The ‘Angry White Male’ in America is a confusing phenomenon — especially considering how white men have dominated US society for centuries. Now, a professor at the University of Kansas is peeling back the shell to get to the guts of why white men are so damned angry.
Racism
Christopher Forth, a professor of history and the dean’s professor of humanities at U of K as well as the author of “Masculinity in the Modern West: Gender, Civilization and the Body,” is offering students a chance to enroll in his new college course entitled ANGRY WHITE MALE STUDIES.
According to the course catalog description, the Angry White Male Studies class states: “Employing interdisciplinary perspectives this course examines how both dominant and subordinate masculinities are represented and experienced in cultures undergoing periods of rapid change connected to modernity as well as to rights-based movements of women, people of color, homosexuals and trans individuals.”
Professor Forth also added that his course will dive into “the deeper sources of this emotional state while evaluating recent manifestations of male anger” in the United States and Britain since the 1950s.
Needless to say, White males were not amused.
Republican Rep. Ron Estes of Wichita, KS took to Twitter to complain that the upcoming class will prove to be more divisive than anything.
“Instead of a course to unite people and empower women, KU has decided to offer a class that divides the student population and could pose a Title IX violation by creating a hostile campus environment based on gender,” Estes said.
Instead of a course to unite people and empower women, KU has decided to offer a class that divides the student population and could pose a Title IX violation by creating a hostile campus environment based on gender. #ksleg https://t.co/XhUNfpFUcW
— Rep. Ron Estes (@RepRonEstes) April 3, 2019
If nothing else, the scheduled university course is at least opening a dialogue about the existence of the angry White male in America — something many seem they would rather ignore.
Republican Rep. Ron Estes of Wichita, KS took to Twitter to complain that the upcoming class will prove to be more divisive than anything. […] – DJ
Unfortunately, I have to say I agree with Rep. Estes.
I don’t think Prof. Forth has fully weighed the high risk of Unintended consequences of such a class. I’d say there’s a high probability that such a class could set off a real powder keg, exploding beyond his ability (or the University’s ability for that matter) to put out the fire once the wick has been lit. History and the Humanities are his professional fields of expertise….NOT psychology or social psychology etc..
This is about more….a lot more than academics. One needs to proceed with Much caution when seeking to understand such a sensitive, complex and volatile matter.