Where do you get from "whiteness is a social construct" to "you should be ashamed of what you look like"?
I get it from all the people in undergrad who told me the best way to be an ally as a cis-het-white-male was to, in short, 'Shut up, and pay me.' I get it from all the BLM leaders who state that white people are 'recessive genetic defects' and 'mutants' and 'sub-human' Source I'm all for equality. I'm all for egalitarianism. To radical degrees for both causes. HOWEVER When you start from the assumption 'All white people are subhuman monsters who need to be done away with, you sound like a racist, not a progressive. The extremists are in charge. The radicals are in charge. I have yet to see a 'moderate' approach to these topics taken or respected by any one in a position of power.
Yes, all those things are bullshit. But my question is what do they have to do with my course's description? By deconstructing race we're exposing the defects in any racialized thinking, including "white people are genetic defects" or "white people are monsters" or whatever.
By taking the course you agree with the radicals that white people are 'problematic.' Not 'whiteness' because that's an abstract. 'Whiteness' doesn't exist. Only people do. And I can't see this class encouraging the golden rule. I CAN see it encouraging white people to feel guilty for the color of their skin, and the historical actions of powerful, wealthy oligarchs who happened to be white AT THAT PLACE/TIME IN HISTORY. Fuck race politics. Study classism instead. From where I'm sitting courses like this are a waste of your money/your parents money. I wish I could get back the thousands of dollars I wasted on 'Anthropology of Latin America' because I got to pay for the privilege of being told how much white people had fucked up central/south america, how if you ever eat a banana you're a facist, and it's my responsibility to buy my bathroom tile from a 10 man operation in Ecuador, because of neoliberal policies enacted before I was born, and that I would have opposed if I had the power.But my question is what do they have to do with my course's description?
I know my experience. I know the experience of other cis-het-white-males in similar spheres of influence. If you get lucky, and actually get a nuanced moderate to teach these things, I'd be super happy for you. But nuanced moderates aren't being hired by universities these days.