University Of Delaware Teaches All Whites Are Racists
NEWARK, Del., October 30, 2007—The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students’ rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech.
“The University of Delaware’s residence life education program is a grave intrusion into students’ private beliefs,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “The university has decided that it is not enough to expose its students to the values it considers important; instead, it must coerce its students into accepting those values as their own. At a public university like Delaware, this is both unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
The university’s views are forced on students through a comprehensive manipulation of the residence hall environment, from mandatory training sessions to “sustainability” door decorations. Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs). The RAs who facilitate these meetings have received their own intensive training from the university, including a “diversity facilitation training” session at which RAs were taught, among other things, that “[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”
The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as “When did you discover your sexual identity?” Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RA’s “worst” one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having “diversity shoved down her throat.”
According to the program’s materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain “competencies” that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of “citizenship.” These competencies include: “Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society,” “Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression,” and “Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.”
At various points in the program, students are also pressured or even required to take actions that outwardly indicate their agreement with the university’s ideology, regardless of their personal beliefs. Such actions include displaying specific door decorations, committing to reduce their ecological footprint by at least 20%, taking action by advocating for an “oppressed” social group, and taking action by advocating for a “sustainable world.”
In the Office of Residence Life’s internal materials, these programs are described using the harrowing language of ideological reeducation. In documents relating to the assessment of student learning, for example, the residence hall lesson plans are referred to as “treatments.”
In a letter sent yesterday to University of Delaware President Patrick Harker, FIRE pointed out the stark contradiction between the residence life education program and the values of a free society. FIRE’s letter to President Harker also underscored the University of Delaware’s legal obligation to abide by the First Amendment. FIRE reminded Harker of the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), a case decided during World War II that remains the law of the land. Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for the Court, declared, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
“The fact that the university views its students as patients in need of treatment for some sort of moral sickness betrays a total lack of respect not only for students’ basic rights, but for students themselves,” Lukianoff said. “The University of Delaware has both a legal and a moral obligation to immediately dismantle this program, and FIRE will not rest until it has.”
Full FIRE article here.
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Wow. That’s some scarry shiite.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:38 pm“One student identified in a write-up as an RA’s “worst” one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having “diversity shoved down her throat.””
I applaud her.
““[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.””
That is quite possibly one of THE most racist things I have EVER heard.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:45 pmEducation empowers, unfortunately it doesn’t make you intelligent or wise.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:52 pmAs a parent who has their second kid (away) at college, let me say the left has just about overplayed its hand on our college campuses …
As the saying goes, “Money talks, and bullshit walks …”
October 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pmThis is complete bullshit! all white people are racist? talk about painting with a broad brush
October 30th, 2007 at 6:13 pmCommunism isn’t dead. It just has a new name. Environmentalism.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:18 pmA fine example of facistic “tolerance” at one one of our universities…er.. I mean indoctrination centers.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:24 pmI’m glad I go to a conservative school.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:44 pmThis is a microcosm in comparison to our country electing someone like hillary clinton as president. These types of programs will be instituted on a national level by the pseudo communist- dermocrat party.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:52 pmIm an RA here in Central Connecticut State University. Of course I am also a former Jarhead.
I laugh at the idiots here who have a few beers and stumble around like it fools. It sure beats having to deal with Marines jumping off the third floor with mattresses.
But seriously, alot of the same shit in this article happens up here. All sorts of programs about diversity, and why stereotypes are bad, and shit like that. Fortunately the kids in my hall are drunk spoiled rich kids and are too close-minded to absorb themselves in the crap the school tries to force feed them.
And of course, you’ve got me, to destroy their happy self esteems and liberal opinions if they get out of line, DI style if neccessary.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:12 pmThis is one of those ethnic screwells not too far from Philadelphia. It’s always in the news for something, like rape and shootings. Take ‘em out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of ‘em.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:28 pmA little OT. In a way it’s kind of funny even though it involves a policeman getting shot. But, he’s OK. Just a few blocks from Drexel where the democrats were having the debate they were greeted with a hearty democrat Philadelphia parting shot as they were leaving the auditorium. The police had to keep them near Drexel so the perp that got away doesn’t try to blend in with the democrats, they all do tend to look like criminals. Hard to tell the difference. A 15 block police chase ended with the two perps driving to the Schuylkill River and jumped in to get away. The policeman jumped in after them. He got one. Gotta’ love this city.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:45 pmYou’re a sick man, Dbo … Thank Christ!
October 30th, 2007 at 8:47 pm“[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”
so by this definition, I am apparently a racist bastard.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a blanket statement like this the same thing as saying that all blacks are criminals, all Latinos are illegal immigrants, all Jews are thieves, and so on, regardless of their “class, gender, religion,” etc?
I knew my college was mostly liberal as most institutions are but DAMN…this is the most flagrant example I’ve ever seen.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:59 pmIt doesn’t much surprise me. At PSU, the RAs were required to go around and ask people if they wanted to put “Prejudice Free Zone” signs on their doors. Me and my room mate reluctantly agreed to do it but we let the RA see the Confederate flag we had hanging in our room. I can still see the look on her face.
As for stereotypes, I will say this: it’s hard not to stereotype when the people you’re stereotyping spend so much energy, time, and money trying to fulfill the stereotype. Think about: when was the last time you saw black people blasting country music in their cars, driving minivans, or using standard American English? It’s a rare exception that sees a black step outside the bounds of his stereotypical culture.
Whites, on the other hand, show very wide cultural diversity: punks, hippies, goths, preppies, Christians, band-geeks, and on and on. White people have their hands in so many things that one can only stereotype about specific segments of white society.
Pardon for sounding like a f***ing racist but in all seriousness, it’s definitely something that people need to discuss. And I can’t imagine that it’s ignored for any lack of intelligence.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:01 pm#1 My RA freshman year was a ignorant hippie wanna be bitch. She was all about peace, love, acceptance and pot… good pot actually (give me a break, I was in college).
#2 Recently, my hospital required all of us to attend diversity training… which was total bullchit. Call me old school, but I believe it is more offensive to treat someone race-less, than to synergize with them… recognizing they are different from you but just accept it, learn from it, deal with it OR God forbid, make a little fun of the differences.
Oh, I’m sure that would be considered racist by these same socialists.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:39 pmIt could not happen here,
REVOLUIION 
October 31st, 2007 at 2:26 amThis is one of the most egregious examples of Cultural Marxism I’ve ever seen!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism
The Frankfurt School would be proud of what those clowns in Delaware have done.
Time to let ‘em hear from us!
October 31st, 2007 at 2:38 amDelightful! Sorry about the lack of info on Wikipedia…
Seems Wikipedia has deleted about 90% of the original info on cultural marxism. A testament to revisionism no doubt!
Here’s Bill Lind’s take on the subject…
http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html
October 31st, 2007 at 2:54 amMandatory training classes to live in the dorm? Yeah, right. Why hasn’t someone (FIRE?) sued the pants of UD yet?
October 31st, 2007 at 9:31 am