First comes Black History Month and then ... Whiteness History Month? 
 
 A community college in Oregon has set aside April to look at "whiteness" — but not to celebrate what it's described as a social construct which leads to inequality. 
 
 Portland Community College's Diversity Council is behind the event, which it called a "bold adventure" to examine "race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins and heritage." 
 
 The project is "not a celebratory endeavor" but an "effort to change our campus climate," the school said on its website. 
 
 Sixty-eight percent of the school's 90,000-strong student body is Caucasian, according to PCC's website. 
 
 "Whiteness refers to the construction of the white race, white culture, and the system of privileges and advantages afforded to white people," a definition on the school's event page reads. 
 
 The month of April will be dedicated to the project, which "seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism," the school said. 
 
 Among the questions that will be asked: 
 
 What is whiteness and how is it socially constructed? 
 
 In what ways does whiteness emerge from a legacy of imperialism, conquest, colonialism and the American enterprise? 
 
 Who benefits from the consequences of whiteness? Who loses from whiteness? How? 
 
 What are alternatives to the culture of white supremacy? 
 
 What are approaches and strategies to dismantling whiteness? 
 
 News of the plans has provoked some controversy and criticism. One far-right website accused PCC of looking to "trash White Americans," while Campus Reform ran a headline "Portland Community College to Devote an Entire Month to 'Whiteness' Shaming." 
 
 The school's interim president Sylvia Kelley said there was "no intention, as some may have feared, to 'shame or blame' anyone" during the project. 
 
 "We view this project as part of a larger national conversation around race and social justice on America's college campuses," she said in a statement. ||||| A new program being held this April at Portland Community College, Whiteness History Month, has garnered lots of unwanted negative attention. Which is why the school’s interim president, Sylvia Kelley, posted a statement on Wednesday in an attempt to calm the waters. (More about that in a minute.) 
 
 Scheduled for April, Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences and Change is “not a celebratory endeavor,” according to its description on the school’s website. “The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness. Challenging the master narrative of traditional curriculum is a strategy within higher education that promotes multicultural education and equity.” 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, lots of people went to town on that one. 
 
 The loudest critics were those in the conservative press. Rightwingnews.com said the purpose “is not to acknowledge the disproportionate level of accomplishment among whites but to shame us for it.” The American Conservative labeled it “white hatey month.” 
 
 Enter Kelley, whose statement reads in part: 
 
 “‘Whiteness’ is an academic term commonly used to describe the social and political construction of white identity related to beliefs, cultural norms and privileges. The concept of ‘whiteness’ has been referenced by a broad range of scholars and has been a focus of research, teaching and scholarship since the early 1990s. 
 
 “We view this project as part of a larger national conversation around race and social justice on America’s college campuses. As Oregon’s largest post-secondary educational institution, it is our responsibility to help continue this courageous conversation. We understand that this will be challenging and uncomfortable work, yet we have made a commitment in our strategic plan to take intentional action to advance diversity, equity and inclusion –for all we serve.” 
 
 Somehow we doubt that’s the end of that. 
 
 In the meantime, the committee is currently accepting proposals on its website from students and faculty for presentations, lectures, panel discussions, film and music analyses, workshops, plays, art and other forms of expression. 
 
 Caleb Diehl is a student at Lewis & Clark College and a USA TODAY College breaking news correspondent. ||||| Portland Community College, a public college that serves 90,000 students calls itself the largest secondary education institution in Oregon, is staging a “Whiteness History Month” plainly designed to convince white students to despise themselves and their culture. That’s not how the PCC website puts it, of course: 
 
 Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences and Change is a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins and heritage. Scheduled for the month of April 2016, the project seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism. 
 
 More: 
 
 Whiteness History Month Project, unlike heritage months, is not a celebratory endeavor, it is an effort to change our campus climate. The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness. Challenging the master narrative of traditional curriculum is a strategy within higher education that promotes multicultural education and equity. 
 
 These people truly put the “PC” in “PCC”. According to the college’s demographics page, two-thirds of its students are white. Most of them are older than age 25. It’s hard to say for sure, but I’m betting the school’s student population is chiefly white and working class — who, as we all know from our progressive catechism, are the Worst People In The World. 
 
