{"id":42752,"date":"2018-03-09T00:15:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T05:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=42752"},"modified":"2018-03-08T23:13:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T04:13:59","slug":"university-to-host-its-ok-to-be-against-whiteness-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/university-to-host-its-ok-to-be-against-whiteness-event\/","title":{"rendered":"University to host \u2018It\u2019s OK to be (Against) White(ness)\u2019 event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent University in Ontario workshop draws criticism<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

An upcoming talk titled \u201cIt\u2019s OK to be (Against) White(ness)\u201d is stirring up controversy at a Canadian university.<\/p>\n

The event, scheduled for Monday and sponsored by the student association at Trent University in Ontario, has been accused by some of being \u201cinflammatory\u201d and racist against whites.<\/p>\n

However, an event organizer has pushed back against those accusations, saying the gathering is about \u201cdiversity, inclusion and conversations about how we can all work together to help achieve racial justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event, which has a full title of \u201cIt\u2019s OK to be (Against) White(ness): Racial injustice in a time of racist entrenchment,\u201d will include a keynote address given by University of Regina professor Michael Cappello.<\/p>\n

While the talk has stoked criticism and controversy, a Trent University spokesperson told The College Fix<\/em> in an email that the university is not anticipating protests or protesters at the workshop. Though, the university said that security will be provided at the event.<\/p>\n

An online description<\/a> of the lecture describes Cappello as an \u201canti-oppressive educator\u201d whose previous academic work \u201chas focused on teaching\/learning against colonialism and teaching\/learning into reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> published Feb. 26 on Facebook, the Trent Central Student Association said the event\u2019s title is a spoof on the \u201cIt\u2019s OK to be white\u201d posters that were hung up<\/a> late last year at college campuses in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese posters had a divisive and offensive message and were revealed to be tied to white nationalist agendas,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The Feb. 26 Facebook post, addressed to Trent University students, sought to \u201cclarify the intentions of this event\u201d amid questions regarding its provocative title.<\/p>\n

In the statement, the student association touched on the event\u2019s content and said that the concept of whiteness is an academic term used to understand how skin color can influence power and privilege. The topic of whiteness isn\u2019t just about white people, the Facebook post stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhiteness, as an idea, is not about white people as much as the ways that white racialization is socially constructed as dominant, both historically and in the present moment,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Given this, the statement claims the event\u2019s focus on the concept of whiteness allows an opportunity \u201cto move away from the narrow, individual framing of racism as personal ignorance, and begin to focus on the systemic ways that these ideas are made normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ire felt by some toward the event is evident in the Facebook comments attached to the Feb. 26 post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seems a little inflammatory,\u201d wrote Darcy Foskett, a student at Trent University.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are inciting hatred against an identifiable group (Caucasians). Resign from your posts and stop embarrassing the university with your blatant hate speech and racism,\u201d said a comment from Tyson Sangster, who told The College Fix<\/em> he is an alumnus of Trent University.<\/p>\n

Other comments on the Facebook post accuse the event of \u201cinsanity\u201d and call it a \u201cblatant attack of whites.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workshop was also criticized in an editorial<\/a> published by the Toronto Sun<\/em>, which argued the event is right to face criticism and that it isn\u2019t serious about fighting racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore plainly, it\u2019s about a toxic and divisive ideology steeped in the intolerant loathing inherent in postmodernism and cultural Marxism that divides the world into us versus them groups, into victims and oppressors,\u201d the editorial states.<\/p>\n

KawarthaNOW<\/em>, an online news website in Canada, reported<\/a> that Lindsay Yates, an event organizer, told the news outlet that critics have misunderstood the workshop\u2019s focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event is about recognizing privilege that is granted based on racial identity and helping students who do have access to white privilege think more about how to be allies to racialized communities,\u201d Yates said. \u201cThe event is focused on diversity, inclusion and conversations about how we can all work together to help achieve racial justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates declined to comment to\u00a0The College Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0University guide takes on \u2018white fragility, white spaces, seeing white\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE: YouTube screenshot<\/p>\n

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