Northwestern University Law School allegedly had a town hall meeting where faculty and other attendees announced themselves as racists, according to a screenshot shared on Twitter by Rod Dreher.
Dreher posted an image of a screen showing that everyone in the virtual town hall began by introducing themselves as racists, who will work to improve their racism and white supremacy.
Northwestern U. law school had a town hall meeting online recently. Everybody began w/ a ritual denunciation of themselves as racist. Reader: “Prof. Speta is not a racist. He is a wonderful man universally loved by students. It makes me sad that he is forced to say otherwise.” pic.twitter.com/O45UX8ver2
— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) September 1, 2020
The first user says “I am a racist and a gatekeeper of white supremacy. I will work to be better.”
The next user similarly introduced themselves, saying “I’m a racist. I will try to do better.”
Then, the interim dean of the university’s law school, James Speta, says “I’m Jim Speta. And I am a racist.”
“Prof. Speta is not a racist,” the reader says, according to Dreher. “He is a wonderful man universally loved by students. It makes me sad he was forced to say otherwise.”
Speta did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. Northwestern University Law School did not response to repeated requests for comment.
Numerous universities have implemented social justice initiatives and classes that focus on institutional racism, such as the University of Wisconsin in Madison, which reintroduced a class called the “Problem of Whiteness” course in 2017 to help students “understand how whiteness is socially constructed and experienced in order to help dismantle white supremacy.”
Most recently, the University of Pittsburgh began requiring its first-year students to take a course on anti-Black racism, where students would learn to identify “current structures of power, privilege and inequality,” and would leave the course with an introduction to “Black radical tradition” and “resistance to Anti-Black racism.” (RELATED: University Of Pittsburgh Requires All First-Year Students To Take Class On ‘Anti-Black Racism’)