UChicago is only taking applications from students interested in Black literature

UChicago announced that for the 2020-21 admissions cycle, their graduate English department will only accept applications from students interested in studying Black literature. For a school with a board of trustees that consists almost entirely of rich white finance executives, this is rather grave. Which pillars of old money do you think will succumb next to the left's cancel culture and fascism?

 

What's the source? Post a link.

It could be the case that it just happens so that only the professors researching Black literature are accepting students this year.

That's very different from U Chicago English department refusing to accept students who match with professors  not studying Black literature.

 

Deleted the link because it's routing people to a weird place. It's on the Chicago English Dept website. 

"Note: For the 2020-2021 graduate admissions cycle, the University of Chicago English Department is accepting only applicants interested in working in and with Black Studies. We understand Black Studies to be a capacious intellectual project that spans a variety of methodological approaches, fields, geographical areas, languages, and time periods." 

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Holy crap. This is just bigotry. A quote from the UChicago English department website.

English as a discipline has a long history of providing aesthetic rationalizations for colonization, exploitation, extraction, and anti-Blackness. Our discipline is responsible for developing hierarchies of cultural production that have contributed directly to social and systemic determinations of whose lives matter and why.

I mean it's technically true. But the way they bring it up is like saying that the German language is evil because "Nazis". Next thing I know they're gonna start claiming that we should all commit suicide cuz "hUmAnZ r eViL".

They are taking groupthink to a whole another level.

 

hold up what if you identify as a transgender bisexual gay 69% black 20% latinx 10% native american 1% white if you're a straight while male?

 

Your title is kind of clickbait, though. You implied that UChicago was only accepting students interested in studying black literature for ALL their degree programs which actually means something. "Their graduate English department will only accept applications from students interested in studying Black literature" means very little. The link didn't work for me either, but demonstrating interest in a type of literature for a graduate-level literature student can't be difficult at all.

I'm a conservative, but there's not really any cancel culture here lol.

 

Your title is kind of clickbait, though. You implied that UChicago was only accepting students interested in studying black literature for ALL their degree programs which actually means something. "Their graduate English department will only accept applications from students interested in studying Black literature" means very little. The link didn't work for me either, but demonstrating interest in a type of literature for a graduate-level literature student can't be difficult at all.

I'm a conservative, but there's not really any cancel culture here lol.

It's a problem because Black Studies in this context is nakedly political. They are saying that unless you agree to overt, left-wing indoctrination, you can't study English at Chicago. Not all "Black Studies" is equal. Some are black studies. Some are ideological and even anti-white. 

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Right, but let's just call it what it is. Sure, it's political and trying to put UChicago in a good light because BLM and the like are the trend right now. But what does this actually mean for prospective students of UChicago? If you're an undergrad of any major or grad student of any major except english, it's business as usual because this doesn't affect them. Let's see what this means. I can't find the exact numbers on how many English grad students there are at Chicago, but there's about 15,000 students in total and about 10,000 are grad students. However, there's about 100 different graduate programs at Chicago. I'm going to assume that English is not taken as much as programs like accounting, business, economics, finance, management, marketing, biochemistry, cancer biology, immunology, microbiology, neurobiology, law, medicine, and a couple other legitimately useful programs of study. However, for our purpose let's just assume that there's exactly the same number of students in each degree program. This means there's a 100 students studying English. Really? People are going crazy over a decision that will affect 0.67% of Chicago's entire class?

As for the merits of black studies, I could care less and that probably applies to the majority of people in finance, tech, engineering, medicine, law, and other common, risk-averse professions. Anyone willing to take two years and 80k out of their lives to study literature is probably chill with and possibly excited to study black studies. If they're really fundamentally opposed to what is going to be almost nothing extra in their curriculum (let's be honest, this is for show and students will probably get a lecture or two on this topic or maybe one token GPA booster class), then they can feel free to apply and go to other schools.

 
Controversial

The school believes that black lives matter and since it is a timely and important topic, it made sense for them to make it a requirement for the current year. That does not mean, it will be a requirement in future years, though.  If you do not want to be involved black studies/English,  then you can go to another school.    The University of Chicago is a private institution and can set it curriculum as it sees fit.   

