East Tennessee State University (ETSU) officials are scheduled to present a play later this month that explores what they call the problem of white privilege.
That play, Straight White Men, recently appeared on Broadway, according to an emailed ETSU press release.
“The show tells the story of three brothers who have gathered at their widowed father Ed’s Midwestern home for Christmas Eve. Jake is a recently divorced banker, Drew is a writer and professor, and Matt, a Harvard graduate, has just moved back home with his dad,” the ETSU press release said.
“While the holiday begins with cheerful trash-talking, pranks, takeout Chinese food, and other Christmas rituals, the mood shifts when one of the siblings shows his emotional vulnerabilities, leaving the rest of the family debating what his true problem really is and what should be done to help him. The intervention leads to a discussion about being a straight white male and begs the question: can privilege be problematic?”
The Tennessee Star contacted ETSU officials on Friday and asked whether the university will present plays or other literature that postulates that privilege is based on something other than race, sex, or sexual orientation.
University spokesman O.J. Early said he would direct our question to school’s theater department — but no one in that department returned our request for comment.
Two years ago, ETSU officials screened a film on campus that argued against detaining immigrants and called on the federal government to eliminate the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The Star asked ETSU officials at the time if they, as a publicly funded university, would provide some sort of equal time to other films, or even people, with an opposing viewpoint.
ETSU officials at the time did not return our request for comment.
The film, titled The Infiltrators, appeared to have a political agenda.
An ETSU press release quoted Film Quarterly, which said the film makes “a compelling argument against immigration detention.”
University officials said that the National Endowment for the Arts helped fund the on-campus screening.
According to The Infiltrator’s website, the movie tells the true story of young immigrants named Marco and Viri who get arrested by Border Patrol and are put in “a shadowy for-profit detention center – on purpose.”
“Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of radical dreamers who are on a mission to stop deportations. And the best place to stop deportations, they believe, is in detention,” according to the film’s website.
“However, when Marco and Viri try to pull off their heist – a kind of ‘prison break’ in reverse – things don’t go according to plan.”
ETSU, in Johnson City, had nearly 15,000 students in 2017, according to the university’s website.
Last year, Knox County Schools (KCS) approved a dual enrollment course from ETSU that has historically taught Critical Race Theory.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “East Tennessee State University Welcome Sign” by East Tennessee State University.
