UChicago class on ‘Whiteness’ prompts death threats after student accuses professor of ‘anti-white hatred’
The professor delayed the class to ensure student safety, but strongly defended it. She says the student misrepresented her course to stoke white grievance.
By Nereida Moreno
UChicago class on ‘Whiteness’ prompts death threats after student accuses professor of ‘anti-white hatred’
The professor delayed the class to ensure student safety, but strongly defended it. She says the student misrepresented her course to stoke white grievance.
By Nereida MorenoA University of Chicago instructor is postponing a class called “The Problem of Whiteness” after a student launched an online campaign to cancel it, sparking a wave of online harassment and death threats.
Rebecca Journey, a teaching fellow who earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from UChicago, said her class analyzes whiteness as a social construct and dismissed “disingenuous” claims that it stokes “anti-white hatred.” She’s pushing the course to the spring quarter to give university officials time to develop a safety plan for her and her students.
“The class is emphatically not about ‘the problem with white people,’ ” Journey said. “The class approaches whiteness as a problem in the philosophical sense of an open question … whiteness as an object of critical inquiry.”
Her inbox was flooded with racist, misogynistic and antisemitic attacks and threats after she was accused of “anti-white” racism on a Twitter thread earlier this month. The post was widely shared by right-wing media outlets, echoing the national misinformation campaign against critical race theory.
“I want to stress that these attacks are the direct consequence of this student’s targeted cyberbullying campaign,” Journey said. “This was a malicious attack not just on me as a teacher, but on anti-racist pedagogy writ large.”
Sophomore Daniel Schmidt posted about the course on Twitter earlier this month, along with a screenshot of Journey’s bio and university email. He formerly worked as a columnist at UChicago’s student paper, The Chicago Maroon, and was reportedly fired for harassing another writer.
EXCLUSIVE: At my college, @UChicago, a class called “The Problem of Whiteness” will be taught in the Winter.
— Daniel Schmidt (@RealDSchmidt) November 1, 2022
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
Journey said she’s never met Schmidt, adding she believes he “deliberately misrepresented” her course description to stoke white grievance on social media. She said she’s grateful for the university’s support, but wants UChicago to issue a public condemnation of the student’s actions.
In a statement, Amanda Woodward, dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UChicago, stood by the course, citing the university’s commitment to free speech.
“A crucial aspect of academic freedom is the ability of instructors to design courses and curricula, including those that foster debate and may lead to disagreement,” Woodward wrote.
“While differences of opinion over course material may arise, the University does not cancel classes because of such differences, and the University defends the freedom of instructors to teach any course that has been developed through our faculty-led curricular processes, including courses that may be controversial.”
Journey said she plans to teach “The Problem of Whiteness” under the same title and description.
“I am absolutely moving forward with the class as planned,” she said. “We can’t let cyberterrorists win.”
Nereida Moreno covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @nereidamorenos and @WBEZeducation.