EXCLUSIVE: University Hosts ‘Annual Whiteness Forum’ for ‘Communicating Whiteness’ Students

ashley.rae | December 9, 2015
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It appears social justice education at public universities is nothing new.

The Communications Department at the California State University, San Marcos has been sponsoring an “Annual Whiteness Forum” as a showcase for “Communicating Whiteness” students for over a decade.

A flier obtained by MRCTV shows the “Annual Whiteness Forum” is intended to be take a “Critical Look at White Dominance and the Legacies of ‘Whiteness.’”

An event listing describes the “Annual Whiteness Forum” as allowing students “an opportunity to focus on how the system of white hegemony creates and sustains racism.”

At the “Annual Whiteness Forum,” Comm 454 students “showcase semester projects that critically analyze white dominance in the United States.”

Projects at the “Annual Whiteness Forum” cover topics such as “race and adoption procedures, workplace (white) favoritism, hidden history, white cultural appropriation, racial discrimination in the restaurant industry, race issues in the military, race, domestic violence and the NFL, whiteness and gifted programs, race and scholarships, white favoritism in healthcare, and how trigger warnings deter needed important racial conversations.”

While many protesters around the country are outraged over the lack of “trigger warnings” surrounding race issues in academia, it should be noted the Comm 454 students view trigger warnings as stunting “important racial conversations.” An “important racial conversation,” however, appears to be a “discussion” of how “white hegemony creates and sustains racism.”

A video from “6th Annual Whiteness Forum” is featured on the CSUSM Communications Department YouTube page.

The video shows participants discussing their projects on topics such as white privilege, “colorism,” and the “white gaze”:

One of the presentations featured in the video is on “Hate Speech,” which, according to the blonde presenter, means “right-wing” (emphasis hers) “conservative talk radio.”  

The presenter claims, “90 percent of our radio waves are with these types of talk shows. We call it ‘hate speech,’ because we definitely think they were spewing hate, not only towards immigrants, but Barack Obama was a big focus of their talk shows this whole year. They are openly homophobic, sexist, anti-immigrant.”

The presenter also spoke about  “doing something about it so that hate speech doesn’t stay on the radio.”

According to the CSUSM website, Comm 454 is a three-credit course titled, “Communicating Whiteness.”

“Communicating Whiteness” is an “introduction to basic theories, concepts, and principles regarding the idea of whiteness as a discursive (communicative) construct, and the key role that communication plays in the construction of whiteness.”

“Communicating Whiteness” is taught by Dreama G. Moon (who appears to be a blonde-haired white woman in the footage from the “6th Annual Whiteness Forum”).

Moon’s research has “focused on the varied communicative processes by which relations of domination are constructed, negotiated, reproduced, and resisted with special attention to race and white supremacy.”

Reviews for Moon on RateMyProfessor include multiple alleged former students complaining that her course is indoctrination.

According to the California state worker salary database, Moon received over $89,000 from the state in 2014. She received $82,500 for her position as a faculty member, $6,190 for instruction over the summer, and $1,000 for work as a “special consultant.”

A news story featured on the CSUSM website states, as of 2013, Moon had been teaching “Communicating Whiteness” for 11 years.

The “Annual Whiteness Forum” appears to have been started in 2003.

In 2013, there was a “10th Anniversary” “Annual Whiteness Forum” event that featured a discussion about “Color-Blindness and the Post-Racism Era: The Continuing (In)significance of Race.”

The 2015 “Annual Whiteness Forum” took place on Dec. 3.

CSUSM confirmed to MRCTV that the “Annual Whiteness Forum” came out of Moon’s “Communicating Whiteness” course as a way to open up the course material for the community.

CSUSM told MRCTV the university is supportive of the “Annual Whiteness Forum” because it helps people “think critically about everyday whiteness.”

According to information provided to the College Board, CSUSM is 40 percent Hispanic/Latino, 32 percent white, 10 percent Asian, 5 percent Asian, 3 percent black or African American, 2 percent non-resident alien, and 6 percent “unknown.”

CSUSM told MRCTV that it is important to have “these kinds of conversations.”

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