April is Whiteness History Month at Portland Community College
Mark your calendars!
A subcommittee of Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus Diversity Council has declared April 2016 Whiteness History Month. They hope to, “inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism.” According to Oregon Live, Whiteness History Month is the brainchild of PCC faculty and staff.
Different from other heritage months, Whiteness History Month is not a celebration though. It’s all about social constructs, racism, and multiculturalism. Or something:
The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness. Challenging the master narrative of traditional curriculum is a strategy within higher education that promotes multicultural education and equity.
The event’s Statement of Purpose could’ve been penned by Rachel Dolezal.
“Whiteness is a state of consciousness,” and not about the color of skin, they contend. Skin color? That’s just plain ol’ “white.”
Whiteness is a socially and politically constructed behavior. It has a long history in European imperialism and epistemologies. Whiteness does not simply refer to skin color but an ideology based on beliefs, values, behaviors, habits and attitudes, which result in the unequal distribution of power and privilege based on skin color. Whiteness represents a position of power where the power holder defines social categories and reality—the master narrator. Whiteness originates racism. It is relational. “White” only exists in relation/opposition to other categories in the racial hierarchy produced by whiteness. Whiteness is a state of consciousness, often invisible, shaping how white people view themselves and others and thus perpetuating ignorance throughout communities. Cultural racism is founded in the belief that “whiteness” is the universal…and allows one to think and speak as if Whiteness described and defined the world. The meaning of whiteness is historical and has shifted over time.
Whiteness, you see, is/was all about institutionalizing “white supremacy”:
“Whiteness” as an ideology derives from the historical practice of institutionalizing “white supremacy.” Beginning in at least the seventeenth century, “white” appeared as a legal term and social designator determining social and political rights. Eventually it was used widely to decide who could vote or be enslaved or be a citizen, who could attend which schools and churches, who could marry whom, and who could drink from which water fountain. These and thousands of other legal and social regulations were built upon the fiction of a superior “white” race deserving special privileges and protections.
I don’t know about you, but devoting an entire month to discussing whiteness sure sounds like a great time! I bet they have all kinds of fun activities planned, too. Like these Essential Questions:
More than 90,000 students attend PCC.
Interestingly, when Dolezal said, “whiteness is a state of mind,” during a daytime talk show, she was promptly shut down by the hostess who argued whiteness was race:
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The childish antics of a minority of university students end upon graduation and entry into the real world. Employers will not tolerate it. Period.
Which, of course, explains the explosion of graduate candidates, and the pollution of the idea of a doctorate in a field meaning something.
Now it generally means, “More student loans to avoid the morning shift at Starbucks AND/OR the evening shift at Micky D’s.”
IF they’re lucky…
I wish that I could agree with you, Mr. Hawkins. Unfortunately, this type of thinking is bleeding over into all large employers-government and large corporations. Granted, the university-level hooey is the avant-garde, but you should see what’s going into policy these days. It’s not good.
God forbid they make advances in a company’s HR. You know they, like Academia, would only hire their own. Like a parasite that eventually kills the host, barring a stimulus or bailout
The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness.
Well, the “master race” issue has been challenged and settled, but that wasn’t good enough, apparently.
Now they have to make up the “master narrative of race”, in order to have something else to challenge.
Still, I wonder what they consider “the master”.
I noticed that they pulled this nonsense AFTER the semester began and the add/drop period had expired. I wonder how many students they’ll get in the next couple of terms.
It’s going to be a massive shock to their systems when these whiny little brats discover how many of the things they feel they can’t live without – hell, the entire culture that allows them to sit around and whine about how bad they have it – were invented by old, white European men! If they want to eliminate all of that oppressive whiteness perhaps they should move to a place where it isn’t so prevalent … Mogadishu, for instance.
I don’t condone any of the reprehensible things that have happened to non-whites over the centuries but whites cannot be held wholly responsible for them; there was a thriving slave trade in Africa long before the first Europeans arrived and found black Africans catching and selling other black Africans. (As an aside, many of the West African slave marts where buyers of European decent shopped were actually run by Muslims. One of those nasty-but-verifiable facts that today’s college leftists don’t want mentioned.)
I wouldn’t hire any of these brats, even for scut work; their belief in their “entitlements” would interfere with their ability to capably perform any sort of labor.
descent not decent … Sorry.
Everything you need to know about white supremacy
Unlike the rarefaction and division of colors in the rainbow, white[ness] is inclusive of the totality of the color spectrum.
That said, the history of white[ness] begins with the illumination of dark energy and matter.
For example, whereas a pro-life religion originates in the light of creation, the pro-choice religion was pulled out of the dark fringes of a penumbra.
One way to encourage racism is to indict people for racism whether they’re racist or not. A certain percentage of every race will think, “I’m called a racist no matter what I am or what I do, so f**k it, I’ll be racist.”
This discussion of whiteness makes me ponder my White Privilege. Forsooth:
Willie Nelson owed the IRS 16 million dollars. The IRS seized his ranch, personal belongings, and all other assets they could find.
Al Sharpton currently owes the IRS in excess of 19 million dollars. The IRS has seized … absolutely nothing. And, he is a frequent guest at the White House.
Will someone please explain White Privilege to me again? Somehow, I seem to be missing something.