"Vulgar Marxist" Workshop At White Privilege Conference 2014
I have typed a transcipt of the video below:
Adjunct Professor Stephanie Baran said, "I like the first definition cause that would mean that you would have to like kick out Capitalism and I'd really be down with that. Umm, but I think that might be a, well that would encourage full scale revolution. Umm, I've learned I'm a "vulgar Marxist" because I desire to see the entire dismantling of the system versus apparent the other softer, kinder, Liberal Marxist. Umm, kinda like the snuggle Marxist."
***APPLAUSE***
An open letter to the White Privilege Conference 2014 attendees. And I want to make sure you understand that I'm shocked and appalled by what I've learned from ProgressivesToday.com. I'm in a state of shock right now, according to your conference the accomplishments of my family going back generations simply do not exist. Allow me to explain, you see, I'm black. Your conference contends that this country was built on racism. You contend that a pernition evil is the foundation of every institution and permeates every aspect of American life. According to you, to the degree that your conference exists completely negates the fact that I exist. My great grandfather would definitely disagree with your ideas. He grew up in the poor deep south. But he had both parents and he was taught a work ethic that carried him into adulthood, marriage and service as an enlisted man in the U.S. army. His son, my grandfather, went to high school, got married and went on to serve in the army during a tour of the Korean conflict. He returned home and attended Tuskegee University and became a teacher. His first child, was my father who also enlisted, fought in Vietnam, and married my mother, having me and then my sister. My dad went on to serve 26 years, retiring honorably having traveled the world in service to this nation alongside the very white Christian men you claim have oppressed you and every one else. He would disagree on that. My great grandfather was a homeowner as was my granddad and my father. My grandfather was a Deccan and served on committees in his town, rising to a position of leadership. In his community of largely White people in the deep South. My mother and her family members have similar stories of hard work and success. She grew up picking cotton and now has a double Master's degree, in a Management job, placing her firmly in the Upper Middle Class. Their story, my history, is rooted in the years of segregation in Jim Crow South. The stories that I have ? for my father's childhood sting me to this day. Yet even that knowledge flies in the face of your creepness attempt to cheapen the lives of millions of Black Americans striving to succeed and doing just that. Your conference insults the truth of millions of White Americans who have never been the recipients of any largess and still struggle to achieve the American dream. I refuse to be cheapened by your poorly formed malicious ideology. The Age of Enlightenment was just about that. The idea, that as an individual, I can reach for the own stars and control my own destiny. Racism has no impact on that, because excellence goes before an individual paving the way to their goals. I have experienced the fruit of my own failures, successes and not so stellar attempts and still achieved excellence. I have many goals before me that I hope to reach through hard work and sacrifice and no amount of White privilege will ever stop me.
For progressives, "tolerance and diversity" means "believe exactly what I believe, or we will publicly lynch you"
— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) May 16, 2014The Daily Caller
written by Robby Soave
Thursday April 1, 2014
The 15th annual National White Privilege Conference took place in Madison, Wisconsin, last week — subjecting attendees to informational sessions that explained why everything they did was inherently racist and oppressive.
The conference was funded in part by hotel tax revenues, the University of Wisconsin and the City of Madison — in other words, by taxpayer dollars. It was a colorful week, according to an account by the MacIver Institute
Kim Radersma, a former high school English teacher and current activist, hosted a session titled, “Stories from the front lines of education: Confessions of a white, high school English teacher.”
Radersma advised participants — who paid more than $400 for the privilege of hearing her rant about privilege — that teaching was a purely political act, and neutral people should “get the fuck out of education.”
“Teaching is a political act, and you can’t choose to be neutral,” said Radersma. “You are either a pawn used to perpetuate a system of oppression or you are fighting against it. And if you think you are neutral, you are a pawn.”
All teachers who do not actively confront the system are promoting white supremacy, said Radersma.
She also said that white people fighting oppression is akin to alcoholic trying to resist the temptation to drink. The dark sickness of racism is at the heart of all the actions of white people.
“Being a white person who does anti-racist work is like being an alcoholic,” she said. “I will never be recovered by my alcoholism, to use the metaphor. I have to everyday wake up and acknowledge that I am so deeply embedded with racist thoughts and notions and actions in my body that I have to choose everyday to do anti-racist work and think in an anti-racist way.”
She also articulated the view that black students were better off being taught by black teachers, since white people have little to offer them.
“You need to learn feminism from a woman,” she said. “You need to learn what it is like to be a woman from a woman. I can’t teach students of color nearly as well as a person of color can.”
Radersma is white, as were the vast majority of the participants, according to a photograph of the event.
The price tag for attending WPC varies depending on whether you are a student and when you apply, but it can run as high as $440. At its cheapest, it still costs $200.
Conference organizers did not respond to a request for comment.
When white people give charity to black people, it’s because they are racist.
A white attendee shared an anecdote with participants: Her family donated school supplies to a disadvantaged minority family. The attendeed realized–and Radersma agreed–that her family had perpetrated racism against the minority family.
“It’s that savior mentality… ‘we need to think of them and give them our sympathy and our charity and our generosity,’ which is so demeaning to the people on the receiving end,” said Radersma. “It’s so demoralizing and disempowering to be receiving it.”
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