NYU teaches 'white public school parents' to grapple with their 'internalized white superiority'

From February through June, New York University hosted monthly “anti-racist” workshops dedicated to educating “white public school parents.”

The “From Integration To Anti-Racist” workshop series consisted of six, two-hour long courses and cost $360 per person. 

“The Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC) at NYU Metro Center will host a series of six (6) monthly workshops designed specifically for white public school parents in New York City committed to becoming anti-racist and to collaboratively building equitable, powerful, multiracial parent communities in their schools,” the since deleted web page read. 

[RELATED: NYU ‘Center for Anti-racism’ to offer racial equity summer internships]

Each gathering was designed to instruct white parents to examine “the impact of white supremacy on our thinking and practices.” 

In keeping with NYU’s efforts to “challenge and dismantle racist policies” in the educational system, the workshops’ topics included: “How internalized white superiority shows up in our actions, relationships, and institutions,” “Being allies/accomplices to parents of color in our schools & a historical look at white anti-racist allies,” “Building authentic relationships with other parents across race & class,” and “Building an anti-racist practice & interrupting racism when confronted with it.”

Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies Ilya Shapiro told Campus Reform that he initially checked the media source because it “seemed like a Babylon Bee article.” 

“I literally thought, they couldn’t be this stupid, could they? Not because they were teaching this antiracism poison—that’s par for the course in higher education these days—but because institutions that receive federal education funds simply can’t discriminate based on race,” Shapiro said. 

“You can’t have programming that specifies it’s for ‘whites only,’ ‘blacks only,’ ‘Asians only,’” Shapiro continued. “So what should NYU do going forward? Not have racially segregated spaces and programs.”

[RELATED: UChicago announces ‘The Problem with Whiteness’ course]

According to the Washington Free Beacon, NYU organizers distributed a handout called “Why a White Space,” created by Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE) to discuss reasons for needing to “meet together as white people” and “unlearn racism.”

“For a lot of us, it was initially hard to explain to others how white people meeting alone together could have positive results,” the handout stated. “For many people of color, the idea that white people could (or should) be trusted to work on our issues amongst each other seems either laughable or dangerous.”

The handout also noted that educating white people on racism shouldn’t always be the responsibility of people of color, because it can cause them “further undue trauma or pain.”

Campus Reform has reached out to all relevant parties for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.