After a struggle that lasted 3 years and 5 months, I have managed to persuade the university bureaucrats to change the title of my intro course on Hispanic Civilization to “Introduction to Hispanic Civilization.” The struggle entailed me having to explain that the words “Hispanic” and “civilization” are not offensive to black people.
Bureaucrats see the word “civilization” and interpret it as you saying that black people are uncivilized. Of course, the objection is always couched as, “some people will see the word ‘civilization’ and assume…” It’s a clear case of projection, and I find this whole idea of associating black people with lack of civilization deeply offensive, so it wasn’t hard to show sincere dismay during these discussions.
Today the course title was officially changed from “Learning a Foreign Language.” Which is something we never did in that course because it’s taught 100% in English. Now I will finally teach what the course title announces. And it only took 3,5 years, a mountain of paperwork and over a dozen (I stopped counting about 2 years in) levels of approval. To be clear, I have been teaching it as Intro to Hispanic Civilization since 2009. And it had been taught that way long before I showed up. It’s the title that was weird, not the course itself.
Clarissa's Blog 
The most absurd thing about it all is that these so-called anti-racists seem to have whole-heartedly internalised the very same “white supremacist rhetoric” that they purport to be against. How supremely ironic, and sad, is that?
LikeLike
Talking about what people might assume is a great way to block any politically incorrect speech.
https://dailyfriend.co.za/2023/02/12/what-do-the-white-racists-think/
LikeLike