The Chicago Maroon is the official student newspaper of the University of Chicago, and we can’t believe the editors allowed a teaching fellow to publish this opinion piece outing a student as a “terrorist” over his tweets. Teaching fellow Rebecca Journey’s work includes studying how “evolutionary and reformist logics of eugenic ideology animate the aesthetics of green urbanism in contemporary Denmark.” She also seems to have a crippling fear of armed white supremacists shooting up the school over some tweets by a sophomore.
A professor at my university (UChicago) wrote an article about me, saying I “terrorize” the school and that I may inspire an “armed white nationalist” because of my tweets.
Very rude to describe a first-generation college student on a full-ride scholarship like that! pic.twitter.com/pMwZhDVyMg
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) December 11, 2022
“This is not hyperbole” is like President Joe Biden saying, “You think I’m kidding.”
In case you missed it, this all began with my Twitter thread, where I exposed a class called “The Problem of Whiteness” taught at my university:https://t.co/IrgzHBb9E1
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) December 11, 2022
And here’s that thread that might incite white nationalists to attack Journey:
EXCLUSIVE: At my college, @UChicago, a class called “The Problem of Whiteness” will be taught in the Winter.
Since I began college a year ago, I've documented all the anti-white hatred I've seen on campus. Without a doubt, this is the most egregious example.
*THREAD* pic.twitter.com/mdASZqYxlk
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
The course description describes whiteness “as a conspicuous problem within liberal political discourse” with “worldmaking (and razing) effects.”
Anti-white hatred is now mainstream academic inquiry. And you're not even allowed to call that out without being called racist. pic.twitter.com/pRvF8e6Ser
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
Recommended
“The Problem of Whiteness” is a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies course.
Rebecca Journey, a “cultural anthropologist” who, ironically, appears to be white, will teach it.
Her publicly available email is [email protected] pic.twitter.com/TteQJ9WQv7
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
You have to wonder what the solution to the “Problem of Whiteness” would be.
This is how people who detest white people think and talk. And they have taken over all universities under the guise of “academic freedom.” No sane professor can oppose it without risking their career.
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
Will white students at my college complain about this course? Of course not. They're used to this by now. They know better than to step out of line.
They must keep their heads down, shut up, and tolerate second-class treatment. That's the reality. They're the problem.
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
Journey writes in the Maroon:
Had the student reached out to me with concerns about my course, The Problem of Whiteness, I would have happily scheduled office hours to discuss them….
…
I would have then walked the student, as I would any student, through what decades of careful scholarship on race and racism in the U.S. have taught us: whiteness, like any racial identity, has no basis in biology. It is a scientific and cultural fiction; a “pigment of the imagination,” if you like. It is, however, as historian George Lipsitz writes, a social fact “created and continued with all-too-real consequences for the distribution of wealth, prestige, and opportunity.” As an unmarked norm against which difference is constructed, “whiteness is everywhere in U.S. culture,” Lipsitz observes, “but it is very hard to see.” The act of marking whiteness, then, is to locate it as a specific historical and ideological formation, and to ask what it does in the world. That’s the mission of the class.
It’s stochastic terrorism!
Reactionary attacks on academics are not new. What’s new about the practice in the 21st century is the force multiplier of social media. I am not even on Twitter, and yet I was targeted and terrorized through it. In just 280 characters or fewer, a user can mobilize a collective, decentralized attack and walk away, feigning ignorance. Righteousness, even. I was just “calling out” “anti-white racism.” Let the dregs of the internet do the work.
She never thought she’d see pushback against a course called “The Problem of Whiteness” because she fully understands the problem of whiteness.
University departments should not approve unserious courses for the course catalog. Magic crystals, astrology, CRT, CWS. It’s a matter of curriculum integrity rather than viewpoint.
— Adam Kissel (@kissel_adam) December 12, 2022
Not a law professor, apparently. Might construct a defamation per se claim from that.
— Paul Biegler (@PaulBiegler2) December 11, 2022
These professors are perpetrators who love to pretend they are victims.
— Jeremy Carl (@jeremycarl4) December 12, 2022
According to this "professor" – freedom of speech is terrorism. Think about that! So the Chicago Principles were written on toilet paper?
— CaraMiaRules (@Caramiarules) December 11, 2022
The histrionics of academia honestly
— Brandi Shweapon (@CathyKell19) December 12, 2022
1) *Spews hyperbole*
2) "This is not hyperbole!"— Ludwig Wittgenstein (@Wittgenstein_PI) December 11, 2022
“This is not hyperbole”
Goes on to be as hyperbolic as possible
— Jae Dugald (@ITDept4Life) December 11, 2022
Sounds like libel? Sue her.
— Jon Tarr (@JonTarr17) December 12, 2022
There used to be History profs in colleges.
Now, there are Hysteria profs in colleges.
— Bitter Klinger (@BitterKlinger1) December 12, 2022
They have nothing else but to resort to the endless parroting of the same meaningless words. "Terrorize." These people are pathetic and weak.
— Rob Alberts (@robertjalberts) December 11, 2022
You chose the ridiculous university. She is a slick piece of work that needs to be deprogrammed but that isn't going to happen. Rebecca is a fragile, hard left opportunist hiding out in an ivory white tower. She terrorizes whites and claims defamation.
— Thomas (@Element_60540) December 11, 2022
And we’re using her photo with this post, meaning that we’re also providing a target for armed white nationalists. Somehow we think she’ll be safe high up in her ivory tower. Is next semester “The Problem with Blackness” by any chance?
***
Related:
Rutgers professor DROPPED for racist AF rant about 'whiteness ending' (watch)https://t.co/awKFoa7hW1
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 7, 2022
Join the conversation as a VIP Member