I think that this article was written by an extremely biased and politically motivated person. I have a few issues with it.
- Why are there no sources for it? The article refers to a number of surveys taken. Who was being surveyed? What specific questions were asked? Were the questions leading? What is the context?
- It is a completely opinionated piece. Where is the factual evidence? What are your sources? Do you expect the reader to just listen to what you have to say because it sounds good and resonates with the politically motivated, widely promulgated, contextually and factually ignorant “liberal” or “woke” narrative that has captured so much of the American populace?
- I’m curious to know why our professor assigned this reading, especially as the first assignment. Does she agree with the article? Does she agree with the narrative? What are her motivations? What are her political views? Does she plan on imposing those views on her students? Would she be interested in a dialogue or debate on the currently controversial topic of race?
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Ronald,
I think these are potentially interesting questions- I hope our discussion in class of the reason I assigned the article to start with was helpful in answering some of them, particularly that we want to not necessarily agree with any of the readings presented just because they are presented, but to read all of them critically, asking who or what is left out of this perspective, and what does that mean? Another reason I am starting with this article because it is more accessible as a general audience (our more heavily footnoted journal articles and text chapters require a bit of warming up to get into, as you have likely noticed), though you correctly point out that it lacks the footnotes we’d like to see to be able to trace information to the sources for ourselves. I’m curious about your claim of lack of factual evidence- the article is full of it (though it is not carefully footnoted)- you can easily research for yourself the origins of the Foreign Affairs, which began life as the Journal of Race Development. If you disagree with so much of the article, what evidence (and sources) do you have to contradict it?
Finally, I’d never impose my political views on my students. All I ever aim for is getting students to do the reading and engage with it critically for themselves!