A humanities professor at a private college in Illinois has asserted that although slavery has been outlawed in the US for 150 years, white Americans still benefit from the "legacy" of it.
Adam Kotsko, an assistant professor at Shimer College on Chicago's South Side, took to Twitter to make the controversial claim.
In a similar July 1 post on his personal website, An und für sich, Kotsko explicitly states that "all white Americans are complicit with slavery."
"People of 'white' races may have been enslaved in the past, but the fact that they are now recognized as 'white' means that the disadvantage that might have accrued from that history is no longer very relevant. Every white person benefits to some degree from the differential treatment of blacks," he wrote. "Sometimes, as in cases of extreme poverty or social marginalization, that benefit is negligible. In most cases, however, it is significant, constituting advantages in wealth, education, social status, and vulnerability to police violence."
Another post on the site is about a conversation he had with someone where he sarcastically stated that all white should commit suicide out of guilt for slavery.
He's noted in his posts that many are willing to misquote him or take his statements out of context in an attempt to discredit him - which he thinks is hilarious.
Kotsko isn't the first professor to make bold claims about race relations recently. A University of Memphis Professor was recently fired for tweeting that white people are 'conditioned' to commit mass shootings.
The self-described "obscure professor" might need to change his moniker because his posts are starting to make waves.
