Yale University class questions whether Black and White women can be friends
Yale University is offering a class that studies the friendships between Black and White women this semester, according to the university’s course catalog.
The course, titled "No Time for Tears: Friendships between Black Women and White Women," will examine whether "relationships between Black women and White women can develop an equal footing."
"Can those relationships be unfettered by the trappings of quid pro quo transactions? Can they be built upon hard emotional labor, trust, and–risky and rare as it may seem–love? Are these relationships even possible?" the course description ponders. "Might we explore the deficits that make these relationships difficult? We seek to interrogate with brutal honesty the stakes that underwrite Black women's relationships with White women."
The course will be taught by the Dean of Yale's Pierson College, Professor Tasha Hawthorne, who focuses her academic work on "the intersection of gender, sexuality, genre, race, and politics in Black fiction," according to the university’s website. As a graduate student at Cornell University, Hawthorne has taught classes on "Race, Power, and Privilege" and "The Sociology of the African American Experience."
Students are guaranteed the grade of a ‘B+’ in the class if they meet the requirements, regardless of their grades on individual assignments, according to reporting in the College Fix. The course uses "contract grading," which often makes it easier for students to receive good grades if they simply make an effort.
This is seen as "an actively anti-racist approach to assessment" and a way of "participating in educational justice and equity," according to the syllabus, as reviewed by the College Fix. The syllabus states that the traditional grading style promotes "bias related to being White Anglo Saxon Protestant, speaking and writing standard English, growing up in a first language English-speaking community, having parents with collegiate education, attending high schools with AP or IB classes, etc.," the College Fix reported.
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The course includes several readings about calling White women "Karen," including a report by TIME titled, "How the ‘Karen Meme’ Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood," a Vox article titled, "How ‘Karen’ became a symbol of racism," and a journal article titled, "Querying Karen: The Rise of the Angry White Woman," the College Fix reported.
Fox News Digital reached out to Professor Hawthorne and Yale University for comment.