Fives times 'Anti-Racist' ideology took over academia this year

Throughout 2022, demands for “anti-racism” and Critical Race Theory in education have been rampant on college campuses. 

Here are 5 times the campus Left decided something was racist in 2022.

5. Faculty, staff try to change school’s fight song ‘Yea Alabama!’

Students and faculty at the University of Alabama (UA) attempted to remove the word “Dixie” from the Crimson Tide’s fight song “Yea Alabama!” due to its allegedly racist past.

The initiative, called “Delete Dixie,” publicly launched an official website on Sept. 29. Originating from concerns expressed by the Black Faculty and Staff Association in 2021, the initiative now has an entire coalition of students and faculty behind it.

4. Dog names are racist, according to scholars

Academics applauded a Social Psychology Quarterly study purporting to show a disparity in the time dogs were adopted based on racial associations with the animals’ names. “White” names, according to the study, resulted in shorter adoption times compared to “Black” names.

The correlations were largely concentrated around pit bulls, “a breed that is stereotyped as dangerous and racialized as Black,” according to the study. 

3. Campus ‘bro culture’ is racist, according to university’s ‘Self-Education’ webpage

At Michigan State University, the College of Natural Science hosts a “Self-Education” page on its website with a list of online guides and articles that address White supremacy and racism. 

“Bro culture” is one of the factors contributing to racism, according to this site.  One Chronicle of Higher Education article listed in the site’s “racism on campus” section, titled “Hate Crimes Won’t End Until Toxic ‘Bro’ Culture Is Reformed,” states that “hate acts” are “primarily committed by white, straight men against those who are not white, straight, Christian, or male.”

2. ‘Perfectionism,’ having a ‘sense of urgency’ are examples of White supremacy, academics argue

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis hosted an event that made headlines before it even began, called “Is Professionalism a Racist Construct?” In the event, the presenters characterized various qualities of workplace environments such as “perfectionism,” “a sense of urgency,” “defensiveness,” “worship of the written word,” and “quantity over quality” as characteristics of White supremacy culture.

One presenter, Assistant Dean for Field Education Jewel Stafford, connected these alleged characteristics of White supremacy culture to the idea that “even though we’re working really hard, there’s a narrative that we’re not enough, that somehow who we are, what we do, it’s just not enough.”

1. STUDY: Whiteboards are racist because ‘they collaborate with white organizational culture’

”Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: A Case Study” was published in Physical Review Physics Education Research. The study observed three students as they worked to solve a physics problem and analyzed how “whiteness” is present in academia. The study found that whiteboards can have racist undertones and perpetuate whiteness.

Seattle Pacific University Research Associate Professor of Physics Amy Robertson served as lead author. W. Tali Hairston, director of community organizing, advocacy, and development at Seattle Presbytery, served as the co-author. 

Hairston told Campus Reform that although whiteboards “are not inherently racist,” the common classroom object can perpetuate racism.