townhall.com By Landon Mion
A sociology professor at Binghamton University in New York notified her students that she would prioritize minorities, women and shy people when calling on students, and white males would likely be called on last.
Ana Maria Candela wrote in her syllabus, “if you are white, male, or someone privileged by the racial and gender structures of our society to have your voice easily voiced and heard, we will often ask you to hold off on your questions or comments to give others priority and will come back to you a bit later or at another time.”
The policy, dubbed “progressive stacking,” was explained in the syllabus as an effort to teach students who “feel most privileged to speak” to “hold space” for fellow students who are “less comfortable speaking first.”
“Our experience with this practice is that within little time, those who feel most privileged to speak begin to take the initiative to hold space for others who feel less comfortable speaking first, while those who tend to be more silenced in our society grow more comfortable speaking,” the syllabus read. “As you can imagine, it has tremendous benefits for our society as a whole when we learn to hold space and listen to others whose voices are typically disregarded and silenced.”
