The Most Important Lost Requirement
April 27, 2007
This is the second of two columns on Tufts graduation requirements. The column from last week, which argued for a religion requirement, is available online at
tuftsobserver.org/opinion.
Each of us has our own stereotypes and biases, but when do those translate into hate? How do we react when we are stereotyped, and why do we react the way we do? Why do we perceive ourselves to be unique but other groups to all be the same? These and similar questions aren’t discussed enough at Tufts, or around the world for that matter. But they are important questions, the answers to which bear influential implications on immigration, education, voting rights, environmental justice, social class—every aspect of life, every day.
Maybe words like stereotype, bias, racism, and sexism are uncomfortable; that’s why we invented political correctness. If that is the case, then screw political correctness. These questions are by nature uncomfortable, and they wouldn’t be controversial if they weren’t.
Part of the Tufts education should include a course that engages this kind of societal analysis. Courses that discuss how personal identification affects an individual’s role in society and enables students to engage in meaningful discussion of how and why group membership affects people, and how that can be changed to combat injustice and hate. Isn’t that a necessary skill for our society to possess?
The theory behind this course is not covered by the world civilizations requirement. It’s supposed to make students think about society in ways they haven’t before, the literal world around us. Not the world that’s in Iraq or Russia, but your world (unless, of course, your world is Iraq or Russia). Studying world civilizations is important, but sometimes Tufts forgets that discussions about society here right now are equally, if not more, important.
Let me explain what this requirement would look like. It wouldn’t be a Kumbaya sing-along. It would be a place that would combine study of history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, education, and other departments to develop a comprehensive look at race and sexuality and the roles they play in society. It would contribute to a personal understanding of our world and how we work within it. It would provide a forum where students could explore self-identification and how that identification interacts with others. It would cultivate ways to understand by identifying where stereotypes come from and we respond to them.
But is there really a need for this kind of study? I mean, Tufts students are pretty accepting in their views on society and the world. Don’t we already have control over our perceptions of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and sexuality?
Think that, and then try this: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit. It’s a demonstration of research from Project Implicit, a collaboration of researchers from Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington. This portion of the research project explores thoughts and feelings about race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, and other classifications that exist outside of the conscious mind but can nonetheless affect our actions every day. It is an educational and engaging experience—and your own personal results might surprise you.
For me, this demonstration showed that I have clear and subconscious preferences towards certain groups, some more strongly than others. The Project Implicit researchers have found that an almost negligible number of people had no biases toward one group or another. I wouldn’t say that makes us all racists or all sexists. But I would say Project Implicit’s research shows that our society makes it almost impossible to go a single day without judging someone we don’t know.
That’s a significant finding, and it could help explain a lot of the inequities and prejudices at Tufts and in society at large. And being a universal phenomenon, there is no reason that students shouldn’t be exposed to the reasons for and implications of these biases. We can only combat the problem if we know what it really is.
Moreover, because the requirement would be highly interdisciplinary, it would compel students to explore a concept at a higher plane of thinking. The course would be as intellectually stimulating and educationally valuable as any other in Tufts’ curriculum.
Here are some thoughts on courses offered next fall that could be included. AMER81: Constructions of Whiteness. WL17: Reading the World: Love and Sexuality in World Literature. AM12: Race in America. WS191: Introduction to Queer Studies.
These are the kinds of courses that change perspectives. They form expressive students in touch with the world, students who are able to articulate society’s problems and possible solutions. And if you can articulate that, you can articulate anything.