Story Re: Assignment from BYU Professor

[smac97]

Here:

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BYU sociology professor assigns Critical Race Theory activity to students

February 24, 2022, Spencer Irvine, 0 Comments

A Utah education activist named Natalie Cline posted a concerning document, sent to her from an anonymous source, which detailed how a Brigham Young University sociology professor had her students conduct a “Revealing Whiteness Activity.”

The above link is to a Facebook post that has apparently been removed.  The post was by a "Natalie Cline" (per the above article) or "Natalie Robison" (per the link).

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The text of the assignment can be considered offensive and controversial because it accuses BYU of having “different aspects of Whiteness built into its physical and social environments.” Although it is true that the university’s student body is majority-white, it does not mean that the university and the student body are placing white Americans as a higher priority than the other races and ethnicities which attend the university. The assignment also called BYU a “predominantly white institution,” or PWI for short.

The assignment also cited the controversial Critical Race Theory activist author Robin DiAngelo, whose book “White Fragility” was a New York Times bestseller and the book has become the driving force of the Critical Race Theory movement. It presented DiAngelo’s work as unequivocal and accurate, citing its definitions of white privilege without providing a proper rebuttal.
...
On its face, the assignment goes against the university’s apolitical stance and its preference to remain out of hot-button social and political issues.

The Sociology 112 class is taught by associate professor of sociology Jane Lilly Lopez. Lopez, according to her biography on BYU’s website, conducts research on “Citizenship, Immigration, Law & Social Policy, Latinx Studies” and her research interests “include citizenship (as both a legal status and a lived experience/identity), immigration, integration, and the effects of law in the public and private realms of everyday life.” She received her sociology PhD from the University of California-San Diego in 2018.

It would be nice to get a straight "news" explanation of this story, without the commentary and editorializing.  Strangely, though, neither the Tribune nor the Deseret News has covered this story, even though it first came to light weeks ago.

More here (from the "Tampa Free Press") :

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Left-Wing BYU Professor Threatens Conservative Group For Exposing Assignment On “Whiteness”

 Liam Edgar March 21, 2022

 

A left-wing professor at Brigham Young University is threatening the First Amendment rights of a conservative group for daring to expose a woke homework assignment that seeks to denounce “whiteness.”

BYU Professor Eric Bybee, who teaches in the Education Department at the school and who supposedly specializes in multicultural education, demanded that members of the BYU Conservatives take down a social media post of a class assignment, or face being hit with an honor code violation, according to the conservative group Campus Reform.

I am concerned about this.  This seems like a potentially inappropriate weaponization of the Honor Code.  Students ought to be able to publicly discuss what they are being taught at BYU, at least in a "Fair Use" kind of way.

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Bybee was triggered by a post wherein the BYU Conservatives noted Professor Jane Lopez’s lesson on “Revealing Whiteness Activity.”

The student group simply posted a photo of the text of Lopez’s assignment.

Lopez claimed BYU is a “Predominantly White Institution,” or PWI, and directed students to work in groups of two or three people to survey the campus and take at least photos depicting the rampant “whiteness” of BYU’s “physical and social environment.”

Lopez defined “whiteness” as a location of structural advantage or “race privilege”; a “standpoint” or place from which whites look at themselves, at others, and at society; and a set of “cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.” 

Again, the editorializing ("Bybee was triggered...") isn't helping.

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After BYU Conservatives posted a screenshot of Lopez’s homework, Bybee unloaded on the group, according to Campus Reform.

He noted that the Mormon church is committed to “root out” white supremacy, and suggested Lopez’s assignment was part of that.

But by simply posting the assignment online, Bynee argued, the BYU Conservatives had violated the school’s Intellectual Property Policy and Honor Code.  

“Your beliefs do not give you the right to violate university/faculty member intellectual property and invite targeted harassment of one of my colleagues,” he wrote to the group in a direct message.

Characterizing this as an "intellectual property" issue seems pretty strained.  Prof. Bybee seems to be grasping at straws with that.

The "invit{ing} targeted harassment" bit is a serious charge (all the more so since Prof. Bybee seems to be doing quite a bit of "inviting" himself - see below).

Moving on, the editorializing continues to get in the way:

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Although the BYU Conservatives post content to their account anonymously, Bybee just began listing anyone he could find who may be involved and threatened to have them investigated by the campus administration.

Campus Reform added, “The [BYU Conservatives] students say Bybee also threatened to contact the ‘Honor Code office’ and the ‘BYU Faculty’ Center” to investigate the social media account if the post was not removed.”

“Bybee assured he would request that all ‘BYU students associated with the account and website’ be investigated.”

The group took down the original post. But then reposted it along with Bybee’s message to them, Campus Reform reported. That led Bybee to launch another threat.

