Dr Sam Richards, a sociology professor at Penn State university, faced severe criticism after he picked 'an average white guy' claiming that he has inherent "benefit" over any Black person. The incident, which took place during a discussion, left many saying that he was making the students feel guilty about the color of their skin.
Penn State is still offering courses dealing with Critical Race Theory, such as 'Race 101 Critical Dialogues: Introduction to Critical Race Theory', even as the Republican politicians in Pennsylvania have brought forward bills attempting to ban CRT in public schools.
As per Republicans the CRT theory argues that it teaches children and young people to discriminate against each other, and resent the history of the United States.
Professor Draws Comparison Between White and Black Student
The video was shot during Richards's class held on June 30. The topic of the class was 'an introductory class on race and culture'.
The clip shows the sociology professor approaching a section of students, saying, "I just take the average white guy in class, whoever it is, it doesn't really matter," before he makes his random selection. "Dude, this guy here. Stand up, bro. What's your name, bro?"
Richards then asks the student,: "Look at Russell, right here, it doesn't matter what he does. If I match him up with a black guy in class, or a brown guy, even... who's just like him, has the same GPA, looks like him, walks like him, talks like him, acts in a similar way, has been involved in the same groups on campus, takes the same leadership positions, whatever it is... and we send them into the same jobs, Russell has a benefit of having white skin."
The video also shows Richards pull up a Black student just moments before he picks Russell. With the Black student, he picks another White kid and point-blank asks the latter what he thinks about the privilege of being White. "Bro, how does it feel knowing that [when] push comes to shove your skin's kind of nice?" Richards confronts the student, who then answers: "I don't know, it makes me feel sad."
Social Media Demands Richards' Resignation
The viral clip left the social media enraged. "The key to bigotry is taking a generalization and applying it to a random unique individual. Sue this professor," tweeted Andrew Sullivan.
"'We have no say in the color of our skin! We have a say on what we do and this teacher is doing damage on the future of our children by focusing on skin color," wrote another user.
"This is racism. Pure and simple. To call out someone purely based on the color of their skin. Disgusting! This dude is a hater and he teaches how to hate white people. There is no other meaning to this," read another tweet.
"When is Dr Sam Richards going to resign his position to a black professor due to his white privilege?" a user questioned the official Penn State twitter account.
