Indiana University Requires Students To Detail How Their Privilege Caused 'Oppression' Over...

An Indiana University class required students to determine their “privileged” and “dominant” identities—like being white or male—so that they could “address issues of oppression.” The mandatory exercise was part of a course that fulfills the school’s “social and historical studies” requirement needed to graduate. Students were instructed to write an “in-depth reflection of two parts of [their] identity: one subordinate identity and one dominant identity,” according to documents obtained. The final assignment for the eight-week course, worth 26 percent of the final grade, assumes that each student has at least one identity group that gives them power over their peers and another that leads to their oppression. Students were given a chart showing examples of “dominant” identities—like being white—and “subordinate” identities—like being black—and separated them by “manifestations of social oppression,” such as classism, racism, and heterosexism. Effectively, the chart shows that straight, white, Christian males are dominant over everyone else. Or, put another way, everyone else is subordinate to straight, white, Christian males, according to the chart