“I would also invite you to reflect on the wide latitude that BYU has to police the behavior of students and faculty. Please understand that I am willing to use BYU’s unique policies in whatever way necessary to ensure that my colleges avoid the type of harassment that has become too common [in] other places,” Bybee wrote to the conservative group, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was harassing the BYU Conservatives.

It’s unclear if Bybee has followed through on any of his anti-free speech threats.

But one BYU Conservatives student, who requested anonymity, told Campus Reform: “We get hate all the time and that is just how politics is. The assignment had been circulating for weeks online before we posted it. The key thing is that the left in the university doesn’t want its ideas exposed to others. Which is a weird thing if they actually believe their ideas are consistent with the truth.”

Hmm.

Another article (from "The Post Millennial") :

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Professor forces conservative group to delete post spotlighting 'whiteness' assignment at BYU

"I am willing to use BYU’s unique policies in whatever way necessary," quipped Professor Eric Bybee at Brigham Young University.

Nick Monroe 

Cleveland, Ohio

March 19, 2022 7:46 AM

Why is Nick Monroe from Cleveland, Ohio covering this story, but not the Deseret News or the Trib?

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A right-wing campus group at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, posted a page from a "whiteness" assignment offered at their school. But after an irate professor stepped in and threatened to take various actions against the students, they were forced to take it down.

They made claims that ranged from "harassment" to copyright infringement.

In a scoop by Campus Reform, they say the dilemma began when BYU Conservatives posted a snapshot of a "Revealing Whiteness Activity" on their social media page.

 

The main premise of the assignment was having students gather together in teams and take pictures that demonstrate "whiteness" at the university. While the homework makes references to "white people" in outlining what they say "privilege" means, it’s not made directly clear if Professor Lopez wanted her class to take pictures of other school students.

The original post by BYU Conservatives is gone now because another professor, Eric Bybee, got involved.

Beyond public comments, Bybee sent a series of private messages to BYU Conservatives to further pressure them to remove their post about Professor Lopez’s assignment.

 

Eric Bybee threatened to have the school’s "Honor Code office" get involved with investigating the BYU Conservatives social media account. The professor went as far as naming the specific students he intended to target even though the group’s social media presence was overall anonymous.

BYU Conservatives took down the initial post that flustered Bybee and put up a new one with reactions to address the concerns about "targeted harassment" that Professor Bybee brought forward.

But that still wasn’t enough for him. He then got into how publishing anything about the "whiteness" course violated intellectual property rights.

In a further message, Bybee said he was "willing to use BYU’s unique policies in whatever way necessary to ensure that my colleagues avoid the type of harassment that has become too common other places."

When Campus Reform reached out for comment, Professor Bybee doubled down on his claims about intellectual property infringement. "Our purpose with posting the assignment was commentary and criticism. We believe this falls under fair use law. We even spoke to the Honor Code Office and they admitted they were not sure if it did or not," BYU Conservatives said in response.

Another article (at "Legal Insurrection") is a little bit more even-handed, in that it includes links to comments/explanations from Bybee:

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Students Who Blew Whistle On BYU ‘Revealing Whiteness’ Assignment Threatened With Discipline

Surprise! Utah is a hotbed of CRT activism and mandates in higher education.

Posted by Jeff Reynolds Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 08:30pm

This article goes on to quote the Campus Reform article at length (see below).  Also this:

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Ruiz Bybee has dug in his heels, going on an extensive rant on Twitter justifying his actions and attacking Campus Reform in what he calls an “interminable” ad hominem attack:

The article then provides a link to Bybee's Twitter feed, in which Bybee provides context for views (kinda weird/disjointed for an academic to do this via Twitter) :

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So, last Thursday a right-wing website published a story about me and another

@BYU

colleague. Since then I have received many harassing emails/voicemails. I have decided to make public those emails/voicemails in this thread. /1

I am publicly sharing them because this type of harassment is a growing problem at universities (including @BYU) and I want people to see how ugly it is. /2

I am also sharing so that folks who read the hit piece from Campus Reform and want to call/email me know that whatever they send me will show up publicly in this thread. /3

Finally, I am sharing b/c a lot of folks who read that @NYTimes  editorial have been talking about what it means to be “canceled” without any idea of the right-wing infrastructure that exists to surveil & harass professors. /4

First some background: about a month ago a colleague shared that she has been getting harassing emails b/c of an assignment of hers (w/ her name on it) that was shared w/out permission. /5

The assignment invited students to think about the concept of whiteness and was shared in the Instagram account of a group calling themselves BYU Conservatives. The group is not an official university club. /6

