A required textbook at the University of North Carolina is under scrutiny for its implications that Holocaust victims could have helped themselves rather than fall prey to genocide.
All undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina are required to take a Lifetime Fitness course. One of the course options is titled, "21st Century Wellness". The course is a single credit aimed at promoting healthier lifestyle choices. However, the required textbook for the class has recently raised alarm.
Here is an excerpt from the textbook:
"The people in the [Holocaust concentration] camps who did not tap into the strength that comes from their intrinsic worth succumbed to the brutality to which they were subjected."
The book also apparently proposes the idea that cancer is a disease of choice.
According to one of the textbook's authors, Brigham Young University professor Ron Hager, the passage on The Holocaust was not meant to suggest that victims could not tap into their self-worth. He said,
"A sense of inherent self-worth can be a source of strength or motivation that can help those struggling, in this case in concentration camps but also for anyone,"
Whether or not students are misinterpreting the text, Twitter is outraged at the text's implications.
My latest in the @dcexaminer’s @RedAlert: Jennifer Dekel of @EMET4u: “The textbook used at UNC is a complete disgra… https://t.co/38RdRUmCT8— Jackson Richman (@Jackson Richman) 1533221435.0
@gtoppo @garybartanus @UNC @insidehighered @ColleenFlahert1 While the article certainly gives credence to a lack of… https://t.co/bZLR504QAp— Barbara Waxer 🏳️🌈 Here for the Restoration (@Barbara Waxer 🏳️🌈 Here for the Restoration) 1533219646.0
.@UNC What the hell? You're reviewing this for continued use? How should the people in concentration camps have tr… https://t.co/9hxIwlkHQP— Stacey Lynn (@Stacey Lynn) 1533132588.0
@UNC If you do not immediately cancel the online required class textbook using fake news & antisemitic ideas about… https://t.co/xk1pecWFHQ— TerézaEliasz-Solomon (@TerézaEliasz-Solomon) 1533123341.0
Have we really gotten to a point where academic textbooks are victim blaming those persecuted during the Holocaust?… https://t.co/gVt6DbE7xt— Tori (@Tori) 1533097067.0
https://t.co/d7HH7DJz0S … "An online textbook, which blames Holocaust victims for failing to tap into their stren… https://t.co/gDPzzsU5CP— Elizabeth Rosner 🌊 (@Elizabeth Rosner 🌊) 1533087629.0
yikes unc.... goood thing none of us read our textbooks https://t.co/SeRWD1BhOL— 🖤🔥 (@🖤🔥) 1533110387.0
Hey @UNC isn’t there enough stupidity going around already? Or is that the disease of your choosing? https://t.co/Dy4YalZgj5— Dave (@Dave) 1533007355.0