Problem with ASU class isn't 'whiteness' but ignorance
So now, thanks (or no thanks) to Fox News and the right-wing Internet we're all supposed to be outraged, indignant, offended and positively furious over a class at Arizona State University that has an enrollment of 18 students -- total -- and features five books that none of us (not even the students, I'd guess) will ever read.
All because the title of the class, according to news reports, is "U.S. Race Theory and the Problem of Whiteness."
You'd think that something so provocative sounding would actually be, you know, interesting.
No.
The title is interesting. We're all outraged (or at least the Fox News people and their legions of viewers) are outraged because of the "Problem of Whiteness" part.
What is the problem with whiteness?
None of the outraged people know. What they do know is that they have problem with the idea that there could be a problem with "whiteness."
Which is what?
What's the problem?
Being white?
Or does "whiteness" in this context have some other meaning, something societal or academic or ... whatever.
Among the books that are required reading for the class are "Playing in the Dark" by Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize recipient. And there's "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction" by Richard Delgado, "Everyday Language of White Racism" by Jane Hill, "Alchemy of Race & Rights" by Patricia Williams, and "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness" by George Lipsitz.
If I'm a student at ASU I'm not enrolling in that class. Nor am I going to read any of those books. Not as a student. And not now. Neither are any of the outraged people who watch Fox News going to read the books. Nor are any of the Fox News people who got them all riled up.
So there's no way for any of us to know if there is a problem with this class, or a problem with what the class defines as "whiteness." Because we don't have enough information and we aren't going to try to get it.
All of this phony outrage does prove one thing, however.
We have a definite problem with ignorance.