NYU Hosts Whites-Only ‘Antiracism’ Workshop for Public School Parents

New York University hosted a whites-only “anti-racism” workshop for public school parents in New York City, barring minorities from a five-months-long seminar that legal experts say was a brazen violation of civil rights law.

The all-white seminar, “From Integration to Anti-Racism,” cost $360 to attend and met six times between February and June, according to a description of the program that has since been scrubbed from the university’s website without explanation. Organized by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, the workshop was “designed specifically for white public school parents” committed to “becoming anti-racist” and building “multiracial parent communities.”

But to promote solidarity with all races, participants were told, it was necessary that the seminar include only one.

A few days before the first session, facilitators circulated a short handout, “Why a White Space,” to explain “why we are meeting as white folks for these six months.” The handout, produced by the nonprofit Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere, argued that white people need spaces where they can “unlearn racism” without subjecting minorities to “undue trauma or pain.”

Facilitators reiterated this argument on day one of the seminar, audio and video of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. When a parent questioned the premise of the workshop—saying it seemed “a little counterintuitive” to exclude minorities from an anti-racism seminar—Barbara Gross, the associate director of Steinhardt’s Education Justice Research group, assured her that it was for their own good.

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Even before the Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action in college admissions, it was illegal for universities to practice other forms of race discrimination. The whites-only workshop, five lawyers said, almost certainly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which applies to the recipients of federal funds, and—since NYU charged parents for the seminars—also ran afoul of laws banning discrimination in contracting, according to Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project.

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Participants seemed petrified by the possibility that they could “harm” a person of color with a misplaced comment or anecdote, a fear that made the whites-only training a kind of therapeutic refuge.

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At least one parent in attendance, Jordan Feigenbaum, had direct say over the governance of local schools. Feigenbaum serves on the Community Education Council for New York City’s District 13, an elected policy body that reviews school curricula and approves district zoning lines. He touted his participation in the program when he ran for office, saying the whites-only workshop would “enhance” his ability to serve the district.

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Gross indicated that the workshop began four years ago when she heard from white parents with kids in majority-black schools that they felt like “everyone hates me.” Since then, she said, the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd had made those parents more concerned about systemic racism—and more guilty about their assumed role in it.

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The seminar also included a discussion of Tema Okun’s “Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture,” which include “perfectionism,” “a sense of urgency,” and “worship of the written word.” Many parents struggled to reconcile these teachings with the day-to-day demands of their careers, taking the already thin line between parody and reality and smashing it altogether.

“I’ve been correcting grammar a lot and typos,” one self-identified editor said, “and reading this I was thinking, ‘Wow, I had no idea.’”

Another parent fretted that the characteristics of white supremacy culture were nearly identical with the values of her law firm. That wasn’t surprising, Gross said, given that American law “was built on racism and white supremacy.”

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At the end of the session, participants were assigned readings for their next meeting, including “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People about Racism” by Robin DiAngelo and “Qallunology 101: A Lesson Plan for the Non-Indigenous” by Derek Rasmussen. Readings for later sessions included “Internalized White Superiority,” “Toward a Radical White Identity,” and “4 Ways White People Can Process Their Emotions Without Bringing White Tears,” according to slides from the workshop obtained by the Free Beacon.

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