Their decision affects no one on WSO, as no one here is going to major in English.    Don't worry, I am pretty sure if you are a capitalist, there are plenty of programs you would be interested in at the University of Chicago.

 

Quote from their website.

English as a discipline has a long history of providing aesthetic rationalizations for colonization, exploitation, extraction, and anti-Blackness. Our discipline is responsible for developing hierarchies of cultural production that have contributed directly to social and systemic determinations of whose lives matter and why.

As far as I'm concerned, UChicago English Department is full of idiots now.

Also BIG difference between supporting racial equality vs. sneaking in ridiculous, utterly false, and incredibly dangerous beleif system behind a otherwise noble cause of fighting racism.

As someone who really hates racism, I'm concerned these post-modernist idiots are completely nullifying the cause by making the fight against racism utterly racial (IRONY!).

 
financeabc

The school believes that black lives matter and since it is a timely and important topic, it made sense for them to make it a requirement for the current year. That does not mean, it will be a requirement in future years, though.  If you do not want to be involved black studies/English,  then you can go to another school.    The University of Chicago is a private institution and can set it curriculum as it sees fit.   

Their decision affects no one on WSO, as no one here is going to major in English.    Don't worry, I am pretty sure if you are a capitalist, there are plenty of programs you would be interested in at the University of Chicago.

Black Studies at Chicago is nakedly political and ideological. Why should the U.S. taxpayer be obligated to finance an English degree at Chicago that indoctrinates students into an anti-white ideology? What is the benefit to the taxpayer and to the public?

No school that receives federal funds receives them without strings attached. That's why there are dozens of conservative colleges and universities that take no money from the feds. Pure indoctrination paid for by the taxpayer should no longer stand. 

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Tax payers are not going to agree with every program in which dollars are allocated.  I did not agree with the Iraq war but my tax dollars supported the invasion or Iraq to find those "WMDs"

This is only one part of the University of Chicago  and there are plenty of other degrees to pursue.   Other than your tax rationale, there is not a single person on WSO who is impacted by this decision.  I am not sure what the big deal is here.  

I am not going to address how you think BLM or black studies at U of Chicago is anti-white

 
real_Skankhunt42

financeabc

The school believes that black lives matter and since it is a timely and important topic, it made sense for them to make it a requirement for the current year. That does not mean, it will be a requirement in future years, though.  If you do not want to be involved black studies/English,  then you can go to another school.    The University of Chicago is a private institution and can set it curriculum as it sees fit.   

Their decision affects no one on WSO, as no one here is going to major in English.    Don't worry, I am pretty sure if you are a capitalist, there are plenty of programs you would be interested in at the University of Chicago.

- expand -

Black Studies at Chicago is nakedly political and ideological. Why should the U.S. taxpayer be obligated to finance an English degree at Chicago that indoctrinates students into an anti-white ideology? What is the benefit to the taxpayer and to the public?

No school that receives federal funds receives them without strings attached. That's why there are dozens of conservative colleges and universities that take no money from the feds. Pure indoctrination paid for by the taxpayer should no longer stand. 

Half of what gets studied at universities is nakedly political.  Everything, really.  If you're upset about this, why not start with much lower hanging fruit.  Why is Brigham Young University a tax-exempt educational institution?  How is an explicitly Mormon university anything other than a religious institution, and therefore political by nature?  Ditto any religious-affiliated or named school.

You find this to be a horrible example of "anti-white" ideology because pro-Black curriculum requirements have never existed, so this is a change to the status quo.  But the status quo has always been nakedly racist and nakedly political, it just conformed to your biases so you didn't care.  If you weren't outraged before, then whatever outrage you display now is probably a little more revealing than you think

 
Most Helpful

Wow so I looked at the source and it is true.

All these post-modernists are bunch of idiots who never ventured outside their bubble. Also they don't know jack about history.

