Do you more sympathize with the student or professor in this?

[NewYorkExpress]

I'm with the professor.

Even if this was an African-American studies course, the priority should be keeping the students (who at the age they are at still have low attention spans, and would prefer to be partying) engaged in the coursework, and to do that you need to pick works that are interesting,, regardless of the race/ethnicity of the author.