Disclosure: On a cell, apologize for any formatting errors.

Near the end of class today, my German professor instigated that old white men in power in the US were responsible for discriminatory actions against the populace. I was taken aback when trying to consider how their age, race, and gender had anything the do with the their individual actions.

After the class was over, I requested to discuss this with the professor to address the remarks. I asked what their age, color of their skin, and gender had to do with the legislation they attempted to pass. She stated it was merely an observation of what they were. I then asked if their actions would be any less heinous if the were young, female, and/or of a less predominant ethnicity. She simply restated she was just making an observation. I took the opportunity to state that her correlation of the acts with the generalization of the people who committed them incited many misandric comments within my predominantly female class. I pointed out that the officials were elected, and requested that she address the actions and legislation as being immoral in her opinion rather than the generalized characteristics that the particular legislators happened to have. Being old does not make them immoral, nor does being white, nor does being a man.

I don't believe in discrimination of anything other than actions, morals, and capabilities as this would apply an unfair bias for or against people with characteristics similar to those people/entities being singled out. There is always at least one person within a broad enough grouping that hold morals distinguishable from the rest of that group, and he/she/they should not benefit or suffer for merely being associated with the group when the association is through no/limited choice of their own (age, sex, gender, race, sexual orientation, generalized religious affiliation).

She ended up apologizing for her statements and the reactionary comments it sparked within the class. She stated she would try to be more aware of the content she presents in her instruction from now on. So now I am seeking guidance. Did I handle the situation appropriately? and how could I have handled it better? I don't want to sound like people can't hold their own beliefs against a particular group, but I also don't want others to be unjustly discriminated against simply because they share the same skin color, gender, and/or age of individuals who have vastly different ideologies.

TL;DR My professor made discriminatory comments against old white men, I challenged her manner of thinking to try to prevent her ageist, racist, sexist dialog from becoming deeper-entrenched beliefs of my classmates, and want to know how to better confront such instances in the future.

Thanks all.