First, it should be stated that the unauthorized posting of course materials is a clear violation of my colleague’s course policies, of university intellectual property policies, and of BYU’s Honor Code. /7

Here is the language from my colleague’s course syllabus prohibiting sharing her course materials: /8

Here is the language from the university intellectual property policy which states that all materials created in the scope of our job belong to the university: /9

https://t.co/ToUpicYUUw

Finally, here is the language from the Faculty Resources page on the Honor Code website that *explicitly prohibits* the posting of course materials to third party websites: /10

https://t.co/pAqduhHR5b

Besides the IP aspect, many profs include syllabus statements b/c a tactic of right-wing groups is to share class content w/out context to advance a narrative of radicalism on college campuses. This invites threats like these calls to "clean house" from online commenters. /11

In any case, the sharing of materials to 3rd party websites is clearly against the Honor Code so I reached out to the BYU Conservatives Insta to politely (but firmly) invite them to take down the course materials. I did this in a public comment and through a DM. /12

 

I want to pause for a second and make clear that *all of this* (teaching about race/whiteness, encouraging students to follow the HC) is within the *normal purview* of a BYU professor’s job. Here is the actual text of the Honor Code: https://policy.byu.edu/view/church-educational-system-honor-code… /13

 

 

Broadly speaking, BYU profs are charged w/ teaching the concepts of their fields in the light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The unique religious identity/mission of the school is to nurture both intellect and faith. /14

 

This means that I teach academic concepts like the social construction of race/whiteness, histories of racial exclusion policies in schools/society, etc. I teach about race/whiteness using the 1000’s of academic books and journal articles on these topics. /15

 

But being a BYU prof means that I also help students put concepts into conversation w/ their faith. I invite them to consider the significance of whiteness in LDS scriptures and leader calls to root out racism, nationalism, and resist white supremacy. /16

 

 

In the best moments, my pedagogy seamlessly integrates these perspectives. Like when I share historian Paul Reeve’s work about how 19th cent. Protestants saw Mormons as not fully white or human b/c of their unique religious beliefs. https://twitter.com/wpaulreeve/status/1161364761042276352… /17

 

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Paul Reeve @WPaulReeve
 · Aug 13, 2019
Dear Latter-day Saints, your ancestors were among the immigrant poor who the Republican Party tried to prevent from migrating to the U.S. in the 19th Century. In 1879 U.S. Secretary of State William M. Evarts attempted to cut off LDS immigration from Europe. His rationale? /1
 

Again, I have been teaching these concepts for nearly a decade (much of that time at BYU) and all of this is my *normal job.* I have even given interviews about the topics like CRT and whiteness on @byuradio : https://t.co/2KKqUSnkFf /18

 

So anyway, I politely (but firmly) invited the BYU Conservative Insta to follow their Honor Code commitments and made it clear that I will be following up with the Honor Code office and the BYU Faculty Center if they do not. /19

 

Here is the text of both messages I sent to them. Notice how I tell them that conservative views are an important part of society, but they should find a way to express them that doesn’t violate university policies. It’s not that complicated. /20

 

 

 

The account initially took down the offending post and I thought that was it. Then, they made a new post w/ my DM’s complaining about my invitation to follow the Honor Code. I sent them a follow-up DM about it, but the assignment was no longer online so I let it go. /21

 

Then, over the next couple weeks I got two emails from a right-wing student org called Campus Reform. I was informed that they were writing a story about me and creating a profile of me on their “Professor Watchlist” /22

 

 

 

It was clear from the emails that the student admins of the BYU Conservatives Instagram decided to respond to my invitation to follow the Honor Code by sending my DM’s to a right-wing org dedicated to harassing professors. /23

Bybee goes on to (quite justifiably) express concern about harassment/threats he has received.  He also quotes emails he has received, and also posts recordings of voice messages he has received which are quite uncivil and inappropriate.  This does seem to be a bit ironic given that he seems to be doing a bit of that of which he is complaining.  If posting materials online amounts to "invit{ing} targeted harassment," then that seems to be what he is doing.  One of the recordings even includes the caller giving his name and cell number to Bybee, which anyone online can now calll.  That seems a bit like doxxing.

He also delves into quite a bit of politicking-centered criticism.

Here is a link to the Campus Reform article.  I'll not quote from it since the foregoing articles are largely based on it and quote its main points.

Some takeaway thoughts:

1. I think the students who posted the professor's content were prudent in that A) the apparently took "Fair Use" into account, and B) sought guidance from the Honor Code Office (though I'm not clear if they did that prior to or after posting the content).

2. I think "Fair Use" likely applies here.

3. I think Prof. Bybee's response makes some fair points, but I think posting it on Twitter is a bit odd.  And I think posting a recording of a caller that includes the caller's cell phone amounts to doxxing (even though he (Prof. Bybee) adds: "He leaves his number but I am going to ask folks *not* to call him.").

