Indiana Univ. segregates blacks from whites at 'Racial Literacy' event
Time slots for the events are segregated based on race.
Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis is hosting a “White Racial Literacy Project” speaking series for all students.
Indiana University- Purdue University in Indianapolis is hosting a “White Racial Literacy Project” in order to address racial inequalities, including whiteness, on the campus. Speakers for the spring semester project will discuss subjects ranging from white privilege to “negotiating whiteness.”
“The purpose of this project,” the official project’s site says, “is to undertake an innovative approach to racial equity on campus by facilitating concrete efforts to address whiteness and racial inequities in institutional decision-making, the academic curriculum, and the campus.”
Attending students will be segregated into different time slots for Dr. Frances Kendall’s ”White People’s Right to Be Wrong and Still Be Right” event that will be hosted on Feb. 6.
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White faculty and staff will be the first to attend the seminar, having a two-hour time period to listen to the speaker. White students will be the second group to attend the seminar, having a one-hour-and-15-minute seminar. The entire black community of the campus including faculty and students will be the last to attend, for a one-hour time block.
Two other speakers will be hosted during the “White Racial Literary Project”: Dr. Paul Thomas, who will be giving a presentation, titled, “I Don’t Belong Here: My Otherness, My Privilege” and Dr. Amanda Lewis, who will speak on “Negotiating Whiteness in the Context of Contemporary Racism on Campus.”
The segregated time slots for Kendall’s event will also apply to the other two speakers, whose events Indiana University will host on March 6 and April 3, respectively.
Campus Reform reached out to the school’s College Republicans and Black Student Union chapters for comment regarding the events and their time slots but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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Indiana University introduced the “White Racial Literacy Project” to campus in fall 2018, as the result of a $25,000 grant from the Lumina Foundation, a private Indianapolis-based foundation that seeks to expand higher education opportunities.
The project is also part of IUPUI’s “Welcoming Campus Initiative,” which was launched in the spring 2016 semester to make the campus more welcoming, stressing community engagement.
A Facebook page for the “White Racial Literacy Project” greets users and students with the hashtag “JagsExploreWhiteness,” referring to the school’s jaguar mascot, and posts articles and opinion pieces from speakers and other outlets focusing on whiteness and racism.
The page also features past speakers, including “White Racial Literacy Project’s” first speaker Dr. Robin DiAngelo, who addressed “white fragility” and how even minimal “racial stress” can become intolerable for some on Oct. 3.
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Campus Reform reached out to the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion regarding the program and events but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @JesseStiller3
