Peace would finally come to Chicago.
James Harrison, history professor at Portland Community College, said in a lecture Monday for the college’s April Whiteness History Month that peace in the U.S. is impossible so long as whiteness still exists.
In a talk entitled “Imagine A World Without Whiteness,” Harrison declared confidently conflict can only cease once the power structure of whiteness is totally eliminated.
“Imagine everyone living life in peace,” Harrison said, building off John Lennon’s famous song “Imagine.”
“And how do we get to that good world is the question — a world without conflict. And to me, my interpretation of these words, is it would be a world, or U.S., without whiteness, in terms of the power structure,” Harrison said, offering his own interpretation of Lennon’s song.
For Harrison, the term whiteness is essentially a social category to which whites belong. And a social category, Harrison continued, is a group of people sharing in a common similar attributes, even if they have never actually met.
“So whiteness, white people, share a whole lot of things, even if they don’t interact, and one thing that they share is whiteness, or white privilege,” Harrison said.
Special: A Card With No Interest for 21 Months to Help You Get Out of DebtHarrison then went on to explain that demolishing whiteness is a matter of a lot of individuals each taking small steps to achieving the objective.