By Mande Wilkes || Barely a month into this semester, it’s already just about time for college students to register for next fall’s classes. Within the scope of “liberal arts” curricula, the choices are boundless. Students can choose from among courses like “Macroeconomics & The Sex Industry,” “Dialect Suppression in Film,” “Darwinism & Cosmetic Surgery,” “Utopian Societies,” and “Sociology of Social Control.”
“Liberal” arts, no doubt . . .
And just when you thought the courses couldn’t get any flimsier, here comes along a pair of gems offered this semester at our own University of South Carolina: “Black Masculinity” and “Geography of Popular Music.”
That last one in particular completely confounded me. In an attempt to explain the intersectionality of geography and music, USC’s course catalog describes the class thusly:
“Concepts of regional identity, spatial diffusion, culture change, regional economic growth and change as illustrated by U.S. popular music and the contemporary music industry.”
If USC can marry geography with music, then certainly some cinematic allusion is welcome. So, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Ace Ventura, all I can say about that course description is … alrighty then.
And what is it that they teach in that “Black Masculinity” class? Apparently USC itself is unsure, considering that there’s no available course description. Even though I’ve nothing concrete on which to base this assumption, I’m going out on a limb to suggest a study of “black masculinity” is a protracted Barack Obama biopic. It’s apropos of Black History Month, at least, so there’s that.
Having sat through my share of frivolous, woe-is-we lectures, I’ll admit that they’re useful in the sense that they’re “easy A’s.” Basically, you just have to be down with O.P.P.: Oppression, Patriarchy, & Privilege.
Shamelessly name-drop those foundational “liberal arts” concepts and you’re surely good to go … especially if your “Geography of Popular Music” professor happens to be a Naughty By Nature fan.
By PasserBy February 2, 2010 at 9:13 am
Mande:
If a University wants to offer idiotic classes and give credit for them, what does that say about the quality of any degrees they offer? And, lets not all forget, some of our tax dollars are going to subsidize these “brillantly innovative” educational institutions.
By Mande February 2, 2010 at 9:21 am
PasserBy -
Yep. You’re smellin’ what I’m steppin’ in.
-Mande
By Darth February 2, 2010 at 10:40 am
Still crippled by bein’ within a stone’s throw of tha Staid House and RINO pen.
By Liberty For Me February 2, 2010 at 10:44 am
I highly disagree…People laughed at me for taking the Rorschach interpreted shit stain class.But now I can post replies to Pat Hendrix and understand the socialist agenda.
By southernmapart February 2, 2010 at 12:53 pm
It’s all about getting the EI degree. “Establishment Indoctrination”
These frivolous courses of full of propaganda to encourage students to think the way the establishment wants them to think.
I finally got a college degree as an adult student the same age as the profs. Some of the instructors understood they are teaching propaganda, but some others could not see through the indoctrination they were spewing.
By Jay-Pee February 2, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Hey didn’t you guys promise us revelations about “USC’s Largest College in Turmoil”?? Where is the FOI stuff…or are they just gonna bury that on teh horse shoe???I bet ya there are some “gems” burried in that review…
By Average Joe February 2, 2010 at 5:06 pm
These sound like elective courses, so is there really any harm in offering them? I mean, these aren’t majors or schools within the university, right? And even if they were and someone graduated with a degree in The Geography of Music, what’s the real damage? If that body of knowledge isn’t worth anything, then that person won’t be employed for having that knowledge.
Isn’t part of the goal of university to explore and mentally go places you hadn’t been before. If not, why go? Geography and music sounds like an analysis of the relationship between art and place–the same kind of thing one gets in an art history course, right? And the Black Masculinity course sounds entirely appropriate in a society that has such a high percentage of black males in prison. Venerated people like Bill Cosby have gotten in trouble for taking a stand on how black men, young ones particularly, should act. What’s wrong with having a class where people can talk and think about it? Maybe if the course were called “What It Means To Be a Black Man,” it would be easier to accept as a study of one particular social role. I don’t think this sounds like propaganda for a victim mentality, nor does it sound to me like a threat to…whatever you’re afraid is being threatened or undermined.
One of the electives I took in college was on The Old Testament. Didn’t have one thing to do with my major, but it was one of the most interesting classes I had. If I hadn’t happened across that class in the catalog and found that it fit my schedule, there’s a lot about the Bible and the Middle East that I wouldn’t have learned.
It’s cool if you don’t want to take these classes. You don’t have to. But, why prevent someone else from thinking and talking about these issues with others who are also interested? I’m no fan of The Food Network, but it doesn’t bother me at all that lots of people are. Let ‘em watch other people cooking all day long. I’ll be doing something else. Seems like the considerate thing to do…
(Oh, and I’d be interested to hear more about the “we’re paying for part of this education” argument. I think–but I could be wrong–that having a university in your town/state brings in much more money to the area than it costs taxpayers. In the big picture, I’ll bet we gain rather than lose because we have a large university with many course options in our state.)
By BIN News February 2, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Manatee, Great pic of you, post surgery. But, please. Show everyone what you looked like before you went under the knife. :)
http://www.essence.com/images/mt/AvatarSciFi_article_.jpg
By Liberty For Me February 2, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Average Joe..I think you took this way too serious