Portland Community College is dedicating the month of April to addressing “whiteness” and how white supremacy has been “institutionalized, imposed and internalized” on campus.

“Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences, and Change is a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins, and heritage,” reads the project’s description on PCC’s website, Campus Reform first reported. “Scheduled for the month of April 2016, the project seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism.”

The project is being organized by a subcommittee of PCC’s Cascade Campus Diversity Council, which makes it clear that Whiteness History Month is not a “celebratory endeavor,” but an effort to apply “racially conscious systems of analysis to examine and dismantle systems of inequality.”

The group said whiteness “does not simply refer to skin color, but an ideology based on beliefs, values, behaviors, habits and attitudes, which result in the unequal distribution of power and privilege based on skin color.”

Planning for the event is still ongoing, but Cascade does outline the objectives that it seeks to accomplish through the project, Campus Reform reported.

“What are the legal, cultural, economic, social, environmental, educational, and/or intrapersonal consequences of whiteness?” the outline asks. “Who benefits from the consequences of whiteness? … What are approaches and strategies to dismantling whiteness? … What are the roles and responsibilities of white people and people of color in dismantling whiteness?”

Organizers hope the project will improve campus climate for students, faculty, staff and administrators, as well as “promote community partnerships.”

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