Small Connecticut Town Holding Essay Contest for High Schoolers on White Privilege
Top prize is $1,000 and release of all white guilt.
1.31.2017
36
The “diversity council” in the small, coastal town of Westport, Connecticut is holding a student essay competition with a top prize of $1,000 for the lucky high schooler who pens the perfect white privilege paper by the end of February.
"In 1,000 words or less, describe how you understand the term ‘white privilege.’ To what extent do you think this privilege exists? What impact do you think it has had in your life -- whatever your racial or ethnic identity -- and in our society more broadly?" reads the prompt.
The council said the goal was “to increase awareness, foster understanding and promote understanding in this arena.” But some council members were surprised by the pushback:
“There's a lot more controversy around it than many of us expected. Just the fact it says 'white' and 'privilege,' for some people that's all they need to see, and all of a sudden we're race-baiting or trying to get people to feel guilty. That's not at all what it's about."
Some of the town’s 26,000 residents took offense to the essay’s topic.
"It's an open town," Bari Reiner, 72, said. "There are no barricades here. Nobody says if you're black or whatever, you can't move here."
One parent said, “I wouldn’t go there” and said leave it to parents to discuss such a topic with their own children.
However, at least one parent of college-aged kids, Bert Dovo, said, “I like the idea to get it out there so kids can talk about it and embrace it.”
Fox News reports that Westport’s median income is $150,000 and its residents are 93% white. It voted 2 to 1 for Hillary Clinton. Last year, a private Facebook group was discovered at Staples High School which distributed “racially offensive memes.”
Posts
