PCC Sylvania

Portland Community College will host about 100 events at its Sylvania campus as well as three others to discuss whiteness as a social construct. Community centers will also host free events in April.

(Dana Tims/The Oregonian)

Portland Community College is ramping up the publicity for its "Whiteness History Month," which includes some 100 events scheduled at four PCC campuses and at community centers across the city.

"Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequence and Change" is the overarching project title. Events will be held at PCC's Cascade, Rock Creek, Southeast and Sylvania campuses, as well as First Unitarian Church of Portland and other community sites.

The events are free and open to the public. PCC finalized the schedule of events last week.

"The college views this project as part of a larger national conversation around race and social justice on America's college campuses," Sylvia Kelley, interim president of PCC, said in a statement.

Organizers created a website last August and started to workshop ideas for the month-long project. A conservative blogger picked up on the story in January and depicted the school's plans as "white shaming."

PCC officials rebuffed that sentiment. "It's not about shame or guilt. it's about education and empowerment," according to a video posted this month.

PCC officials say the goal is changing the climate on campus for both white and nonwhite students by "changing how we talk about racism."

The first class is Thursday evening at the First Unitarian church from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. with an emphasis on helping "white anti-racist activists to deepen understanding of whiteness and privilege and build relationships, resilience and capacity."

The class is a four-week session on being white in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Here is a sampling of other event/class titles:

Stumptown: The Whitest City in America

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Honorary Whites: The Impact of Whiteness on Asian American Identity Formation and Asian American Students in Higher Education

The Mindful White Accomplice: How Racial Programming Hijacks the Nervous System and What to Do About It

Parting of the Waves: How White Progressive/Liberals Imagine Themselves In Relation To Racism

It's Not My Fault: Whites and Racism

See the PCC website for a full list of events and locations.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen