White Privilege Conference

"I am writing to you for a couple of reasons...I attended the WPC last year with a group of 8 people from Duluth, MN. We have taken the energy back to our community and are organizing a similar, smaller scale event here in Duluth on October 30th..."

Jennifer Pigeon
UMD - Master Social Work Student
Community Organizer - Community Action Duluth
Community Impact Associate - United Way of Greater Duluth

"Returning from the white privilege conference I had an experience that I wanted to share with you as I think it illustrates the way such an event ripples out into the world. On my flight out I was seated across from a young Iowa farmer and his wife (on Southwest where they have some facing seats). Of course, he wanted to know what I'd been doing in Iowa. "Attending a conference on white privilege." "White privilege? What's that?" Given this opening--and the coming 3 hour flight--I thought carefully about how to answer, wanting to invite conversation, not shut him down. I must have succeeded because we--and the others seated in the 6 seat grouping--ended up talking non stop the entire flight.

Judy

In Spring 2007, I was fortunate to teach a course titled, Disrupting Privilege through Anti-Oppressive Practice, for the first time in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. The class uses caucusing around specific privileged identities as a technique to assist students in examining their personal embodiment of privilege and the barriers they have that keep them from acting as an ally. We had a white privilege caucus, a social class privilege caucus, and a heterosexual privilege caucus. The final projects were presented in a symposium that was open to the community and we had more than 75 people attend. That year my co-instructors and I, along with all 18 of the graduate students were able to attend the White Privilege Conference, and it was an amazing experience for all of us.

In Spring 2008, word had gotten out about the course and we had more than 60 students express interest in taking it. Ultimately we ended up offering two sections of the course and in addition to social work students, we had graduate students from theology, psychology, and higher education. Among the 44 students who ended up enrolled in the two sections, we had a social class privilege caucus, a Christian privilege caucus, an able-bodied privilege caucus, a cisgender (non-transgender) privilege caucus, and two white privilege caucuses. At the final project symposium we had more than 150 people attend.

In addition to the classes, the students from the 2007 Spring heterosexual privilege caucus and I co-authored a manuscript on their learning journeys which is currently under review at an academic journal on teaching. A number of other manuscripts are also in progress. I will be editing a special edition of Reflections on the issue of privilege in education and practice. Reflections is an academic journal that publishes critical self-narratives. Manuscripts are not due until June 30, 2009, so if you might be interested please contact me at ewalls2@du.edu. Finally, the Graduate School of Social Work is in the process of planning a one and a half day conference for the beginning of the summer 2009 on the pedagogy of teaching and learning about privilege.