University of Washington course frames America as a ‘racial state'

The University of Washington is offering a political science seminar that describes the United States as a “racial state” and assigns readings that connect support for President Donald Trump to white supremacy.

The five-credit graduate course, taught by political science professor Sophia Jordán Wallace, examines how race and ethnicity shape citizenship, gender, and group membership. According to the syllabus, the goal is to “familiarize students with both the theoretical underpinnings of Race, Ethnicity and Politics (REP) as well as how theories in REP can be applied to other topics in American Politics.”

Assigned texts include Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, The Trump Majority: White Womanhood and the Making of Female Voters in the U.S., and White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics. One reading argues that the “making of female voters in the U.S. is embedded in the historical context of the longstanding practices of both white supremacy and patriarchy.”

The course requires students to engage in a participation exercise called “Author’s Defendant,” in which they must defend the assigned readings against “unjust attacks to keep the discussion balanced.”

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Christopher Schorr, director of Higher Education Reform at the America First Policy Institute, told Campus Reform the structure discourages critical analysis.

“There appears to be no attempt to present a balanced take on these topics,” Schorr said. “Though it requires engagement with the materials, that engagement appears to be focused on defending the materials. Given that the authors all appear to have similar radical left perspectives, this is clearly a major limiting factor and it does approach indoctrination.”

Wallace, who holds the Stuart A. and Lee D. Scheingold Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Social Justice, has served on multiple diversity committees and a university-wide Latino/Hispanic Task Force. She also notes on her website that she participates in UW’s graduate admissions process.

Schorr argues that courses like this shape the ideological environment of higher education. “They erode the quality of higher ed by limiting engagement to a narrow range of approved perspectives,” he said. “The absence of meaningful viewpoint diversity creates a one-way ratchet in which radical ideas beget ever more radical ideas.”

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He further warned that such courses signal to international students that “these perspectives are markers of elite status” while restricting genuine debate.

Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Washington’s communications office and to Sophia Jordán Wallace for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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