Rice University now offers “Afrochemistry” course taught by woke DEI professor who claims chemistry works differently when you’re Black

01/19/2024 / By Ramon Tomey

Rice University in Houston now offers a different kind of chemistry subject – “Afrochemistry” – which will be taught by a woke professor.

Writing for PJ Media, Stephen Green expounded on this “one-of-a-kind” course offering from the institution. According to the course description on Rice’s website, Afrochemistry students will “apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the U.S.” and “implement African American sensibilities to analyze chemistry.” Its ultimate goal is to address “inequities in chemistry and chemical education.”

“This course will be accessible to students from a variety of backgrounds including STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and non-STEM disciplines. No prior knowledge of chemistry or African American studies is required for engagement in this course,” the description continued.

Green pointed out the absurdity of the course’s instructor, Brooke Johnson. While she obtained a doctorate in chemistry, Johnson does not work in the university’s Department of Chemistry. Rather, she works in Rice’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department as a preceptor for chemistry.

As per her profile, Johnson joined the university’s DEI department after obtaining her Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University in New Jersey last year. Her profile states that she “is passionate about the intersection of science and social justice and using her unique experiences to teach, support and inspire diverse students.”

“Johnson will instruct her [undergraduates], who are expected to pony up around $78,278 for the privilege of attending during the 2022-2023 academic year,” wrote Green. He also pointed to questions in the course’s promotional flyer.

One question reads: “What does it look like to do science on one’s own terms?” Another question reads: “What does justice look like in chemistry?”

Green ultimately concluded that the Afrochemistry course “is not a chemistry class” and that Rice, which has a reputation for being a serious research school, “should have renamed Johnson’s class Agitprop 101.”

Woke courses infiltrating renowned universities

Meanwhile, the Blaze mentioned in a Jan. 12 piece that the course has no final exam. At the time of the report, nine students had enrolled out of a possible 15. It also cited an op-ed penned by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, which was published Jan. 5 in the Wall Street Journal.

According to Krauss, the Afrochemistry course is one clear example of scientific courses that offer obscure, postmodern theories. He then recounted reading a 1996 article by mathematician Alan Sokal that mocked post-modernist thought.

“Sokal’s paper was a hoax designed to demonstrate that postmodernism was nonsense. But today, postmodern cultural theory is being infused into the very institutions one might expect to be scientific gatekeepers. Hard science journals publish the same sort of bunk with no irony,” Krauss wrote.

The theoretical physicist gave some examples of such studies. One study from November 2022 touched on “the importance of teaching science with a feminist framework” and “the development and interrelationship between quantum mechanics, Marxist materialism, Afro-futurism/pessimism, and postcolonial nationalism.” Another study from March 2022 criticized “the use of whiteboards as a primary pedagogical tool” because they “play a role in reconstituting whiteness as social organization.” (Related: Harvard doctoral student claims that 2+2 is indeed equal to 5.)

Krauss continued: “Such ideas haven’t totally colonized scientific journals and pedagogy, but they are beginning to appear almost everywhere and are getting support and encouragement from the scientific establishment. There are also indications that dissent isn’t welcome.”

To back up his point, the theoretical physicist referenced how Mount Royal University (MRU) in Canada’s Alberta province fired Frances Widdowson in 2021. Widdowson, who was a tenured professor in MRU, was axed for questioning whether indigenous “star knowledge” belonged in an astronomy curriculum.

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Watch New Mexico State University professor David Clements respond to his employer’s wokeness below.

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