn’t exist. “Heterophobia” doesn’t exist. it is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for these to exist. Oppression is based on a majority suppressing a minority. No matter what you say you are still a het, white, cis male trying to wash away a minority.

I want every person in the comments to try living as a poor black transwoman for a year just to see how their opinions change.

And yet in the face of this, er, “black and white” evidence of perpetuation of racial division, revisionist history, etc., the worst facets of the left continue to feign ignorance of their gross biases. No way in hell my kid would be in that class. Well said, Ryan Lovelace. Keep on this; this “professor” needs to lose her job.

I think you are all missing the point. Howard is saying that we live in a patriarchal world where whiteness and American-ness is predominant. This is just history and that’s why the world is like this today. She’s asking students to think as a blank slate. It is important to note etc. is included in this as well, meaning it could include blackness, female, etc. I took it to mean: we are in this class to question the political structures and theories of the world around us, and we must do so in a way that removes us of bias on a personal level and on an environmental level; do not let personal (such as being asian, poor, female, etc.) nor the established prejudices of our society (patriarchy, white dominance, American superiority, etc.) guide how you think about topics we will be studying.

I don’t see it as an accusation on the student’s part; we are all part of this society and we must all remove ourselves from its mindset to really start to analyze and question the established order.

Sounds like “new speak” or “double speak” from 1984. It’s all a reflection of the evil Jew influence on campuses today. All those worthless -ism classes that are grounded in Communist theory. Proof small colleges like this puking up worthless degrees by worthless professors need to go the way of the dinosaur! I notice they don’t actually name the professor/ My guess it’s a Jew or some old fossil of a 1960′s lesbian black radical.

I can’t imagine any educated person making the following statement: “Our language doesn’t make it easy to write in ways that are inclusive,”
Howard said. “We don’t have a generic singular, I mean we have he and
she. There is no pronoun that is gender-neutral there.” I do have one and even without it the English words “us” and “we” fit perfectly in the category of plural neutral pronouns for writing as well as speaking. Howard just check the definitions for these words in your dictionary. Don’t be so prejudice and racist as to overlook the norms of life.

I think the exercise of practicing a style of communication radically different from your own broadens rhetorical acuity, whatever your opinion or perspective is. It forces you to deeply examine not only what you are intentionally communicating, but also any cultural norms that might inform other people’s understanding of what you are communicating. It is a shame for the author that he did not challenge himself to explore the possibility that by actively and purposefully standing outside of his subjective experience he might have met a richer and more objective understanding of politics and of people.

Jesus. It’s terrifying that someone so incapable of critical thinking is going into journalism, and I’m not sure he understands the consequences of having his name on a piece like this. This article is making the rounds on the internet not because it’s a well-written and thoughtful piece, but because it’s a LOLworthy tantrum from a person who fails to understand privilege.

Welll this is one of the most horrifying sites/comments sections I’ve ever seen. Basically, the prof wants her students to write their papers keeping in mind that the immediate circumstances (your life as a white cis het male or whatevs) does not represent the entire spectrum of human experience. Not everyone is American. Don’t write papers like the whole world is white het cis American dudes. That is not proper academic writing. This is literally just another way to say not to be subjective in your writing.

As a white, male heterosexual, studying to be a Mechanical Engineer, I think you’re all being a little bit stubborn about this. The idea is not to pretend to be someone else; it’s to attempt to be aware of your own prejudices. A black female homosexual can’t write as you either, but she’s still passing the class, because she accepted that there were other viewpoints in the world and that hers may not be correct.

The idea is not to change what you believe, but to be willing to accept that what you believe MAY be wrong. I’m not saying it IS wrong, but if you can’t question it, if you can’t get past the idea that it MIGHT be wrong, then you can never grow and you can never see how someone else might view the world differently. You don’t have to abandon your beliefs just to appreciate another, just think objectively.

The biggest obstacle to understanding someone else’s views is assuming that yours are right. That’s called prejudice and everyone has it. It doesn’t equate to an accusation of racism, it’s just simple fact: you believe what you believe. But so does everyone else, so if you assume what you believe is right (or the norm) then your idea becomes inaccessible or even potentially hateful.

So most want all to become colorblind! Most want all to honor the Unity of Mankind. One Human Family. But when a Professor, asks her students to start feeling, speaking and writing from that perspective, the same “majority’ that want to honor our unity and not difference want her head on the chopping block. Is there any reason for the majority to not continue revolving at differing levels of our socially accepted schizophrenic maze?

