Aren’t you exaggerating a bit? The professor will clearly not be endorsing these texts, in fact s/he would have picked them explicitly for being offensive. And I doubt studying texts that are offensive/unPC is a no-no in universities, if it is done in a way that makes clear that they are not being endorsed. I would imagine that history students may be exposed to Mein Kampf, students of gender/race studies may be exposed to sexist/racist texts, etc.
How can you credibly make clear that the texts are not being endorsed, if you ask your students “to make a good faith, unironic effort to reconstruct the offensive argument in its most persuasive form, marshaling additional supporting evidence and amending weak arguments to better support the author’s conclusion”.
Remember that people will not judge your efforts rationally, but merely by connotations and opportunity to express outrage.
The mere fact that you teach this course means that you already skipped an opportunity to signal your disagreement with the texts by refusing to teach the course. Sometimes not screaming “NO!!!” loud enough is interpreted as an evidence of secretly thinking “yes”.
Aren’t you exaggerating a bit? The professor will clearly not be endorsing these texts, in fact s/he would have picked them explicitly for being offensive. And I doubt studying texts that are offensive/unPC is a no-no in universities, if it is done in a way that makes clear that they are not being endorsed. I would imagine that history students may be exposed to Mein Kampf, students of gender/race studies may be exposed to sexist/racist texts, etc.
How can you credibly make clear that the texts are not being endorsed, if you ask your students “to make a good faith, unironic effort to reconstruct the offensive argument in its most persuasive form, marshaling additional supporting evidence and amending weak arguments to better support the author’s conclusion”.
Remember that people will not judge your efforts rationally, but merely by connotations and opportunity to express outrage.
The mere fact that you teach this course means that you already skipped an opportunity to signal your disagreement with the texts by refusing to teach the course. Sometimes not screaming “NO!!!” loud enough is interpreted as an evidence of secretly thinking “yes”.
A law professor can’t require reading and understanding the doctrines at play in Plessy, Schenck, or (obviously wrongly decided case of your choice)?