It's Okay to be White

This phrase is the latest controversy on college campuses. Apparently it is being interpreted as a statement of white supremacy, and anyone who sees this anywhere should call the police immediately.

Compare to Black Lives Matter, or other expressions of ethnic pride.

Update: From the white-haters at Harvard:

More than a dozen handmade stickers reading “It’s okay to be white” surfaced around Harvard Square Wednesday, prompting Cambridge officials to remove them and a Harvard Law School Dean to denounce the signs as “provocations intended to divide us.” …

“It seems likely that these anonymous postings, made in the middle of the night, were provocations intended to divide us from one another,” Law School Dean of Students Marcia L. Sells wrote in an email sent to Law students Wednesday after the stickers were spotted at Wasserstein and Hastings Halls.

“HLS will not let that happen here. We live, work, teach, and learn together in a community that is stronger, better, and deeper because of our diversity and because we encourage open, respectful, and constructive discourse,” Sells wrote.

And the Wash. Post reports:

Posters proclaiming “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE” have been appearing on college campuses and on city streets across the country this week, prompted by an anonymous chat-room comment that suggested the message would feed social unrest and sway white Americans to far-right ideologies.

If it is no longer socially acceptable to say that it is okay to be white, then I expect some white ppl to take this as a direct threat to their identity.

I have heard ppl say that they don't like blacks or members of various other ethnic groups, but I've never heard anyone say that it is not okay to be black, or not acceptable to say it is okay to be black, or similar statements for any other ethnic group. Apparently only whites are hated so much that their existence and identity is not okay.

The factual basis for claims that white Americans are collectively suffering is difficult to find. On average, they continue to enjoy better income, personal wealth reserves, health, health care, housing, schools than any other group.

The paper is not looking very hard.. A number of groups do better than whites by those measures, such as Jews, Indian-Americans, and Chinese-Americans.

Regardless, it is okey to be white no matter how whites compare to other groups. Any attempt to say otherwise should be confronted in the strongest ways. I hope students continue to post these signs until they are accepted.

Update: The U. of Toronto says in an official statement:

Messages like this are antithetical to the University’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,”