OK so moral of the story is if I avoid constantly griping about Obama Care, don’t ask if people have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ, and steer clear of the Women’s Studies room at all costs, I’ll be fine? Seems easy enough. I believe in not forcing others to believe in what I believe; tolerance is key, and I agree. The purpose of this post was to just see if the world of Academia would be tolerant of a student they would write off as mysoginistic, racist, etcetera simply because of his “priveliged” demographics.
pats DerpyDod on the back You’re going to be okay, man. You’re going to be okay.
Most Universities are not physical manifestations of Tumblr. I’m relatively conservative (and religious) – at least by Massachusetts standards – and I’m in a Gender Studies course right now and I don’t feel under constant fire for vocalizing my ideas. My professor’s favorite student happens to be a male student who is the straight, white captain of our men’s LAX team…
You can even take a Women’s Studies course and you’ll be ok.
But I mean you have to agree with me that when you think of a mysoginist or a racist or a homophone or any other source of discrimination, your mind immediately thinks of a white republican christian male (who lives in a rural state as a bonus (Alaska)).
Most professors will not give you any problems, they are pretty open minded, and teach a very diverse group. BUT!, there are a few out there that feel like their it’s mission to preach morals(according to them) to students. I had at least two out and proud Cristian Professors, they treated everyone fairly and were great. Most professors; I had know Idea what their religious or political beliefs were, because they never let on.
But there are two that stand out. One was a history professor that ‘according’ to other students hated Christians. Would go on and on about how hypocritical they all are, several times a month. And how he, Mr. History Professor had all the morals and ethics of the universe all figured out. Ahem. I just avoided him and his class. Another professor of English that taught my sister’s class when she attended UCSB. also didn’t like Christians and encouraged the whole class to stand up and clap and chant “We’re all Gods! We’re all Gods” on the first day of class. I think she stayed in the class, but if it were me, I would have dropped and signed up for another. But these are two out of all the professors I ever took, know of, etc. So the percentage is actually small. And you’ll probably know within the first class or two if the professors are as nutty as the two mentioned above.
As for being insulted. It’s going to happen, it’s never pleasant, just understand that people are usually doing it out of ignorance and not to personally make you feel bad. Just live your life according to your beliefs and values. There’s Christians that have been murdered for their beliefs, so a few snarky comments is nothing really, KWIM?
Echoing what preamble said, no one thinks about Alaska. I might think about it if someone is talking ice road truckers or something. Don’t worry, Alaska isn’t considered a bonus…the southern states have you beat in that category. I do encourage you to choose a different bait, although I usually think of the word “rose” when it comes to homophones. 
That’s interesting. I would have thought that there would be a few stereotypes for Americas adopted lovechild of Canada and Russia.
I don’t even associate Alaska with politics (with the exception of Sarah Palin) – the vast majority of people think of Alaska as a sort of gigantic state park with it’s own government. Nice cruises. Grizzly bears. And so on.
I think you’ll be fine. A lot of people conceive of Universities as enclaves of radical liberalism but they really aren’t anything like that. (Except Brown, of course. )
People might think of Alaska in terms of polar bears, salmon, cruise ships, and oil. Or how people in Alaska tell jokes about “Texas size = small”.
Bro, don’t fish for fights. You’ll learn first semester, but that gets you on people’s bad side.
Around here (rural NY) Alaska is admired, I think. I agree with Niquii77 that it’s the southern states that bear the brunt of the conservative/redneck stereotyping.
First of all, in STEM majors, you do not have many classes that are “opinion” based…unless you think that magic fairies are the reason that electricity works. Other classes are up to you take…so maybe skip philosophy if you think that is an issue.
Usually in college it is not so much your opinion, but how you defend your opinion…how well you speak/write about it it and how you use evidence to defend it. Or if you believe in, say , creationism, you at least have to be able to understand and articulate what science says about big bang/evolution.
If you’re taking one of the classes you’re really not supposed to take (African American studies or if you’re a guy Gender Studies) then possibly, depending on the level of professionalism of the professor. If not, I highly doubt it. “White people are the devil” doesn’t really come up in Calculus.
If you’re going into STEM…remember…people in lab coats don’t have time to protest or really get bogged down into much classroom BS. :)) Depending on your University you might most likely encounter professors who consider you to be in need of conversion or correction (I speak from personal experience from long ago and from the experiences of my own kids).
If you do wind up with a hard core conversion minded Prof, just figure out what they want to hear and repeat it back to them. It’s not worth the aggravation. And, it’s good practice for the inevitable boss who will leave you shaking your head but still require you to ‘do and see it’ their way.
Both kids have taken that approach and it leads to a calmer more relaxed life.
= COOL…now you have TWO pencils!
Give me a break. Back a generation ago (in the 80s), when I was a physics major at a medium-sized university, all the math and science professors were white males. One of them even told a large lecture class of over 200 students that women had no place in the field of engineering. Hopefully there has been some movement toward diversity and tolerance in STEM since those days, but it’s certainly not changed so much as to flip to where someone should anticipate receiving grief because he is white and male and conservative and Christian. You’re still in the majority, OP, and instead of being worried about being respected for who you are, please open your eyes and open your mind and watch to see if others who are different from you are being fully respected for who they are as well. EVERYONE deserves to be respected regardless of gender/sexuality, skin-color, political views and religious affiliation.
This reminds me of the Reno 911 gif! =))
Why is a white man “really not supposed to take” a course in African American studies or gender studies?
I definitely agree that the wording there was a bit unnecessary, but it does sound like the OP would be very unhappy and defensive in such a class.
Hmm, I’d say it depends on where you go I’ve taken a few college courses and I (White, Democrat, Christian) have gotten a few comments (insults) toward my beliefs from professors but not really discrimination of grades or anything but I am in East Tennessee so I’d say just watch where you go a conservative in liberal territory or liberal in conservative territory is of course more susceptible to bias.
Hm… this thread is interesting considering that half of the incoming PhD students in Women’s Studies here at U of M are men.
Guess no one told them they weren’t supposed to take WS courses.
You’ll be fine, OP. Just don’t think everyone is out to get you like some people of your demographic subset believe.