April 2, 2009
Pam Shockley-Zalabak
Chancellor, UCCS
Dear Earl:
Thank you for contacting my office and for allowing me to explain the White Privilege Conference that is now taking place in Memphis and is associated with UCCS.
The title of the conference, while admittedly provocative, does not adequately describe the activities that take place. The conference provides a forum for critical discussions about diversity, multicultural education and leadership, social justice, race/racism, sexual orientation, gender relations, religion and other systems of privilege/oppression. The workshops, keynotes and institutes not only inform participants, but engage and challenge them, while providing practical tips and strategies for combating inequality.
These sensitive and emotion-evoking issues are important for communities to face if they are to move forward.
I encourage you to learn more about the conference by
visiting the conference web site, www.uccs.edu/wpc.
There, details about the conference in Memphis and the history of the
conference can be obtained. Additionally, I recommend a column published in the
Memphis newspaper where a reporter describes her experience with the
conference. The column is available at http://www.commercialappeal.
Respectfully,
Pam Shockley-Zalabak
Chancellor, UCCS
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This was in response to:
Dear Ms. Shockley-Zalaback
I would like to add a few thoughts to the previous note that I sent, which
criticized the upcoming 'White Privilege Conference' at your campus.
Please take a look at this 2-minute video, which shows a Tent City (housing the
long-term homeless, as well as the newly-homeless) near Reno, Nevada. As you
can see, the majority of the unfortunates reduced to living in tents here
are White:
(Due to space limitations of this format, I will have to ask you to do a search
for: 'The Other America: Tent Cities on the Rise'.
It has also been established that the statistical risk of suicide doubles for
men (but not women) following divorce. This hold true for men of all races -
White men included.
White men constitute the largest block of men that die in industrial accidents
in the USA.
In Appalachia, the almost-entirely White population has lived in abject poverty
for generations.
During the Vietnam War, 50,120 out of the 58,193 Americans killed in action
were White. That amounts to over 86%. (Eight of the dead were women, all of the
remaining dead were men).
As I mentioned in my previous note, I would ask the sponsors of this conference
to confront the still-living White people, as well as the surviving family
members of these White people, about their purported 'White Privilege'.
As the Chancellor of your campus - devoted to Higher Learning - I hope that you
can challenge those responsible for this Conference's inanity and bigotry.
Thank you.
Earl
Henry Makow is the author of A Long Way to go for a Date. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto. He welcomes your feedback and ideas at