‘White Rage,’ Black Lives Matter: How One Professor Teaches U.S. History, by Stone Washington

A basic U.S. history course at Clemson University focused on the post-Civil War era to modern times teaches the subject of America’s past largely from a far-left perspective, including subjects such as “White Rage” and Black Lives Matter, according to the required readings for the course.

History 1020, or History of the U.S., focuses on the “political, economic and social development of the American people from the end of Reconstruction to the present,” according to its online description.

Stone Washington

Stone Washington

This fall, one professor teaching the class is Assistant Professor Maribel Morey, whose required readings include the books “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide,” “How Race is Made in America,” “Making of Black Lives Matter,” “Equality on Trial: Gender and Rights,” and “Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment.”

Each of the books portray an apparent liberal bias against various political issues. Professor Morey adds more details about the course on her personal website.

“The course will begin with an overview of key moments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States history. After the first three weeks, the class will then focus on bringing historical context to today’s most pressing national conversations, from #SaveDACA and the #BlackLivesMatter movement to the #AltRight, #TimesUp, #MeToo, and #NeverAgain movements. In doing so, the course aims both to empower students with knowledge of critical moments in the U.S. past and to inspire them to see the present-day value of historical analysis,” the website states.

As for the required readings, “White Rage,” penned by Emory University historian Carol Anderson, argues white rage is the force behind the many struggles faced by the black community today; “every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains,” the book’s online description states.

“The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea” focuses on law enforcement controversies and suggests that “to upset dominant practices of abuse, oppression and disregard, we must reach instead for radical sensibility,” according to its online description.

And the book “How Race is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts” pays special attention to Latino Americans and introduces the concept of “racial scripts, which highlights the ways in which the lives of racialized groups are linked across time and space and thereby affect one another,” its online description states.

Asked about the apparent one-sided nature of her required readings, especially for a basic history course that is billed as a nonpartisan review of U.S. history and not one advertised to students as being from a critical studies perspective, Morey implied students can drop the course if they are concerned with her syllabus.

“On the first day, I will share the course syllabus which explains in greater detail for students the course goals and student learning objectives as well as the course methodology and requirements,” she told The College Fix via email.

“In brief, the course aims both to empower students with knowledge of critical moments in the United States past and to inspire them to see the present-date value of historical analysis,” she added.

 

Project 21 member Stone Washington is a senior at Clemson University majoring in history and minoring in political science. This piece originally appeared in The College Fix.


New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.



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