Slavery as an institution has almost never been born out of racism. It alway had economic motives. Admittedly, racism was used to justify the continuation of practice,  but never born out of racism. People of same races enslaved each other all over the places and always tried to justify it by somehow claiming that they are better, but was never fundamentally racist.

Also let's not forget that bunch of powerful West African kingdoms profitted MASSIVELY from capturing tribespeople outside their control or sometimes their own marginalized groups and selling them to the Europeans, Muslims, and other African powers (SURPRISE!!!) as slaves.

Slavery is horrible but at least we should acknowledge the facts.

 

"Slavery as an institution has almost never been born out of racism" ... yikes. Slavery (especially in the US) being "born out of" either economics vs. racism is not mutually exclusive

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rezjopls

"Slavery as an institution has almost never been born out of racism" ... yikes. Slavery (especially in the US) being "born out of" either economics vs. racism is not mutually exclusive

Slavery in the Americas wasn't "born" out of racism. It was "born" out of the fact that you could purchase slaves from the African continent. Slavery as an institution was *justified* by racism and it thrived south of the Mason-Dixon line because of the biology of Malaria (where those of African descent had acquired higher levels of immunity and Malaria thrives in warmer climates). History is complicated. European serfdom was more or less slavery. It died because of the new economic realities of the plague. 

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Like I said, racism was merely used as a justification. No one went into West Africa thinking, "we have to enslave these lesser beings". They went in thinking, "we need some slaves, who's selling?". And then justified it using racist rhetoric.

In fact, the primary suppliers were powerful West African empires and Kingdoms. Europeans were just the middlemen.

Portuguese eventually wanted to be the suppliers so they developed some port cities along the modern day Angolan coast and started capturing helpless tribesmen outside the control of these African kingdoms.

The European powers then invaded West Africa after the invention of rifles and reliable canons. Only then the Europeans became the main suppliers of slaves in the Atlantic.

Plenty if East African kingdoms and Islamic kingdoms were involved in the slave trade. Often, the slaves were East African tribesmen and Slavic tribesmen.

 

I don’t see why the graduate english board being white, rich finance execs has anything to do with that decision.

With that being said, they haven’t announced how much black literature would be analyzed; it could mean as little as one course. I assume most graduate english majors have a least some interest in studying black literature anyways.

Keep in mind that the school is literally in Chicago

 

Look at their curriculum. It's absolutely filled with post-modernist propaganda.

https://english.uchicago.edu/courses/black-shakespeare

This is just an example, but the entire coursework is based on utterly false assumptions.

It claims that famous Shakespeare's characters like Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra, etc... are black. This is an entirely baseless claim. It's just farcical. Because Othello is a Moor, catch-all name for North Africans (who are just tanned Caucasians like Arabs) that Middle Age Europeans dubbed.

Cleopatra, the real historic figure, was ethnically Greek. She was a descendent of oneof Alexander the Great's generals and majority of Egyptians were and (still are) NOT BLACK. Anthony of course was Roman.

EDIT: I did a little more research and it looks like claiming that Moors and Egyptians are Black is part of Black Sumpremacist belief. Somehow it carried slipped into academia..... Imagine U Chicago professors discussing some ideas from the KKK as if they were true. What's next, class on "Historic Jesus, why Christianity hates Black and Jewish people."?

 

Exactly how was OP being a "racist"?

I'll admit that OP sounds like a clueless kid who doesn't know what "fascism" is nor "cancel culture". But don't let his stupidity cloud a serious issue in this country.

It's the same thing with dumb clueless people going out there screaming "Defund the police" and "ACAB". Those people are nullifying and quite frankly weakening a good cause for fighting racial inequality.

 

"...that you seem to support?" 

When did I support anything? Not once did I talk about BLM or ACAB or my stance on those heavily polarizing issues.

Don't ever put words in my mouth or venture to speak for me. I stand by my original statement. You're not a victim so you can take your bitching elsewhere.

