Professor gets hate mail over 'Problem of Whiteness'

Kaila White | The Arizona Republic

Show Caption Hide Caption Class on 'Problem of Whiteness' stirs controversy An Arizona State University course entitled "U.S. Race Theory and the Problem of Whiteness" has sparked protests and even garnered hate mail for the professor, but some on campus see no problem with the subject.

PHOENIX — An Arizona State University course called "U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness" has gained national attention and landed the university and the course's professor in the middle of a debate about race, political correctness and academic freedom.

In the space of two months, the course has been singled out by Fox News commentators, been targeted online by white-supremacist groups and spurred small protests and counterprotests in Tempe.

According to university records recently obtained by The Arizona Republic, assistant professor Lee Bebout has received dozens of hostile and hate-filled e-mails about the class, and Tempe police say the instructor suffered harassment when fliers were distributed on campus and in Bebout's neighborhood with "Anti-White" printed over a photo of Bebout, who is white.

Bebout's colleagues in higher education say the backlash is unfortunate but comes with the territory when anyone takes a critical approach to race and racism.

"Precisely the reason there is such a backlash is exactly the reason why (such classes) should exist," said Nolan Cabrera, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona whose research focuses on race and racism in higher education. "The time it will be unnecessary is when it ceases to be controversial."

ASU lists no specific description for the English special-topics course, which debuted this semester, and Bebout declined to be interviewed.

But in a statement released in January, ASU said the class "uses literature and rhetoric to look at how stories shape people's understandings and experiences of race. It encourages students to examine how people talk about — or avoid talking about — race in the contemporary United States."

The class, which began on Jan. 12, received national attention Jan. 23 when Fox News correspondent Elisabeth Hasselbeck called the course "quite unfair, and wrong and pointed" on Fox & Friends.

Lauren Clark, an ASU junior who is not in the class or in the English program, said on the show that the class "suggests an entire race is the problem."

The segment ignited a media frenzy, and Bebout began receiving hate mail the day it aired, according to a police report.

Over the next two months, Bebout received at least 70 hostile e-mails from opponents of the class, according to records provided by ASU.

"I look forward to your suicide," one read. Another suggested: "Maybe just kill yourself and get it over with."

One person wrote, "I'd enjoy seeing you swing from a light pole."

New ASU English class: 'The Problem of Whiteness' Eighteen students at Arizona State University are enrolled in a new, controversial English class about "The Problem of Whiteness."

Those missives were outnumbered by positive responses to his class, however, Bebout told police.

The day the Fox News segment aired, ASU defended the course in its statement, saying it was "designed to empower students to confront the difficult and often thorny issues that surround us today and reach thoughtful conclusions rather than display gut reactions."

ASU added: "A university is an academic environment where we discuss and debate a wide array of viewpoints."

As controversy surrounding the course continued, ASU declined further comment, letting the Jan. 23 statement stand.

On Jan. 29, someone distributed fliers on the driveways of Bebout's and others' homes in his neighborhood with "Anti-White" printed over his face and reading "Arizona State University is Anti-White," according to Tempe police. The act of putting the flier on Bebout's driveway constituted misdemeanor harassment, the report said.

The fliers were labeled "National Youth Front." NYF is a "youth organization dedicated to the preservation of all White people," according to the website for the group, which has a Phoenix chapter of unknown size.

The group is characterized as a "newly formed youth wing of the White nationalist American Freedom Party" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil-rights organization.

When Bebout told ASU administrators about the e-mails and fliers, they advised him to contact Tempe police, the report said. Tempe police met with Bebout multiple times and assigned a detective with its Homeland Defense Bureau to research the case.

In February, commenters on white-supremacist websites posted a photo of Bebout with his family, along with disparaging comments, his contact information and other personal details.

In early March, a few NYF supporters protested the class on ASU's Tempe campus. Among them was Harry Hughes, a local member of the white-supremacist National Socialist Movement.

A handful of ASU students and Tempe residents responded by protesting and hosting meetings about the nationalists' presence.

This month, forensic analysis identified a fingerprint on one of the fliers from Bebout's neighborhood, though no match was found. Bebout told police he would aid in prosecution if the subjects were identified, but the case was closed for lack of leads, the report said.

NYF Chairman Angelo John Gage, who lives in New Jersey, said in a Facebook message that no one in his organization threatened Bebout. NYF member John Hess said he and other members distributed the fliers on campus but not in Bebout's neighborhood.

Earlier this month, ASU administrators accepted an offer from the Arizona branch of the Anti-Defamation League to train ASU police on extremist groups with an emphasis on white supremacists, according to the league, and to organize a meeting of community leaders to discuss race-related tension on campus.

"We were very alarmed and troubled, specifically about targeting someone in a higher-learning environment, challenging the courses that the professor was teaching and then trying to recruit, organize and disseminate propaganda on a college campus," said Michele Lefkowith, an investigative researcher with the ADL.

The ADL had been working with ASU to plan the officer training and the community meeting, but the head of the ADL's Arizona office said last week that he's losing patience with the university.

"We have continually asked the administration at ASU to make a public statement denouncing the hate speech and the intimidation," said Jake Bennett, director of the ADL's Arizona regional office. "If you don't speak out against it, then you make the people who are committing these acts ... feel emboldened to do it more."

The fields of ethnic studies and "critical race theory" emerged in the 1970s after the civil-rights movement of the '60s. Academics and researchers have taught classes and published works on "Whiteness" and the field of "critical Whiteness studies" since the '90s.

"Whiteness" is an academic term that refers not to race but to a multilayered concept: how whites are viewed by society, how they view themselves, and the implications of those perceptions, such as social norms and discrimination. The ASU course title refers to a "problem" regarding this framework.

"Any time there's critical approaches to race or even bringing up the subject of racism, it's guaranteed there's going to be very strong pushback," said Cabrera, whose research at UA has focused on Whiteness.

He said he and his colleagues also receive hateful e-mails and anonymous comments, though to a lesser degree than Bebout.

"Their distribution of fliers is one of intimidation: 'We are watching you, we know where you live.' ... It's actually a way of saying, 'Watch your back,' " he said. "That's beyond academic intimidation, and that's a situation of just basic safety.

"Higher education was meant to promote critical thinking," Cabrera said.

The sort of hateful deluge Bebout experienced is common and has a chilling effect on academic freedom, said Anita Levy, with the American Association of University Professors, a group that advocates for academia.

"This professor, whether or not he gets tenure, is going to think twice and thrice about what he teaches next time," she said.

It is students who ultimately suffer, Levy said: "They're not going to get the benefit of different and varying viewpoints, which is, after all, presumably what you come to college for, to be exposed to new and different knowledge."

Bebout published an article in an academic journal last year titled "Skin in the Game: Toward a Theorization of Whiteness in the Classroom," which explains his field of study, his life and his approach to teaching.

"Like many scholars of ethnic studies, my courses daily explore instances and legacies of racism, sexism, homophobia, class oppression, and other manifestations of inequality," he wrote in the article.

He cited Nancy Peterson, an English professor at Purdue University, who in a 1996 article "argued that white professors who are willing to examine and question their own standpoint of privileged whiteness ... can help engage white students in similar kinds of critical analysis as well as demonstrate to black students that allies can be found to fight the war against racism."

The "Whiteness" class is not in ASU's course catalog for next semester. Bebout, an assistant professor of literature and the Department of English's literature-program director, is slated to teach "Transborder Chicano Literature," which he has taught three times before, and a special-topics class titled "Chicano Literature, Chicano Politics."

Classes are scheduled up to a year in advance. It is unclear if a class on Whiteness studies or critical race theory will be offered in spring 2016.