 Victor Tan Chen, writing in The Atlantic, may be in need of re-education at Portland Community College. From his piece, which pivots from the startling study by Anne Case and Angus Deaton showing that white working class people are dying at extraordinarily high rates, usually from drugs, alcoholism, or suicide. VTC continues: 
 
 Any explanation of the ominous trends in the Case and Deaton study is, at the moment, speculative. More research is needed, as social scientists like to say, and there are numerous caveats. For example, while the disappearance of high-paying jobs for those with little education is a large part of the overall story of a shrinking middle class, it can’t wholly account for the uptick of mortality identified in the Case and Deaton study. After all, other countries have not seen similar hikes in deaths, even though manufacturing and (to a lesser extent) unionmembership have crumbled abroad as well. Likewise, the groups that have been affected most viciously by these market trends in the U.S., African Americans and Latinos, have not suffered the dramatic increases in death by suicide or substance abuse that whites have. It may be that changes in the economy have affected these workers in different ways. For instance, whites are more likely to be employed in the declining manufacturing sector than African Americans or Hispanics—and for that matter, they’re morelikely to live in the rural communities devastated by this most recent, post-NAFTA era of deindustrialization. Furthermore, whites are less likely to be union members than African Americans (though not Asians or Hispanics). 
 
 Yet there is clearly more to the despair of the working class than empty wallets and purses. Patches of the social fabric that once supported them, in good times and bad, have frayed. When asked in national surveys about the people with whom they discussed “important matters” in the past six months, those with just a high-school education or less are likelier to say no one (this percentage has risen over the years for college graduates, too). This trend is troubling, given that social isolation is linked to depression and, in turn, suicide and substance abuse. One form of social support that many in the working class are going without is marriage. I’m reminded of another worker I interviewed, a jobless 54-year-old white woman who used to work at a Ford plant. Her husband left her, she says, when the paychecks stopped coming. “Jesus Christ,” she told him once. “I didn’t think that our relationship was based on the amount of money that I brought in.” Unable to pay her mortgage, she lost her home and had to move in, as she puts it, with a “man friend.” She is depressed, unable to sleep at night, and constantly worried about falling into poverty. “I’m a loser,” she says. 
 
 Yet the progressives at Portland Community College are making it their business to educate people from this demographic in their own guilt and vileness. 
 
 These nitwit progressives have no idea, no idea at all, what kind of demons they are calling up. If our economy were to collapse, America would start to look something like the old Yugoslavia in its fracturing. Middle-class progressives at places like Portland Community College will have a lot to answer for. This is a time in which they could do a lot of good promoting community solidarity, especially among those of all races who are being left behind by this economy. But they won’t, because waging racist culture war is too important to them. 
 
 (Via Campus Reform.) 
 
 UPDATE: Reader Mr. Pickwick writes: 
 
 Yikes! I have two (white) sons at PCC. They don’t have any patience for that kind of politically correct stuff (they’re too busy studying and working), and say that the same attitude is shared by most of their classmates. In fact, they weren’t even aware of “whiteness history month.” A month ago, I discussed with my youngest son the upheaval that was happening on certain college campuses over racial issues (demonstrations, occupations, intimidation, demands, etc.). He said nothing of the kind was happening at PCC. Although there were a few profs and students who mouthed PC slogans, there was no disruption of the educational process. No demonstrations or such. As my youngest son said “Dad, most PCC students are taking a full course load PLUS working at least one job, with long commutes. We just don’t have any time for that other stuff….” So my take is this: yes, the “whiteness” event is kooky and to be criticized. But don’t write off this school on that account. My sons are getting excellent educations, at an unbeatable price. One is in the EMT/Paramedic program, and the other is getting his AA and then transferring to a four-year university in pursuit of a liberal arts degree in the humanities (in fact, he’s almost certainly going to end up getting an MA or even a Ph.D.). PCC has been a godsend. Up until four years ago, we lived a block from PCC, and on my commute home from work I rode the bus with PCC students every day. Generally speaking, they were a very impressive bunch of kids: serious, focused, working hard at their studies. I often talked with them about their classes and career goals. 
 
 Oh, I’m not surprised about the student body. I wish, though, someone would speak out against this racialist garbage. It would be interesting to see what the student body did with the knowledge that the administration of their college thinks they need to be re-educated to understand why they are bad because of the color of their skin.
– April is Whiteness History Month at Oregon's Portland Community College, NBC News reports. But instead of dissertations on the Tea Party, juice cleanses, and Macklemore, Whiteness History Month will attempt to "challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness," per the event's website. NBC reports Whiteness History Month was created by the college's diversity council to improve the culture of a campus that is 68% white. "Colleges across the country continue to struggle to improve diversity, inclusion, and racial equity," the website states. "At Portland Community College, evidence from hiring data, student-­led research, surveys, focus groups, college-wide emails, and other sources have illuminated the underlying reality of whiteness embedded in the overall college climate" USA Today reports Whiteness History Month is predictably drawing criticism from certain circles. The American Conservative calls it "hate whitey month," and Right Wing News claims it's an effort to shame white people for their "disproportionate" accomplishments. In a statement, Portland Community College interim president Sylvia Kelley says Whiteness History Month isn't trying to "shame or blame" anyone. "We view this project as part of a larger national conversation around race and social justice on America’s college campuses," she says. According to the event's website, it's currently looking for lectures, plays, and more to accomplish its goals of understanding whiteness, how it can be done away with, and what can replace it.