A student at the University of Michigan believes so, after taking a class on the history of Islam in South Asia.
Michigan Daily columnist Rabab Jafri is a South Asian woman herself. She felt the class only taught her the overall history and nothing to do with the South Asian experience or inequalities they face.
“Though the class was informative overall as a history class, it had little to do with my experiences as a South Asian woman and nothing to do with inequities as they exist relating to ethnicity,” argued Michigan Daily columnist Rabab Jafri.
The requirement was started propelled by the Black Action Movement, which organized a series of protests by black students in the early 1990’s, against the University of Michigan’s administration to be more included.
There was a race and ethnicity curriculum set in place that has been widely criticized.
A huge argument that is raised is that people should not be required to take this class if it has nothing to do with their career choice, so the student claims that remodeling the requirements in the answer.
“Refining the requirement will also help take the burden off minority students who are expected to provide education to other students on diversity, which can sometimes encourage the tokenization of these students, who should not bear this responsibility in the first place,” Rabab Jafri argued.
She thinks these classes should fulfill the race and ethnicity requirement as well as teach the students how to eliminate inequality in their own perspective career paths.
They say education is the best way to fight against racism and all inequalities, however is a three-credit course really going to change anything?