Dear Professors,
Lately, I have begun to wonder if it actually ever means anything when a professor starts a class by calling the material they are about to go over something written by “old white men”. What do you mean when you say it? Is it an acknowledgement? A sign of humility? A joke?
I would like to start out by saying that I am glad that you have acknowledged that whatever we are about to go over in your classroom has been written by a person from a historically privileged position. I see the glint in your eyes when you sweep the classroom, watching us giggle at your remark. Because you get it! You’re self-aware. You have introduced an icebreaker into the classroom that has melted the glacial attitude around the piece of work we will now work to interpret and perhaps even criticize. Maybe.
“We are now going to read Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’, yet another work from an old white man.”
Cue laughter from the students as you shrug your shoulders sheepishly—you’re telling it like it is.
By saying this, you have acknowledged the inherent disparity between the words of whatever “old white” (with “dead” sometimes being added to make an amusing trifecta) man we are going to learn about today and the actual truth for many underprivileged people of the time. Walden might be a beautiful account of a man’s integration with nature, but it’s probably because Henry David Thoreau had the means to abandon society to begin with. Thomas Jefferson’s proclamation for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” adds a beautiful emotional edge to the Declaration of Independence—unless, of course, you were one of his slaves. A lot of the true nature to our history is lost to the narrow accounts of a single, specific demographic.
There are some courses in which interacting with these “old white men” is impossible to avoid, whether because the school mandates that we do—such as the required reading list for Humanities—or because the most important discoveries in the field in question have been dominated by their work. I understand that it is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid the work of “old white men”. I understand that many of them did produce important works that are crucial to our academic studies.
The problem is when you’re satisfied with with leaving your discussion of “old white men” at a joke. Will your discussion of the material acknowledge the limited viewpoint of its author? Will class discussion on the bias of the author be permitted, or seen as a distraction from the core material? Have you attempted to supplement your lesson with material created by non-“old white men”?
Because all too often, I find that the answer is no. Why, if you’re going to acknowledge this disparity, are you not going to work to fix it? Did you want brownie points for bringing it up? Or is the phrase “old white men” an empty statement now? There is a world of ways to put your money where your mouth is—talk more about the context of the time during which the piece was written. Discuss the shortcomings of the author’s viewpoints. Encourage students to brainstorm flaws in the author’s arguments that aren’t just centered around the better research techniques we have today (such as in the cases of Freud or Galileo). You don’t have to completely uproot your classroom to give your class material the critical, three dimensional analysis it deserves.
And if you don’t do any of this, and still feel entitled to make the joke: doesn’t saying it without putting in the work to correct it make you just as bad as the “old white men” you’re trying to make fun of? Maybe you should spent a little less time on your jokes and little more time on your “required materials” list.
Sincerely,
A Disgruntled Student
Follow Her Campus @ Geneseo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.