The University of Minnesota School of Social Work introduced a twelve-step recovery program for whiteness. The program is aimed at teaching white people about their inherent racism and white supremacy (superiority?) in order to foster a more inclusive society. The lecturer, Cristina Combs, is a young white woman and alumni of the University of Minnesota. In one of the slides in the nearly two-hour webinar, she placed a picture of herself when the rhetorical question of “what does white supremacy look like to you?” was asked.
Although the purpose of the program is to combat racism, the program is racist itself. If “whiteness” were replaced with “blackness” or any other “ness” involving another race, then there would be wall-to-wall coverage of the outrage across all mainstream media in the United States. This reaction may be appropriate, if not for the clear amount of hypocrisy present when the target of attack is white people.
Anti-white racism in academia is, of course, nothing new. The recent incidents involving George Floyd that sparked the second wave of Black Lives Matter only intensified what was already happening in academia for years, maybe even decades at this point. Corporate America is struggling with a similar fate because the people who work in and control this environment come from a poisoned well of higher education.
There is, however, a way to combat this plague. Drop out of schools that specialize in social justice instead of sound education. Invest more into trade schools and/or religious institutions that focus more on pushing their positive ideology rather than harmful narratives about society. If students keep lining themselves up for the proverbial slaughter by taking out a mortgage worth of debt to become indoctrinated with hateful rhetoric, then the cycle will do nothing but continue.
SOURCES:
U. of Minnesota lecture outlines 12-step recovery program … for WHITENESS | Not the Bee
Recovery from White Conditioning: Building Anti-Racist Practice and Community on Vimeo
University of Minnesota lecture features 12 step recovery program for whiteness | The College Fix
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