Charlie James critiques Clemson University over course land acknowledgments.

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Clear Transcript: The Charlie James Show (Friday, Sept 4, 2026) – Hour 4, Segment 1 Charlie James: If I were a parent and I had a kid that was looking into colleges, I think I would have to strongly advise them not to look at Clemson University. And that's got nothing to do with football. I would also not advise them to look at the University of South Carolina. That has everything to do with football. But let's get back to Clemson. Clemson is—I mean, if you just look at their history, they are one of the most liberal, DEI, critical race theory teaching... I mean, they are eaten up with liberalism! Eaten up with it! And they teach it to their... their students. Uh, this is from Will Folks over at, uh, FitsNews. Clemson University is facing some serious financial headwinds, as well as pressure of a more literal sort. But it seems the Upstate South Carolina institution of higher learning, which has come under fire in recent years for its left-leaning ideological bent, isn't letting any of that detract from its commitment to taxpayer-subsidized indoctrination. As a student returning to campus last fall for the... the semester, one course in early childhood literacy was taught by Dr. Heather Dunham. And it veered far afield from its ostensible objective of preparing future teachers to help kids read. Now, remember, this is a course by Dr. Heather Dunham that's going to teach future... future teachers how to help kids read. That is what it should concentrate on. The syllabus for Dr. Dunham's class is entitled "Teaching Reading in the Early Grades." Nothing sounds bad so far, does it? Everything sounds pretty good. Okay. That did not start with an overview of the K through 3 literacy content, but rather kicked off with a... land acknowledgment. That's right, a land acknowledgment statement ripped from the pages of the now-defunct website entitled Decolonize Clemson. The statement reads as follows: "We acknowledge that the main campus of Clemson University occupies the traditional and ancestral land of the Cherokee people. Clemson's main campus is built on land seized through U.S. military and diplomatic incursions culminating in the Treaty of DeWitt's Corner in 1777. This is also land in which people enslaved by the Pickens, Clemson, and Calhoun families lived and worked, and that—and that was transformed into the campus of Clemson University through convict labor. We make this acknowledgment to remember the histories of violence that anticipate our gathering here, to recognize the indigenous and Black claims of life and land, and to re-center those claims as we commit to better ways of caring for each other and for this land. Learn more at Decolonize Clemson." Well, that's no longer online, but there are archived versions that you can, uh, get that contain the language noting that the "ongoing violent exploitation of land, life, and labor that particularly impacts indigenous and Black people." The ongoing? Ongoing, really? Really? The statement further advocated on behalf of education and actions towards decolonization, urging students at Clemson to "confront the ways we have been complicit with colonialism, and to recommit the decolonial thought and practice." So... so what does any of that... what does any of that have anything to do with teaching teachers, future teachers, how to teach K through third-grade kids to read? The answer to that is nothing. "We also insist that land acknowledgments at Clemson recognize the lived experience of enslaved people, people conscripted to convict labor, and racialized people subjected to the ongoing material and the ontological violences of white supremacy." Yeah, still ongoing, apparently, according to this. "In addition, we understand land acknowledgments as opportunities to think again about what land is and what it means beyond colonial frameworks like the university, the state, the nation..." Good gracious, that makes me want to puke. Just imagine that. And that' ...

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