Two education majors at Cleveland State University did not realize when they signed up for a class titled “The Social Context of Urban Education” that they would be lectured on white privilege, implied racism, and forced to learn critical race theory from a Robin DiAngelo textbook. DiAngelo, the famous “antiracist” educator who was exposed as providing Coca-Cola’s now-deleted “try to be less white” training to employees, has become one of the leaders in the insane movement.
“Every week it’s something different, and our textbook has nothing to do with my major, middle childhood education,” said the whistleblower, a sophomore from Lake County, who first contacted The Federalist. “Last week, we had this presentation from people who hold positions at CSU about the likewise relation between the riots in the 1960s to the riots that took place in Cleveland in 2020. … All the assignments have nothing to do with being a teacher. It all has to do with how I have white guilt apparently. We also had to give a presentation in class on how our positionality and intersectionality interact with us in society.”
The course is being taught by Molly Feghali, who students say has prohibited white people from using the word “ghetto” in the classroom due to its supposedly racist connotation. One paper prompt Feghali has assigned for the class asks students to spend time “reflecting on your educational journey thus far,” and describe “how has your positionality/intersectionality impacted your journey?” Another asks students to “create a graphical representation of how prejudice, discrimination, implicit bias, power, oppression, and socialization are interrelated and impact the isms.”
The radicalism of Feghali is unsurprising given the substance of her doctoral thesis. The 2018 thesis, titled “Interracial Contact at a Diverse High School: How School and Community Structures Shape Students’ Experiences,” is 126 pages of leftist buzzwords. It states that “unconscious bias” manifests in “micro-aggressions,” and that “white privilege” means white students are inherently ignorant.
The required textbook for the course, which also surely has nothing to with the intended focus of the class on gaining field experience, is DiAngelo’s “Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education.” The syllabus says the “course rationale” is for “teacher candidates [to] examine their own identities and experiences, and think critically about how their identities and experiences will shape their practice as a teacher and a learner.” Better put, students are forced to write and erroneously acknowledge in class that because of their various biological factors, they form molded positions on the intersectionality totem poll, which the left views as a determinative factor in gauging their racist nature.
“We have to write weekly reflections about our book. Today, Dr. Feghali discussed a video from DiAngelo on how we need to ‘erase our whiteness’ and realize that because we are white, that is how we participate in racism,” said the other student, who requested full anonymity to avoid backlash in the classroom. “My professor has said before that even if you may not identify yourselves as racist or you don’t consider yourself part of white supremacy, the fact that you are white, you are therefore contributing to white supremacy.”
Students are also expected to produce a “Social Justice Project,” part of which involves creating racial profiles of “identities” in a school district neighborhood of their choice in Cleveland. After analyzing racial and ethnic composition, as well as other factors of a given population, students are tasked with defining who is inherently disadvantaged due to biological factors.
“I think that the paper we have to write is honestly bullsh-t,” said the anonymous student. “When you are born in America, you are born with equal opportunity and equal freedom. It’s what you do with that opportunity, and if you work really hard in school and you go to college, no one is stopping you from doing what you want. It’s not the ’50s and ’60s anymore. Granted, some people will have to struggle more than others and have to work extra hard, but it’s when you put in that hard work and dedication that you get to have that reward in the end. No one is going to hand it to you.”
This week, the class watched a lecture video titled “Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo” that the Lake County sophomore said put forth the claim that all white people are automatically racist, even if they treat all people fairly and have black friends.
“As a white person, I have a white frame of reference and a white experience,” DiAngelo says in the video. “Racism is a deeply embedded system that our country was founded on and that all our institutions were created out of.”
“[My child] called my husband into the room and said, ‘You need to hear this.’ It was this video that was their lecture today,” said the Lake County student’s concerned mother, describing how she was uncomfortable when she found out the class was relying on a DiAngelo textbook. “It was telling them that if you are white, you are racist and privileged and that you don’t even know it. It was making all these broad accusations that are totally false.”
According to the students, a classmate disagreed with Feghali’s notion that an application called SketchFactor, which notifies people if they are nearing a region that is statistically more dangerous based on crime rates, is racist. The student was reportedly told that since they are white they have a racist way of thinking, and was told to be quiet.
“I assumed this class would be on how to deal with things in the classroom, like what happens if a kid throws up on the desk or has an emotional issue. I did not expect it was going to be just completely bashing white people, saying we’re all racist. Not everyone is against people of the opposite race. America is not black versus white,” the anonymous student said.
Every day, the course seemingly includes a new form of indoctrination. The course outline obtained by The Federalist below depicts the precise learning content week to week. Week five notably focuses on “Understanding the Invisibility of Oppression Through Sexism,” and week seven addresses “Understanding the Structural Nature of Oppression Through Racism” and “Understanding the Global Organization of Racism through White Supremacy.” This is merely the tip of the iceberg. See this link for the entire syllabus, pages 10-13 specifically.
“We need to oppose ‘antiracism’ training because the training itself is more like racism than its opposite. This training attributes guilt and innocence, insight and blindness, to individuals because of their race,” Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told The Federalist. “This training, and the critical race theory that inspires it, is fundamentally at odds with the classically liberal principles that form the foundation of our constitutional system. In America, we judge people according to their individual character and abilities, not their race. Critical race theory and training based on it takes the opposite point of view.”
According to the two students who spoke to The Federalist, other classes at Cleveland State are structured similarly. One education class reportedly about pre-k and kindergarten teaching is entirely about how capitalism is “corrupt” and why America should be more socialist.
As is seemingly the case with most “antiracist” educators, Feghali is a white woman who thinks it permissible to vilify white students she deems not “woke” enough for the radical ideas she espouses. By the standard of the educator — that all white people are inherently bigoted — she herself would also be.
“[Feghali] is white like me,” the anonymous student said. “And she is telling me I’m racist? I just want to know how?”
The Office of the Dean at Cleveland State did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Feghali.
Update: A parent of one of the students reached out to the Federalist Thursday evening and said that Cleveland State University “pulled” Molly Feghali from teaching her child’s education course.
“She has been pulled from teaching the class. They are no longer going to have zoom classes. The students need to do their assignments and finish out the semester,” the parent said. “The head of the department sent out an email to all the students explaining what happened. Of course, they made it sound like Dr. Feghali was the victim and they had to stop the zoom classes because the link was on the published syllabus.”
CSU Dean Meredith Bond did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Federalist. This article will be updated if the university provides a statement.
