Dr. Yolanda Covington-WardStarting this fall, all incoming freshman will be required to take a one-credit course focused on anti-racism at the University of Pittsburgh, according to the New York Daily News.
The course, “Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance,” was developed by a 12-member committee of faculty and students. Other interested students can opt to take the course as well, which will study Black history and culture, health disparities, policing, mass incarceration as well as the spread and forms of anti-Black racism.
The development of the course is one of several steps by the university to improve racial equity on campus, The Daily News reported.
“We hope that this course is a first step in helping students to recognize and challenge anti-Black policies and practices when they encounter them, and to develop strategies to be anti-racist in their everyday lives,” said Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward, chair of the Department of Africana Studies in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt. “The committee members were from the departments of history, music, Africana studies, sociology, anthropology, politics and other disciplines, a dynamic that will be reflected in the course itself.”