4. I think Prof. Bybee's overall response has been a bit . . . much.  Couching this as an Honor Code violation seems over the top.  Complaining about "invit{ing} targeted harassment" and then posting a critic's phone number on Twitter seems like really bad form.  I expect more from a professor at BYU.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

-Smac

Edited March 23, 2022 by smac97

[Robert F. Smith]

11 minutes ago, smac97 said:

............................

Thoughts?

..................

Well, at least I know now that BYU is a PWI, and not an HBC.

[2BizE]

I’m trying to understand this:

1) BYU Prof Lopez- created assignment to help people identify/understand how different aspects of whiteness” are built into social constructs.

2) BYU student(s) post the assignment online.

2) BYU Prof Bybee doesn’t like that this assignment is posted and threatens to sue/expose students to honor code office for intellectual property infringement. Uses Twitter to appear woke.

3) BYU Prof Bybee has nothing to do with the syllabus or assignment itself as the assignment isn’t even within his portfolio.

4) BYU Prof. Lopez apparently does not really care if the students post the assignment to internet, or apparently that BYU Prof. Bybee is inserting himself into the conversation because the actions of BYU Prof Bybee are all part of the social experiment to demonstrate examples of whiteness in society.

5) I assume from all of this that BYU Prof. Bybee is white.

 

[smac97]

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

I’m trying to understand this:

1) BYU Prof Lopez- created assignment to help people identify/understand how different aspects of whiteness” are built into social constructs.

Yes.

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

2) BYU student(s) post the assignment online.

Yes.

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

2) BYU Prof Bybee doesn’t like that this assignment is posted and threatens to sue/expose students to honor code office for intellectual property infringement. Uses Twitter to appear woke.

Yes.

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

3) BYU Prof Bybee has nothing to do with the syllabus or assignment itself as the assignment isn’t even within his portfolio.

Apparently.  He references "invit{ing} targeted harassment" of a "colleague" (presumably Lopez).

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

4) BYU Prof. Lopez apparently does not really care if the students post the assignment to internet,

None of the news items references any input from Prof. Lopez.  If such input/commentary had been given, I think it would have been noted.

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

or apparently that BYU Prof. Bybee is inserting himself into the conversation because the actions of BYU Prof Bybee are all part of the social experiment to demonstrate examples of whiteness in society.

Or this is just a wee bit of "white knighting."  Coming to the defense of another without being solicited to do so.

42 minutes ago, 2BizE said:

5) I assume from all of this that BYU Prof. Bybee is white.

Dunno.  I don't see his comments/behavior becoming more or less appropriate based on his ethnicity.

His biography:

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Dr. Eric Ruiz Bybee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the David O. McKay School of Education at BYU. He teaches courses in multicultural education.

Dr. Bybee’s research interests include the social and cultural foundations of education; Latina/o/x education; teacher education; and identity, agency, and social movements in education and stem from his experiences as a former New York City public school teacher. Within teacher education, he has focused his research on exploring the ways that teachers are prepared with necessary cultural knowledge to meet the needs of students from historically marginalized populations. More recently, he has also explored the role of teacher education in the identity productions of Latina/o preservice teachers from various racial, class, linguistic, and immigration backgrounds. He is particularly interested in Latina/o racial identity and whiteness, and situates his ethnographic work within the broader cultural history of Latina/o schooling in the United States.

The "Latina/o/x" thing may be a tell, as is his being "particularly interested in Latina/o racial identity and whiteness."

Courses taught:

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SC ED 353: Multicultural Education for Secondary Teachers

TED 663: Graduate Seminar in Equity, Power, and Privilege

Research Interests:

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• Multicultural Teacher Education
• Social and Cultural Foundations of Education
• Cultural Studies In Education
• Latina/o/x Education
• Racial Identity and Education
• Additive Bilingual Education Pedagogy
• Oral and Narrative Research Methods
• Social Justice Education & Critical Pedagogy
• Identity, Agency, and Social Movements in Education

In his "Selected Publications" he is listed as "Bybee, John Eric" or "Bybee, Eric," but on this page he is listed as "Eric Ruiz Bybee."

See also here:

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Bybee, E. R. (2016) Stories of smartness and whiteness in school pictures and yearbooks. Equity & Excellence in Education. 48 (4) 1-14.

This article explores the way that discourses of smartness and whiteness are produced and reproduced in schooling. Using an approach grounded in narrative research, I explore the convergences and contradictions between my own educational autobiography and the representations of schooling found in my school pictures and yearbooks. In my analysis, I argue that white supremacy played an important role in the construction of my own story of smartness throughout my primary and secondary schooling experiences. I also argue that yearbooks form powerful " artifacts of smartness " (Hatt, 2011, p. 448) that can be used to interpret and interrogate personal experiences as well as larger societal discourses of smartness and whiteness in schooling.
...

