Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College proudly maintains--
and regularly updates-- a webpage cataloging the LGBTQ+
terminology it fosters and
recognizes. “BIQTPOC,” “Masculine of Center,” and “Transmisogynoir” are among
the terms and phrases the school sanctions. Really.
According to Swarthmore, “Transmisogynoir” refers to
“cultural and interpersonal systems of oppression affecting and against Black,
transgender women,” whereas “Masculine of Center” is a “gender identity label
for a queer person, typically assigned female at birth but not always, who
presents masculinely; most often utilized by queer women of Color.” Alrighty
then.
And “BIQTPOC,” which the esteemed institution of
higher learning definitively says should be pronounced “bye cutie pock,” is an
acronym for "Black and Indigenous Queer and Transgender People of Color.” Which,
of course, is simply a modification of “QTPOC," or “cutie pock,” which
stands for the shorter and possibly slightly less specific “Queer and
Transgender People of Color.”
I don’t want to know what other terms are on
Swarthmore’s list.
Oddly
enough, the college was founded in 1864 by the Religious Society of Friends, a.k.a.
the Quakers, but dropped the affiliation in 1906. Which is probably what eventually
led the university to offer a course titled “Is
God a white supremacist?”
as it has done in recent years. (Somewhere, Ben Franklin is not amused.)
Swarthmore’s website says
the course will primarily focus on “representations of race in religious
discourses and social practice,” with “particular attention” being “given to
discussion of the interpretive practices that are foundational to the process
of 'whiteness-making' and the construction of white identity.” Perhaps I
need better “interpretive practices,” but it sounds to me like Swarthmore
thinks “white identity” is produced by 3D Printers.
Required reading materials
for the “Is God a white supremacist” course include biblical interpretations of
“white supremacist 'Christian identity' churches” and
the Yakub theory of racial formation in the Nation of Islam. I have personally
attended many a Christian church, but none touting white supremacy. The Nation
of Islam, on the other hand, is steeped in the idea of Black
supremacy, as evidenced by the Yakub theory of racial formation.
Course themes include:
“human/anti-human binaries, death and being, and perceptions of the racialized
transcendent Other in the social, political, and symbolic order.” Surely there
isn’t a human/anti-human binary! There must be a nearly infinite number
of homo sapiens/anti-homo sapiens identities on a spectrum, right? The
same for death versus being. Some of us are clearly alive, some clearly not,
and some-- like President Biden for example—are somewhere in between.
The alleged existence of the theme “perceptions
of the racialized transcendent Other in the social, political, and symbolic
order” raises the question, “what the bleep?” Even as it lowers our expectations
and opinions of higher education itself.
Is God a white supremacist? We don’t know if God has a
color. Maybe He identifies as “all of the above.” Is He filled with “toxic
masculinity?” I mean, He allegedly created, like, everything, and rules over
it, too. But perhaps He is non-binary…or even two-spirited.
Swarthmore’s motto is “Mind the Light.”
Maybe it should be “Find the Light.”
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