Page describes some of the content in University of Mississippi Law 743, titled Critical Race Theory.
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This was a fascinating article. Thank you for posting the link.
Ironic, isn’t it, that this course on critical race theory is being taught at the flagship university of what may be the reddest state in the country?
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Actually Mississippi is far from the reddest state in the country. It actually ranks closer to the middle of the road, falling in line after 19 other “redder” states.
It was an interesting article. I would be interested in learning more about that particular class. It seems like they probably had some good discussions.
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The student said: “The best way to have an opinion about this class is literally to take it.”
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People are often mistaken about The South. World Population Review has a listing of the most Republican voting states: Most Republican States 2023 Wyoming is #1.
Thanks for posting the article.
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Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Also glad to see it in Mississippi Today rather than, say, NYT. Hope it will spark constructive discussion locally.
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Here’s the description for a CRT course that D took a few years ago (in a redder and much less diverse state than Mississippi):
“This seminar will focus on critical race theory (CRT) as a critique of racism in the law and society and discuss its current applications to education and diversity. As a form of oppositional scholarship, CRT challenges the experience of White European Americans as the normative standard; rather, CRT grounds its conceptual framework in the contextual experiences of people of color and racial discrimination through the use of counter-narratives/stories and emerging analysis of structural racism. This will be reading and writing intensive class and we will focus how CRT can be a useful framework to analyze and hopefully transform educational institutions (K-12 and higher education). and policies to promote positive change regarding racial social injustice.”
It seems to have disappeared from the catalog this year, I’m guessing that the last sentence about “transforming” K-12 education raised a lot of eyebrows.
FWIW I understand the course leaned heavily on Ibram X Kendi.
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My experience in the 1970s during my high school years was much different. At my private prep school, I was the only non-black person to enroll in a black literature course. I was made to feel very unwelcome including mostly by the white instructor who repeatedly harassed me in an effort to get me to drop the course. I was the only student who did not receive an “A” in the course. I had points deducted for stating common knowledge without a footnote; example: I wrote that George Washington the first President of the US. No one else was required to footnote sources.
Although I am not certain, my understanding is that the University of Mississippi is among the SEC schools with the highest percentage of undergraduate black students.
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But that wouldn’t be a “Critical Race Theory” course, right?
University of Mississippi has about 12% Black undergraduates according to NCES. Mississippi State University has 17% and Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College has 15%.
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How Republican the state is is beside the point. Mississippi has the largest African American population of any state in the country (38%). That’s where the Democratic votes come from. However, the power structure is white. The culture and history of the state speak for themselves. Maybe there’s a better descriptor for that than “red”.
By contrast, Wyoming is 2% African American. That’s the difference.
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I’m not sure what you are trying to say?
My brother-in-law is from Mississippi and one of my husband’s good friends is involved in Mississippi government on the state level. I think there is a lot of good stuff that happens in Mississippi that people from outside the region don’t know about. Sure, it definitely has its problems, but too often “Mississippi” is used as a punch line when folks don’t really know what is going on there.
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You sound like a lawyer, reframing what I said so that it becomes something I didn’t say. Are you a lawyer?
First of all, I didn’t say that all white Mississippians are racists. And you know that.
Second, I never said that I made a quick trip there or that I made only a single trip there. I gave examples of what I experienced there. And you know that too.
I spoke about the long established culture of the state.
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I don’t think that makes you an expert on state culture, and broad-brushed statements to the contrary (“that is the culture of the 62% of the population in Mississippi that is white”) are not constructive.
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@Bill_Marsh from that long post you made I can see why you, as an individual, were surprised that a Mississippi university had a class on Critical Race Theory.
From my experience living in the South and knowing folks from Mississippi, and knowing someone in state government in Mississippi it does not surprise me that a single class on Critical Race Theory was taught in a university law school in Mississippi. Doesn’t surprise me that people on Mississippi are opposed to it either. The South is a lot more nuanced and diverse than the stereotypes.
FWIW, Mississippi State has an annual lecture series on Race in America too.
@ucbalumnus, thanks for posting the link to the article. I enjoyed reading it.
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Black people have been treated as less than human in my lifetime, and I am not that old. Laws allowed treatment that was, IMO, incomprehensible. The mindset that allowed that to be considered acceptable not so very long ago is surely still embraced by some people in our country. Even if it could have somehow magically disappeared from every American that quickly, the institutions and laws that have roots in the beliefs of the past would have to be intentionally updated to remove the vestiges of past beliefs. Only when a society examines what it has done, accepts the wrongs it has inflicted and intentionally works toward change can true change occur. Choosing to ignore the reality of the past doesn’t help in the quest for a better future for all. Thank you for posting the article.
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“Lynchings in Mississippi Never Stopped”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/08/modern-day-mississippi-lynchings/
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Or in Minneapolis at the hands of the police. Modern day lynchings and racism are all over this country.
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It’s probably true. The gerrymandering of districts makes the south look redder than it is.
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