PORTLAND — Portland Community College administrators were caught off guard Monday when bloggers and social media sites started buzzing with word that Oregon’s largest college was planning a series of events this spring to perpetuate “whiteness-shaming.”
Not the kind of headlines you typically want on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Not accurate either, say school officials.
They say the whole thing has been taken out of context, posted first on conservative blogs and then picked up by social media.
Whiteness History Month has been discussed as a possible event at PCC since December 2014, officials said Monday, inspired by groups such as the Black Lives Matter movement’s actions both on and off campuses nationwide.
Organizers created a website last August and plan events for this April, though the project doesn’t have an agenda set yet and was an idea to foster more discussion on campus about ways to find solutions to “community issues and social problems that stem from racism.”
PCC officials say they expect an agenda of events, speeches and discussion sessions at each of its four campuses to be announced in the next few weeks.
Faculty members and staff on the college’s North Portland campus came up with the idea as a way to change the climate of racial justice on campus.
“The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness,” according to the organizers’ website.
In contrast to Black History Month and other heritage months, Whiteness History Month won’t be a “celebratory endeavor,” organizers said.
The U.S. has recognized Black History Month since the 1970s, and Dr. Carter Woodson’s original week-long observance for black Americans has roots dating to the 1920s. But an eight-member camps diversity council at PCC said struggles remain.
“Nearly ninety years after Woodson’s global inspiration, colleges across the country continue to struggle to improve diversity, inclusion, and racial equity,” they wrote.
Whiteness History Month won’t focus on whites as a group of people, according to PCC spokeswoman Kate Chester. The discussions will center on “whiteness as a social construct.”
Story goes viral
Chester said the school planned to publicize the monthlong agenda once it was completed in early February. But some conservative news organizations picked up the story Monday, Martin Luther King Jr Day, and the story went viral with headlines saying the school planned a month of “whiteness-shaming.”
PCC said that’s not the case.
“There’s a difference between white and whiteness,” Chester said in an interview, “and that might be what some of the conservative bloggers don’t understand.”
Chester said the proposal was controversial on PCC campuses last fall, but “there’s been serous discussions about why we’re doing this,” she added.
Chester said the school’s mission is to help educate students “in the best, most equitable most socially just way.”
PCC will accept proposals for specific Whiteness History Month programs until Feb. 1.
Almost 90,000 students enroll at PCC each year.
