Discussing race threatens professorial identity more than syllabus changes do

Evidence

The example that comes to my mind is that of a white female English professor who is more than happy to include Toni Morrison on her syllabus but who does not want to discuss race when talking about the book. For she sees this as a much more threatening interrogation of what it means to be a professor than the call to change the curriculum. And she is right to see the call to change pedagogical strategies as risky. Certainly teachers who are trying to institutionalize progressive pedagogical practices risk being subjected to discrediting critiques. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 266

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the reader’s article on ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ and generally with content-vs-structure reform arguments; also echoes Annihilation of Caste’s merit discourse masking privilege. — connects to: Faculty must unlearn racism before they can learn decolonization — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 84
• SEED: Essay angle: how diversity-of-content functions as a safe substitute for interrogating how we teach and what position we occupy.