Education

University Admin: ‘Whiteness’ Goes Against Christianity

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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A university administrator delivered a speech in which he described “whiteness” as “a way of thinking, a way of acting” that is fundamentally opposed to Christianity.

Paul Dionne, Inclusive Success Coordinator for Beloit College’s Office for Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness, gave a speech entitled, “Working Against Whiteness” as part of a “Love Made Public” lecture series. The lecture series started during the fall, but resumed this semester.

To help define “whiteness,” Dionne instructed the student attendees to chant “imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist patriarchy,” a phrase originating from feminist and self-avowed socialist bell hooks, who spells her name with all lowercase letters.

“Working against whiteness for me is interrogating myself and who I am and where I come from and all of my privileges,” said the school administrator, according to an audio file of the event obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Working against whiteness is something I try to do every day,” remarked Dionne.

Dionne listed his privileges, noting that he is white and a cisgendered male.

The Inclusive Success Coordinator bridged his “Working Against Whiteness” talk and the “Love Made Public” lecture series by suggesting that whiteness is egotistical and that love “is about removing my ego.”

“More and more people on campus are starting to recognize their privileges,” said Dionne. “That’s very exciting…I think that’s really great. …What comes next, the action piece, the work piece, the part where you have to give up some of those privileges, right?”

“I’m morally compelled to act,” explained the Beloit administrator, relating his Catholic understanding of love and sacrifice to his desire to eliminate whiteness.

“’The colored people in this country know and understand the white people better than the white people will ever know and understand themselves,'” said Dionne, quoting James Weldon Johnson, a professor and NAACP secretary.

The Inclusive Success Coordinator told the audience about a time when he tried to assist some Asian Americans, but had his offer to help declined. The experience helped him understand the distrust other races might have for white people, Dionne said.

The Daily Caller News Foundation contacted Dionne for comment, but received no comment in time for publication.

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