By Sara Russo

It's not rare for college courses to focus on minority groups, but a class at Point Park College in Pittsburgh has drawn national attention by concentrating on one particular minority: wealthy caucasian men. Titled "Wealthy White Males," the special topics humanities course meets for three hours every other Tuesday to discuss the special powers and privileges garnered by this elite group.

Taught by Professor Channa Newman, the class examines how rich white men gain power, and how they are able to use it to their advantage. The monetary aspect of the course's moniker is particularly important, she claims. "I don't just mean some happy, pretty rich guy living in Sewickly," she told her students on the first day of class. "We're talking about the super, super rich who make policy. How do they do that?"

"This course will address issues related to patrocentrism from a historical, anthropological, psychological, and sociological perspective," reads the official course description. "It will also examine white males in today's society."

"It's a very important and legitimate sociological subject, because as we know, wealth is an important factor in our lives, and masculine domination is still with us," Newman explained to Campus Report. "So we've got here, in this particular minority, this group that is very tiny but very powerful. We've got wealthy white males and that echoes all the social issues that are still with us and concern everyone, namely gender, race and poverty. So basically, you can look at it as a very traditional kind of course."

Asked about what questions the course seeks to answer, Newman responded that the topic yields many intriguing subjects of inquiry. "Who are the wealthy white males, who basically are in control? How do they get to be where they are? And how do they maintain their position? And what impact does their presence have on the rest of society? These are the major questions," she told Campus Report.

The academic field of "whiteness studies" has been growing rapidly in recent years. The Washington Times reports that 200 books have been written on the topic, and that several universities have sponsored conferences dedicated to discussing the concept of "whiteness." This past October, Dartmouth College held a conference titled "Race Matters in the University of the 21st Century," which declared "white identity, or whiteness, and how it affects scholarship and teaching" to be a central topic of discussion. Other prominent schools also offer classes claiming to study "whiteness." Students at Rutgers University can take "Latinos and Constructions of 'Whiteness,'" while those attending Oberlin can study "Unbearable Whiteness: The Social Construction of a Racial Category" this spring.

"Throughout the history of the U. S., people deemed to be "white" have accrued social, legal, and economic privileges at the expense of others deemed non-white. But the boundaries of whiteness have shifted over time," states the description for the Oberlin class. "This course examines the emergence of whiteness as a socially constructed racial identity, especially in relation to ethnicity, class, and the nation. By critically focusing on whiteness, it explores the plasticity of racial categories and the articulation of skin color with power."

Despite the growing movement to study "whiteness," most people outside of the ivory tower and even many employed in academia consider the classes to be just one more way of complaining about racial victimization in America-this time by studying the alleged oppressors instead of the victims. Newman claims that the course will not denigrate men or spread a particular ideology. "It doesn't matter to me what conclusion a student reaches," Newman said. "What matters is that they are thinking about these things." But students taking the course note that they were drawn to the class partly because of Newman's reputation as an opinionated liberal, and that two of the class's seven sections are titled "Masculine Domination."

The course's academic value has also been questioned. Grades for the course are based not on exams, but on the results of two projects. For one assignment, students are asked to explore "a wealthy white organization" such as a foundation or club where movers and shakers congregate. The second task calls for students to select a particular rich, white man, such as Donald Trump or Bill Gates, and research his life and actions.

"It's just investigative research. A lot of research," said Newman in defense of the course's academic content. "We're trying to understand how things work. Because I think we're sort of, most of us, slightly in the dark. Even people who think they have a cause and a mission, I'm not sure that they're always in the know."

"It's very academically sound," she added. "In fact, my students feel that they have learned so much. I don't know who makes those statements because they obviously don't know what we're doing in that class."

"It sounds like it's one of those goofy victimization courses that has no academic value," disagreed Krista Kafer, senior policy analyst for education at the Heritage Foundation, with regard to the Point Park course. "I'm neither male nor wealthy, but I'm not powerless."