UT promotes prof decrying Trump's Critical Race Theory ban
In an op-ed published on the University of Texas’ official website, a social work professor said that the U.S. is based on the “norms of patriarchal whiteness.”
The professor made the comments in the context of opposing President Donald Trump's ban on Critical Race Theory.
A social work professor at the University of Texas-Austin decried President Donald Trump’s ban on Critical Race Theory funding, explaining that the United States is based on the “norms of patriarchal Whiteness for the benefit of a few.”
Cossy Hough published a piece for the University of Texas’s official news service titled “Anti-Racism Training Is Not Un-American,” which detailed her criticisms of Trump’s recent executive order to ban critical race theory training in government agencies.
The executive order’s language adds “to a pattern of gaslighting efforts to make Americans fear that the rights of white people are at risk or that they have something to fear from increased awareness of racism in the county,” explains Hough.
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In contrast, she says that the United States “needs to embrace meaningful and impactful anti-racism training that is supported by the federal government.”
In response to the president’s assertion that anti-racism training promotes “very bad ideas and frankly, very sick ideas,” Hough says that the comments “disregard the country’s history of racist oppression and the formation of the United States as a country based on the norms of patriarchal whiteness for the benefit of a few.”
Because White people like herself and “certainly the Trump administration” will never understand the experiences of racial minorities, Hough asserts that the federal government and large corporations must sponsor diversity training that descends to the level of systemic racism. The federal government, she added, must reconsider “outdated social policies that were based on White norms.”
“Anti-racism discussions are one of the most positive actions we can take in this country right now to bring the change we need to truly ensure equal rights for all,” she concludes.
Hough’s op-ed comes in the context of countless leading American universities adopting anti-racism initiatives, including course requirements, professorships, and endowed research centers. At the same time, some schools have avoided creating mandatory anti-racism training for their students, explaining that plenty of courses exist at their institutions for students to learn about the history of racism in the United States.
[RELATED: Ivy League grapples with decisions surrounding anti-racism training, course requirements]
Campus Reform reached out to Hough and will update this article accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