Oh no, being asked to consider things from a minority perspective?!?! I much prefer the clarinet professor at my undergrad asking my friend if he got a scholarship because he’s brown.

There is absolutely nothing about this that implies that white heterosexual middle class men are “evil” or “whitey righty”. None whatsoever. It is very clear from the language used that your professor just wanted people to take on perspectives of others. As if to put oneself in another’s shoes. If your professor was a white heterosexual middle class male, and not a black woman, would you still have dropped the course if he had said the same thing? Think about that really. If yes, then, well, yes, clearly liberal arts is not for you. And I fundamentally disagree with you saying not everyone can be included. In certain circumstances, you’d be correct, but to say that this is impossible is ignorant and misinformed.

I likewise am frustrated with the prevalence of overly political-correctness out there, but I really don’t see this as an issue of political correctness. Rather it seems she only wanted students to put their own biases inherent from a certain life experience aside.

It saddens me to know that my fellow Bulldogs may be uncomfortable with disregarding their own experiences for but one course and attempt to immerse themselves in another’s. I think if you take issue with that, you should be going to a different university, Ryan.

-A Butler Student

people are completely missing the point of the class. the point is to write from a different perspective and go outside of your comfort zone on how you think. How do I know? I’ve taken this exact class at Butler and this author completely missed the point. They aren’t calling people racists or homophobes or any of that. Theyre telling people to make an effort to think from a point of view that you haven’t before. This is a disgrace that people can misunderstand something and rant about it, shedding a negative light on a great university

A political science professor at Butler University asks students to disregard their “foreign-ness, femaleness, blackness, homosexuality, low-class status” when writing and speaking in the classroom – a practice the school’s arts and sciences dean defended as a way to negate students’ inherent prejudices and low scholastic achievement.

How does anyone think THAT quote would have been received by the diversity pimps?

HOLY DOG CRAP! THEY’RE TEACHING THIS CRAP AT BUTLER UNIVERSITY?

I’m glad someone is finally standing up for white, heterosexual, middle class males. It’s about time this disadvantaged group finally received some attention and support. You are a true visionary, Ryan.

What? a black female prof. I want a black, female disabled prof. we must include all in the diverse liberal world. Of course, I meant physically disabled, as she is clearly mentally disabled

Leftism indoctrination such as this has been in play for many years. Now that Obama has been reelected, the Left feels embolden to accelerate their reeducation of our youth. After all, it takes a well indoctrinated population to continue with the transformation of America that Obama has planned.

“Our language doesn’t make it easy to write in ways that are inclusive,”
Howard said. “We don’t have a generic singular, I mean we have he and
she. There is no pronoun that is gender-neutral there.””

No sir, English does have a gender-neutral pronoun: “IT”.

I attend Butler University. I am a senior, History and Gender, Women, Sexuality
studies major and I also am attaining my minor in Political Science. I like
much of the rest of the university have taken the time to read your article,
“Students Told to Disavow ‘American-ness, maleness, whiteness,
heterosexuality’,” and I am absolutely offended by the statements made not only
against a loving professor, but the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and
Liberal Arts schools in general.

I personally do not want this
letter to be an attack on you, or your freedom of speech, as I believe neither
you nor your freedoms should be attacked. However, I do want to take time to
address Dr. Turner’s syllabus and perhaps shed some light on exactly what I
believe the inclusive language section of the syllabus talks about and
specifically why I believe speaking and writing with inclusive language is so
important to our lives as members of society.

In the syllabus, Dr. Turner, says
as I am sure you have read, “Do your best to write and speak in a way that does
not assume American-ness, maleness, whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class
status, etc. to be the norm.” I believe this quote itself is somewhat clear in
Dr. Turner’s expectations and contrary to what your title pronounces, I fully
believe that not assuming these traits is nowhere near the same language as
disavowing them. To not assume these specific attributes of someone is to not take
them to be the normative stance within society, as there are often many people
who are not these specific things that we encounter in our daily lives. To not assume these traits is to allow
oneself to be unbiased towards subjects and people that we may otherwise have
strong feelings or opinions about based on our “American-ness, maleness,
whiteness, heterosexuality, middle-class status”. This class, as I truly hope you were aware
when you signed up for, is a research based class and in my experiences with
this class and a few other research classes, the main goal is to have a
research project that is truly unbiased.

In this class specifically, if we
do not check our privilege at the door (and yes all of these traits listed in
the syllabus are privileges), then our research cannot possibly begin to be
valid, because of all of the biases that present themselves because of our
privilege. This I believe is one of the main points that Dr. Turner is trying
to get across.