White supremacy, neo/colonial Education, and the struggle for Precious Knowledge. In Liston, D. P., & Renga, I. (Eds.) Teaching, learning, and schooling in film: Reel education. New York, NY: Routledge.

by Luis Urrieta, José García, and Eric Ruiz Bybee
...

White supremacy, colonial education in the Southwest, and the struggle for Raza Studies. In Orelus, P. W. (Ed.) Affirming language diversity in schools and society: Beyond linguistic apartheid. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

by Eric Ruiz Bybee, José García, and Luis Urrieta
...
Bybee, E. R. (2015) “Lucky” Mexicans and White Hispanics: Latina/o Teachers and Racial Identity (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from University of Texas Repositories (0000-0001-7297-315X)
...

He appears to be biracial, with a white father and hispanic mother.  See these excerpts from his doctoral dissertation:

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Despite some obvious differences, my new school community felt a lot like the place where I was raised. I grew up in a small farming town in central California where the great majority of students were Latinos, like me. We lived just outside of town, and the bus I rode to and from school would pass by endless vineyards, orchards, and fruit packing sheds where many of my schoolmates’ parents worked, and where some of my schoolmates joined them to work in the summer. My siblings and I also spent time working in fruit packing sheds, on neighboring farms, and in the four and a half acres of grape vineyards behind our house. We also all attended the local elementary, middle, and high school where the majority of students qualified for free lunch.

However, describing myself as a Latino who grew up working in the fields and attending Title 1 schools creates an incomplete impression about my upbringing. Although my mother was born in Mexico, most of her family was already living in Texas at the time and my abuelito had US citizenship. My mother and my father (who is white) have both been to college and made a conscious decision to buy a house that included a small vineyard attached to it in order to instill a work ethic in me and my siblings. The work that I did in our vineyard and on neighboring farms was not for family survival, but rather to be able to buy things that I wanted like school clothes or to fund summer camp experiences. Although I saw men and women filing out of vans and into the surrounding fields each morning on the way to school, and sat next to some of their children in the cafeteria, the reality is that their collective experiences were in many ways invisible to me. Similarly, although I attended Title 1 schools, my socioeconomic class made me the beneficiary of a number of formal and informal systems within those spaces that enabled my academic success and foregrounded the development of a “smart,” “white” identity (See Bybee, 2015).

When I found out that I would be able to teach bilingual education through an alternative certification program after college, I was thrilled because I thought my own experiences attending Title 1 schools would be akin to the experiences of my bilingual students. It sounds naïve now, but I had no idea then how different the experience of being a middle-class Mexican American from California’s Central Valley was from being a working-class Dominican American in New York City.

Thanks,

-Smac

[Amulek]

Back when I was at BYU there was a tradition where the band would play Popcorn Popping at home games whenever there was 2 minutes left on the clock and the football team was leading by a lot (and we were definitely going to win).

The students would start jumping up and down at random and, given the demographics of the student body, made for a pretty good approximation of a giant bowl of popcorn.

If I had a professor who wanted me to take a picture of 'whiteness' at BYU that is what I would have selected - only I don't know if I would be able to do so now, because doing so would require having a football team that actually wins with comfortable margins.

 

[The Nehor]

Stepping in to say that the article incorrectly labels this as Critical Race Theory and people involved as Critical Race Theory activists. While there may be some minor connections this assignment is not pro-Critical Race Theory. It is based on a simpler model of white privilege and more basic racial power structures.

It seems like an appropriate topic for a Sociology class since it is about society.

[bluebell]

Can someone explain what the bolded means?

Lopez defined “whiteness” as a location of structural advantage or “race privilege”; a “standpoint” or place from which whites look at themselves, at others, and at society; and a set of “cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.”

[Calm]

51 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Can someone explain what the bolded means?

Lopez defined “whiteness” as a location of structural advantage or “race privilege”; a “standpoint” or place from which whites look at themselves, at others, and at society; and a set of “cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.”

That was a brain twister to me, was thinking prof is going to have to clarify that in class.  Guessing current jargon meaning ‘situations that are more or less permanent in our community that support white privilege without being obvious about it’.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm

[bsjkki]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

Can someone explain what the bolded means?

Lopez defined “whiteness” as a location of structural advantage or “race privilege”; a “standpoint” or place from which whites look at themselves, at others, and at society; and a set of “cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.”

When I asked people what their pictures would be of, it was the statue of Brigham Young and the photos of BYU leadership. 😏Books from the library discussing the Priesthood ban.

