Jim Cobb (University of Georgia) recently wrote about a student in his US History course who went into a semi-hissy fit (his words) when he spent four class periods on the Civil Rights movement. Her issue? That she apparently thought he was making stuff up. "I don't know where he's getting all of this," she complained, "we never discussed any of this in high school." According to Cobb, she went on to say, “I'm not a Democrat! I don't think I should have to listen to this stuff!"
As I put together my syllabus for a class on Managing Diversity in the Workplace that I am teaching this summer, I feel very afraid…Are there really students who don't believe that discrimination exists? Or that don't want to hear about it? But as Dr. Morris Massey says, we can't change the future unless we are willing to examine what has happened in the past...
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