Evergreen State College Hosts 'Unlearning Whiteness' Workshop

Evergreen State College is hosting a weekly workshop for white students who want to “unlearn” their “whiteness.”

It seems like Evergreen State College has yet to learn its lesson. A user on social media reported this week that the troubled state college is hosting a weekly workshop that aims to help students “unlearn whiteness.” The workshop aims to help white students rid themselves of the harmful attitudes and ideas that campus leftists believe plague most white people.

Now blaring in the @EvergreenStCol central lobby: white people, there’s something wrong with you; other people, we’re here to help pic.twitter.com/sQALmwaGHC

— benjaminǝɔʎoq (@BenjaminABoyce) October 24, 2018

“Now blaring in the @EvergreenStCol central lobby: white people, there’s something wrong with you; other people, we’re here to help,” a Twitter user named Benjamin Boyce wrote, accompanied by pictures of the Evergreen State College student activities board.

It’s not exactly clear what takes place at the Evergreen State College workshop but similar workshops from around the country aim to help people erase the “white conditioning” that takes place during childhood.

As children, we do not choose to take on our white conditioning, but as adults we can choose to undo it. The UNtraining provides a challenging and compassionate environment for white people to look at personal and collective issues around race. The program offers tools and practices to investigate white cultural conditioning, to uncover the ways it shapes our experience of ourselves and people of color, and to support change in ourselves and in the world.

In a section of the training site entitled “Why Only White People?” the site explains that whites need to educate themselves about the effects of racism.

We believe that white people have the responsibility to educate ourselves about racism, rather than expecting people of color to be our teachers. In white caucus work, people are more free to express difficult feelings and to examine complex situations around race. This honesty, often held back in mixed groups to avoid embarrassment or for fear of causing harm, is crucial for learning and healing. Sharing common experiences breaks down two other aspects of white conditioning: isolation and the taboo of talking about personal issues around race.

Breitbart News reported in September that following a year of progressive controversy on campus, Evergreen State’s freshman enrollment is down 50 percent this year.

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