Yale University Introduces New Course to Combat Narratives on 'Whiteness'

The prestigious Yale University is introducing a course this semester on the various methods of counteracting “whiteness.”

The class, which is brand new for the spring semester at Yale, will examine “whiteness” as a “culturally constructed and economically incorporated entity, which touches upon and assigns value to nearly every aspect of American life and culture.” The class will look at  “whiteness” through creative means. Students will be encouraged to counter “whiteness” through the creation of plays, poems, and memoirs.

But what exactly is “whiteness?” The University of Calgary defines “whiteness” as “a powerful fiction enforced by power and violence.” The university provides a quote from an author who explains that “whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being white.”

The class is taught by Yale Professor of English Claudia Rankine, whose work often focuses on the topic of race and “whiteness.” Rankine wrote a play for Boston’s Emerson Paramount Center entitled The White Card, which focuses on the role that “whiteness” plays in American society.

The College Fix obtained the syllabus for the course and published a report on its contents on Monday. According to the syllabus, the course is broken down into eight topics: Constructions of Whiteness, White Property, White Masculinity, White Femininity, White Speech, White Prosperity, White Spaces and White Imagination.

Just this week, Breitbart News reported on a course entitled “The Problem of Whiteness” being offered at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The course’s professor recently introduced a course entitled “Global HipHop and Social Justice” that has sparked a conversation about the value of “social justice” courses being introduced at universities around the country.