“Propaganda”

Carmel Pine Cone – April 5, 2024

This spring, the Pacific Grove Adult School is running a class about White racism. The class is called On the Road to Hope and Joy. It is targeted mainly to White baby boomers who might feel guilt and shame about racism committed by past generations. The “workshop” is taught by authors Ann Jealous and Caroline Haskell and is based on a book they wrote 13 years ago.

The book uses the case study approach and focuses on White people who probably have never been racists.  Still, because of their race they are guilty. The same words appear over and over in this book.  White people are “sad, privileged, guilty, shameful, ignorant, immature, powerless, fearful, damaged and self-loathing.” They are consumed by guilt over White supremacy and their sense of unearned privilege and entitlement.

So where does the “hope and joy” come in? Joy and hope enter when White people become free from their unconscious bias by not describing themselves as White. Caucasian people, after all, come from different countries mostly in Europe. They should identify their race through the ancestry of that European country. For instance, I am of American-British-Irish-German-Spanish ancestry. The book doesn’t say whether Blacks, Asians, Jews, and Hispanics should do the same. I wonder how the U.S. Census Bureau would deal with this.

The Pacific Grove School District is paying $15,000 for this eight-week class. As a student of On the Road to Hope and Joy, I would describe my reaction in a few words: Propaganda. 100-percent garbage.

Carol Marquart, Pacific Grove