Since I don't have time to type out another post, I am going to paste a critique of my U.S. History class that I am taking at UTSA (The University of Texas at San Antonio). I still have not finished the critique since my instructor has yet to talk about the Bush years! However, this is what I have so far, see if you think that I am unreasonable in my views.
Wayne

When I registered for this class, I was looking forward to learning about the efforts of great Americans working together collectively to rebuild this nation into a stronger union after the depletion of resources of WWII. I wanted to see how the initiatives of individuals could dramatically influence the course of a nation through effort and perseverance.
Imagine my shock and dismay to find instead a class that should have been titled “I hate America: How white oppressors kept people of color out of the spotlight.” I did not intend to take a black studies course, but that is primarily the entire focus. Ms. Laguana Gray’s racist bias is very evident in her treatment of any view that does not conform to her own. Her distortion of American History by trying to impose political positions that are strictly her own, is both inexcusable and intolerable.
I will be the first to acknowledge that people of color have been systematically discriminated against throughout our history. However, it must be noted that ours is a young, maturing society less than 250 years old. As any analogy to growth must acknowledge, you first have the formative years, followed by the adolescent years, followed by the young adult years, finally followed by the mature adult years. I believe that we are in the process of passing from young adulthood into mature adulthood, but we still have a long way to go yet. Continuing with the analogy, let’s first examine the formative years. Here we, as a nation, were trying to “stand on our own” much like the infant becoming a toddler. We were so focused on trying to survive, that the conventions of the day were accepted and maintained. Even though Thomas Jefferson opposed slavery, and included a criticism of England’s involvement with slavery in the Declaration of Independence, the other Founding Fathers were unwilling to give up that tenet, and voted to remove that statement from the Declaration. Even so, we began to mature as a nation, and grow past some of our prejudices. Slavery under any guise is wrong and should never be engaged in. However, when the system is as firmly entrenched in society as it was, it will take time to move away from it. Even in America, the last major nation to abolish slavery in the area, we were moving away from the practice with the Declaration, it just took a long time. During our period of adolescence, we finally took the stand to abolish the practice of slavery, but some of the more immature elements of the nation decided to “be rebellious” and fight this movement. Any person that has ever been a teenager, or tried to raise teenagers knows that there will always be a stage of rebelliousness that is part of their maturing process, but they will eventually grow out of it. As a young adult, opinions are about what is important to the individual, not the family at large. Personal opinions are the most important standard to evaluate the behavior of others, and render judgment. Unfortunately, in this scenario, there is little room for compromise, and any challenge to the individual’s opinion is rejected outright, in spite of all of the facts. I feel that this is where we are as a nation today. Both sides of the racism debate are hammering at each other for their own personal ideology and not trying to hear, or understand the other’s position. Is discrimination wrong? The answer is a resounding YES! However, the discrimination is running full bore in the opposite direction, and no one is willing to acknowledge this fact. If you are going to teach about racism in this country, then teach about the Black Racism of today, and the prejudices the people of color are showing against all whites. Also, don’t fall into the old stale rhetoric that “we were treated this way, so this is justice.” It is NOT just, or justice to continue hateful behavior just because people of color have achieved some parity in the political arena. If they want to eliminate intolerance from the non-black community, then move past the “sins” of the past and forge a new future based on accomplishing the goals of ALL Americans, and stop favoring one minority group over another. This will be the indication that we have finally moved into the “mature” society that I spoke of earlier.
I shouldn’t have to give this history lesson to the Department of History, but when you ignore comprehensive history to promote a particular politically correct agenda inside the classroom, you, as a teacher, and as a department have failed to live up to your obligations as the protectors of academic excellence in your institution. Specifically, my several complaints of Ms. LaGuana Gray, instructor of U.S. History – 1945 to Present, are these: first, she did not follow even her own syllabus statement about how she was going to approach the topic, second, her focus was too narrow, focusing only on how “White” America spent the entire last half of the 20th century, persecuting “people of Color” specifically blacks, and ignored what great things this nation accomplished during this same time period. I was looking forward to learning about the engineering accomplishments involved in building the Interstate Highway system during Eisenhower’s administration; instead I found it reduced to one power-point slide, inserted into a lecture about how blacks were kept out of the suburbs. I KNOW THE BLACKS WERE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST DURING THIS TIME! That is still no excuse to ignore all of the technological advancements of the country at this time. She never even mentioned America landing on the Moon! Was that because it was discriminating against blacks that there were not allowed in the space program? Oh, wait! There were blacks in the Space Program, I guess you can’t fan the flames of prejudice if you acknowledge that there have been efforts towards inclusion from White America. However, she was able to cover the important, technologically innovative “Hip-Hop” craze, which has contributed more public harm in the form of violence against Whites, women, and the police than it has promoted anything artistic. If anything deserved to be reduced to one power point slide in this class, it would be that subject. I found the entire presentation of the first lecture most offensive. I have struggled as many people have to rid my life of foul, demeaning language such as profanity, only to be forced, WITHOUT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION, to a tirade from a rapper entitled “F*** the Police.” First, to use a college classroom to promote the ideals of these urban terrorists, who despise the laws of this country that many have fought and died for is repugnant. Second, to make a mockery of the law-enforcement community, encourage efforts to circumvent or outright violate the laws we have enacted for public safety is irresponsible, and borderline anarchist. No racist agenda, either white or black, should be tolerated in the classroom, but since that seems to be the accepted policy of this department (this is not the only prejudicial, discriminatory class I have attended here,) I am not surprised. This brings up another point, since I am not happy with the direction this decidedly racist class has taken; I have difficulty writing about subjects that I am in total disagreement with. Apparently it shows, because my grades have been poor on the essays. However, there is no set rubric that lets us know what pejorative standard is being used to grade our answers.
The final point I want to make is that when you set out as Doctoral Academia, to promote a one-sided, politically-correct agenda, you either need to acknowledge your own racist bias against the White person in America, and try to eliminate it from the curricula of the course of instruction. Forcing a student to read only biased, intolerant and hateful material from the “minority” community, without balancing it with the other side of the same issue is offensive and unfair to the students hoping to get a well-rounded education. This is not education, this is a demonstration of “vapid intellectualism.”