{"id":131574,"date":"2023-08-01T00:03:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T04:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=131574"},"modified":"2023-07-31T16:21:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T20:21:54","slug":"depaul-black-studies-courses-highlight-black-girl-magic-white-supremacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/depaul-black-studies-courses-highlight-black-girl-magic-white-supremacy\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Black girl magic’ and science’s link to ‘white supremacy’ focus of DePaul black studies courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Course ‘will critically examine representations of blackness in popular culture, social media, literature and fine art’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DePaul University students can learn about \u201cblack girl magic\u201d and the connection between \u201cscience\u201d and \u201cwhite supremacy,\u201d in the school\u2019s African and black diaspora studies department.<\/p>\n

Students this upcoming semester can also enroll in \u201cRace and Racism\u201d and learn about \u201cthe origin of race as an intellectual and scientific project designed to organize humanity into discrete and hierarchical groups, and the implications of racial thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

These implications can include \u201cracial discrimination perpetuated by rhetorical and pictorial stereotypes, discriminatory behavior and institutional practices,\u201d according to the department\u2019s course description<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will utilize racial formation theory which links race and racism by showing the dynamic connections between stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and privilege,\u201d the latest course description<\/a> for the upcoming course states.<\/p>\n

The topic of \u201cblack girl magic\u201d is taught in at least one regular course called \u201cBlack Women Experiences,\u201d most recently offered in the winter semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will explore varying topics from black girl magic to black women’s pain and trauma,\u201d the description states. \u201cTo do this work, we will critically examine representations of blackness in popular culture, social media, literature and fine art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students will also \u201cthink through black women and girls\u2019 experiences [within] reproductive justice movements, queer communities, and beauty culture\u201d and \u201cquestion how black women and femmes survive in cultures that seek to erase them, exploit their labor and silence their voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College Fix<\/em> reached out to several professors who teach in the department to ask them for more information on their courses. Associate Professor Lori Pierce, who has taught<\/a> \u201cRace, Science, and White Supremacy,\u201d declined to answer questions about why it is important for students to learn about white supremacy in science.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> also asked if she could share a syllabus or the type of assignments she would give students.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> ‘Transgender children’ course offered by Catholic medical school<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNo thank you,\u201d Professor Pierce responded after several emails. Pierce most recently taught the senior capstone project for the black studies major.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> also emailed Symone Johnson, another professor in the program, who is set to teach \u201cRace, Science, and White Supremacy\u201d this coming fall semester at DePaul University.<\/p>\n

According to the latest description<\/a> of \u201cRace, Science, and White Supremacy\u201d students who take this class will discuss and study \u201chow Black bodies in particular have been scrutinized by scientists and the ethical implications of, for example, using African Americans as medical test subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the topics that will branch from this main focus will include \u201cscientific origins of the concept of race, the medicalization of the body, and the historical struggle of traditional folk medicine against the dominance of Western biomedicine and the medical industrial complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did not respond to three of The<\/em> Fix<\/em>\u2019s emails sent in the past two weeks asking her the same questions as Pierce.<\/p>\n

Johnson is teaching a class called \u201cBlack Feminist Theory,\u201d this semester, which \u201cengages with the multiple versions of woman-centered theory and practice developed in the writings; activism, and other creative work of Black, particularly African American women, from the mid-nineteenth century to the twenty-first.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> ‘Is God queer,’ UChicago course asks<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Michael Jung\/Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n

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