Did you know that there has been a quote White Privilege quote conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this week?
And did you know that one of the sessions at this conference was about how children should be educated?
If you did not, I would like to provide a bit of insight into what was taught in this session, via Blake Neff’s article at dailycaller.com – which imparts the wit and wisdom of one Heather Hackman, on how white privilege applies to teaching in schools:
Heather Hackman operates Hackman Consulting Group and was formerly a professor of multicultural education at Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University, where she taught future teachers. On Friday, Hackman was given a platform at WPC to deliver a workshop with the lengthy title “No Freedom Unless We Call Out the Wizard Behind The Curtain: Critically Addressing the Corrosive Effects of Whiteness in Teacher Education and Professional Development.” The long title masked a simple thesis on Hackman’s part: Modern education is hopelessly tainted by white supremacy and the “white imperial gaze,” and the solution is to train prospective teachers in college to be activists as well as pedagogues.
In fact, Hackman argued teachers shouldn’t even bother teaching if they aren’t committed to promoting social justice in school.
“The racial narrative of White tends to be like this: Rugged individual, honest, hard-working, disciplined, rigorous, successful,” she said. “And so then, the narrative of U.S. public education: Individual assessments, competition, outcome over process (I care more about your grades than how you’re doing), ‘discipline’ where we care more about your attendance and making sure you’re not tardy than we care about your relationships … proper English must be spoken (which is just assimilation into standard U.S. dialect), hierarchical power structure, and heavy goal orientation.”
There you have it. The problem with public school education – that is, the problem with White, privileged public school education – is obviously silly, inconsequential stuff like being hardworking, honest, showing up on time, and being disciplined…all of which Miss Hackman characterizes as White Privilege stuff.
I wonder if Heather Hackman thinks of herself as a racist. My guess is she probably does not.
And that’s too bad. Because ascribing any traits at all, good or bad, to entire racial groups is just about the purest form of racism there is.
I also wonder if conference participants will walk away thinking they have benefited from material like this.
If so, God help them.
And God help the public school students they come in contact with.
