Pennsylvania State University is defending a professor who pulled a white student in front of his class and told him that he’s breathing, so he may have oppressed someone today.

Professor Sam Richards, who teaches the 700-student “SOC119: Race and Ethnic Relations” course, pulled students up before the class on June 30 to discuss white privilege.

“I just take the average white guy in class, whoever it is, it doesn’t really matter,” Richards said. “Dude, this guy here. Stand up, bro. What’s your name, bro?”

The student, Russell, stood up to face the class.

“Look at Russell, right here, it doesn’t matter what he does,” the professor continued, according to a report from Campus Reform. “If I match him up with a black guy in class, or a brown guy… who’s just like him, has the same GPA, looks like him, walks like him, talks like him, acts in a similar way…and we send them into the same jobs…Russell has a benefit of having white skin.”