The President of Clark College in Vancouver, WA seems to have difficulty understanding the impact the distribution of racist fliers on campus could have on students, staff, and faculty. Thirteen days after the “White and Proud!” handout appeared, featuring a swastika and National Socialist Movement contacts, President Bob Knight has agreed to have a campus dialogue even though he says it’s a judgment call: “I just don’t know how many students this really, really affected.” Racist handout, reaction roil some Clark College faculty
Archive for October, 2010
Whiteness and accreditation
October 9, 2010The university accreditation team 10-year visit was last week. A colleague who went to an open forum said he was hoping someone would ask about how the primarily white executive leadership of the university aligns with the university value of engaging diversity. I wondered why he hadn’t asked the question himself. As a white male, his asking of that question could have been a powerful illustration of white allies working for racial equity.
She has gray hair
October 4, 2010I was telling a white male faculty person about a professor who had given a lecture on campus. I knew he worked with her in the same college and I was trying to recall her name. “What does she look like?” he asked. I said, “She’s about my height with gray hair curving like this (hand gestures)”. He began naming names of faculty I knew. “No, not her, not her, not her” I answered. Finally, he said the name and I responded, “that’s who it is.” He said, “She’s African American.”
White matters 