George Washington University will be hosting a training session for students and faculty aimed at combating “Christian Privilege” this Thursday, just four days after the Easter Holiday.
The workshop, hosted by the university’s Multicultural Student Services Center, is titled “Christian Privilege: But Our Founding Fathers Were All Christian, Right?!” and seeks to discuss how “Christians receive unmerited perks from institutions and systems all across our country.”
Learning objectives for the course include being “able to describe what is meant by privilege overall and white privilege specifically,” and the ability to “describe the role of denial when it comes to white privilege.”
The course description also includes a list of key terms participants should be able to describe after the training such as privilege, Christian privilege, denial, equality, equity, Christianity, bias, unconscious bias, micro-aggression, and ally.
Cole Perry, president of the GW Knights of Columbus chapter, a Catholic men’s fraternity, said he thinks the training on Christian Privilege is “completely outrageous” because it “assumes all Christians are white.”
“It fails to address that there’s diversity among Christian denominations,” Perry told Red Alert Politics. “Thirty-five percent of GW is Jewish, and many students on campus are neither white nor Christian.”
Khairi Khalil, a sophomore Muslim international student from Singapore, said he doesn’t see an issue with the workshop, but that he wouldn’t attend.
“It just feels like they’re trying to point out the advantages of being Christian in a Christian dominated society,” Khalil said. “I wouldn’t go because it doesn’t seem aimed at me, isn’t it a workshop for Christians to learn more about their ‘privileges?”
Perry, however, said that he doubts members from the GW Knights of Columbus or the GW College Republicans, of which he is also chapter president, will participate in the workshop.
“I don’t think we’re going to have any members be there and be told that because of their religion they receive unmerited perks,” Perry said.
The GW College Democrats did not respond to request for comment.
