The University of Denver will host a “White Privilege Symposium” which will include scores of workshops focusing on how white students can hold themselves accountable for their race.
The White Privilege Symposium is presented by The Privilege Institute and The University of Denver, and will offer several workshops seeking to help white people “check their privilege,” according to the symposium’s website.
The website adds that the purpose of the symposium is to “examine patterns, cultures, and systems that contribute to identity, power, and privilege” and to provide resources necessary to “disrupt patterns, shift cultures, and change systems by discussing how white privilege, white supremacy, and oppression affects daily life.”
Some of the sessions include titles such as:
- Anti-Racist Allyship: Avoiding the Pitfalls
- Colleagial Check-In for POC: Needing Connection While Managing Whiteness
- Colored White: A Discussion on White Identity
- Scientifically Using White Privilege to Influence Racism Deniers: the White Ally Toolkit
- Thinking Critically About Race in the Era of Overt White Supremacy
- Using Our Privilege for Social Justice
- White Accountability
The workshop titled “Anti-Racist Allyship: Avoiding the Pitfalls” will discuss how white people might think they are being an “ally” to “black and brown folks” because they are being a “good progressive or liberal,” but oftentimes (unbeknownst to the white person), they are “anything but” an ally.
The goal of this workshop will be to help white people be “an even better ally/accomplice” by pointing out “some of the most common pitfalls.”
Another workshop addressing how to be a proper “ally” is called “Moving Allyship Past a Quest for Validation and Gold Stars — How to Learn and Grow Without Putting the Burden on Others.”
This session is designed to help white people avoid being “that well-meaning white person” by explaining how whites can leverage their own privilege and practice “non-savior allyship through service,” so that non-whites are relieved of the “burden” in having to deal with white people who are not practicing their allyship properly.
The description for the workshop entitled “Colored White: A Discussion on White Identity” makes the claim that people do not oftentimes “call attention to the fact that someone is white,” and therefore seeks to “fight racism” by getting white people to “understand that they have a race, and privilege,” so that they can challenge systems of oppression.
Another workshop called “Scientifically Using White Privilege to Influence Racism Deniers: the White Ally Toolkit” addresses the “remarkably high percentage of white people think that racism against whites is as important of a problem as against people of color” and provides “practical skills about how allies can use their white privilege to open up other white folks minds about the realities of racism.”
“Using Our Privilege for Social Justice” is a workshop that will “explore privileges that arise from being a member of certain social identity groups in the United States to reflect on the concept of privilege and ways that privileges can overlap.” The purpose of this exercise will be “how to use [white] privilege individually and collectively to work for social justice and equity.”
One workshop entitled “Implications for Addressing White Privilege from a Disciplinary and Departmental Perspective” does not have a description.
The session “White Accountability” will explain the difference between accountability and blame, and seek to help white people understand why they should “check their own white privilege” and “dismantle the systems of racism that permeate this country.”
A University of Denver spokesperson told Breitbart News that The Privilege Institute organized the symposium, and the university is sponsoring the event by hosting Saturday’s workshops on campus.
The university spokesperson added that “if anyone affiliated with the university attends the event, it is by their own choosing.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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