COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO FEATURE WHITENESS MONTH

A community college in Oregon has set aside April to look at “whiteness”. Portland Community College’s Diversity Council is behind the event, which it called a “bold adventure” to examine “race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins and heritage.” The project is not to celebrate Caucasians, but an “effort to change our campus climate,” the school said on its website. The month of April will be dedicated to the project, which “seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism.” Among the questions that will be asked:
– What is whiteness and how is it socially constructed?
– In what ways does whiteness emerge from a legacy of imperialism, conquest, colonialism and the American enterprise?
– Who benefits from the consequences of whiteness? Who loses from whiteness? How?
– What are alternatives to the culture of white supremacy?
– What are approaches and strategies to dismantling whiteness?
* The month’s musical guests include Michael Buble’ and Coldplay.
* The official dance all month will be Square Dancing.
* The cafeteria will only be serving casseroles.
* Gee, if only Michael Jackson were alive to participate. He’d have an interesting perspective.
* How about imagining how boring America would be if everyone was white?
* It would be awful. The whole country would look like the Academy Awards.
* Wait, the Diversity Council came up with this? Are you kidding me?
* You want to see something really scary. Go back just 100 years and see what places like Harvard were teaching about racial superiority. It’s mind-blowing.
* Don’t have time for that? Just pick a spot like the Philippines or Hawaii and check out how white people acted when they got there. You’ll get it pretty quick.