A Republican lawmaker wants a professor fired over his tweets about police officers, and threatened to pull funding to the University of Wisconsin if it did not get rid of the leftist academic’s class on “The Problem of Whiteness.”
A Republican lawmaker called for UW-Madison to cancel a planned course on racism and fire its professor for posting tweets the legislator said condoned violence against police officers, warning Tuesday that the class could affect the university’s funding in the next state budget.
State Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, said he believes the course in the university’s African Cultural Studies department called “The Problem of Whiteness” is inappropriate and a waste of money. Murphy joined Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, in saying that how the university handles the controversy over the spring 2017 course could have ramifications for its request for new state funding in the 2017-19 budget.
“The state has a lot of different priorities when it comes to funding things,” Murphy said. “Is funding a course that’s about ‘The Problem of Whiteness’ … a high priority? I’ve got a feeling it’s not.”
School officials defended the course on Monday after Nass, a frequent critic of the university, derided it in an email to Republican legislators.
“The course title refers to the challenge of understanding white identity and non-white identity across the globe,” the university wrote in a statement Monday night. It is not mandatory, and “will benefit students who are interested in developing a deeper understanding of race issues,” officials said.
In one tweet, posted the night last July when five police officers were killed by a gunman in Dallas, Sajnani included a photo of news coverage of the shooting and wrote, “Is the uprising finally starting? Is this style of protest gonna go viral?”
ProfessorD.us on Twitter: “Is the uprising finally starting? Is this style of protest gonna go viral? pic.twitter.com/z0Kjgqbq4Q / Twitter”
Is the uprising finally starting? Is this style of protest gonna go viral? pic.twitter.com/z0Kjgqbq4Q
In another from the same night, Sajnani linked to a song called “Officer Down” and wrote, “Watching CNN, this is the song I am currently enjoying in my head.”
ProfessorD.us on Twitter: “Watching CNN, this is the song I am currently enjoying in my head https://t.co/A5pEWJzQ3U @lordjamar @jasiri_x @MrChuckD @mrdaveyd / Twitter”
Watching CNN, this is the song I am currently enjoying in my head https://t.co/A5pEWJzQ3U @lordjamar @jasiri_x @MrChuckD @mrdaveyd