I CAN'T WAIT; SIGN ME UP – AT 1:50 P.M. ET:  I do want to be a better person, pure of heart and free of any unfair privilege.  Let me participate.  Choke.  From College Fix: 

Humboldt State University, in Arcata, California, is offering its students a series of workshops this summer designed to cultivate a “positive white racial identity” in its white participants.

Humboldt has already hosted the first two sessions of the five-part summer series titled “Building Stamina: Cultivating a Positive White Racial Identity that Supports Positive Participation in Conversations about Race.” The series is designed for “white folks who want to participate in conversations about race more productively” in the hope that they might “better understand whiteness and privilege.”

According to the online event description, no experience talking about whiteness is necessary. Only “a willingness to listen, learn, and have what you know questioned is required.”

University officials declined to comment on the workshop. Reached via email, campus spokesman Grant Scott-Goforth only provided The College Fix with a link to the publically available event description.

The staff contact listed on the event itself, Meredith Oram, failed to respond to numerous email requests for comment. Reached twice by phone, she stated both times that she was too busy to talk and indicated that she would call back at a later date, which she did not.

The school has already hosted two sessions of the workshop series. The most recent session featured a screening and discussion of MTV’s video “Why Does Privilege Make People So Angry?” The video, hosted by comedian and television personality Franchescha Ramsey, states that “everyone has” privilege, but states that, in the context of discussions about privilege, “no one wants to be the bad guy.”

“Talking about privilege is not meant to make you feel guilty,” Ramsey says in the video.

“Acknowledging it isn’t about shame, it’s about challenging the system that perpetuates inequality.”

COMMENT:  I think back on my immigrant grandparents – many of you probably have similar histories – and the struggles and disease they experienced in coming to this country and building a life.  What exactly was their white privilege?  The privilege to work 12 hours a day in a sweatshop? 

I think of all the hundreds of thousands of men, most of them white (but certainly including those of color) who lie in our military cemeteries, dead at 22...or younger.  Yes, it was a privilege to serve their country, but the privilege of leading a full life was denied them.  What was their white privilege? 

I'm tired of hearing about white privilege.  Of course certain groups have it easier.  And others have to work harder.  President Kennedy reminded us that life is unfair.  Some men go off to war and are killed, and others are never called it all.  The answer to privilege is accomplishment, and education in respecting others and rejecting prejudice. The greatest antidote to racism is being needed.  It is not endless classes in "white privilege."

I don't think minorities will benefit at all from this craze, and whites will just get more and more angry.

June 30, 2018