Ana Brown is a pen-name for the writer of this story. This piece was a submission by a contributing writer and is not the opinion of the Daily Forty-Niner.
I would like to preface this article with a few disclaimers. First, this is not an attack on “woke culture,” but rather a call-out on the detriments of radicalized social justice that only widen the gap of discrimination and hate. Second, while I am white, I am also a queer, disabled woman who deals with my own forms of discrimination based on my identity on a regular basis.
As the new academic year begins, we have all received emails from campus reminding us to complete our mandatory Title IX training as per every fall. Now, like most people, I would maybe groan at how boring it is, but suck it up and watch the videos. It may be a bit slow, but the purpose is important because some people need to learn about sexual misconduct and harassment.
However, our Title IX programs have seen a lot of changes in the last few years. When I first started at CSULB in Fall 2018, it was a series of moderately cringey videos with cheesy chalkboard infographics and a short common-sense questionnaire at the end.
Now, as the protections and applications of Title IX have increased, the program has been changed entirely. While one of the main purposes of these changes was to increase student engagement and understanding, it really just led to an invasive and insensitive short-answer question system being implemented.
As a major California university in one of the most progressive counties, CSULB has generally been a very accepting school regardless of identity.
We have all-gender bathrooms clearly marked and scattered throughout campus, inclusive and diverse students and faculty, and a wonderful program for students with disabilities that works hard to make the campus as accessible as possible.
Yet, the last few years of CSULB’s steps to inclusivity have started to feel like they’re going too far in an attempt to be perceived as “woke” by the masses.
While Title IX has always covered discrimination, our training seminars primarily covered issues in hazing, addiction, and abuse. This year, it seemed like half the seminar was on inclusivity and identity politics. Coming from a university as accepting and inclusive as CSULB, it was basically preaching to the choir about these issues.
It’s the people who aren’t part of the choir that can pose an issue. As someone who considers themselves to be very accepting of everyone regardless of identity or beliefs, my personal stance is that I don’t mind how one identifies as long as they don’t hurt others or themselves as a direct result of their identities.
Despite this, I found myself disturbed and offended by the invasiveness of the short answer questions this year.
From asking to list the self-identifiers that make you stand out in a specific group, to writing down your biases regarding a group you do not identify with, you are forced to participate in a system that demands in the most judgmental tone possible that you divulge personal and critical information.
This is a violation of boundaries, as long as it’s readable because it is tied to our student accounts. If anything, it just makes people more hostile to social egalitarian movements.
While implicit biases do exist, this idea that everyone has terrible implicit biases that they’ve acted on is just a form of “woke” guilt.
Rather than trying to encourage a constructive narrative that acknowledges and respects differences in opinions no matter to what extent, forcing a student population of over 38,000 to sit through and invent narratives about things they don’t believe or understand just contributes to the problem.
It’s just another form of thought control, taking away an individual’s right to evaluate for themselves what they think is healthy and moral according to their own beliefs.
There are a lot of dark things happening in the world and in our country. We’ve been through a lot. From pandemics to war, these last few years have been tough for everyone. In a time where the gap between the right and left is growing due to increased radicalization on both sides – such as the Proud Boys vs. Antifa – forcing a narrative of false “wokeness” only contributes to the disparity.
Just because you can’t solve the problem on an administrative level, you shouldn’t be forced this religious-like confessional down the throats of every student trying to pass their classes and live their lives. The problem and the resulting pushback against social justice movements will only worsen if this continues.