[Calm]

1 minute ago, bsjkki said:

When I asked people what their pictures would be of, it was the statue of Brigham Young and the photos of BYU leadership. 😏Books from the library discussing the Priesthood ban.

Not exactly unmarked or unnamed…

[bsjkki]

4 minutes ago, Calm said:

Not exactly unmarked or unnamed…

What would you think if? The wording is hard to interpret. I viewed it as an unmarked or unnamed cultural practice. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by bsjkki

[Calm]

12 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

What would you think if? The wording is hard to interpret. I viewed it as an unmarked or unnamed cultural practice. 

I am assuming it means something unrecognized by most.  Most people recognize there has been a bias in choosing white leadership (understandable  to me based on how leadership reflects the makeup of the church in the youth or young adulthood of the leadership more than current makeup given the time it takes to ‘create’ a church leader through them serving callings, but it made feed current and future bias because leaders may come proportionally more from people other leaders know and if their community is primarily white…).  Most people recognize the bias in the priesthood ban and it is named as bias by many and extensively talked about (remarked on).

I am not having any insight into this at the moment.  May be brain fog or too long out of college culture or just may not be enough of my own experience.  Probably a mix, but definitely an area I need education in.  But I am foggy right now and I feel like I am wanting an example to get my brain moving.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm

[bluebell]

27 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

When I asked people what their pictures would be of, it was the statue of Brigham Young and the photos of BYU leadership. 😏Books from the library discussing the Priesthood ban.

So white people in general.  Or a chance to call out things you don't agree with.  

[bluebell]

24 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

What would you think if? The wording is hard to interpret. I viewed it as an unmarked or unnamed cultural practice. 

I thought it just meant any space set up for people to gather and observe others.  So a courtyard or common area.  But i couldn't figure out how that would be representative of "whiteness" since I'm guessing schools that are predominantly not white have the same areas with people doing the same things in them.

[bsjkki]

18 minutes ago, bluebell said:

So white people in general.  Or a chance to call out things you don't agree with.  

I really just asked people and that is what came to them. Maybe they would photograph the main admin building or possibly the BYU police station? Anyone else have ideas for this assignment? What is the teacher looking for? The law school?

Edited March 24, 2022 by bsjkki

[Calm]

Ate something or drugs hit and fog parted some, it shocks me sometimes how different thinking can ‘feel’, I never used to think of thinking as a physical sensation…
 

Something that might be an issue, never took a course in family development and that would be 40 years out of date if I had, but just trying to think of areas where minorities might not be studied as much as they should as part of the general population as well as in local ethnic communities….

Family and child development classes that ignore the characteristics of minority family in teaching and research…

Added:  Actually my personal bias is showing lol, psychology was notorious for having primarily white college age males as their test subjects, much better now from what I have seen, but guessing it still has gaps…so take pictures of wherever the psych dept is housed these days.

So take a photo of the Joseph Fielding Smith building, Taylor Comprehensive Clinic and/or Kimball Tower maybe…

Go to the HBLL and take pictures of any missing classics from minority authors next to present classics of white authors (would have to look in the catalog to be sure they weren’t just checked out)…again this is a guess at a possible gap since I don’t hit campus at all these days.

Check BYU Bookstore’s advertising and inventory to see how diverse.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm

[Amulek]

21 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

Maybe they would photograph the main admin building or possibly the BYU police station?

Why go that far? Seems like it would be much easier to just walk outside and snap a few pics of the Sociology department faculty as they walk to their cushy / privileged on-campus parking spots: https://sociology.byu.edu/current-faculty

And yes, if I was given this assignment, I probably would include a picture of the overwhelmingly white department faculty as one of my three pictures. And be prepared to fight / defend it (publicly) if necessary.

Note: For the record, I quite enjoyed the one sociology class I took at BYU. I thought it was informative, well-rounded, and a pretty good primer for those not interested in pursuing it as a course of study. 

 

[Scott Lloyd]

9 hours ago, smac97 said:

Here:

The above link is to a Facebook post that has apparently been removed.  The post was by a "Natalie Cline" (per the above article) or "Natalie Robison" (per the link).

It would be nice to get a straight "news" explanation of this story, without the commentary and editorializing.  Strangely, though, neither the Tribune nor the Deseret News has covered this story, even though it first came to light weeks ago.

More here (from the "Tampa Free Press") :

I am concerned about this.  This seems like a potentially inappropriate weaponization of the Honor Code.  Students ought to be able to publicly discuss what they are being taught at BYU, at least in a "Fair Use" kind of way.

Again, the editorializing ("Bybee was triggered...") isn't helping.

