Delaware prof offers extra credit for ‘white privilege checklist’
Even as higher education has taken heat for pushing Critical Race Theory and other progressive, racially divisive ideologies, one Delaware professor is offering extra credit to students who…
Even as higher education has taken heat for pushing Critical Race Theory and other progressive, racially divisive ideologies, one Delaware professor is offering extra credit to students who complete a “white privilege checklist.”
Tammy Anderson, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, announced the “extra credit opportunity” to her students last week, as reported on X by Libs of TikTok.
“This is an extra credit opportunity to earn up to 5 points towards your final grade,” Anderson wrote to her students last month, according to a screenshot of the assignment. “The activity has to do with the racial privilege we each face in our lives daily.”
“The following are examples of ways white individuals have privilege because they are white,” the instructions read. “Please read the list and place a check next to the privileges that apply to you or that you have encountered. At the end, try to list at least two more ways you have privilege based on your race.”
Statements on the checklist included:
- I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
- I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated.
- If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
- I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk with “person in charge” I will be facing a person of my race.
- I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.
- I can enroll in a class at college and be sure that the majority of my professors will be of my race.
The checklist was created by Peggy McIntosh in 1988 as part of an essay titled “White privilege and male privilege.” At the time, McIntosh was working for Wellesley Centers for Women’s National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum.
“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege,” she claimed in the essay. “So, I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. This paper is a partial record of my personal observations and not a scholarly analysis. It is based on my daily experiences with my particular circumstances.”
The University of Delaware did not respond to Libs of TikTok’s request for comment.
