(2003-06-20) — University of Massachusetts students taking whiteness studies, courses were shocked to learn this week that astronomers now believe that 96 percent of the universe is composed of so-called “dark matter” and “dark energy”.
UMass Professor Arlene Avakian led a classroom exercise which showed white students that less than one percent of the universe is composed of luminous objects, the rest of it is dark, “like the ethnic minorities who continue to suffer oppression in the United States.”
African-American students in the class said they felt empowered by the knowledge that the vast majority of the universe is, as one sophomore put it, “Black like me.”
Professor Avakian, who confessed she is white, assured her white students that they need not feel inferior because of their lack of blackness. However, she warned, “we will never have justice in this nation until every white person feels bad about her or his color and heritage.”

Post This to Your Facebook