With my experience of actually
taking this class, I have truly begun to understand the importance of
inclusivity of language, especially with these specific categories. A good portion of this class’ grade is
dependent on service learning. The reason such a large chunk of the grade is
based on service learning is because the research project that we choose to
further investigate must have some sort of affiliation with our service
learning partner, whether that be a loose tie or one that stems directly from
our partner is our choice. While working on a research project that stems from
our service learning sight, inclusive language is a must, as is checking our
privilege at the door. Many of the partners that we had the choice of working
with had a diverse population. These populations were often times, not
American, not white, not of middle-class background, not male, and some not
heterosexual. I believe the purpose of Dr. Turner’s pinpointing those specific
target categories is because they are not only the most prevalent to many of
the people in our class, but they are some of the most evident intersections of
identities we see through our service learning partners. This is specifically
why we must learn to not assume our privilege to be the norm because in some
situations, those norms are not prevalent.

These ideas of being unbiased and
inclusive are two very important aspects of PO201 and I believe should be
followed because of the aforementioned reasons. But, I would also like to take
the time to explain why on a larger level inclusive language is imperative to
society and our development as human beings. One quote that has stuck out to me
since I have read Kathy Castania’s Diversity—Evolving
Language of Diversity, was pulled from Robert Moore’s novel. It states, “Language
not only expresses ideas and concepts but actually shapes thoughts.” Every word
spoken, written, and sung all have the opportunity to reach audiences and on
that basis shape an audience. For that very reason, inclusivity when speaking
and writing is absolutely necessary. If we do not, we stand the chance of
consciously and unconsciously reinforcing prejudicial attitudes and beliefs in
our words.

Thank you for taking time to read
this letter. As I said earlier, I hope that I was able to shed some light onto
inclusivity and the fundamental principles behind it. I also hope you got why
exactly the specific language for the syllabus was chosen, as they were most
important for an unbiased research class. I hope that in the future, before you
make statements that not only point fingers at certain people for pegging you
to be evil because of inclusive language, please get your facts straight. Learn
the true purpose of inclusive language as I am sure you will happen to cross it
more and more in the future as a journalist who is supposed to be unbiased.
Also, I wanted to make the suggestion that before you write an article about a
syllabus of a class that you never took, please talk to the professor first to
see hir side of things, because maybe they could have cleared up the language
in the syllabus. I can only hope in the
future, that when choosing your words you will make a conscious effort to think
about the language that you are writing and the baggage that may come with it.

I have had this professor for this class and another and I can tell you that it is Mr. Lovelace’s loss for dropping it. I can honestly say I’ve never been so embarrassed of my peers at Butler as I am today. Whether or not we want to admit it most of us are from a very privileged background and have no idea about the real struggles most in this nation face. As a white, Protestant, heterosexual female I appreciated the professor’s statement in the syllabus. That is only the norm at private (non HBCU) universities. Not the city. Not the state. Not the nation. And definitely not the world. In reality that’s what a liberal arts education is about: gaining global perspectives. Best of luck to Ryan as a right winged journalist, I certainly won’t miss you in my LAS classes.

I applaud Ryan Lovelace’s bold stand and support him totally. He expresses what any good American would support, freedom of speech for everyone, black, white, you name it. And for anyone to attack him shows the stupidity of those people. Hang in there Ryan. You are on the front lines and doing a good job. Linda Case Gibbons

I am a student at Butler University and I DO NOT agree with Ryan Lovace at all! All the professor was asking the students to do was to give up their prejudices and biases. However it seems as if Ryan was just too ignorant to do that. Butler University is a diverse school and we do pride ourselves on this! Now I’m not saying Ryan does not have a right to free speech, I’m just saying he should review his own morals and facts before he goes posting false details. We accommodate all types of races here at Butler, and we like to have RESPECT for everyone who comes through our doors white, black, Asian whatever! I’m sorry Ryan but, there is NO white privilege here! Everyone is treated the same! You did sign up for it did you not?-If you don’t like it then get out! Otherwise put your own *Prejudices aside* And GROW UP!

Just another whiny kid feeling threatened. I also did enjoy how quickly this discussion degraded into political rambling and ad hominem assaults. Bravo.

Ryan Lovelace is a coward

Another deficit of American public education: this fool believes that white is an ethnic group. Far from intelligent, creative or enlightened, he believes that the groups will remain stagnant, keeping their identities. Do they not understand eroticism, that when you put people together that nature will dominate? Can these misguided miscreants not understand?

Of course not! What they want is different hues of people who believe and think like them. And they do so on your dime!