Characterizing this as an "intellectual property" issue seems pretty strained.  Prof. Bybee seems to be grasping at straws with that.

The "invit{ing} targeted harassment" bit is a serious charge (all the more so since Prof. Bybee seems to be doing quite a bit of "inviting" himself - see below).

Moving on, the editorializing continues to get in the way:

Hmm.

Another article (from "The Post Millennial") :

Why is Nick Monroe from Cleveland, Ohio covering this story, but not the Deseret News or the Trib?

Another article (at "Legal Insurrection") is a little bit more even-handed, in that it includes links to comments/explanations from Bybee:

This article goes on to quote the Campus Reform article at length (see below).  Also this:

The article then provides a link to Bybee's Twitter feed, in which Bybee provides context for views (kinda weird/disjointed for an academic to do this via Twitter) :

Bybee goes on to (quite justifiably) express concern about harassment/threats he has received.  He also quotes emails he has received, and also posts recordings of voice messages he has received which are quite uncivil and inappropriate.  This does seem to be a bit ironic given that he seems to be doing a bit of that of which he is complaining.  If posting materials online amounts to "invit{ing} targeted harassment," then that seems to be what he is doing.  One of the recordings even includes the caller giving his name and cell number to Bybee, which anyone online can now calll.  That seems a bit like doxxing.

He also delves into quite a bit of politicking-centered criticism.

Here is a link to the Campus Reform article.  I'll not quote from it since the foregoing articles are largely based on it and quote its main points.

Some takeaway thoughts:

1. I think the students who posted the professor's content were prudent in that A) the apparently took "Fair Use" into account, and B) sought guidance from the Honor Code Office (though I'm not clear if they did that prior to or after posting the content).

2. I think "Fair Use" likely applies here.

3. I think Prof. Bybee's response makes some fair points, but I think posting it on Twitter is a bit odd.  And I think posting a recording of a caller that includes the caller's cell phone amounts to doxxing (even though he (Prof. Bybee) adds: "He leaves his number but I am going to ask folks *not* to call him.").

4. I think Prof. Bybee's overall response has been a bit . . . much.  Couching this as an Honor Code violation seems over the top.  Complaining about "invit{ing} targeted harassment" and then posting a critic's phone number on Twitter seems like really bad form.  I expect more from a professor at BYU.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

-Smac

The assignment appears to be unabashed indoctrination. It doesn’t merely expose students to a controversial view (a reasonable expectation at a university), but it endeavors to compel them to embrace said ideological and controversial view in order to fulfill a homework assignment, presumably with an optimum grade in the class at stake. Furthermore, it forced the students into the role of denigrating the university, whether or not they are inclined to do so. 
 

With such indoctrination going on in our colleges and universities (and alas, it now appears BYU is not beyond reach of it), small wonder that graduates are being churned out who carry forward such indoctrination in our public schools and other institutions. 
 

I think the instructor should be investigated by university admin with an eye toward possible sanctioning. 
 

I’ll reiterate what I said on another thread: Were I a student in the class, I’d be tempted to tell the instructor to pound sand. Instead, I’d probably suggest an alternative, less offensive, homework assignment or, if necessary, transfer out of the class. I wouldn’t go quietly if I did. 

[SeekingUnderstanding]

6 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

It doesn’t merely expose students to a controversial view (a reasonable expectation at a university), but it endeavors to compel them to embrace said ideological and controversial view in order to fulfill a homework assignment

Is it a controversial view in the field of sociology? I honestly don’t know. 
 

I mean some say the idea that humans evolved via natural processes is a controversial view, but it is universally (as close as anything can get) accepted in the field of biology. 

[Duncan]

4 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

The assignment appears to be unabashed indoctrination. It doesn’t merely expose students to a controversial view (a reasonable expectation at a university), but it endeavors to compel them to embrace said ideological and controversial view in order to fulfill a homework assignment, presumably with an optimum grade in the class at stake. Furthermore, it forced the students into the role of denigrating the university, whether or not they are inclined to do so. 
 

With such indoctrination going on in our colleges and universities (and alas, it now appears BYU is not beyond reach of it), small wonder that graduates are being churned out who carry forward such indoctrination in our public schools and other institutions. 
 

I think the instructor should be investigated by university admin with an eye toward possible sanctioning. 
 

