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Wisconsin’s VISTA Program Wants Volunteers to Overcome Their White ‘Privilege’ Bias

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Photo Credit: AP

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) wants its white VISTA volunteers who work with low-income, racially diverse public schools to examine the “privilege” their Caucasian race confers on them.

DPI devotes an entire Web page to “Power and Privilege,” including links to racial justice workshops and online tests where VISTA volunteers can “learn about your personal bias.”

One “diversity” document linked to DPI’s Web site suggests that white people “wear a white wristband as a reminder about your privilege, and as a personal commitment to explain why you wear the wristband.”

The document — written by a diversity resource center in New Jersey — also suggests that white people ask themselves questions, such as: “How do I ignore privilege? What am I doing today to undo my privilege? How do I fool myself into thinking I am powerless?”

Other suggestions for white people include:

— Set aside sections of the day to critically examine how privilege is working.
— Put a note on your mirror or computer screen as a reminder to think about privilege.
— Make a daily list of the ways privilege played out, and steps taken or not taken to address privilege.
— Find a person of color who is willing to hold you accountable for addressing privilege.

Read more from this story HERE.

NPR’s Cokie Roberts: Romney visiting Poland to get white votes

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NPR analyst Cokie Roberts claimed on air that Mitt Romney’s stop in Poland was meant to excite “ethnic white voters.”

The comment Monday came as the Republican presidential candidate landed in Poland for the final leg of his three-country tour.

Roberts, also an analyst with ABC News, inferred that the visit is essentially a bid to attract former Reagan Democrats, especially “descendants” of Polish people.

“You remember well the Reagan Democrats, those ethnic white voters who had been Democrats for many years, turned out for Ronald Reagan and have been fairly predictable Republicans since then,” Roberts said. “Now, it’s a smaller percentage of the population, of the voting population than it used to be, but white voters are still much more Republican than any other group in the electorate.

“They went for McCain in 2008 by 55 percent, and I think that, you know, getting those ethnic voters excited is really what Romney has in mind here. It’s more for the folks at home, the descendants of the people that he will be speaking to in Poland,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.