A Catholic university in River Forest, Illinois, is offering a workshop later this semester explicitly for students who identify as BIPOC. The workshop is titled “Critical Whiteness for BIPOC folks.”
“BIPOC” is an acronym short for “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.” Administrators at Dominican University have scheduled the workshop for Thursday, February 13.
“This session is for BIPOC individuals to understand racism as a system built on the myth of white supremacy and to develop the tools to dismantle that system,” the workshop description says.
“This is affinity-based work open to individuals who identify as BIPOC,” it continues.
The workshop is one of Dominican University’s “Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Events” for the spring semester, run by the Office of Justice, Equity and Inclusion.
These events aim to understand the racial prejudice present in history.
“Through this work, we’re examining previously marginalized narratives and finding that many of our stories, traditions, and spaces are reflective of a colonial and hierarchical framework that delegitimizes perspectives and ways of being that are not white, European, or Christian,” a summary on the university’s event page says.
According to its website, the Office of Justice, Equity and Inclusion “empowers individual members of the Dominican community in their efforts to create a just and humane campus.”
“The goal of the OJEI is to extend the benefits of diversity to all members of the Dominican community by working to equip students, faculty and staff for responsible global citizenship,” the description states.
Critical Whiteness for BIPOC folks is not the only workshop the Office is organizing this spring. Later this month, Dominican students, regardless of race, can attend a workshop called “Introduction to White Accountability.” The description does state, however, that “White Accountability Groups” are for those who have “white skin privilege.”
The purpose of the groups is “to explore how to recognize whiteness and white privilege, identify and interrupt internalized dominance, and collectively develop strategies for liberation and change.”
Other workshops include “Race-Conscious Dialogues Workshop,” “Radical Love Event with Hip Hop F.I.R.M,” and “Black Legacy Project Concert.”
Campus Reform contacted Dominican University and the Office of Justice, Equity and Inclusion for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