First, this is not a political site. Second, your "discussion on these topics" is really just a dog whistle to the other incels who constantly bitch on this site about how "diversity" is supposedly "oppressing" them and how that one or two "diverse" candidate in a sea of white faces that's hired or admitted is the supposed cause for all their failures in life. You sir, can Fuck off with your BS. Tired of seeing these types of posts on this site. Take your political crap to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 

 

An actual UChicago class:

"

ENGL 16004 Protest Puppetry: Materializing American Publicness

This course will explore the structural dynamics of protests through a close examination of giant puppets. We will engage with both practices and theories of protest puppetry. You will learn how to craft insurgent objects out papier maché and other found materials. We will think through this practice alongside theories of the public sphere and ethnographies of protests, uprisings and social movements (on the left and the right) from the 1960s to the present day. Rather than maintain the division between theory and practice, we will investigate the ways in which social movements mobilize theory as liberatory practice and how the practice of “puppetganda” generates theories of publicity from the mechanical and technical demands it makes on its puppeteers, participants and spectators. We will study specific protest events, from pioneers of the artform like Bread and Puppet in the 1960s to the height of protest puppetry during the environmental and global justice movements in the 1980s-2000s. We will ask why protest puppets were especially popular during the rise of neoliberalism and ultimately examine their usefulness in today’s political climate in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and Black uprising as well as the alt-right “rally.”

Marissa Fenley

2020-2021 Winter

Drama

Theory"

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 
:

You will learn how to craft insurgent objects out papier maché and other found materials.

Imagine going $100K into debt for this.

 

Not really sure people are going 100k into debt to attend Chicago. It's one of the schools with great financial aid. And besides, I've seen a ton of Chicago grads who majored in English, History, etc on the street. 

 

You don't have a choice due to the "gen-ed" requirement. You'll be forced to take at least a couple classes as stupid as this, if not more. The school I attend I've already had to take 3. :(

 

I consider myself center, maybe a hint more left than most- which qualifies as full on liberal here on WSO
 

But this is stupid. On one hand, someone made a point they’re a private institution and can do whatever they want- which is completely accurate. However, the place to promote things of this nature is in scholarships. Have a fund for those interested in a niche topic, sure. I’m a believer in scholarships allowing the economically disadvantaged. But admissions only for a specific topic? That’s dumb. That’s fighting racism with racism. Sure, it’s just in the English department which doesn’t affect anyone here. But the premise is wrong, it’s a pure virtue signaling grab, and sets a dangerous precedent for other institutions. 

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

If it was a required class, I'm all for that. I just saw some bizarre stats about Holocaust deniers and it made me realize how much education sucks here, and just how people can really be oblivious to the plight of people throughout history (and the plight of African Americans has been pretty well document and some people still don't get it). I think being a requirement for admissions is weird, being that people should specialize in whatever they like. 

In my opinion, and I'm no education expert by any means, I think teaching people about history is much like biology- you should teach it because it's important, but you can't just accept bio majors for the entire science department.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

Imagine if colleges encouraged all students to pursue careers that provide financial stability and taught people to treat each other with respect, instead of virtue signaling and pandering to crazy activists (and not the ones with good intentions and clear goals).  

 

My commentary was on the general trends of college. If colleges cared about empowering their students, they would teach which educational concentrations create financial stability (and thus, economically empower their students) and fight to eradicate real racism/real problems. Instead, colleges give platforms to people who want to create racism out of everything i.e. Chinese filler words, which dilutes real racism and prevents society from making real progress. 

 

U Chicago wants to add a black studies requirement and people are outraged?   Where is the racism and anti white content?   If I missed it, please point it out so we can all read it.  

 

You can always count on ''moderate liberals'' to take a stand against the fanaticism of their side. Just look at this thread.... oh no no no no. They are all on board with it. 

On a similar note, the University of Edinburgh is cancelling David Hume. The greatest Scottish philosopher and one of the greatest of mankind, replaced by the likes of someone who's famous for holding a pregnant woman at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, Vox wants to cancel Beethoven. 

https://www.vox.com/switched-on-pop/21437085/beethoven-5th-symphony-eli…

Liberals are dedicated to the erasure of European people and their heritage. They are racists. They started a war, they must be fought back. 

Never discuss with idiots, first they drag you at their level, then they beat you with experience.
 

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