A Florida professor teaching a “White Racism” course designed to show “the U.S. has been and remains a white supremacist society” will have his classroom guarded by two police officers as his students meet for the first time Tuesday, the university has revealed.
Ted Thornhill, an assistant professor of sociology at Florida Gulf Coast University, said out of an abundance of caution he sent campus police 46 pages of disturbing emails and voicemail messages he received after the class was announced, The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla. reported.
“We have prepared for any possible distractions related to Tuesday’s first class of the White Racism course, but we are expecting normal campus civility as our students engage in this and other courses at the spring semester’s start,” Susan Evans, FGCU’s spokeswoman and chief of staff, told the newspaper.
Thornhill said none of the messages threatened violence or a disruption of the class, but some called him racial slurs. A few prospective students told the professor they had safety concerns.