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Certain conservatives are outraged, OUTRAGED, by a Portland Community College initiative called "Whiteness History Month."
The project, which has incidentally been public since August but only just discovered by the blogosphere, is "a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins and heritage," according to PCC's website.
And while PCC says the project is about challenging "the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness," conservative websites are…displeased.
One headline, on a site called Campus Reformer, reads: "Portland Community College to devote an entire month to 'whiteness'-shaming." Another site, called The Rebel, goes with the subtle: "Portland Community College says only white people are racist, will spend all of April shaming 'whiteness.'"
The American Conservative got into the conversation with a post called, "Hate Whitey Month," saying: "Portland Community College…is staging a 'Whiteness History Month' plainly designed to convince white students to despise themselves and their culture."
PCC Community Relations Director Kate Chester, is diplomatic but thinks they've got it wrong. "I could see how some of the language could get misinterpreted because it's complex," she says. "The confusion, I think, is in part because of the title."
"White and whiteness are different," adds Chester. "White can be interpreted to refer to a person or group of people. That's not the purpose of this event. The purpose of this event is to look at whiteness as a construct."
PCC is Oregon's largest post-secondary school, serving 85,000 students. Because of that, Chester says the faculty felt they have a responsibility to foster discussions about race, which is a top topic on college campuses. The idea for Whiteness History Month came out of faculty meetings on the subject that began in 2014.
Far from "shaming and blaming" people because of their race, Chester says this event is about opening up a conversation.
"The goal is to create a safe space of dialogue about this topic," says Chester.
Will Whiteness History Month make all white people hate themselves? Will white students cry themselves to sleep for the rest of their lives? It's scheduled for April so you'll have to wait until then to find out. In the meantime, anybody who is part of the community can apply to be part of WHM. Apply and either dismantle the culture of white supremacy OR, if it's your thing, indoctrinate white students with self-hate.
Willamette Week