(The Center Square) – A course at Indiana University required an intersectional-themed assignment where students were effectively made to realize that being white or male makes them oppressive and being black or female makes them oppressed –a project a senior Constitutionalism fellow called “entirely inappropriate.”
Students in the IU course “Understanding Diversity in a Pluralistic Society” were instructed to compose an “in-depth reflection of two parts of [their] identity: one subordinate identity and one dominant identity,” for their final assignment, worth 26 percent of their grade, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The chart given to students named a list of dominant and subordinate identities and separated them by “manifestations of social oppression,” according to the chart obtained by the Free Beacon.
The manifestations on the chart are specified as classism, heterosexism, ableism, racism, religious oppression, and sexism.
Depending whether a student’s identity falls under the dominant or subordinate category of each manifestation determines whether that trait gives him “power” or puts him under “oppression,” according to the Free Beacon.
For example, a dominant identity of racism is being white, while a subordinate identity is being black. Other dominant identities listed on the chart are middle class, Christian, male, and heterosexual, while other subordinate identities are gay, atheist, female, and transgender.
“Effectively, the chart shows that straight, white, Christian males are dominant over everyone else,” the Free Beacon reported.
The course satisfies IU’s required social and historical studies credit and is additionally offered in the spring and summer semesters of 2025, according to the school’s website.
The Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center Senior Constitutionalism Fellow Timothy Minella told The Center Square that “this assignment is entirely inappropriate for any course in higher education, but it is especially egregious for a public institution.”
“Under the Constitution and the law, a public institution cannot discriminate against anyone on the basis of race, sex, and other identity categories,” Minella said.
“The education system in this country should most definitely not promote intersectionality because it is antithetical to [the] Declaration of Independence’s ringing assertion that ‘all men are created equal,’ Minella said.
Minella told TCS that the assignment “compels students to admit that they are oppressors who hold positions of power over the oppressed by virtue of their identities.”
“A student should never be labeled—or be forced to label himself—as an “oppressor” based on his race, ethnicity, or sex,” Minella said.
Minella told TCS that the assignment “clearly proceeds from the inaccurate assumptions” of the DEI ideology, in which it is taught that ‘dominant’ groups systemically oppress ‘subordinate’ groups, and the only way to rectify this unjust arrangement is to discriminate against the ‘oppressors’ and in favor of the ‘oppressed.’”
Minella said that DEI “is not merely an academic theory,” but that it “is an activist program that seeks to fundamentally reshape American society.”
“Students are not only being forced to affirm that they belong to a ‘dominant” group,’ Minella said. “They are also being required to discuss how they can advance a political agenda that they may not share.”
“No student at a public university should be forced to take a course with politicized content that compels him to endorse the DEI agenda,” Minella said.
Minella additionally told TCS that “it’s disturbing that the assignment about ‘dominant’ identities was part of a course that fulfilled Indiana University’s requirement in ‘social and historical studies.’”
According to the Free Beacon, one student had to “make something up,” to complete the assignment.
“I’m being punished through an assignment for my identity as a person, and that’s just crazy,” the student said to the Free Beacon. “It’s very rich that in a class where we are supposed to be talking about identity and not suppressing identity, I’m forced to suppress my own identity,”
The Free Beacon also reported that after students identified their dominant and subordinate groups, they “were tasked with reflecting on their privileges, listing the groups they held dominance over, and exploring ways to reshape their relationships with subordinate groups.”
The course was taught by director of student engagement Colleen Rose, according to the Free Beacon.
Rose did not respond to The Center Square’s repeated requests for comment.
According to its description, the course is intended to address “self-socialization” and analyze “the working relationship and interrelationship of race, class, age, ethnicity, and gender and how these factors influence social values regarding economic and social justice.”
When reached for comment twice each, neither IU executive director of media relations Mark Bode nor IU executive director of internal communications Bethany Nolan responded.
