University of New Mexico Event: 'How College Creates Becky: White Women's Racism'

An upcoming conference at the University of New Mexico features an event entitled “How College Creates Becky: White Women’s Racism.”

The 12th Annual Critical Race Studies in Education Conference is being held at the University of New Mexico between May 30 and June 1. The conference features an assortment of events on topics ranging from “white rage” to  “the emotional work of resistance.”

One event, entitled “How College Creates Becky: White Women’s Racism” was featured in a May 30 report from Campus Reform. The “Becky” event will feature Moira Ozias, the Associate Director of the Writing Center at the University of Oklahoma.

According to the Campus Reform report, the University of New Mexico recently launched a new graduate certificate program in “Race & Social Justice.” The certificate will be offered as a part of the school’s Institute for the Study of Race and Social Justice. The institute, which was established in 2009, writes on its homepage that it was created to allow students to study the effects of race-based distinctions in society. The institute is a sponsor of the critical race studies conference featuring the “Becky” event.”

Established in January 2009, mission: promote the establishment of empirical, theoretical and methodological clarity about “race” that draws on cutting-edge thinking from multiple disciplines and diverse empirical traditions promote clarity about race, racialization that builds on the insights of multiple disciplines; develop strategies for ameliorating race-based inequality.

We place “race” in quotes to underscore its nature as a socially constructed category of social status in particular historical contexts, rather than as a reified category that is essential or fixed.

University of New Mexico Professor Geoffrey Miller expressed his shock on Twitter after learning about the “Becky” event. “This is what’s happening at the university where I teach. No comment,” Miller tweeted.