San Diego State University (SDSU) plans to implement a new course this Fall, titled “Black Minds Matter: A Focus On Black Boys and Men In Education.”
The course is taught online and is free and open to the public. The instructor is J. Luke Wood, Prof. or Education, who also played a role in developing the program.
Professor Wood’s YouTube channel has a video about the program which explains that the course will discuss “complex challenges” that include “overrepresentation in special education and exclusionary discipline, the school to prison pipeline, unconscious bias stereotypes, microaggressions, and more.”
“The Black Lives Matter movement has shed light on two invariable facts. First, that black boys and men are criminalized in society and second that their lives are undervalued by those who are sworn to protect them,” Professor Wood states in the video message.
According to the video description, the program will also connect “themes from the Black Lives Matter movement to issues facing Black boys and men in educational settings.”
The course includes guest speakers every week who “will share their insights, perspectives, and research on the Black male educational experience.”
Per the San Diego Tribune, the course is specifically intended for SDSU students in pursuit of becoming education professors as well as school teachers.
Some local residents are not happy about the public course. Craig DeLuz, an activist from Sacramento, spoke to the Associated Press concerning the program.
“The biggest concern is they are offering a course based on the Black Lives Matter movement which has promoted violence and segregation and has really little to do with education, let alone presenting a positive image of education,” DeLuz stated.
SDSU is defending the program. They say the program “has a racial justice focus, directly aligned with the mission of the joint doctoral program in Education. This program focuses on social justice, democratic schooling, and equity, as well as the research of the faculty who teach in it.”
“Black Minds Matter: A Focus On Black Boys and Men In Education” officially starts on October 23rd and ends on December 11th.
