Ronald Reagan slammed as sexist in college textbook

Conservatives students attending the University of South Carolina say one of the college’s textbooks has portrayed Ronald Reagan as a sexist and a pessimist — and they’re so angry at the description that they’re ready to revolt.

“I was absolutely shocked and was tempted to throw the book away,” said Anna Chapman, 19, a sophomore majoring in political science and the secretary of the school’s College Republicans, in FoxNews.com. “I would even write comments in the actual textbook next to some of the offensive things that I read. I didn’t know that this is what I had signed up for.”

The book, called “Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare: Critical Thinking Perspectives,” describes Mr. Reagan as insensitive to minorities and women, who achieved great success in “slashing” social welfare programs, FoxNews.com reported.

Specifically, the book says he “ascribed to women ’primarily domestic functions’ and failed to appoint many women to significant positions of power during his presidency.”

In reality, Mr. Reagan is known as the president who appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the Supreme Court and the first woman ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick.

Mr. Reagan also appointed about 1,400 other women to various policy-making roles in his two terms.

But in the book, Mr. Reagan “discounted the importance of racism and discrimination, and maintained that, if they tried, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans could become just as successful as whites.” The book authors then paint conservatives in general in similarly negative fashion, saying that Mr. Reagan’s insensitive politics toward minorities were continued by President George H.W. Bush, and that the ensuing result was a hike in poverty rates.

Ms. Chapman said the descriptions are shocking.

“The way it describes conservatives as viewing people as ’lazy, corrupt and incapable of true charity’ is extremely offense and beyond not true, granted the fact that conservatives believe that people are capable of succeeding without government interference,” she said, FoxNews.com reported.