The University of Wisconsin Madison is offering a new class next semester on “The Problem of Whiteness.” According to the course description, the course aim to “understand how whiteness is socially constructed and experienced in order to help dismantle white supremacy.”
Professor Damon Sajnani, who will be teaching the course, told The College Fix, “Whites rarely or never questioned what it is to be white. So you go through life taking it for granted without ever questioning or critically interrogating it.” Sajnani says that the course will offer an analysis of what it means to be white and how to deal with it as a “problem.”
But not everyone is supportive of the course. For example, David Murphy, a Wisconsin state assemblyman who recently called the class “garbage,” The Washington Post reports.
Murphy, who chairs the assembly’s committee on colleges and universities, said that the course’s underlying premise is that white people are racist. “UW-Madison must discontinue this class. If UW-Madison stands with this professor, I don’t know how the University can expect the taxpayers to stand with UW-Madison,” Murphy said.
Furthermore, Murphy said that the approval of the course makes him question the judgment of university leaders, and has criticized Sajnani by calling him an “international radical.”
Gov. Scott Walker, however, told The Wisconsin State Journal that he did not agree with Murphy’s call to withdraw funding from UW Madison if the university doesn’t drop the course. “I could certainly as a citizen or as a father who pays part of my kids’ tuition roll my eyes and raise concerns about some of the classes. But our focus in the budget should be on overall performance and not individual classes,” Gov. Walker told The Wisconsin State Journal.
UW Madison, in a statement, defended the course and said it was “not designed to offend individuals or single out an ethnic group.”
“We believe this course, which is one of thousands offered at our university, will benefit students who are interested in developing a deeper understanding of race issues. The course is a challenge and response to racism of all kinds,” the university’s statement said.