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MSU Classes SLAM America as “Profoundly Racist” and “White Supremacist,” Demand No Recording

Updated: Jul 13, 2021


Contributor: Bri Saroli


In the past several months The Morning Watch has collected recordings, readings, and other evidence from social science classes, “Sex, Gender & Sexuality” (SOC216), “Race and Ethnicity” (SOC215),” and “Lit, Cultures, Identities” (IAH217).


Michigan and professor recording rule concerns are addressed here.


Dr. Lambert’s class, “Lit, Cultures, Identities” has featured several videos and addresses from the professor.


“You about your masculinity, go find a book on feminism,” he stated in class January 22, 2020.


“Watch a documentary. Hike yourself over to the library, sit down and start reading magazines, journals...educate yourself about these issues. Rather than expecting people who have been historically been subordinated in the first place to assume the responsibility of educating you,” Dr. Lambert continued.


Further, he has directed students to his office hours to be educated on race.


A video, “You see a black guy, white guy, pretty girl committing a crime. What you do?,” shown in his class, used examples of suspects attempting to take a locked bike as “racial stereotyping.”


Recently Dr. Lambert displayed a video from a Vox article on the “peaceful protests” surrounding the anthem and regarding discrimination in America.


The video alleges the protests are focused on protesting police brutality and racial inequalities, not the anthem.


Dr. Lambert responded to these videos stating, “part of what it means to live in a white supremacist/anti-black society means that the term blackness is a deviation from the norm.”


Content from SOC215 and SOC216 included assigned readings which confront racism, sex, gender, and sexuality. Some of the assigned readings included:


  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About

  • “All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans

  • Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach

  • Assigned Life with a Gender

  • How to Be An Antiracist

While discussing these books and other readings that the students had to complete, the professors explained the importance of understanding racism and the importance of gender studies.


The syllabi that were distributed to students had them read the books and discuss them in class.


According to the syllabus from Dr. Samantha Fox’s “Race and Ethnicity” class, the course “introduces students to the study of race, racism and ethno-racial oppression by examining the significance of everyday microaggressions in relation to the structural and systemic conditions by which racism is perpetuated.”


Dr. Fox on multiple occasions discussed race.


She declared, “locking your doors in areas like Detroit is racist”, “we live in a profoundly racist society,” and “saying that different races are predisposed to health risks is ridiculous because it’s probably from the stress of racism that’s causing their hypertension.”


Discussing microaggressions and race, Dr. Fox stated, “white women clutch their purses really tightly, which is a microaggression,” and that she could go on “about how awful white women were”.


She further stated, in America, we “live in a profoundly racist society,” where “oppression is historical and normalized.” She also made assertions declaring that “discrimination involves not making eye-contact,” and sensitive statements such as, “Native Americans have the highest suicide rate.”


Suicide statistics from 2017 can be found here.


Dr. Sarah Prior, in her gender studies class (SOC216), assigned videos which illustrated, “gender is a social construct,” and promoted the idea that children would be better off growing up without a gender. Further proposing young children starting at age five to change their gender.


Along with this, a book assigned by Dr. Prior, Assigned Life with a Gender, discussed how people should “not refer to your children as boys or girls,” and should “change the pronouns in kids’ books” to make everything gender-neutral.


Dr. Prior asserted, “just because you have a male sexed baby or female sexed baby, doesn’t make them solely confined to those things that we have designated as male and female.” Therefore, “we should not socialize our children,” because they have already been socialized enough.


The syllabi from the classes asked for no recording of classes. One stated, “students may not record lectures or any other classroom activities, including other students engaged in a discussion.” This does not accurately reflect Michigan court rulings, read more here.



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