A course at Indiana University is teaching students to categorize individuals as “oppressors” or “oppressed” solely based on their race, sex, or religious affiliation.
The course, titled “Understanding Diversity in a Pluralistic Society,” has students examine certain theories and models to “enhance understanding of our diverse society.” The course “provides content about differences and similarities in the experiences, needs, and beliefs of selected minority groups and their relation to the majority group,” according to the school website. The description also adds that the “groups include, but are not limited to, people of color, women, and gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons.”
According to a report by the Washington Free Beacon, the class required students to write an “in-depth reflection of two parts of [their] identity: one subordinate identity and one dominant identity.” The final assignment for the course assumes that every student can identify with at least one group that gives them power and one group that leads them to be opposed.
Materials provided in the course reportedly list heterosexual, white, Christian, able-bodied men as “dominant groups” responsible for “social oppression,” while “subordinate groups” include women, LGBT individuals, and racial minorities.
The course fulfills credit requirements for Indiana University’s School of Social Work under the “social and historical studies” category. One student who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon explained having had to “make something up” to complete the assignment.
“I’m being punished through an assignment for my identity as a person, and that’s just crazy,” the student explained. “I had to make something up and I don’t enjoy doing that.”
“It’s very rich that in a class where we are supposed to be talking about identity and not suppressing identity, I’m forced to suppress my own identity,” the student added. “I have to suppress myself because I’m presumed to be some privileged, horrible human being that didn’t grow up without food. That’s insane to me.”
The controversial course comes as Indiana recently became one of six states to pass anti-DEI laws this year. In March, the governor signed a law banning public colleges from requiring diversity statements in hiring processes, aiming to promote intellectual diversity in higher education institutions.
