Hunter College Ditches Class on ‘Abolition of Whiteness’

Hunter College in New York City quietly did away with a course attempting to examine the relationship between “whiteness” and “violence” for the Fall 2018 semester.

The college had offered a course called “Abolition of Whiteness” for the Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 semesters but ditched it months after Campus Reform reported on the course in May 2017.

The college allowed students to take the course—listed under the Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies departments—for three academic credits, which could be counted towards a political science major.

“We’ll be examining how whiteness—and/or white supremacy and violence—is intertwined with conceptions of gender, race, sexuality, class, body ability, nationality, and age,” the initial course description noted.

But when Hunter released its Fall 2018 course schedule, there was no listing indicating the class would be offered next semester. The college did not even release a statement notifying students that the class would no longer be offered.

Instead, the department websites for Hunter’s Gender and Women’s Studies and Political Science programs quietly removed all references to the course, according to Campus Reform.

The professor who taught the course, Women and Gender Studies Program Associate Director Jennifer Gaboury, is slated to teach independent research and internship classes for juniors and seniors instead, according to the City University of New York’s (CUNY) registrar.

Other universities have offered courses on “abolishing whiteness.” Stanford University offered a course in Fall 2017 on “White Identity Politics,” tasking students with “understanding the future of whiteness” and “abolishing” it. Although the university has not yet released its 2018-2019 course catalog, the course is still listed on the university’s course catalog for 2017-2018.