Litzi Duran
Contributing Writer
On Monday, Sept. 26, the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformative initiative at Dominican hosted its
first student-based White Accountability Group to strengthen its efforts of establishing an antiracist
climate in higher education.
A total of 26 participants attended the first session of the semester, which was devoted to relationship building to establish the sense of trust to create a safe space for sharing personal experiences. Everything said within these spaces is confidential.
Before participants attended the first meeting, they filled out a self-evaluation form, which was designed for participants to assess where they are in their own racial consciousness. The group that functions through big group and small group discussions will meet over the span of five weeks. After the
small groups reconvene into a big group, that time is meant to reinstall hope after these difficult
conversations.
Amy Omi, project coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, goes on to explain that these small groups are meant to be confessional, raw and awareness building experiences for participants. “[We want to] remind people that, while we are all part of this really messed-up system, we can all be a part of reimagining something new where racism doesn’t harm [people] or no longer exist. That is what we are moving towards,” Omi said.
This is a closed group that discusses the topics of whiteness and white privilege and how it impacts people’s daily lives. The goal behind these conversations is for students to have a space to vent and empower them toward a vision of social change, organizers said. This group will give participants tools to have the ability to disrupt the systems of internalized racism.
Omi explains that creating this space to be open to students has not been easy. She has received a lot of positive feedback from students on campus for opening up these groups to the public. But she has also
received backlash for it.
“These past two weeks, I have received a lot of hate emails. A lot of right-wing conservative watch groups have been emailing me nonstop really threatening things,” Omi said.
Despite this obstacle, Omi is grateful to have the team of facilitators she has for volunteering their time to make this group a reality. Paul Simpson, the director for Civic Learning, was excited to be asked to be
one of the facilitators for this group. “I said yes because I see the work as a way to renew the university mission and build antiracist reflection and practice into our ways of engaging with each
other,” said Simpson.
The group even has student facilitators helping lead these circles, like senior Allie Wright, who has worked as a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation intern for two years and is double majoring in Sociology/Criminology, while in the Master’s of Social Work Bridge Program. Wright felt that it was time the White Accountability Circles were opened up to students instead of just faculty and staff, the
way it was last spring semester.
“As a white person, I recognize that being anti-racist means actively acknowledging the privileging I have and working to deconstruct the white supremacist thinking that we all have been taught,” Wright said. “It is essential that white people who claim to be anti-racist hold one
another accountable.”
The next meeting for the group is set for Oct. 10, when the group will be discussing the characteristics of white supremacy culture and the false hierarchy it establishes on the basis of human value. Although the group is currently at max capacity for the fall semester, it will be starting a new session during the spring
semester.
For students interested in becoming a part of this group in the future, they can contact Allie Wright
at awright1@my.dom.edu or Amy Omi at aomi@dom.edu.
lduran1@my.dom.edu
Cool modern day virtuous penance. But who am I to be accountable to, white university commies with a closet full of bad?
These brainwashed fools would sheepishly allow themselves to be robbed and beaten and convince themselves they deserve it, they’re so pathetically programmed to accept this race-based self-hatred.
Why are you subjecting yourselves to this nonsense? Do you really have so little self-respect? You’re acting like a bunch of spineless tools. Stop being manipulated.
I benefited all my life from White Privilege. These privileges came from:
– having parents who finished school, got jobs, got married, and established a firm financial footing before they started having children.
– having parents who made sure I did my homework every night and went to school every day
– having parents who made sure I didn’t hang out with the wrong type of people, and was inside the house or at least in the backyard when the streetlights came on at night.
– having parents who made *enormous sacrifices* to save up enough money to send me to college.
You students may not be able to benefit from the same privileges that I did. It took time, effort, and financial sacrifices on the part of my parents.
BUT YOUR CHILDREN CAN.
So what do all these so-called privileges have to do with being white?
Nothing. At. All.
Of course, in theory, theory works the same as in practice, and in practice, it doesn’t.