White people at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can now find a place to to deal with their guilt and atone for their real or imagined racism, Campus Reform reports.
The MIT “White Person’s Accountability Group” is there for men and women who need a plan to cope with their “roles both in perpetuating systemic racism and in dismantling it.”
The enterprise is an off-shoot of the White Privilege Conference (WPC) that unfolded at MIT, where “a mixed-race group of MIT community members” had an inward dawning of their supposed special status and knew “how different their experience had been in at the WPC space and that there was a lot they could do with other white people to dismantle internal and structural racism.”
That revelation was apparently so jarring that the white members of the group vowed to observe monthly meetings and “hold one another accountable to advancing racial justice in [their] own personal, institutional, and societal spheres.”
And they’re not keeping their mission to themselves but seeking to involve the whole campus by hosting events like “But I’m Not Racist!” that was designed to demonstrate that most white people are in racist denial and were challenged to “engage with their own identities.”
But don’t expect to join the White Person’s Accountability Group any time soon; it’s not looking for new members, and will remain intentionally small because otherwise it might be difficult for the existing remnant to “share personal experiences and build relationships of accountability with one another.”
Rather than feel crowded, the group members invite otherguilty white people to start their own groups and begin sharing the pain. They’ve even prepared some handy guidelines on “building an effective white caucus.”
The document outlines that racial caucuses are “where people of color and white people meet separately for a time to counsel together.” In a “white caucus,” whites can “uncover the depths of their internalized racist superiority.”
Interested white students are cautioned that they can’t just put any old subject on the agenda because “people of color” should determine what issues are discussed. They’re also told to be careful about when and how they ask these “people of color” for assistance because, “there is a fine line between seeking accountability and adding another burden on people of color.”
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