ETFO 'white privilege' workshop dangerous

Toronto Sun ^ | 10/3/2014

[Altura Ct.]

TORONTO - The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is offering their members a workshop on “white privilege.”

That’s right. It doesn’t question whether white privilege exists.

That’s a given. No debate about whether all white people have special status. They just do.

And the union representing more than 76,000 teachers is teaching its membership how to deal with it.

White privilege exists, therefore ETFO will have a workshop on it.

Frankly, as a white person who’s struggled all my life to become privileged, I really wish I knew what white privilege is, because I’d like a heaping helping.

If I’d had a chunk of white privilege, I wouldn’t have had to bust my butt every day working to make a living. I could be eating bonbons on a yacht in the Mediterranean.

A note on the ETFO website says the union is looking for people to put on the workshops.

The “ideal presenter” will have “demonstrated commitment and understanding of white privilege and systemic issues.”

Interested in the job? Then you should submit a cover letter that outlines “your understanding of white privilege.”

Well, here’s my understanding of white privilege.

It doesn’t exist.

This is a racist notion put forward by ETFO and it is as dangerous as it is corrosive.

I don’t know what “systemic issues” they’re talking about, but it’s presupposing a whole bunch of false assumptions.

By their very nature and label, these workshops are aimed at creating resentment of one race by all others.

What on earth is a union doing giving workshops on something that’s so alien to Canadian society?

The purpose is clearly to indoctrinate teachers into believing it exists.

The next step is for them to brainwash the children in their classrooms.

Do you really want that? Should white parents allow their children to be guilted by their teachers into believing they’re privileged because they’re white?

This has no place in our society.

We don’t have a problem with “white privilege.”

We have a society built on successive waves of immigration. We have no deep-rooted aristocracy that inherits wealth.

Just living in this great country that rewards hard work, ingenuity and initiative is a privilege — no matter what your colour.

Most people who consider themselves “privileged,” do so because either they, their parents or their grandparents made incredible sacrifices to give them the way of life they enjoy.

A teacher forwarded the information on the workshops to the Toronto Sun. His question was why the union is putting on toxic workshops like this when they should be dealing with education issues.

The teacher, who didn’t want to be identified, says his union should be fighting for more up-to-date textbooks and better classroom materials. The ones he’s working with now are old, decrepit and inadequate.

Shouldn’t teachers be taking workshops that refresh their teaching skills in subjects such as math, French, English and geography?

ETFO turned down my request for a comment Thursday.

“The decision is that at this point in time we do not wish to comment on that,” said spokesman Jennifer Drope, wishing me “good luck with your story.”

Well, thank you for that.

Other topics for workshops include “Islamophobia” and “homophobia.”

Hmm. Wonder if they’ve checked what Islam’s view on homosexuality is.

“Dated resources and teachers spending their own money on supplementing the elementary school system in Ontario impacts teachers more than ‘Islamophobia’ or ‘white privilege,’” said the teacher, by e-mail. I suspect most teachers agree.

Their union should stick to doing what their members pay dues for — representing them at the bargaining table, supporting them in the classroom and helping them in disputes with school boards.

Stirring up hatred, resentment and division in a society that does its best to promote tolerance, equity and understanding is stunning in its stupidity.

[albertabound]

only in liberal Ontario

[trebb]

If they say that I’m privileged to be born white, who am I, a mere YT, to disagree?

If getting a part-time job at 15, sticking it out through all of high school and passing, getting a Bachelor degree, spending 40 years working in and with the military, then retiring on money I put away and earned is privileged, then I am most certainly privileged.

I guess the unprivileged are those who opt to join gangs, drop out of school, rob and assault others, then expect (and get) free stuff that others pay for. Poor thugs - my heart goes out to them. Notice how there are so many laws that not only allow them into the workforce, but sometimes insist they be hired,; yet there are so many of them unemployed anyway? They make the choice over and over again and they think we're supposed to commiserate on how tough they have it.

[DoughtyOne]

Okay, so blacks were right.  Racism hasn't died.

As if we didn't know this already.  For blacks, it mostly has.  For whites, boy it's just getting started..., yes I know, but it's going to get a lot worse folks.


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[golux]

She's kinda cute, without the writing on her face.

Nice hair.

Nice eyes, too.

She'd get jumped quick if she walked through the neighborhood I once lived in at the wrong time of night.

And the cops don't show.

(As if you could call them without your cell-phone or purse.)

But it's funny how nobody seems to hear, or care, or come, when you're being raped behind a bush on a bed of crack baggies and dirty heroin needles. And you know what, "white bitch," as my neighbors used to say?

That's Not Fair.

[golux]

White priviledge exists.

Nobbles. Nobbles Oblige.

[MrB]

Minorities who conform to the most historically successful culture have the same success.

It IS a cultural privilege, but that culture is based on what works best in this world because it is based on a Law given by the Creator of this world.

[The_Media_never_lie]

When I was 22 years old, people were all the time jumping from behind bushes offering me a job, just because I was white.

[Fresh Wind]

That guy on the left looks like a redskin.

[xrmusn]

Back in the late 80’s-mid 90’s, I assisted a former NFL player in his forming of an 8A Construction Company.
He was the CEO and I was ‘everything else’ at the start.
We got work and went and subbed it out. He eventually got a few crews going and I remained as his #2, earning a better than ‘decent’ wage and he ‘reaped the profits’ (No problem with me there..his money started Co etc)
He was Black, with a Mother and Father still living, had 7 siblings (6b 1s I think) ALL heavy into athletes all College grads (athletics) he went to a major college in OK, played a few years in NFL, hurt himself and ended up in his ‘home area’ and into the Construction Business.
I, on the other hand, came from a ‘broken family’, quit HS as a Senior, did 8 years in USN, and worked in the ‘trenches’ (granted middle to upper Mgt when I got involved with him).

Every time the ‘white privilege’ subject came up I would point out our ‘lifes journey’ and ask why his children were considered disadvantaged while mine were considered privileged, obviously by nothing more than the color of skin, not status etc etc etc.

That usually ended the conversation (I would more than likely walk away AFTER my reminding him my ‘life choice’ was my life choice and he did work for and earn his, I was referring (for the most part) to the generation that had been bred in 1965 or so by one LBJ.)