Tag: dumbing down

Professors say proper grammar is racist, perpetuates whiteness

Towson University recently hosted a virtual “Antiracist Pedagogy Symposium,” according to Campus Reform, which “criticized university writing curriculum and programs for being racist and perpetuating whiteness.”

What’s the background here?

The program, which featured an array of speakers, was sponsored by the school’s Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts, the Faculty Academic Center of Excellence, Center for Student Diversity, the school’s department of English, and more.

In addition to educating attendees about first-year writing and graduate school writing, the forum also addressed “linguistic justice.”

“As the country begins its long-awaited reckoning with institutional racism, colleges and universities have been engaging deeply in the ethical dilemma of our time: How do our institutional structures and practices contribute to the problem of silencing, marginalizing, minoritizing, and otherwise harming black and indigenous students of color?” the event page reads. “What do we need to change to create not just a passively inclusive atmosphere for student, but an actively anti-racist one?”

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Princeton Drops Greek, Latin Language Requirements For Classics Majors To ‘Address Systemic Racism.’

“The Princeton faculty approved curriculum changes in the departments of politics, religion, and classics in April. Politics added a track in race and identity, while religion and classics increased flexibility for concentrators, including eliminating the requirement for classics majors to take Greek or Latin,” the university summarized in a update sent out to alumni.

Explaining the changes further, Princeton described the “two major changes” for the Classics major:

“The “classics” track, which required an intermediate proficiency in Greek or Latin to enter the concentration, was eliminated, as was the requirement for students to take Greek or Latin.”

The university links the decision to broader effort to “address systemic racism at the university,” which were “given new urgency by this and the events around race that occurred last summer.”

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