A university administrator delivered a speech in which he described “whiteness” as “a way of thinking, a way of acting” that is fundamentally opposed to Christianity.
Paul Dionne, Inclusive Success Coordinator for Beloit College’s Office for Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness, gave a speech titled, “Working Against Whiteness” as part of a “Love Made Public” lecture series. The lecture series started during the fall, but resumed this semester.
To help define “whiteness,” Dionne instructed the student attendees to chant “imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist patriarchy,” a phrase originating from feminist and self-avowed socialist “bell hooks” (who spells her name as shown, in all lowercase letters).
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“Working against whiteness for me is interrogating myself and who I am and where I come from and all of my privileges,” said the school administrator, according to an audio file of the event obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Working against whiteness is something I try to do every day,” Dionne continued.
Dionne listed his privileges, noting that he is white and a cisgendered male.
He bridged his “Working Against Whiteness” talk and the “Love Made Public” lecture series by suggesting that whiteness is egotistical and that love “is about removing my ego”:
More and more people on campus are starting to recognize their privileges. That’s very exciting…I think that’s really great. …What comes next, the action piece, the work piece, the part where you have to give up some of those privileges, right?
I’m morally compelled to act.
Apparently, Dionne has not heard of or is discounting the “confessions” of another self-hating white person, Claire Lockard, who warns that acknowledging white privilege reinforces white privilege.
He did, however, seek outside confirmation for his views, quoting poet and onetime NAACP secretary James Weldon Johnson, who said:
The colored people in this country know and understand the white people better than the white people will ever know and understand themselves.
Dionne told the audience about a time when he tried to assist some Asian Americans, but had his offer to help declined. The experience helped him understand the distrust other races might have for white people, he said.
The Daily Caller News Foundation contacted Dionne for comment, but received no comment in time for publication.
This report, by Rob Shimshock, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
