A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is calling for the complete “abolition of whiteness,” according to Campus Reform.
Professor Gregory Jay, an English professor at UW-Milwaukee, sees his idea as the solution to ending racism. Jay has a personal website devoted almost entirely to questions of whiteness and racism, featuring essays on topics of “whiteness studies” and addressing questions like “who invented white people?”
Ironically, Gregory Jay is a white male.
In one essay where he talks about the “abolition of whiteness,” Jay goes as far as comparing the white whale in Moby Dick to white racism.
“The great white whale of racism is a white invention. It was white people who invented the idea of race in the first place, and it is white people who have become obsessed and consumed by it until, like Captain Ahab, they have become entangled so deeply in pursuing its nature that they self-destruct in the process,” Jay said.
Then, Jay puts forth the total “abolition of whiteness” as the proper solution to racism, saying it will end only “when the white whale that has been the source of so many delusions is finally left to disappear beneath the sea of time forever.”
Jay also has some suggested teaching materials on his website, including a “Teaching about Whiteness” handout.
“Studying whiteness means studying institutional and cultural racism, especially racializing practices that create ‘white privilege.’ Since white privilege is systemic and not personal, this approach can combat the tendency to get stuck in the ‘white guilt’ syndrome (which involves both confessions and denials),” Jay’s handout states.
Jay argues that the “normality” of whiteness has directly resulted in racism, saying that because whiteness “operates as the invisible regime of normality,” then “making whiteness visible is a principle goal of anti-racist pedagogy.”
Lastly, Gregory Jay’s website contains info from other professors and a presentation that tries to push forth the idea of “abolishing whiteness.” Jay has links to some articles written by other professors, one of them claiming that “white trash” is racist because it “indirectly states that just plain ‘Trash.” [sic] is black.” Jay’s website also offers a PowerPoint on the “short history of white supremacy.”
