Class on race offered with new 'diversity in the US' requirement

Most students, faculty and staff are aware that Wheaton College is implementing general education reform during the next academic year. Most are unaware, however, that this reform includes a number of courses aiming to study issues of race across various disciplines.
Cliff Williams, visiting professor of philosophy, has experience advocating for various issues of race and offered to create a course on race and justice after the philosophy department met last May to discuss their contribution to the curriculum reform.
Race and Justice, a 100-level course offered next semester, will count for both the philosophical investigation requirement and the diversity in the United States requirement. Both are new general education themes.
Through thinking about justice philosophically, Williams would like for students to learn “how to listen to people in a different culture or in a different race.”
Since his course is specifically focusing on African American issues of justice, he also hopes for “African Americans to be able to articulate the kinds of experiences that they have.”
Cara Ward, a junior studying art and anthropology, said that “the campus will especially benefit from the addition of these courses to the general education program because it will encourage campus-wide involvement in conversations related to solidarity and diversity across the four year spectrum.
We need multiple classes offered so that the conversation becomes a greater part of our complete community walk and less of an isolated individual struggle.”
These new courses come at a crucial time in Wheaton’s history, as issues of race are prevalent in recent events on campus.
These new courses will equip students to enter more easily into the stories of people facing racial discrimination and potentially allow the conversation to be more accessible for many students who might not consider these issues otherwise.