College is for strengthening the mind, not turning it to mush, right?
Well, James Madison University is pushing for more mush with their course on Black Lives Matter, in which they describe our day and age as an era of “New Jim Crow.”
The course, titled "WSG 495: Special Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies," “examines the radical resistance of the Black Lives Matter movement to state sanctioned violence against black and brown communities.”
“State sanctioned violence against black and brown communities?” Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that there is a lot of violence happening among minority communities around the United States, but you’re telling me that law enforcement somehow causes and authorizes violence against entire communities?
Pardon my skepticism, but I’m going to need to see some documented and legal proof, and not that mythic "mass incarceration" narrative either.
Furthermore, how anyone in their right mind can equate our current period of American history to the age of Jim Crow is just crazy.
PBS describes the Jim Crow era this way:
‘Jim Crow’ represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. "Whites Only" and "Colored" signs were constant reminders of the enforced racial order.
Now, after reading that definition, please tell me how our current American legal system, in which all minority communities are guaranteed equal protection under the law, is somehow similar to that time in America where I couldn’t legally sit in the presence of a white person in a public place because of the color of my skin.
I can already hear the class discussions, “But, minorities are treated differently than white people because of ‘white privilege’ and stuff!” Well, maybe there should be a course examining the successes of promoting respect and genuine love for one’s neighbor, instead of this divisive nonsense.
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(Image source: Fibonacci Blue, via Flickr)