… when I stumbled onto this announcement.
Read and explore the site to see how the language of “social justice” is evolving.
12th Annual White Privilege Conference
This Land Is Whose Land? • Defining Citizenship • Understanding Access • Taking Action
Click here for registration information.
| April 13 – 16, 2011 Sheraton Bloomington Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Hosted by: |  |
Here is a description of the purpose of the conference from a PDF on the site:
What is the White Privilege Conference?
1. WPC is a conference that examines the challenging concepts of privilege and oppression and offers solutions and team building strategies to work toward a more equitable world.
2. It is not a conference designed to attack, degrade or beat up on white folks
3. It is not a conference designed to rally white supremacist groups.
4. WPC is a conference build on the premise that the U.S. was started by white people, for white people. (red highlight added)
5. WPC is a conference designed to examine issues of privilege beyond skin color. WPC is open to everyone and invites diverse perspectives to provide a comprehensive look at issues of privilege including: race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, etc.– the ways we all experience some form of privilege, and how we’re all affected by that privilege.
6. WPC attracts students, professionals, activists, parents, and community leaders/members from diverse perspectives. WPC welcomes folks with varying levels of experience addressing issues of diversity, cultural competency, and multiculturalism.
7. WPC is committed to a philosophy of “understanding, respecting and connecting.”
Here is the definition of Priviledge from a PDF on the site:
What is Privilege?
“White Privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its ef-fects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it… once we understand how white privilege operates, we can begin addressing it on an individual and institutional basis.” ~Paula Rothenberg
“Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is defiantly as asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.” ~Peggy McIntosh
Examples of Privilege
Being able to…
assume that most of the people you or your children study in history classes and textbooks will be of the same race, gender, or sexual orientation as you are
assume that your failures will not be attributed to your race, or your gender
assume that if you work hard and follow the rules, you will get what you deserve
success without other people being surprised; and without being held to a higher standard
go out in public without fear of being harassed or constantly worried about physical safety
not have to think about your race, or your gender, or your sexual orientation, or disabilities, on a daily basis…
WPC is About Creating Change!
“Whites need to acknowledge and work through the negative historical implications of ‘Whiteness’ and create for ourselves a transformed identity as White people committed to equity and social change…To teach my White students and my own children…that there are different ways of being White, and that they have a choice as White people to become champions of justice and social healing.” ~Gary Howard
“The most powerful message that continues to reverberate through my head and heart is that of looking at the future and eliminating systems of oppression through the lens of possibility and hope.” ~Educator commenting on WPC 7
To learn more about privilege, we recommend: Privilege, Power and Difference, by Allan Johnson Privilege: A Reader, edited by Michael S. Kimmel and Abby L. Ferber White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, by Paul Rothenberg
for once in my life, I’m at a loss for words
I read this article three different times and I also am at a loss for words. This event is sponsored by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Also Hamline University, the University of St. Thomas and the Minneapolis YWCA.
See all sponsors at http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/
Well, how clever! It is so nice of them to “reeducate” me so I would realize that whiteness is the problem. The program description is very subtle. But it screams reeducation camps to me.
The primary problem I experience with whiteness is sunburn and tendency to skin cancer. Somehow I guess we should forget that most of us in America are “Heinz 57” mixes after a couple hundred years in America. In my ancestry there are Scotch-Irish, Cherokee and English. My Cherokee ancestors got up and walked across 2 states to homestead in Alabama. Most of their neighbors in Alabama were also Cherokee. But when the census takers came around in 1830 and thereafter, they called themselves white. Wonder what Granny Cotton would tell us to do now. I’m guessing that she considered herself American and just wanted to be left alone.