"I showed my class a three‑minute clip of Ben Shapiro. It went about as you'd expect. I am an assistant professor of higher education, and I teach an undergraduate course called Embracing Diversity. I have taught this course for four consecutive semesters, during a period when the very ideas we examine (diversity, inequality, critical race theory and systemic racism) have been publicly demonized, politicized and, in some states, explicitly banned."
"On a recent afternoon, after introducing students to the tenets of critical race theory, I played a short video of Shapiro, a conservative commentator and podcast host, explaining his critique of critical race theory and whether or not it should be taught in schools. Before the clip ended, the room filled with laughter. Students mocked his cadence and pitch. Someone compared him to a cartoon character. Students joked about his voice and his delivery."
"What happened next is the part that has stayed with me, not because it was unprecedented, but because it exposed something we rarely name in spaces like this. Not because the moment was especially surprising (it wasn't, at least not to me), but because of how quickly a class devoted to dialogue, equity and inclusion slid into dismissal, caricature and harm. We had not engaged Shapiro's argument at all."
An assistant professor showed a three-minute clip of Ben Shapiro to an undergraduate Embracing Diversity course after introducing tenets of critical race theory. Students reacted with laughter, mocking his cadence, pitch, voice and delivery, comparing him to a cartoon and a sped-up podcast host, which quickly drowned out serious engagement with his arguments. The instructor stopped the video. The episode revealed how humor and caricature can substitute for critical engagement, allowing dismissal and harm in spaces dedicated to dialogue, equity and inclusion. The moment also raised tensions about platforming controversial figures amid politicized debates over diversity.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]