U.S. professor blasts Indigenous land acknowledgements as “meaningless”
By Elie Cantin-Nantel
University of Washington computer sciences professor Stuart Reges is speaking out about the use of Indigenous land acknowledgements, which he calls “meaningless.”
This comes as many institutions in both Canada and the United States are increasingly reminding people they are on “unceded” traditional native land.
According to Native Land Digital, “all settlers, including recent arrivants, have a responsibility to consider what it means to acknowledge the history and legacy of colonialism.”
Reges told True North he believes “a lot of people hate land acknowledgements.”
“They are meaningless if they aren’t paired with some kind of concrete action. And I think the only people who are made to feel better by them are the people who say them.”
He added that it gets those people “off the hook from having to do anything because they feel like they’ve done what they’re supposed to do by saying it.”
Reges, who opposes the “diversity equity and inclusion agenda,” said he believes woke activists on campuses made a miscalculation when they opted to promote land acknowledgements.
“I don’t think they realized how dangerous it was to ask people to make a political statement. Because if you ask people to make a political statement, then you have to allow them to say what they really believe.”
“You may not like the political statement they make,” said Reges, adding “that’s certainly what happened in my case.”
As previously reported by Bari Weiss’ Common Sense on Substack, Reges got in hot water with the University of Washington over a paragraph he inserted about land acknowledgements in a course syllabus – after the university recommended professors include an acknowledgement.
“I acknowledge that by the labour theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington,” wrote Reges in his syllabus.
Lawyers say the statement resulted in the university creating a censored version of Reges’ syllabus – which he was unable to modify. They also created a competing class that students could switch to, and launched an investigation into him.