They went beyond the pale.
A mandatory orientation for first-year University of Wisconsin Law School students denounced “whiteness” and ripped “colorblindness” as a sinister racist tool, according to reports.
The racial refresher was given last week to enrollees who had completed their first semester of instruction at the well-regarded Madison school helmed by dean Daniel Tokaji.
Students were given preparatory literature beforehand to acquaint them with the session’s imperatives.
One section reminded white students they benefit from racial oppression regardless of their correctional efforts — and that “there are no exceptional white people.”
“You may have attended many anti-racism workshops; you may not be shouting racist epithets or actively discriminating against people of color, but you still experience privilege based on your white skin color,” the pamphlet contends.
The document was penned by Debra Leigh, lead organizer of the Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative of St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
Leigh’s writings, the site states, are tailored for government officials, K-12 students and faith groups among others in need of anti-racist reboots.
The pamphlet used at Wisconsin, titled “Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors that Indicate a Detour or Wrong Turn into White Guilt, Denial or Defensiveness,” lists 28 potential hazards for well-meaning white people on their redemptive journey.
The document kicks off by casting “colorblindness” as a tool of white racial evasion.
“‘Colorblindness negates the cultural values, norms, expectations and life experiences of people of color,” it reads. “By saying we are not different, that you don’t see the color, you are also saying you don’t see your whiteness. This denies the people of colors’ experience of racism and your experience of privilege.”
Another section takes aim at whites who seek to exorcise their inborn racism through the embrace of New Age practices like Native American sweat lodges.
While seemingly benign, the trend is in fact genocidal, Leigh argues.
“Rather than escape one’s white racism by finding a spiritual path, whites instead collude in one more way with the genocidal attacks on native cultures,” the article states.
An attendee told the Federalist that the orientation felt like a “confessional” for white law students.
The session was presided over by anti-racism expert Joey Oteng [right], the outlet reported.