California’s Humboldt State University offers the campus resource guide on ‘white privilege’ ‘white fragility’ ‘white spaces’
The Northern California public university, Humboldt State University, offers the campus community a lengthy online resource guide to address a wide variety of issues dealing with so-called whiteness, including “white privilege,” “white fragility,” “white spaces” and “seeing white.”
The guide, “Discussing Whiteness,” was compiled university’s library and offers more than a dozen different articles and other resources on white privilege, defined as having “unearned entitlements,” such as feeling safe in public and free speech.
Its white space section includes articles such as “Hiking While Black” and “Race Conversations in White Spaces.” The “Seeing White” section showcases a weekly podcast on “the historical origins of whiteness and racism in the U.S.”
“Like all library resources, the guide is provided to assist teaching and learning at the university,” said Grant Scott-Goforth, a communications specialist for Humboldt State University, in an email to The College Fix.
Librarian Tim Miller helps oversee the guide. Miller’s research areas of interest include “whiteness and white privilege” and the #NotYourMascot campaign, according to his online bio.
The purpose of the guide is “to bring up questions and challenge us about our role in our communities and in our day-to-day lives.”
“These discussions are uncomfortable and challenging by design — beware of triggers and emotionally-charged content. However, you are encouraged to get uncomfortable,” it added. “By engaging in these honest discussions you will exercise your ‘racial stamina’ and become more comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
The guide offers videos to help viewers understand whiteness, including one by MTV that was widely panned as white shaming when it was released in 2015.
