In the upcoming 2023-2024 school year, numerous colleges in the United States will be offering courses in “Critical Whiteness Studies,” a branch of Critical Race Theory.
The Department of English Language and Literature at the University of New Mexico will host a course with a focus on understanding whiteness as an ideology of supremacy and domination, aiming to challenge it as a means of promoting antiracist practices.
At the University of Colorado, Denver, students can enroll in the course titled “Problematizing Whiteness: Educating for Racial Justice,” which delves into Critical Whiteness Studies to analyze race from multiple perspectives, considering the experiences of people of color and the involvement of white individuals.
Meanwhile, the University of Oregon offers the “Critical Whiteness Studies” class, which explores the social construction of race by delving into the history of “whiteness” as a racial category in the United States.
In the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, students can take the course “Whiteness, Power and Privilege,” where they will examine racialization and racism through the lens of Critical Whiteness Studies, emphasizing the role of whiteness as a driving force behind oppression.
Additionally, the University of Puget Sound previously hosted a “Critical Whiteness Studies” course in its English Department, focusing on understanding the historical context, purpose, and impact of racial encoding within literature.
Formerly, the University of Wisconsin Madison offered a course titled “The Problem of Whiteness,” which aimed to explore how whiteness is socially constructed and experienced, while also examining how white individuals perpetuate institutional racism.
Critical Whiteness Studies is an extension of Critical Theory, a neo-Marxist worldview that highlights power struggles between identity groups and rejects the concept of equality under the law and individual responsibility.
In a concerted effort to integrate these theories into both K-12 education and higher education, colleges have been incorporating Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies into various subjects such as ballet, music education, social work, counseling, and education.