The Peace & Justice Center is hiring a police officer to stand guard at a forum on “white privilege” in the Essex Junction library next week, after receiving a concerning phone message from someone who promised to alert “a certain neo-Nazi organization” about the event.
Kyle Silliman-Smith, the PJC’s program manager, said she received the voicemail last Friday from an unidentified woman taking issue with an event called “Making Whiteness Visible.” In the message, the caller questions why the workshop “singles out white people as having something wrong with them.”
“I need to let you know that I plan to forward your event to somebody in the neo — in the, uh — in a certain neo-Nazi organization. I think they need to know about what you’re doing,” the caller says. “So you put that yellow star on yourself and not on me. Good luck with your workshop. I hope only friendly people show up. Bye-bye.”
Full audio:
The PJC event at Essex Junction’s Brownell Library on April 7 combines the screening of Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, with a talk about “white privilege.” The event is being co-presented by a number of racial justice groups, including Conversation on Race Now and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
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WTF? I’m baffled as to why anyone would be opposed to a voluntary discussion by and for people who are interested in discussing white privilege and how it plays out in the institutional power structures of our country. I’ve been planning on going since I first found out about it and am looking forward to an honest and productive discussion. I’m sorry that she feels so threatened by even the suggestion of the topic that she’s contacted a hate group. It sounds like she could really use this kind of education. Maybe she’ll change her mind and attend.
I’m pissed that the police department A) Didn’t think it was threatening, and B) “Couldn’t spare” an officer to ensure the safety of the people attending the event. It makes me wonder if the Essex Police have an interest in brushing this under the rug. In the South, many of the high-ranking members of the KKK were also police officers.
Yeah, let’s all us guilty white people go to an echo chamber meeting and confirm to each other why we should all hate ourselves.
Actually, it really isn’t about white people, it’s about white privilege, which many black, brown and yellow people are also beneficiaries of. (Especially yellow! lol : )
And the better we are at discussing it, the more natural it’ll be to hold each other accountable when necessary.
As a person that identifies as a male, who very much enjoys that privilege so much that I’ll avoid conversations about it, I can somewhat (embarrassingly) relate to people who identify as white who want to avoid forfeiting unearned privilege.
I don’t hate myself for it though… never will I hate any of the players, just the game ; )
If “many black, brown and yellow people are also beneficiaries of. (Especially yellow! lol : ),” then it’s not really “white” privilege, is it?