Black Lives Matter College Course Opposed By Critics

Black Lives Matter College Course Opposed By Critics

A new course called “Black Minds Matter: A Focus on Black Boys and Men in Education” will be offered at San Diego State University. The weekly course was inspired in part by the Black Lives Matter movement.

It will be open to the public for enrollment in October and will feature various speakers who will talk about how black men are undervalued in the classroom.

SDSU professor J. Luke Wood, who helped create the online course, said it will connect themes from the Black Lives Matter movement to issues facing blacks in educational settings. He explained,

The Black Lives Matter movement has shed light on two invariable facts. First, that black boys and men are criminalized in society and second that their lives are undervalued by those who are sworn to protect them. 

The course has drawn criticism. Craig DeLuz, a gun rights advocate with the Sacramento-based Firearms Policy Coalition, said a public university should not be offering a course that includes speakers from a movement whose members have been accused of inciting violence. DeLuz explained,

The biggest concern is they are offering a course based on the Black Lives Matter movement which has promoted violence and segregation and has really little to do with education, let alone presenting a positive image of education. 

DeLuz is organizing a group that plans to ask SDSU to cancel the course.

SDSU said in a statement that the course:

has a racial justice focus, directly aligned with the mission of the joint doctoral program in Education. This program focuses on social justice, democratic schooling, and equity, as well as the research of the faculty who teach in it.

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