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Course casts ‘negative light on white males,’ student says
Auburn University’s counseling course titled “Living and Communicating in a Diverse Society” has recently come under fire for allegedly shining a negative light on white men.
The course teaches that, in the “acceptance” stage of racial identity development, whites “can still dismiss or diminish comments or actions that indicate that racism is alive,” according to materials obtained by 1819 News from an anonymous student.
“They express the view that everyone has struggles and people should just accept the way things are and try to be American. They expect of color to ‘get over it’ and go forward as Americans which really means be more like White people,” it states.
The course also claims there is no such thing as “reverse racism,” meaning members of a historically dominant group can’t experience prejudice.
It claims white people made up the concept to avoid confronting their own racism.
The student told 1819 News that “No matter what module we were in, whether it was on racism, feminism, transgenderism, ageism, it always shined a negative light on white males.”
Neetu Arnold, a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute, criticized the course content in an interview with The College Fix.
“Counselors should understand individuals as individuals,” she told The Fix.
“A counseling course that trains students to see some groups as inherently disadvantaged and others as inherent oppressors risks producing counselors who misjudge the seriousness of their patients’ struggles based on race,” Arnold said.
The course will not only impact how a future counselor will see the people they are serving and working to help, but it will also produce problems within the classroom, Arnold said.
“It leads students to censor themselves. I suspect students can’t question what’s being taught without risking backlash because the course treats certain perspectives as morally untouchable,” she told The Fix.
According to the school’s online course listing, “COUN 2000 Living and Communicating in a Diverse Society” is designed to help students develop “cultural competence” in several contexts.
“The class developing cultural competence in context of relationships, issues, and trends in a multicultural and diverse society related to such factors as culture, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, and mental and physical abilities/disabilities,” the course description reads.
More course content published by 1819 News states that the control of white people in society goes unnoticed, as it is deeply embedded within the system.
The course materials outline stages of racial identity development for both people of color and whites. The first stage, “dissonance,” describes how non-whites feel alienated as they realize they may be excluded from the benefits and sense of belonging that white people enjoy.
“Dissonance for people of color occurs when they want to get along and be Americans but discover that their race or gender may preclude them from the benefits that Whites or males get. They start to feel confused about the beliefs they held about America and themselves as they begin to see that racism and sexism may be impacting them,” the information sheet reads.
Both groups ultimately reach a final stage of acceptance, understanding that their identity is not defined by race, it states.
The Fix attempted to reach Auburn University and the College of Education for more information on the course via email twice in the last few weeks, but received no reply.
