Davidson College, located in North Carolina, is under fire from alumni after the revelation that student-athletes at the college were required to watch the video “I’m Not Racist … Am I?” which paints all white people as racists.
The Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse, an alumni-run free speech organization, exposed and denounced the video after learning the North Carolina institution forced student athletes to watch it this semester.
Notably, “in one clip of the film that we uncovered, is the unequivocal repetition that all white people are racist, and people of color cannot be racist,” the organization told The College Fix in a statement via email last week.
“The students with whom we have spoken about this film found it offensive, divisive, and personally insulting,” the organization stated.
Moreover, the athletic department opted to show the film on a Sunday afternoon instead of normal school hours, according to the organization. Students “were disappointed that the Athletic Department would compel them to participate in this event for over three hours on a Sunday afternoon,” the group told The Fix.
Watch:
“So, are you saying that all white people are racist?”
“Yes.”
“We would also say that it’s only white people that could be racist, that are racist.”
You have to watch this clip from a film Davidson College required all its student-athletes to watch. pic.twitter.com/Q0STbgZNCB
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 27, 2024
In a petition on Change.org, the group shares:
Whereas, numerous course syllabi at Davidson College have recently been found to mandate controversial “anti-oppression” behaviors unrelated to the course subject in classes such as Spanish 101, multivariable calculus, and cell biology, and
Whereas, all scholar-athletes were recently required to view a highly controversial film titled, “I’m Not Racist…Am I?” (See Full Letter Here)
We, the undersigned, urge Davidson College to adopt a set of policies and guidelines on student rights that comports with the American Association of University Professor’s statement on academic freedom that guards against the ability of faculty to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject.
Further, we ask that the college adopt policies that limit the ability of staff or departments to compel students to participate in events or engage in activities that are political or ideological in nature and that are not a standard part of training or education.
We urge President Hicks to take these concerns to the Faculty Executive Committee, and any other relevant bodies that may be able to craft and adopt these policies.
In 2021, The Gateway Pundit reported Davidson College began offering courses centered around teaching students Marxist “black political and feminist theories” that will assist them in activism to abolish the police including “#Abolishthepolice” and “Abolishing Prisons and the Police.”
The “critical black studies” class at Davidson teaches students that non-whites and LGBT people are disproportionately targeted, causing them to be “routinely” surveilled, arrested, incarcerated and sexually assaulted by police officers. They intend to use radical “social and political philosophies” to decry policing in all forms, including what they define as “police militarization.”
