College English classes are just another strand of SJW.
However, what bothered me more than the emphasis on ‘identity politics’ in my classes was the way the material was presented and received. While I was never chastised for violating safe space protocols, I detected a “spirit” of extreme intellectual complacency. My professors implicitly guided their classes toward social justice dogma, speaking of “dead white male” authors in snarky, dismissive tones and preaching “intersectionality” with smug confidence. When discussing academically fashionable topics like “queer theory,” they avoided opening up any sort of serious and critical debate. Instead we were encouraged to apply skepticism to older, more formal theorists and writers on grounds of racism, sexism, transphobia or colonialism.
My classmates, by and large, seemed to blindly accept the ideologies they were presented. Even when the professor introduced a point not covered by the reading or clearly mis-explained an aspect of the text, they would eagerly nod along in agreement. In particular, when topics of race came up in class (which they did, frequently) discourse became almost nonexistent. Fearful of being branded as racially insensitive, my predominately white classmates would only venture meek affirmations of the week’s theory of white oppression or African literary achievement.
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