Cultural competency and white privilege: a report from the white privilege conference.

For the past decade, the annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) has served as an opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues of white privilege and related oppressions. As stated in their materials, "WPC 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 or oppression, while also providing practical tips and strategies for combating inequality." In April, more than 900 very diverse participants came from across the country to Memphis to attend the 10th annual conference.

I was able to take nine extraordinary students, thanks to the financial support of the Santa Fe Community College Student Government Association. They were a very diverse racial, ethnic, and gender group: a white heterosexual man, three Hispanic/Mexicano men, an African American man, an African woman from Camaroon, two Hispanic women, and one white lesbian. All came from very different backgrounds but shared a thirst to expand their understanding of institutional oppressions and how best to address them. Each was actively engaged in the conference as well as seeing the city of Memphis, with all its fascinating history and racial flaws.

With over 80 different workshops at the conference, it was difficult to decide which ones to attend. Here are a few of the broad range of topics included:

* Creating Social Justice in Organizations: Sharing Best Practices and Lessons Learned

* Green Privilege: Race, Class, and the Climate Crisis

* Teachers are Either Liberators or Oppressors: Which are You?

* The Role of Youth in Ending Racism

* Straightlaced: How Gender has Got Us All Tied Up

* Cultural Competency: A Band-aid That Protects White Supremacy or a Tool for Social Change?

* Complicating White Privilege: White Supremacy as a Function of Economic Exploitation

There were brilliant speakers, including Tim Wise, whose latest compelling book is Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Paul Kivel, author of two powerful books, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice, and You Call This a Democracy? Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who Really Decides. Diverse films were also shown every night including Traces of the Trade: A Story of the Deep North, the story of the largest slave trading family in America--from Rhode Island.

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All the students visited the National Civil Rights Museum, (which I still call the Lorraine Motel) where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated 41 years ago the weekend we were there. I was arrested that 1968 weekend, in Philadelphia with a small, peaceful demonstration supporting Dr. King's Poor People's March and the legislation they put forth to Congress to address the great chasm between rich and poor in our country.

What gives me great hope about the nine students I traveled with is what they've done since the conference. They were some of the key planners in a powerful youth-sponsored Leadership Conference back at Santa Fe Community College, with college students from all over New Mexico. Seven of the WPC students co-facilitated workshops on "White Privilege," "The Role of Youth in Ending Racism," and "Living in Harmony."

The seeds were planted in Memphis, but they're sprouting all over our state, and I couldn't be more proud or hopeful.

Helen Heifer is a Jane Addams Peace Association board member and was an active member of WILPF's Cape Cod Branch from 2000--2005, co-chairing their Anti-Racism Task Force. Currently she is a part-time Sociology professor at the Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico. In 2010 WPC will be in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and in 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Heifer can be reached at: [e-mail].