Florida Gulf Coast University, a public university in Fort Myers, will be offering a course in the spring semester dedicated to tackling “White Racism.”
Fox4 reports sociology professor Ted Thornhill, who will be teaching the course, said the controversy surrounding the title of the course justifies its purpose.
“I understand why some people might be uncomfortable by the title. But in order to move the conversation forward people have to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable,” he told Fox4.
“Silence is not the answer, you know, conversation, knowledge, education is the answer. And that’s what I’m hoping to provide students with the opportunity to gain,” he explained.
Thornhill told Hello SWFL “This is course titled, ‘White Racism,’ while the name is new, I’ve taught courses that are very similar. But I’ve come to the point where I thought it needed to be made clear what the course is actually focusing on.”
Thornhill said the course will be about “race concept, how it originated,” and “slavery, genocide, internment, segregation, discrimination, rape, violence, theft.” He explained, “All of these things that have been meted out against non-Europeans, throughout the history of our country.”
Speaking to Fox News, Thornhill said the class will be “about the search for truth.”
“Too many Americans, especially whites, are cocooned in a ‘bubble of unreality’ as it concerns racial matters,” he said.
According to Thornhill, the “White Racism” class isn’t “anti-white,” but “anti-white racism.”
Fox News claims Thornhill differentiated between racist whites and non-racist whites, but added that all white people, regardless of their views on racism, benefit from racism:
"Clearly, not all white people are racists; some are even anti-racist,” Thornhill said, though he added all white people “derive, in some measure, material and psychological benefits by virtue of being racialized as white.”
He elaborated,“Many whites have subscribed to and promoted racist ideologies, championed and/or enacted scores of racist laws, policies, practices, and traditions, and made incalculable decisions in their daily lives that have operated to maintain white racial domination over blacks and other people of color for hundreds of years.”
Fox News reports the class is filled with 50 students enrolled.
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