Oregon College Creates Whiteness History Month, but It’s Not What You Think

The Portland Community College has decided that this April will be “Whiteness History Month.” Contrary to what that sounds like, they haven’t decided to give their Caucasian students a pride and heritage month like most ethnicities receive on college campuses. Instead, they’ve designated an entire month to shaming white people.

Whiteness History Month is an “educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins, and heritage,” which will challenge “the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness.” To the surprise of no-one, the idea was concocted by the school’s Campus Diversity Council to highlight the supposed whiteness “embedded in the overall college climate.”

The impetus behind the program is the idea that whiteness is a social construct rather than a race, that was developed in the 17th century from a “legacy of imperialism, conquest, colonialism and the American enterprise.” It will also reveal how our supposed culture of white supremacy gives white people privileges at the expense of other ethnicities who are “systemically and prejudicially denied equal access to those material benefits.”

Moreover, the goal of the program is to ask students how whites and minorities can dismantle the idea of whiteness. Which begs the question, if whiteness is nothing more than a social construct that can be “dismantled” and erased, does that mean that the other races are fake too? Will the campus push to dismantle other ethnicities, or perhaps erase the idea of race in general so we can all live in PC harmony? Somehow I doubt it.