I’ll reiterate what I said on another thread: Were I a student in the class, I’d be tempted to tell the instructor to pound sand. Instead, I’d probably suggest an alternative, less offensive, homework assignment or, if necessary, transfer out of the class. I wouldn’t go quietly if I did. 

heaven forbid we see life through someone else's eyes. On sunday we had someone tell us that Ukrainians should stay in the own country and if they get taken over by the Russians then so be it because we have enough people here-more right wing anti immigration garbage. I'll hear that the person out but I won't believe any of what they said and I am sure that wasn't what they were assigned to talk about anyways. Were we indoctrinated by the right wing? should we say well I know you're an idiot and all by ALL of North America is made up up immigrants so it's hypocritical nonsense to say our family can come over when we were in crisis but your family can't come over during your crisis. I don't think anyone bought into the idea that Ukrainians should stay there. I give my fellow worshippers  more credit than that. If BYU students are so weak to buy into being indoctrinated by one assignment in one class then they were like that prior to the class and don't blame the Prof. 

[Calm]

My guess is the assignment is part of an effort to improve communication about the bolded statement:

Quote

There have been some efforts already, by individual departments and faculty, to improve diversity on campus. But overall, the committee found, “there’s lack of coordination and support from the university level.”

That allows many white students and staff to carry on not knowing or acknowledging that there’s an issue, the members stated, and sometimes creating an environment where students of color feel unsafe.

To address that, the committee recommends that the university update its general education and religion curriculums to include discussions about race, ethnicity and discrimination. The general education part of that came out of the student petition started last year that prompted the committee’s report.

Since the assignment included historical, I am thinking that could include areas of past complaint.

I am cheating now for ideas, getting them from https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/02/27/byus-students-color-feel/

Since this one is relatively recent, be interesting to know if one went into the admin building, if one would see any people of color working there.  So a picture of relevant offices…

Quote

There’s no place where students can go to file a complaint about discrimination, even as some experience racist comments daily, the report notes. There are few staff of color, including just one minority faculty member in all of the school’s administration. 

https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/02/27/byus-students-color-feel/

Other issues mentioned that could be used as starting points:

Quote

Without a place to go now, many students are turning to the counseling center, for instance, where the staff is generally not trained to handle their needs, the report states, and there’s no mechanism to file a complaint about discrimination. “I have heard so much more about [these concerns] this year than in the past,” one staffer there told the committee. But she noted the center is more equipped to respond to mental health issues.

Additionally, there’s a center for Multicultural Student Services. But it’s difficult to find in the campus student center and doesn’t really address the concerns of students of color. It’s more for academic advising and largely for international students. Meanwhile, the work of the Office for Student Success and Inclusion is too broad, not applying specifically to minorities, the report said.

Possible dress code if features no minority representations or bans ethnic styles, but my guess is there have been updates.

Quote

We were distressed to learn that BIPOC students are charged with Honor Code policy violations at a rate disproportionate to their share of the population,” the report notes. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, people of color.

Some men of color, for instance, cannot shave every day because of skin sensitivity. And several cultures instruct men to grow out their hair. Some said they were cited for that, despite getting permits. Women of color, too, have said when they wore their hair naturally, in curls or braids for instance, they were written up for being “distracting.”

 

Not sure they have pictures up of scholarship winners, but if they do…

Quote

The report shows that zero “presidential scholarships” went to Black, American Indian or Pacific Islander students in the past five years. In 2020, fewer than 10 went to Latino students. White students received 43.

White students also received a much larger share of full-tuition and half-tuition awards. No full-tuition scholarships were awarded to Black students in 2020. And 770 went to white students.

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm

[Calm]

34 minutes ago, Amulek said:

assignment, I probably would include a picture of the overwhelmingly white department faculty as one of my three pictures. And be prepared to fight / defend it (publicly) if necessary.

I doubt they would fight it as it appears to be a recognized problem according to the report reported in the Trib article I linked to.

[Calm]

28 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

think the instructor should be investigated by university admin with an eye toward possible sanctioning. 

There is a very good chance imo given what Worthen has said in the past this is an approved or even promoted part of instruction as it fills this need imo.

Quote

Worthen, the president of the university, said in a statement Friday that the committee’s report offers guidance on changes that need to be made.

“Some of them,” he said, “such as making curricular changes to general education, religion and elective courses that educate students on race, unity and diversity, as well as establishing college-wide statements on race and belonging, are already in process. Others will take more time; some will require additional consideration.”

From the Trib

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm

[Scott Lloyd]

18 minutes ago, SeekingUnderstanding said:

Is it a controversial view in the field of sociology? I honestly don’t know. 
 

I mean some say the idea that humans evolved via natural processes is a controversial view, but it is universally (as close as anything can get) accepted in the field of biology. 

You’re seriously questioning that critical race theory, “The 1619 Project” and “White Fragility” are controversial? 

[Calm]

14 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

You’re seriously questioning that critical race theory, “The 1619 Project” and “White Fragility” are controversial? 

I am questioning that this assignment is CRT, the 1619 Project, or white fragility…unless resistance to the assignment is being used as examples of the latter.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Calm