In an attempt to increase diversity within its physics department, Stanford University has created a modified physics course for “underrepresented” physics majors. Its purpose, according to the university, is to help retain nontraditional or “minority” students interested in physics. However well-intentioned this may be, implying that racial minorities need different coursework is, frankly, racist and regressive.
The initiative was created in response to a 2016 survey that revealed Stanford’s physics department to be one of the “least diverse” departments within the institution. As a result, the physics department felt that a greater focus on “education equity” in the department’s course work could remedy the diversity gap.
Stanford has added two other new physics courses as well, both focusing entirely on “diversity” and “inclusion” within the discipline. Students will learn about “issues of diversity and culture in physics” by applying concepts such as “critical race theory.” They’re also taught “what it is like to be a female professor” or “a faculty member raised first-generation/low income.”
While nonminority students are welcome to take the new classes, it’s clearly implied that these extra measures are meant for minorities by the university’s news release about making physics inclusive. Of course there will always be crazy courses offered at various colleges, but these courses are notable because they represent what might become the modern day form of campus racism.
While colleges should certainly be open to increasing diversity and making people feel welcome, seeking to push minority students into different coursework based on race or ethnicity is a rudimentary and primitive solution. It’s insulting at best, and racist at worst.
It’s no surprise that some students oppose the initiative. The Stanford College Republicans said in a statement that “the creation of special curricula and support services for ethnic minority groups and women to be textbook examples of unequal treatment.” This is the latest in a long pattern of regressive approaches to racial issues emerging on college campuses, and is concerning indeed.
Alexander James is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog and a freelance journalist.
