Is ASU a welcoming place for white people?

ASU's problem with "whiteness"

A central part of ASU’s required employee training called “inclusive communities” is about the problem of “whiteness.” What is that? Good question. Let’s figure it out.

“Whiteness” is not the same as white supremacy. The required training is also against white supremacy. I hope we are all opposed to that and any other view that says a person is superior based on what color of skin they have. But “whiteness” is something different.

The ASU humanities professors who infuse warnings about “whiteness” into their programs and classrooms reassure us that it has nothing to do with being white. Instead, it is an idea developed by thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and David R. Roediger. It refers to a social construct of how privilege is given out to white people and how social hierarchies are maintained.

What is this privilege? It is always something material that will make your life more comfortable. In other words, you might get a better job, or better healthcare, or be let off with a warning rather than a ticket. What you will never hear in these discussions is questions about who has access to the highest good, knowing God. Du Bois was not concerned about knowing God or the uneven distribution of the knowledge of God. And yet, that is our highest good or chief end.

Why is the concern always about how to decrease material suffering and never about knowing God? The obvious reason is that skin color has nothing to do with knowing God—anyone can repent and come to God through Christ. That is the greatest privilege in all of existence.

I should point out that “whiteness” has worked for the opposite way for me (that’s my truth, my lived experience). I have been discriminated against by colleagues for being a white male Christian conservative. I have been paid less than my counterparts due to these features of my identity. And that is what the “anti-racists” say needs to happen. Kendi tells us, and secular humanities professors loudly repeat, that we need to discriminate against “whiteness.”

Well, that sure sounds like it is about the color of a person’s skin. In fact, it sounds like these professors are discriminating against their students based on the color of their skin. They are claiming that merely by looking at a student you can tell if they have this social privilege or not. You don’t need to know anything about the particularities of that student. You only need to know their skin color.

If you are white, would you want to attend a university that permits its professor to make racial judgments about you because of your skin color? It is even worse than that. Would you want to attend a university where its administrators require employees to learn about how to discriminate based on skin color?

That leads to the question posed in the title of this post. I’d love to hear from you. Whether you attend ASU, are thinking about attending, or never attended, does it sound like ASU is a welcoming place for people who are considered part of the “whiteness”? Leave a comment below.