University of Chicago embroiled in controversy over anthropology class on “whiteness” and alleged bullying of professor by student

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Tensions surged at the University of Chicago (UChicago) between an anthropology professor and an undergraduate who claimed that she was spreading “anti-white hatred.”

Key Players

The University of Chicago, a private research university, has an undergraduate enrollment of about 7,000 students. 

Rebecca Journey is a teaching fellow in the social sciences at UChicago, where she received her doctorate in anthropology in 2021. 

Daniel Schmidt is a student at UChicago known for his conservative activism and writing. He has tens of thousands of social media followers. 

Further Details

On Nov. 1, 2022, Schmidt posted a thread on Twitter, expressing anger with UChicago’s decision to offer a seminar titled “The Problem of Whiteness” during the winter quarter. In the thread, he labeled the class as the most “egregious” example of “anti-white hatred” he had seen on campus and included Journey’s photo and email address as found on the university website. The first tweet in the series received over 9,200 likes. 

On Nov. 19, Journey and UChicago decided to suspend the course until the spring quarter, citing safety concerns for both enrolled students and Journey herself, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Journey said she had received hateful messages and death threats, including one that called her “deeply evil” and another that told her to “Blow your head clean off.”

Later that month, John W. Boyer, dean of the undergraduate college, sent an email to faculty, calling the incident “cyberbullying” and asserting that the university would not stand for such conduct. 

The anthropology course, while provocatively titled, was designed to examine how the racial category “white” has changed over time, The New York Times reported .Amanda Woodward, dean of the social sciences division, defended it and UChicago’s commitment to Free Speech. 

“The University defends the freedom of instructors to teach any course that has been developed through our faculty-led curricular processes, including courses that may be controversial,” Woodward stated. 

Schmidt has provoked controversy on campus in the past. In February 2022, he was fired by the Chicago Maroon, UChicago’s primary student newspaper, for repeatedly antagonizing Irene Qi, a Maroon colleague, on Instagram and encouraging others to do the same, The College Fix reported. Schmidt denied encouraging people to attack Qi, insisting that he was simply “calling out a public figure.”

“If Qi had privately contacted me to take down my posts, I would’ve. But she never did, despite her having all the opportunity to do so,” Schmidt said. 

Reportedly, Qi had written a column criticizing the “rhetoric of anti-masks, anti-lockdowns, anti-vaccinations, anti-expertise, and so forth” promoted by a UChicago professor. On Instagram, Schmidt asserted that Qi had several posts of her maskless at parties and challenged her to a debate.

On Dec. 8, the Maroon published an op-ed written by Journey, which condemned the hate-filled emails she had received after Schmidt’s tweet.

Journey noted that Schmidt had tweeted a celebratory message when the class was postponed, tweeting in all caps that the course was “CANCELLED.” But Journey clarified to readers that the class was not canceled, merely postponed. She went on to post a passage from UChicago’s highly publicized declaration of Free Speech principles, which have been endorsed and adopted by many other American colleges and universities. The selected passage reads, “The University may restrict expression that… constitutes a genuine threat or harassment.”

Journey wrote that, as of her submission of the op-ed, university officials had deemed that no actionable harassment had occurred, and decided that Schmidt would not be disciplined. By February 2023, all of Journey’s complaints regarding Schmidt had been dismissed, The Times reported.

Outcome 

Course held in the spring as planned, new complaint against Schmidt dismissed

Journey’s class was held in the spring quarter of 2023, as scheduled. It was moved to a secure building in a classroom disclosed only to enrolled students and other faculty involved with the class. 

A new complaint against Schmidt, filed by Journey in April 2023, was dismissed by the university. 

Watson Lubin, a UChicago student who took Journey’s course, told The Times, “I’m worried that Daniel Schmidt actually formed something of a precedent here, where you can, under the auspices of free speech, more or less intimidate and harass a professor, and sic your incredible following on TikTok and Twitter on them for the purpose of chilling speech.”

The university has a page in its online handbook titled “Guide to Managing Online Harassment.” The section notes that cyberbullying is dealt with differently from conduct prohibited under the school’s harassment/discrimination policy. It is unclear when this guide was published. 

Schmidt speaks with Fox News after New York Times article on the controversy

On July 13, in the wake of a July 3 feature in The Times detailing the incident and several other outlets’ reporting, Schmidt was interviewed by Fox News, where he claimed that Journey had attempted to “get him expelled, twice” and accused the media of overreacting to his self-described activism. 

Schmidt applauded what he saw as UChicago’s commitment to Free Speech, telling Fox that he believed most other schools would have expelled him over his remarks. 

In a statement to Fox, a UChicago spokesperson wrote, “The University supported the teaching of this course in many ways, and the course was taught successfully and without incident this spring. We take any potential threats against members of the University community extremely seriously.”