White Privilege Symposium in Denver

Denver plays host to a White Privilege Symposium November 2-3rd at the University of Denver. According to the symposium’s website, the event “provides the foundation and resources necessary to disrupt patterns, shift cultures, and change systems by discussing how white privilege, white supremacy, and oppression affects daily life and providing strategies for addressing issues of privilege and oppression and advancing social justice. The symposium will bring together a network of local and national lead learners and practitioners to engage each other and work together to address issues of inequality.”

One of the key note speakers will be Theo Wilson, a Denver based activist, poet and actor who says that white privilege  “is simply a positive assumption about your capabilities based on you being white… it’s just something that makes it easier to move in this world.”

Wilson came to national attention after he went undercover on line to infiltrate white supremacy groups. After receiving racist comments on his personal Facebook posts about the Black Lives Matter movement, Wilson created a fake social media account in order to better understand the new wave of white supremacy organizing that was happening on the internet. His TED talk on his findings has amassed over 12 million views.

“We didn’t know how big this alt-right movement was gonna be…going undercover gave me a scope and let me see the breath of how gigantic this wave of supremacy actually was.”

But Wilson says that white supremacy isn’t the only thing that is inherently dangerous to people of color in our society.  Wilson says white privilege needs to be critically examined for its role in perpetuating a status quo that is fundamentally unequal.

“The median wealth of black families versus white families is literally 13 to 1” Specifically, white families have a median wealth of 134,230 dollars versus a black median wealth of only 11,030.  “[societal and economic inequalities] enforce a status quo that keep us at the bottom. ….this is something that still needs to be dissected, and so that’s why this conference is so necessary.”

Other speakers for the WPS include Dominique Christina, an Afro-Latina political agitator and award winning artist, Norma Johnson, an activist that pulls together performance art, storytelling and social justice, as well as many other speakers and leaders in the battle to combat the effects of racism on today’s social and political climate.

The  White Privilege Conference  is an annual conference organized by The Privilege Institute, designed to create national conversation around topics of social justice.

The White Privilege Symposium Welcomes people of all backgrounds to attend their assortment of talks and events on Friday and Saturday, November 2-3rd; to Register for an event, go to: https://www.wpsdenver.org/register.html.

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