I'm racist, and I didn't even know it.
Well, that's what Greg, presenter at my athletic tutoring training Sunday, told me.
I thought the instruction would pertain to my job tutoring student athletes for the University, but instead I was in for an exciting round of diversity training.
After receiving a worksheet titled "Circles of My Multicultural Self," I thought, "Great. Just what I wanted on my Sunday afternoon."
Greg wrote his name in the middle circle and some aspects of his identity in the circles surrounding. His circles read "Christian," "white," "Northern," "psychologist."
He explained how people can pigeonhole--a word he used frequently--others into their respective identity traits, precipitating stereotypes.
To help us tutors come up with examples, Greg prompted the question, "I am a _____, but I am not a _____."
The group was hesitant to speak, so Greg came to our aid.
"I am a Christian," he said, "but I am not a right-wing extremist nutbag."
Now I'm listening.
We next discussed "advantages of privilege," or benefits afforded to an individual because of his or her identity.
Five or so examples of white privilege were offered to us, including the amenity of "avoiding spending time with people I have been trained to mistrust."
Wait, what? I don't know about you, Greg, but I wasn't raised to inherently mistrust anyone, even psychologists.
According to Greg, accepting my identity meant acknowledging my white privileges and, after periods of denial, disbelief and discomfort, resigning that "it makes sense to me that I am biased because I am white, and I grew up only around white people."
Further absurdities surfaced amid talk of "microaggressions," or subtle instances of isms committed unbeknownst to the perpetrator himself.
I bet you didn't know, astute Auburn students, just how easy it is to unwittingly offend people.
After another bout of silence trying to garner examples of microaggressions, a woman associated with the presentation pointed out Greg had presented much of the material from his white perspective.
Well I'll be damned. Greg went and microaggressed right after telling us how easy it can be to do so. Hell, like him, we might not even realize it!
You'd think Greg the psychologist would be more aware since he's the one delivering the hour-long presentation. Surely his microaggression was an honest mistake.
It was clear to me by the end of this spectacle that this was not about diversity training.
Greg's presentation was calculated to gin up bigotry where it does not exist. By identifying myself as a white male with white privileges, too stupid to even realize if I've offended someone, Greg hoped I would conclude that it is my whiteness which is offensive, and I'm just too dense to have realized.
Greg and his cohorts are prime examples of the flawed mentality that people ought not be treated according to the content of their character, but rather according to the nature of their identity. Greg even said there is "danger" in "treating everyone the same."
This is a backward world-view because it requires the very pigeonholing the entire activity was meant to discourage, that one must group and classify others to determine proper treatment.
Thankfully, based on the room's lack of enthusiasm, Greg's stratagem of self-loathing our way to a better world fell on deaf ears.
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